Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1928-10-12
ABOUT reflective
COMPETITION"

Word has come from Washington
that the Ways and Means Committee
of the House of Representatives will
begin holding hearings on a new
tariff law in December of this year.
Whether or not these hearings begin
as early as this December, they will
undoubtedly be well under way by
December of next year, and all the
I facts and statistics relating to i'm
ports, costs of production, specific
and ad valorem rates, compensatory
duties and the like will be up for
consideration. This is a summons
to every farmer, every wage-earner,
I every manufacturer and every i'm
porter to give thought to the posi-
ton and attitude of the Congress-
man and Senator who will represent
his interests in Washington in this
forthcoming tariff revision.
The framing of a new tariff is al
most always a long drawn-Out affair.
The present Fordney-McCumber Act
was almost a year and a half in the
making-from May, 1921, to Septem-
Der, 1922. A tariff bill, being a tax
measure, must originate with the
House of Representatives and the
Committee of the House which han
dies it is the all powerful Committee
on Ways and Means, now headed by
Representative Willis c. Hawley, of
Oregon. After this committee and
the House have completed consid
Grafton of the bill, it goes to the
Senate where it is handled by the
Finance Committee, now under the
leadership of Senator Reed Smoot,
of Utah. And when the Senate has
finished with the bill, it is very like
ly to have to go to Conference
Committee of the House and the
Senate, in order that the differences
between the ideas of the two COM
mittees may be ironed out. Then it
is passed or rejected by the House
and Senate, and if passed is sent
over to the White House for the
Presidents approval or disapprOval.
Or if he wants to he can ignore it
entirely, as President Cleveland did
the Wilson-Gorman Act of 1894 be-
cause it wasn't free trade enough to
suit him, and after ten days it be-
comes the law of the land without
the Presidents signature.
All this tends to emphasize the
enormous power welded by the
Congressman and Senators in the
framing of tariff law and particu-
larly by those who are members of
the Ways and Means Committee and
Finance Committee. Not in a long
time, therefore, has the warning of a
complete oveThauling of the tariff
come at more opportune time for
the consideration of the people who
will be represented by these Con-
gressmen and Senators during the
next tariff revision. Everyone of
these Congressman is up for re-elec-
ton this fall, or his place is to be
filled by someone else. In the Sen
ate, third of the SO Senators go
out of Office on March 4, 1929, and
many of them are candidates to sue
coed themselves. Thus it is that !
the voters of the country have an
opportunity to decide for themselves
on November as to the kind of a
tariff law the next act will be by /
deciding on that day on the men
who will be charged with the franz
ing of this law.
Thus it is that the tariff in more
ways than one is the paramount is /
sue in this campaign. The present
FOrdney-McCumber tariff law was
six years old on September % of /
this year and these six years have
been six prosperous yeas for the
United States. The old Act has
worked well regardless of what any,
one says. Under it, over 61%5 of all !
The imports which have come into
The United States during these six /
years have come in duty free, and
under it the average rate of duty on
he imports during these six years
mas been only 1850. The present
Act has put 31a billions of dollars
n the national reasury-enough to
equal more than half the reduction
II our national debt, and contrary
o the pessimistic predictions made
when it was passed that it would
Keep out imports, under it our total
for the six years of it's
life are well over 20 billions of dol
ars.
A new tariff law automatically
becomes a part of any farm relief
Measure, just as it becomes a part
II the program of relief for indus
rles now feeling the increasing for
ign competition of the last two or
hree years. The farmer has a dou-
lie interest in the revision of the
ariff First, he wants his own ,
rops protected against ruinous
ompetition from low-wage coun- 6
ries. Second, and here is where a
ew benighted farmers have flown {
he track, he is vitality interested in ,
he protection of the great American ]
larkets for his products, made up
the consumers in industry and the +
rades, in the schools, offices and
anks, who take from 80 to SO per
ent of the farmers principal crops.
The Republican Party is pledged
its tariff plank to a constructive
evision of the tariff which, for the
lrmers, in the words of Senator a
urtis means: THE Republican b
arty is pledged to higher tariff {
ltes on agricultural products.
eed not spend time to convince A
ou." The Democratic platform C
eads, Duties that will permit eff s
'ctive competition" which, for the n
lrmer, means effective competition v
ON the peon and peasant labor of n
Outh and Central America and Eu- I
'pe and the pauper labor of the \
rient. \
Let the farmers of the country A
ote well this difference, and let the >,
orkers in industry note it too. for "