Evening star., 1924-09-07
Real Workers i'm the National Capital

~ OR 90 years John F. Bethune
has served Uncle Sam faith
r fully and with unusual effi-
u cheney in a number of impor-
tant positions, and on Sep
temter 19 wiz have served for 5
years as secretary of the United
States Tariff Commission, which Is
considered one of the most exacting
secretarial jobs in the entire Federal
service, as the commissions work
is fundamentally different from that
Of any other Government agency.
Just one of the little. incidental
jobs. recently wished" by Congress
upon Mr.. Bethune Is to be prepared
to give accurate information regard
ing the cost of production at home
and abroad on everything that is.
whether raw material or manufac-
tured product. This runs the entire
gamut OF alphabetical indexing from
acetic acid to zaffer (the latter be-
ing an ingredient used in porcelain
COLOR and includes such things as
neutrality-suspicious. tet-
iaminebenzophenone and
phenyglycineo acid.
= = Il
You see, he must be prepared to get
most authoritative information on re-
quest from the President, members of
House ways and means committee
and the Senate finance committee,
manufacturers, importers. manufac-
turers' associations and even foreign
ers on all items, because those that
are not subject to duty are on the
free list and information is neces-
sary to see whether they should re-
main on the free list.
Now. it must .be borne constantly
;,, >,viff
Commission is different from every
other Government organization. be-
cause each of the others is charged
with the admistrat ton of some law.
Congress passes a law and the ad-
ministration of it is turned over to
some one or another of the hundreds
of Government agencies. But the
Tariff Commission is purely an ad-
visory agency for the President and
Congress. and has no function to
carry out any policy or executive
duty. What information it gathers it
brings back to Congress for it's
guidance.
As an illustration of the magni-
tude and Importance of the work it
performs it may be stated that dur
ing consideration of the tariff act of
1922 the commission made more than
1000 reports on various industries to
the Senate and House, which were
used as a basis for consideration of
the new tariff schedules. OF course,
these contained no reference what
ever to rates of duty, because the
Tariff Commission is i non-partisan
Cor better a bi-partisan) body and
must leave any question of policy to
Congress itself to decide. 1t reports
exactly the same to any Congress of
any political omplexion-just stating
the naked facts.
i: X x !:
Thus it will be realized that it
is strictly economic advisory
board, and yet it does about 95 PEI
cent of all the work for a new tariff
bill by supplying these facts, Oh
which Congress decides what tine
duty ought to be in line with the
rolicy of the party in power. with
whatever adjustment may be neces-
sary between the two major parties.
The present tariff act carries I
flexible tariff provision. which ha,s
imposed additional duties on the
commission, which are not the pri-
mary and major duties as defined
in it's organic act. This allows the
President 70 reduce or increase the
tariff on specific commodities when
an investigation by the Tariff Com
mission shows that the duties fixed
in the act do not equalize the costs
of production in the United States
and the principal competing coun-
tries
Investigations pursuant to this
provision have monopolized a great
part Of the time for the commissions