Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-04-17

and its awaiting complaints or petit
tons before acting. In the first in
stance the commission might open
up the fight over every schedule in
the law. with the result that the en-
tire law might be made over. In the
second instance, it is claimed, glazing
ln1ustices might be worked by GER
tain duties and if no complaints were
made about them nothing would
ever be done.
Nothing 10 Fight About
without any attempt to indicate
which side is right or which is
wrong, however, 1t may be pointed
out that eventually it will be found
that there is little or nothing to fight
about. Since any person, partner
snip, corporation or association MAJ
hle applications for Investigations OF
schedules 1t goes without saying that
1t will be an easy matter for any
member of the commission to see
that there is such an application
nled with reference to any SPECIFIC
schedule which he thinks should be
investigated. This would NEAR in
enect that the commission could be
led or compelled to act on the mo-
uon of every individual member.
whether or not it proceeded on the
motion of the commission as a
whole. Accordingly the present con-
troVersy seems to amount to little
more than another illustration of
what a "touchy" subject the tariff is
and how easy it is to start somethin.
at any time on any phase OF II.
v Inc new law has been in effect
something over six months and more
than a hundred applications for in
vestisations have been filed, Pre-
nminary steps have been taken to-
ward instituting the inquiries in con-
nection with some seventeen SEIZED.
uIes, n it seems that a busy season
Is ahead of the commission. It hal
~loV'oO to spend on this work prior
u June 80 next and 800, 900 for the
ensuing fiscal year.
The commissions troubles will by
no means be cleared away when it
mas been settled just what its policy
Is TO be. In fact, its real troubles
are just beginning, for any one who
mas ever undertaken the task Of And
ing out just what it costs TO produce
any given article knows that it is a
monumental task. Producers Co not
van the facts known as to proiuc-
ton costs. That Sc ms to be an un-
DERIVING principle of business and
business mel. who know what COM
petition a And when the pro-
Queer wants to conceal or misrepre.
sent he can thwart a veritable in
QUESTION.
linus the commission will have a
sufficiently hard task to ascertain
what 1T costs to produce given arti-
cies here at home, while when II
undertakes Investigations abroad II
VIII simply be up against a stone
wall, If foreign producers wish to
erect such a barrier. The commis-
sion has no power to compel manu-
Iacturers in other countries to re-
veal the facts and figures as 10 their
production costs and necessarily
must accept such information as Il
supplies voluntarily.
Naturally the foreigners will be
inclined to show their costs az high
az the facts justify, and possibly
msher, for it is to their interest Ia
eve the tariff barrier lowered in
order to give them a better oppor-
tunlty in the American market. In
fact, the commission is confronted
with the task OF arriving at the trutf
when the selfish interests of domestic
producers is to show a high cost level
and the foreign producers have the
same object il view. Obviously n
VIII be a real task.