PROGRESSIVES KEEP CEMENT ON FREE LIST

...PROGRESSIVES KEEP CEMENT ON FREE LIST Joia Forces With Democrats in Senate to Kill High Duty on Cement CEMENT TRUST IS DEFEATED 40 TO 35 Consumer Would Pay Bill If Duty Were Placed on Commodity, Is Claim (Special to The Progressive) WASHINGTON—The attack of Pro-gressives and Democrats upon the Senate Finance Committee's action in removing cement from the free list and placing it on the dutiable list under a rate of 31 cents a pound succeeded in overturning the committee's action and returning this commodity to the free list...

...Wearing apparel and necessities of life which are upon a dutiable list are quickly consumed, and therefore are charged to expense...

...Generally speaking, all money used in the purchase of these two basic commodities must be at once capitalized, and upon that capitalization interest or rental must be charged...

...After Senator McMaster had demonstrated that the full amount of this duty would necessarily be paid by American consumers, the Senate, by a vote of 40 lo 35 approved the MtMaster amendment, restoring cement to the free list...

...Assuming, for the sake of argument, that a 31-cent duty per barrel upon «ement would rate the price of all the cement used in the country by an equal amount, this would be an additional tax upon the consumers of the nation of $53,000,000 annually, and as a large part of this increased price must be charged to capital account, it means that l/cfore Ihat amount is finally liquidated through depreciation that the consumer* of the country must pay at least another additional $53,000,000 in the way of interest or rental charges...

...Cement and steel to a large extent enter permanent construction, and therefore must be charged to capital account, on which there must be an annual interest charge...

...with the result that for every thousand dollars expended for cement there must be a rental charge of two or three thousand dollars before the investment in cement is charged off to depreciation...

...The committee's recommendation was described by Senator McMaster...

...of South Dakota, who made the leading address against the committee's plan, as an "astounding proposal...

...Any attempt through the tariff or through other means to increase the price of these two commodities have tremendous far-reaching economic effects...

...He said: "The prices of cement and steel have an outstanding significance in the economic structure of a nation...

...In the construction of great office buildings and the homes of the nation the concrete used in connection therewith will endure from 60 to 75 years, and upon the purchase price of concrete there must be an annual rental charge...

...The .raising of the tariff by 31 cpnts would cost the consumers of (he country approximately $100,000,000 annually, baw-ri on the assumption that a 31-cent tariff par barrel would be added to the price of cement...

...When the farmers of the country issue bonds for the purpose of construction of concrete roads, for each thousand-dollar bond issued for the purchase of cement there must be an equal amount of money paid out during the life of a bond in the way of interest...