Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-12-28

mission necessarily have to pioneer
in the business of rendering the tar
if law flexible and elastic. Nothing
of the sort was ever attempted be-
fore. There are no precedents to
serve as a guide. There are no rules
that can b einvoked. There is no
procedure now followed that can be
made use of.
Relies on Commission
An outstanding fact about the mat
ter is that the president must rely
upon the commission for full inquiry
and for the facts upon which he is
to act. 1t is manifestly impossible
for the chief executive to make a
personal study Of given schedule
of the tariff act and of all the con-
,ditions surrounding the production
of commodities covered in that sched-
ule, in order to determine whether a
prevailing rate is too high or too
low.
The tariff commission is eager to
hurry it's investigation into the COM
plants filed. but it is handicapped
by the fact that congress failed to
allow that body any additional funds
to covert the expenses of such work.
It is necessary for the commission
to proceed with its inquiries through
its present organization.
This circumstance, it is intimated,
is responsible for the delay in pass
ing reports along to the president.
The commission itself is impatient
to begin functioning. MembeS Of
that body believe that congress has
given it the first opportunity ever
presented to make of the commits
sion a constructive and highly useful
agency of the government and it is
the hope of individual commission
ers that in time the tariff will be
dealt with in the anne judicial and
scientific manner as are railroad
problems handled by the interstate
commerce commission.
This commission has not figured
in thei preparation of
tariff bills during it's life. 1t is an
open secret, for example, that nei-
Their the ways and means commit
tee nor the finance committee of
this congress made use Of the val
liable information in the hands of
the commission in drafting the Ford
ney-McCumber bill. 1t would not
be accurate to say that the commits
sion was ignored by congress.
Reports made by the commission
were submitted to the congressional
committees, but they figured very
little in drafting the important
schedules which were eventually en-
acted into law. Suggestions of the
commissioners bearing upon the adj
ministrative features of the new
tariff bill were taken into account,
but the legislators insisted upon fix
n5 all rates themselves and tariff
rates, after all, are the vital parts
of any tariff legislation.
Executive Order
Back in October, after the new
tariff bill had been enacted, the
president issued an executive order
under which all applications for re-
lief under the "fiexibility" sections
of the law should be filed with the
cations as shall be in accordance
with the law and the public interest
under rules and regulations to be
prescribed by the commission"
The tariff commissions original
powers, it is further pointed out,
were wholly investigatory. These
powers have now been enlarged and
that body is now free to bring to the
attention of the president any rates
of duty which are found to be in
equitable and which ought to be
changed.
This means, Of course, that for the
first time in history test is to be
made of the desirability of arShoriz-
ing a non-partisan commission to in
dictate actual rates Of duty within
the limits fixed by congress. The
new law. from the standpoint of le-
gal analogy, presents a parallel to
the railroad statues under which
the interstate commerce commission
now determines the resembleness of
railroad rates.
1t remains for the president and
the commission to vindicate the pow
ers they enjoy by specific action on
existing rates against which COM
plants have been filed and business
L,