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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (June 16, 1911)
JUNE 10, 1911 5 Schedule K Hereinafter will be found a table showing the tariff rates of the present wool schedule and the rates under the Underwood bill. On compari son it will be found that the average reduction is almost one half a very gratifying showing. No democrat can justify a vote against, the measure and it ought to appeal to the progres sive republicans. The only fault that can be found with it is that it dees not go far enough. If the plans of the free wool advocates had been accepted the average rate would have been still further lowered. No republican can criticise the bill, but democrats, while rejoicing at the reductions made can regret that a majority of the committee abandoned the free wool idea. Practical Tariff Talks Considered merely as a practical proposition, what guarantee of lower priceB for clothing is given by cutting the wool schedule 50 per cent? Theoretically, this ought to insure a decreased price to the consumer, but the man who has taken the wool schedule to pieces and looked over each piece will have serious doubts as to whether a horizontal reduction will bring about such a rejult. This is due to the fact that there are certain factors entering into the computation of the actual protection given that materially interfere with the logical application of this principle. The principal one can be briefly out lined. The component parts of Schedule K are bottomed on the false and arbitrary assumption that wool shrinks two-thirds-in the process of making it available for use by the weaver of cloth. It is only of the heavier wools that this Is true. On the finer wools, which are light shrinking, the loss is from 15 to 35 per cent only. The duty on raw wool approximates 45 per cent under the existing law. This means that the. total amount of wool used in American mills in excess of 000,000,000 pounds a year is arbitrarily raised in cost above the price in the world's market to the extent of the tariff, there being an insufficient home supply to permit of the introduction of any local competitive feature. This increased cost, paid first by the manufac turer, who is the sole purchaser of raw wool, is passed on to the consumer, notwithstanding the fine, spun theory that it is equalized, so far as the consumer is concerned, by the system of compensating duties. This tax necessarily in creases as each person through whoso hands the cloth and clothing passes adds his usual per centage to cover expense and profits. Wool is the raw material of the cloth manu facturer. The domestic supply being insufficient for his needs, he must buy abroad a little over 50 per cent of what he uses. When this wool comes through the custom house there is added to the price he paid abroad the 45 per cent duty. Thus, if he paid 10 cents in London, the cost, exclusive of transportation charges, when it ar rived in Boston, would be 10 cents plus 45 per cent of 10 cents, or 23.20 cents per pound. The duty is put on the foreign grown wool in order that the home grower of wool may get a better price, and it operates exactly to bring about that result. It follows that the American manufac turer pays approximately 45 per cent more for his raw material than does his foreign com petitor. To compensate him for this excess price of his raw material above the price paid by that competitor the government levies what it calls a compensatory duty, supposedly suffi cient to cover that cost difference. This com pensatory duty is levied upon all importations of cloth, and operates, therefore, to enable the American manufacturer to get that much more for his finished product, cloth. If this "compen sation were limited by the tariff law to the extra sum the tariff on wool compelled him to pay for his raw material, he would reap no advantage. In truth, however, he is compensated two or three times that extra sum, and gets- twice or thrice what he would be entitled to under the theory of compensatory duties. The duty on unwashed wool from the great centers of supply is 11 cents a pound. The com pensatory duty is 44 cents a pound, based on the contention that it requires four pounds of grease wool to produce one pound of cloth. Tests made The Commoner. Comparison of Wool Schedule of Payne Law and Underwood Wool Bill Kqulvnlontad valorem rato, poroonU Wool, camel's and goat hair. ... 44.31 Noils, top waste, etc 38.90 Combed wool, tops, roping, etc. .105.19 Yarns, wholly or partly wool. . . 82.38 Cloths, knit fabrics and &U wool manufactures not espec ially provided for 97.11 Blankets and flannels 95.57 Women's and children's dress goods, coat linings, etc 102.85 Ready-made clothing and other wearing apparel 81.31 Webbing, suspenders, belts, braids, flouncing, laces, orna ments, etc 87.06 Aubusson, Axminster, Moquette and like carpets 62.09 Saxony, Wilton, Tournay, velvet and like carpets 70.14 Brussels and similar carpets. ... 76.29 Velvet, tapestry, velvet and similar carpets 62.46 Tapestry, Brussels and similar carpets 64.41 Treble ingrain and other Vene tian carpets 64.34 Wool, Dutch and two-ply in grain carpets All carpets woven whole for 62.50 rooms, oriental, Axminster 60.57 and similar rags Druggets and backings 66.28 All wool or partly wool carpets not specially provided for. ... 49.98 Total raw wool 44,31 Total manufactured 90.10 Grand total 67.20 -rAYNK LAW- Vnluo of Import, 1910 !.. -.1 Duteolloctod V'rom lJW pur con t UNDKHWOOD IHJ.L ; Kutlmitotl Katl mated Import i yonr rovoutio I yonr $47,087,293 $21,128,728 20.00 $ 60,991,000 $13,398,200 203,509 79,293 20.00 890,500 178,100 1,129 1,188 25.00 723,500 183,100 320,880 209,290 30.00 1,373,900 412,200 0,058,288 6,405,884 40.00 24,002,400 9,024,900 108,889 101,412 30.00 258,400 101,700 9,218,374 9,481,200 45.00 25,408,500 11,433,800 1,770, 23G 1,444,890 45.00 5,0C0,400 2,279,900 77,101 07,174 35.00 160,900 '50,300 02,700 38,930 40.00 79,300 31,700 40,711 28,554 35.00 51,100 17,900 8,222 0,272 30.00 10,000 3,000 41,058 25,045 35.00 51,700 18,100 187 120 30.00 200 60 1,075 1,077-30.00 ' 1,800 600 22 13 25.00 20 5 4,392,786 m 2,000,723 50.00 5,582,200 2,791,100 30,587 20,273 25.00 38,800 9,700 48,934 24,455 25.00 62,300 15, G0 $47,687,393 $21,128,728 20.00 $ 66,991,000 $13,398,200 23,057,820 20,775,820 42.55 63,831,000 27,158,000 $70,744,650 $41,904,548 31.27 $130,822,000 $40,556,200 by the Textile Record just previous to the last tariff revision demonstrated conclusively that but two pounds of greased wool are necessary to produce one pound of worsted cloth, the kind manufactured almost exclusively by the woolen trust. In addition to this compensatory duty there is a protective duty on the cloth alone of 55 per cent, ostensibly to cover difference in labor costs here and abroad, a difference that does not exceed 20 per cent. There is In both the compensatory and the protective duty a large excess, and unless the bill proposed by the democrats cuts out this excess, there will , still be sufficient margin in favor of the Ameri can manufacturer to make the tariff prohibitive. Until the details of this bill are definitely known, this fact cannot be determined. democratic presidential nomination. We have never understood Governor HaTmon to be a very wealthy man and sending this kind of campaign material costs a great deal of money and the query Is natural: Where does the money come from? The governor of Ohio has a strong personality and is a capable official but being the choice of that band of mugwump commercial criminals who know no party but the one which permits them to pillage the helpless and who profess or practice no creed but the divine right to rule for their own selfishness, many voters west of tho Ohio river will vote straight up in tho air be fore they will support a candidate backed by this element. The "Nebraska Liberal," Creighton, Neb., Juno 2, 1911. A horizontal reduction in duties does not and cannot correct inequalities in the present law, and the grip tho woolen trust has upon tho cloth market Is due entirely to the inequalities that now exist. So long as the wool schedule is based upon the false shrinkage proportion, it will be to the advantage of tho maker of the more expensive cloth and to the disadvantage of the men who provide bodily shelter for tho masses. Tho worsted men use tho light shrink age wools, the carded mill men the heavier shrinking product. The tariff operates to shut them out of foreign sources of supply, since the foreign grown wool seeks a more favorable market for the heavier grades, and they have been forced to use substitutes that make nice looking but poor wearing clothing for those who must use the cheaper qualities. If the new bill were so drawn as to make the compensatory duty cover only the actual extra expense Involved and an honest shrinkage proportion basis were adopted the outlook for relief in the way of cheaper clothing would be better. The Payne Aldrich law places the lightest burden on those who can best afford to pay increased prices and the heaviest burden on those who can least afford to do so. This is particularly true with respect to clothing, and a perpetuation of the principle of that law is a perpetuation of that vicious discrimination. C. Q. D. THE TRUST PROGRAM This Is tho trust program; center everything at Washington. Take the control of corpora tions out of the hands of the states and then wait for congress to act. If the trusts can con trol the president, tho senate or the house any one of the three they can prevent regulation. They have for more than fifteen years prevented the reformation of the senate because they can control the senate now more easily than they could if senators were elected by popular vote. It is difficult enough to regulate "great corpora tions" when both the state and the federal gov ernments have a right to regulate It will be still harder If the federal government is given exclusive control. Every democrat will oppose this scheme the fact that It is advanced by trust magnates is conclusive proof that It is an tagonistic to the interests of tho public. The democratic position Is that federal remedies should be added to, not substituted for, state remedies. WHO PAYS THE FREIGHT Wo are in receipt of an offer from the Ameri can Press association to furnish a full page of plate matter "prepaid" advertising Governor Harmon of Ohio, an avowed candidate for the 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 APPRECIATED IN NORTH CAROLINA State of North Carolina, Supreme Court, Raleigh. Editor The Commoner My Dear Sir: I enclose $1.00 for which please send me The Commoner. In the campaign that is ahead of us I do not see how any democrat can afford to do without it. Yours truly, WALTER CLARK, Chief Justice. . 0 0 0 0 0 t ., . ,. . -a -ifjffiaiirirriii b- mi UAj hiaM? m- -