The Washington times., 1923-08-13
MILK AND PAPER
MEN BEGIN BIC
TARIFF ROW
Question Of Duty on casein
May Split Republican Party,
Leaders Fear.
By WILLIAM HARD.

BY WILLIAM HARD.
The first grand fun dress parade
before the new United States Tariff
Commission began this morning at
10 o'clock when an application by
seventy-five manufacturers Of coat
ed paper for q reduction OF the
tariff on the SKINNED milk product
called casein was formally present
ed to the Commission, and was AT
once vigorously resisted by the as
sembled legal and technical repre-
sentatives Of CSC, 900 American DAIRY
farmers organized into the NatlonaA
Milk Producers Federation.
This is the first full combat be
tween industrial interests and agrt-
cultural interests under the Ford
ney-McC umber tariff law 1t holds
In its complexities q typical In
stance OF the deep conflict which
the farm bloc" started when IL
gave to the farmer the sort OF pro-
lection previously enjoyed only by
the manufacturer.
This conflict may rend the Re
publican party and either destroy
the whole tariff idea or else firmly
establish the. proposition that the
original producer and the final
manufacturer are to get the same
sort of tariff treatment.
Defeated. Senator Calder.
This morning In the hearing be-
fore the Tariff Commission the milk
producers were represented by their
secretary. Charles w. Holman, who
- also their continuous legislative
agent here, and by Judge D. Miller,
OF Susquehanna, Pa, their president
and general counsel
Judge Miller is head also Of the
regional branch OF the National Milk
Producers Federation which sup
plies milk to New York City. This
branch is credited with much Of the
influence which defeated Senator
Calder, Republican, in the election
Of last fall in New York and. which
sent Senator Copeland, Democrat,
to Washington to take Senator Cal
der's place.
Senator Calder, in the opinion Of
the dairymen, went back on them
In the tariff fight In the Senate
last year, while they have many rea-
sons for regarding Senator Cope
land as their friend.
This morning the coated paper
manufacturers, through committee
caused its representatives to declare
OF five, headed by Martin Cantine,
the following facts:
THAT casefn made out Of
skinned milk is an essential raw
material for the coating on coated
paper.
2-That casein was taken from
the free list by the last Congress
and was put on the dutiable list
with a duty on 1t Of IN cents O
pound.
3-That the price of casein has
thereupon gone rapidly upward and
that great inconvenience and injury
has thereby been caused to coated
paper manufacturers.
Other Sides Points.
In reply to these statements,
Judge Miller, on behalf Of the milk
producers Of the United States, win
proceed, according to an interview
which he gave to this writer, to
assert and establish the facts FOL.
lowing:
THAT the coated paper manu-
4acturers have a tariff Of their own,
amounting to 5 cents a pound plus
Is per cent on the value Of their
product.
THAT the manufacturers Of
wood veneer and OF plywood, who
are also users Of casein and who
have Joined themselves to the coat
Cd paper manufacturers in COM
planning against the tariff on case
IN, have a tariff Of 20 per cent on
their product.
3That the manufacturers Of
casein glue made out of casein have
Q tariff Of rs per cent on their
product.
Judge Miller will thereupon de-
mand that the inquiry by the Tar
IF Commission be at once ex-
banded to include the, question Of
the propriety Of these tariffs on
finished products as well as the
propriety Of the tariff on the orig
tnal product made directly from
the immediate labor Of the dairy
farmers.
Hits Rock Bottom.
Thus the absolutely rock-bottom
issue in the whole immediate inter-
national economic life Of the United
States will be pushed at once to
d decisive stage in the political
deliberations Of the national Capt.
tai.
Shall the United States 20 in
fer great importations Of cheap raw
materials in order to build up its
manufacturers so as to get a great
export trade in cheap manufactured
articles sent in return to foreign
countries?
Or shall the United States pro-
tect it's original agricultural pro-
ducers against the peasant and
neon and coolie agricultural labor
Of foreign countries and build up
in the United States an agricul.
tural purchasing power which It
is asserted will give our manufac-
turers an internal market more val
liable to them than any foreign
market?
This is the issue. and 1t portends
a considerable clash between Re.
publican farmers and Republican
manufacturers.
The farmers in this case are pre-
pared to show some interesting and,
indeed, amazing proofs OF the low
costs of foreign dairy products.
Imports of Casein Jump.
In spite OF the new tariffs on
casein the cattlemen of Argentina,
which sends us most of our i'm
ported casein, are still able to put
their product into our market In
enormous quantities.. In fact. in
the first nine months of the new
tariff, in comparison with the last
nine months of the old tariff, the
Aoonorfe NJ casain instead of heinry