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Show BOND ISSUE NOW SEEMS INEVITABLE Revenue from Free Trade Tariff Is Not Enough to Meet Ordinary Expenses of the Government, Says Thos. F. Logan. No wonder. Champ Clark in ills speech at St. Joseph, Mo recently, culled tho Underwood Tariff law, "tho best Tariff bill ever placed upon up-on tho statute hooks." Certnlnly there is no doubt that the present law approaches nearer to Spenker Clark's Idea tho tearing down of nil custom houses tlmn any other Tariff bill passed by tho Democratic Freo Trade party. UuslnesB men v throughout tho 'entire 'en-tire country understand for themselves them-selves what tho Underwood law has dono for their businesses, but tho point that should be ncccntunted Is that tho law, oven from the Freo trade standpoint of a revenue producer pro-ducer has failed completely. Consequently Conse-quently President Wilson Is now giving serious consideration to a bond Issue, which Is inevitable and also puts out reassuring statements thnt ho Is In fnvor of some sort of antidumping law to" prevent tho Hood of cheap foreign products on the American market at tho conclusion conclu-sion of tho European war. Redfleld's Foolish Statements That there Is no ovldenco that tho problem which will face the country after tho European wnr Is to bo mot in n businesslike mnnncr Is shown by tho foolish statements mado by Secretary of Commerce Hedllcld, who states that "to Incrcaso tho Tariff might seem to be tho enslest nnd tho simplest way," but that the danger to American industry "should be mot ' from an ethical standpoint nnd not from an economic standpoint at all." Mr. Itedflold sngely remarks; I "If foreign countries attempted to ship goods into this country' at a greatly reduced prlco our consular i agents could demnnd the right to Investigate In-vestigate tho means of producing tho commodity to see If tho manufacturer manufactur-er wbb selling at a lower prlco than he should. "It tho agents wero refused tho right to make such an Investigation tho American consuls then could re-fuso re-fuso to sign tho manifests, and tho products coulU nover lcavo tho ports for tho United States. Thero would bo a chanco of, course, that some goods might get by the American agents. "To meet this situation Congress could pass a law making It lllegnl for nnyono in tho United States to buy or sell goods Bhlpped into this country In an effort to undersell American manufacturers." Nofa Substitute for Protective Tariff What Redtleld rofers to Is tho much dlscusBOd antidumping clnuso. Such a law lias been .used effectively In Australia and other countrleB to pro-vent pro-vent foreign manufacturers from sell. Ing bolow cost in the doeraBtlc mnr-ket. mnr-ket. Invariably, however, such a law is used as an adjunct to a Protective Pro-tective Tariff law, and no Intelligent economist would over consider lfns a substitute for a Protective Tariff. Tho riedflcld remedy would lnvolvo tho United States In countless disputes dis-putes with foroign governments. A great many of theso disputes aroso ns n result of Illconsldered theories Inserted In tho Underwood bill, and In every Instance the Attorney General Gen-eral of tho United States gave n verdict In favor of tho European nation na-tion protesting. Tho State Department Depart-ment constantly urged the Treasury Department to make somo changes in tho regulations to comply with tho protests of Franco and other countries. coun-tries. Now Mr. fledfleld has n solution for tlio industrial disastor which will follow tho conclusion of tho European war, .suggesting' tho Intrusion of United Uni-ted States commercial ngonts Into foreign factories, warehouses and counting rooms and refusal by our consuls to approve the manifests of ships whose cargoes Include products not conforming with ethical stand nrds devised by theorists In Wash-lugton. Wash-lugton. Attended With Great Difficulties Mr. Redfleld overlooks entirely tho fundamental principles of Tariff making In the United States. There Is a marked dlfforonco In tho wage scalo paid In this couutry and in the wago scales prevailing in tho countries coun-tries of Europe. A Protect! vo Tariff equalizes this difference In tho cost of production at homo and abroad, and this is tho essential thing An antidumping clause merely would bo. designed to prevent foreigners from selling In tho American market be-low be-low tho current wholesale prices charged In tho country of production. Tho operation of an antidumping clause would bo attended with almost al-most insuperable difficulties. Search- lng Investigations would havo to be made if tho fluctuations in prices in foreign mnrkcU wero to bo follow-ed follow-ed accurately, and nt best this remedy reme-dy merely won d bo 'supplemental to a Protective Tariff tho Itedflold remedy rem-edy would bo like sweeping back tho ocean with a broom. McAdoo's New System of Bookkeeping Thero l8 no doubt now thot the administration ad-ministration Is coming nround to a bond Issue. Tho President nnd See-rotnry See-rotnry McAdoo hated to thlnK nnout It, and Mr. McAdoo denied thnt such an Issue would be necessary, but nt Inst tho administration reluctantly consented to this last means of meeting meet-ing a lingo deficit In tho Treausury. Another method adopted a moth-TWO moth-TWO UOND ISSUE .. CU.. ecm od that must cnuso much amusement to bankers throughout tho ' country-Is country-Is the sudden chango In tho Treasury Treas-ury bookkeeping syBtem. Ily tho stroko of a pen Mr. McAdoo 1ms added $80,000,000 to tho assets of tho government. Unfortunntely his announcement an-nouncement thnt thero Is now n working balance of $128,000,000 In the Treasury does not Increnso tho nntlonal llnanclnl resources by n slnglo penny, bocnuso thero Is only a working balance of $48,000,009 nnd an actual deficit of $40,000,000 nnd no amount of trick bookkeoplng can a'ter tho facts. All that Mr. McAdoo has dono is to write down ns nn nssrt all of tho money of tho government that Js In tho various depositories, every dollar dol-lar of which was appropriated for specific purposes and is pledged. It Is ns though a business man turned over $100 to his secretary, and while tho secretary wns on his wny to pay that amount on a bill, tho business man put the amount down ns an asset. as-set. The money Is, nsslgncd for n specific purpose and already has boon paid out. Tho mero fact thnt It has not cached Us flnnl destination does not chango the fnct that tho government govern-ment Is unnblo to use tho money for any other purpose. Three or Four Hundred Millions It Is reported In Washington that the proposed bond Issuo to mnko up for tho inefficiency of tho Underwood Tariff will amount to three or four hundred million dollars and will bn used for tho purpose of military preparedness. pre-paredness. Of course, what tho money mon-ey really" is needed for Is tho deficit in tho Treasury which already amounts to $40,000,000 and will reach $100,000,000 at tho end of tho fiscal year. Under a cloak of preparing the country for war thero Is to bo n great bond Issuo which also will bo used to cover up the deficit. About this tlmo in every Free Trado administration it Is customary to look for a bond issuo. Thoro was one in tho Cleveland administration. And is It to bo wondered at when the Freo Traders already havo thrown away $20,000,000 in tho woolen schedule sche-dule alone and aro about to throw away $50,000,000 in tho sugar bcIic-dulo? bcIic-dulo? ', Does Not Yield Sufficient Revenue It Is realized that an elaborate plan of preparedness will of itself bo a load to carry with an element of tlio public nsldo from tho additional handicap han-dicap of running into debt to perfect It. Yet thero Is no other way, according ac-cording to accepted Freo Trade policies, pol-icies, slnco tho Freo Trndo Tariff dees not oven ylold sufficient revenue for tho ordinary expenses of the government. In point of fact, tho belief obtains In hlg'n financial circles In Now York that If things contlnuo as they nro going now for many months longor tho administration will havo to re-sort re-sort to soiling bonds to l'ny tho gov-ernment's gov-ernment's butcher, baker and candlo-stick candlo-stick maker. If tho administration pushes in th'J incoming Congress Secretary McAdoo's Mc-Adoo's project for a government financed fi-nanced merchant marine still another Issuo of bonds win bo required and It If generally assumed that PresI-dent PresI-dent Wilson will resume his fight for this legislation next winter. |