Milford chronicle., 1922-09-08
THE CASE AGAINST
THE IMPORTERS

Washington, Aug. 29th- Especial
cOrrespOndence)- )-Senate Document
entitled Imported Merchandise and
Retail Prices" 9th Congress. End
Session, has been made public. If
you have not possessed yourself of a
copy ask your Senator or Member for
one. 1t is a revelation on the subject
of importers profits. It explains as
nothing else can the prime reason why
the importers combination has been
spending money like water to defeat
the pending Republican protective
tariff bill.
To quote from the letter of the Sec
retary of the Treasurer, submitting
the date from which the document was
prepared:
'This data was prepared in the Of
flee of the appraiser of merchandise at
the port of New York from invoices
and entries on file in the customs office
at that port. Each sheet submitted
bears an Identification letter and num-
ber appearing on that particular ar
ticle to which the sheet relates, the
articles representing identical items
of merchandise, or duplicates thereof,
covered by the invoice and entry from
which the data was secured"
The data in question gives country
of origin, foreign cost, charges, duty
crate and amOunt), and total landed
cost of one hundred and twenty-five
eXhibitS-imported articles coming in
to New York, where rs per cent of
our imports are received. These ar
ticles embrace things found in the
kitchen, the dining room, the parlor,
the bric-a-brac on the What-not.
things used for the toilet and for the
personal adornment, lingerie, hats. !
pipes, canes, and many other classes !
which enter into the life of the Amer
lean citizen. There are so illustrations |
of various exhibits accompanied by |
the sales slips showing the prices
paid by American consumers over the |
retail counters, with the names of the !
firms from which purchased.
Here you will find importers, profits
the difference between the landed .
cost of the article in question and the
price at which disposed to the pur-
chaser at retail-ranging from 157 per
cent in the case of a hand painted,
gold medallion China vase, to 2370 per
cent in the case of German carved
wooden clock. "These articles were
manufactured in more than a score
of different countries" declares the
preface to the document, including
China, Japan, England, France, Italy,
Germany, Czecho-SlOvakia, JugO-
Slavia, Hungary, Belgium, Spain, Hol-
land, Denmark and Switzerland where
the cost of production and of labor
are far below similar costs in the
United States, due to variety of con-
ditions, from deprecated money to
lower standards of living and SANTA
tion, longer hours of work and child
labor"
In submitting the report to the Sen
ate, the Finance Committee calls at
tention to several facts, among them
being chat the duty collected and the
duty proposed in the pending tariff
bill should not increase the price of
this merchandise to the consumer"
that the duty proposed by the pend
ing bill will in no instance stop i'm
portation," and that "the importer
can easily pay the tariff duties with
out increasing the retail selling price.
In other words, the spread between
the foreign purchase price and the
selling price by the importer is sufti-
cient to absorb the tariff duty many
times over without any increase OF
the selling price of any of these i'm
ported products" AS a smashing re-
tort to the vicious free trade propa-
ganda of the importers combination
his document hands that combination
he count.