The New York herald., 1922-04-12
WEDNESDAY. APRIL II, 1922.
The Senate Tariff Bill.

ne SeO0te 6IlH Dill
Many OF the ad valorem import
duties in the Senate Finance Com
nittee's tariff measure, now reported
out, so steeply overtop FoRDNEY's
House rates as to appear on the face
of the thing astounding. But, except
for the agricultural specific duties,
the Senate's rates for the most part
are sensationally higher than the
House rates only in the seeming.
This is so because the. House ad
valorem rates are based on Ameri-
can valuations while the Senate
rates are based as of old on foreign
valuations.
Once the Fordney tariff makers had
adopted the American valuation plan
virtually any ad valorem duty, as
figured on the domestic cost. or
price OF an article, became protective
against an imported article of SINH
lar kind and quality. Precaution had
to be taken in behalf of the National
Treasury, lest even a moderate rate
on such basis would prove prohib-
tive and thus cut of all customs rev.
cnue from that source. A ten per
cent. tax on an article of the valua-
tion Of $5, making a duty Of SO cents,
obviously would be heavier than a
forty per cent. tax on the same ar
ticle valued at 81, making 40 cents.
TO achieve either similar degree
OF protection against or an equiva-
lent OF revenue from an importation
as governed by FoRDNEY's scheme
the Senate tariff rate, applying to
the foreign valuation OF 81, instead
of to the American valuation Of So,
would have to be high enough to do
all that the House rate would do in
exacting actual duty payments from
a given article. In this way and for
this purpose the Senate rates have
gone far above the House rates.
Nevertheless, it will give the Amer
lean consumer a heavy jolt to see
how the Senate tariff makers pro-
pose to tax his food, as il it were
not already costly enough to eat in
this country, compared with pre-
war prices. The Senate committee.
for example, hoists its specific duties
TO three and half cents pound on
beef: to two and a half cents a
pound on mutton; five cents a pound
on lamb, and two cents on bacon
and ham. Dressed poultry coming
into this country would have to pay
six cents a pound duty; eggs eight
cents a dozen and cream 22la cents
a gallon.
The import tax on wheat at thirty
cents a bushel is perhaps moderate
measured against the same thirty
cent bushel rate on apples which not
so long ago we're worth at the farm
only dollar barrel.
But perhaps the most startling de-
parture from the fundamental prin-
ciple and habitual practice of the old
American tariff system under which
the country's industries we're built
up to their national and interna-
tional power is in the duties now
placed upon raw materials such as
hides.
Taken as whole the Sen
ate tariff measure bears most
conspicuously the imprint OF the
Western agricultural bloc. which had
everything pretty much its own way
and in behalf Of the South took good
care OF the cotton industry.
Nowhere is the public very jeal-
ousiy guarded against restricted mar
kcts and high prices. II may be
said that the American public has
more to gain from fiourishing home
industry all the way from raw ma
tcrial to finished production than
the American public has to lose from
higher living costs. But after the
years OF war imitation, with countless
fingers digging mercilessly into
eyerybody's pocket, the American
consumer has his own views on
that question.