The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1930-06-19
THE PRESIDENTS TARIFF
STATEMENT

President Hoover's statement on
the tariff act has impressed the coun-
try by its political sincerity and its
sober, common-sense view Of what the
act in the main accomplishes, altho
conceding imperfections in detail
which are unacceptable in any tariff
revision. AS to the mandate given
for such legislation in 1928, he says
simply: platform promises must not
be empty gestures" The voters indi-
Gated clearly two years ago that they
approved the tariff declarations of the
Kansas City platform, and the party
in power was bound to live up to it's
prediction pledges.
There is no justification for saying
that the act departs materially from
the theory of limited revision for the
benefit of agriculture and of certain
other industries injuriously affected
by foreign competition. AS the
President points out, studies by the
Tariff Commission show that duties
on agricultural raw materials average
1892 per cent under the Hawley-
Smoot act and 1910 per cent under
the present law, and that duties on
industrial products made from agri-
cultural raw materials and carrying
compensatory allowance for the in
creased duties on such materials
average 1887 under the revision,
and 36.15 under tn present
law. On the other hand, duties
on industrial products from other ma
terials average BAL per cent under
the revision and 31.02 under the pres
ent law. The Tariff Commission also
reports that 60 per cent of the total
increase of duties under the Hawley-
Smoot act is on imports of agricul-
tural materials and only 80 per cent is
on industrial products.
Average duties collected under the
present law were about Is per cent
Of the value of all imports, free and
dutiable. Under the new law the
average will be about 16 per cent,
due mainly to the agricultural in
creases. But under the Wilson law
20.9, under the Dingley law 25.8 and
under the Payne-Aldrich law 1913.
The Underwood law, passed just be-
fore the war, never had chance to
show how it would have worked I'M
der normal conditions.
Many people talk ignorantly about
the "Chinese wall" against importa-
tons raised by American tariffs. The
present law admits free 63.S percent
of all imports. The Hawley-Smoot
act will admit free from 81 IT, SO per
cent. The average under the Under
wood law ran from 60 to 70 per cent.
But the earlier laws all showed lower
averages. Tariff acts nowadays are
made on the basis of protection, not
Of exclusion.
Critics of the Hawley-Smoot art are
trying to revive the old foreign retail
alton scare. But the flexible tariff
provisions of the new law lay down
the rule that protection should cover
differences in cost of production here
and abroad and authorize the Tariff
Commission to investigate such diff
ferences and to recommend increases
or decreases of rates within limit
of so per cent, says the New York
Herald Tribune, celebrating as fol-
lows: The language of this section
has been changed, as the President
notes, so as to allow the commission
to act not only on requests from the
President or Congress and on its own
initiative, but also upon application
from any interested party" That
opens the door to consideration of the
complaints of foreign countries or pro-
= ducers and creates court in which
foreign contentious as to differences
in cost of production can be heard.
Most of the critics Of the new act
deal IN generalltleS ana repeat argu-
ments which in the past have failed
to carry conviction. The President
looks ahead. He accepts the act as a
fair fulfllment of the Republican
platforms promises, and he purposes
utilizing the machinery created by it
to cure it's defects and to lessen the
shock to business of periodical re-
writings of the tariff schedules. That
is a realistic and constructive atti-
tude strongly in contrast with the
recklessness of those who have been
urging him to veto the act, and thus
renew in the next Congress the bust
ness uncertainties and tribulations of
tariff making. What the country