OCR Text |
Show Congress Is , , Tariff Blind In Finance Bill Free Traders 8eek To Combine, Econ6mlc Incompatible hi the ilhaned bill now before Congress Con-gress an attempt to combine lncom-patlbles lncom-patlbles in the tariff Is made. The Democratic party has hod no real experience, ex-perience, owing to the abnormal conditions con-ditions created by the war, of the economic effect of its own tariff. Dut It, still believes that experiment Is a substitute tor experience, and It Is now attempting to combine Protection with Tariff for revenue only. "Despised experience would teach these lawmakers that the two things do not combine because a tariff for revenue only is drawn upon lines fundamentally fun-damentally different from a tariff for Protection. A Tariff for revenuo may be accidentally Protective. Hut it Is the revenue which is the guiding thought. The manifest idea Is to consider con-sider the consumer first and to distribute dis-tribute tho burden of taxation where it will bo least felt. Tho American manufacturer in such circumstances is not considered. It Is assumed that in return for cheap imported commodities, with consequent conse-quent cheaper production ,ho will turn his energies to the manufacture of articles where ho has a natural ndvantage over the foreign competitor, competit-or, This Is of course the theory of tho Manchester school of economists and It Is to bo remembered that they Wk were practical manufacturers them- selves for the most part, rather thnn academic theorists. But Tariff for Protection Is exactly the reverse of tho DrltlBh Idea. Such a Tariff law must bo drawn with roy enne as an entirely secondary consld. rratlon. In our Protective Tariffs the productivity of tho Import duties was hardly considered. In fact, Protc tlon, carried to Its logical conclusion tends to reduce rovenuo to tho extent cf excluding the foreign product, altogether. al-together. This was the caso with many lines of tho woolen goods lindor Schedulo K of tho Payne Al-drlch Al-drlch Tariff. It will bo seen that each problem ' must be approached from a different angle nnd that the two rnnnot bo combined. Heavy Tariff duties are compotlblo with Tnrlff for revenue only, nnd light duties or no duties at all, especially upon needed raw materials, ma-terials, consort perfectly with high Protection. It Is a favorlto obsession of tho Democratic party that the niero passage of n law solves a problem. prob-lem. This In tho faco of tho fact that many lavs lirvo been pnssed which, so far from Bolvlng any problem, prob-lem, rnlHcd n dozen now ones. Legislation as described may bo on-acted on-acted by Congress. Hut It will only make confusion worse confounded; whljo there is not n man in Congress who can possibly foresee what tho economic problems will bo when tho war is ovor. Wnll Street Journal. |