New Britain herald., 1922-04-26
TARIFF BILL WILL
 INCREASE LIVING
Says Senator Simmons, DenounC-
 ing Contents as Dangerous

Washington, April 26.-The admin istration tariff bill if passed in it's present form will lead to higher costs of living, reduced production, unem- ployment and the further monopoli- zation of American industries, Senator Simmons. North Carolina, the demo- cratic leader in the tariff fight de- clared today in the senate.
 What Bill Contains.
 "A careful study of this bill in con- nection with existing conditions here and abroad" Senator Simmons said makes it perfectly clear that it was framed with a view of maintaining present prices and to enable the in dustries which it protects to further advance these excessively high prices without mourning the risk of foreign competition.
 "A comparison of the rates imposed in this bill with those in the Payne Adrich bill will show that upon the basis of the price of products during the two periods-the only basis of fair comparison of equivalent ad valorems the proposed rates applied to pres
 
 to 50 per cent higher than the aver age Payne-Aldrich rates for any year during the life of the act.'
 T think there can be no doubt he added, that the potential rates of this bill are almost if not quite double those of the present law"
 Violates Protection.
 Senator Simmons asserted that the rule manifestly adopted and fol- lowed" by the finance committee in fixing rates violates the theory or principle of protection heretofore ad vocated or proclaimed by the cham pions of protection, including the re- publican party in this country, and with the super-added rate making powers conferred upon the president, makes rate fixing as much a matter of political and personal patronage as Ne distribution of federal offices"
 Powers For President.
 Proposals in the bill under which tions or forms of duty and increase or decrease rates were declared by the North Carolina senator to clothe 'the president with legislative powers such as were never heretofore conferred upon any administrative officer in this country or any other Anglo-SaXon country and which if conferred by the parliament of England upon the king and his ministers would under their summary method, result in an instant overthrow of the government"
 Three Facts of BiM.
 Senator Simmons said the bill was "based primarily on three erroneous assumptions of fact:
 That present importations are eX- cessive and menace to the business of the country.
 '"That the home selling price anda the export selling price of foreign merchandise is so much lower than the selling price of like or comparable domestic products that much higher rates of duty than those of the pres- ent law are needed to bring about fair and competitive conditions.
 That the export price of foreign merchandise as found in the investi- cations and report of the Reynolds commission based upon such selling prices in August. 1921, has not chang ed since that time and are the same today
 Says Bill A Danger.
 Summing up his address which GOV cred 40 typewriter pages senator. Simmons declared the tariff bill was "fraught with more danger to the people of the country and the lnstltu- tions under which we live than any bill which ever crossed the threshold