FLEXIBILITY OF TARIFF IS CHALLENGED
flexibility of tariff is challenged Dr. Wright of Rawleigh Tariff Bureau (Questions Hoover Opinion (Special to The Progressive) WASHINGTON, D. C—Value of the flexible tariff provision in making...
...Wright believes that the final naming of the rate should be left with Congress...
...It should also estimate the burden of the existing duty on both industrial and final consumers and in some cases it may even estimate the burden on our export trade resulting from the increased cost of raw materials and retaliatory duties by foreign countries...
...With the proper personnel and operating as a fact-finding body looking both to the benefit and burden of the rate charges it recommends, Dr...
...Wright said: "It ls hoped that the foregoing discussion has established these points: (1) That the so-called flexible provLsion does not in fact make the tariff truly flexible In any sense helpful to business...
...Wright's examination of the flexible provision on which the President declared he depended to revise the law, comes at a moment when Its conclusions will draw close attention...
...President Hoover is now in the 'midst of selecting the members for- the re-organized Tariff Commission, thus far having selected a chairman known for his strict protectionism, and a Democratic member known as a moderate protectionist...
...Wright finds that the Commission, as a determining body for both the benefit and burden of duties, and with such personnel as he outlined, would be able to prove its value...
...In the hands of a Commission rate-making would be placed at one further remove from the people and would be less responsive to public' Indignation when the fruit,-- of a 'night raid' by some such predatory interest surpassed all reason...
...ho declares, "would...
...Dright believes that the Commission "will be of inestimable value...
...With this aim, the Commission should, Dr...
...4) that so much option is left the Commission in its method of determining the equalizing rate that in arriving at that rate it is really performing a legislative act...
...3) that under it business interests endeavor to shape the tariff for their own benefit when the rates are determined by the Tariff Commission, just as they had previously done when the rates were determined by Congress...
...Wright declares, that the hope for beneficial action rests...
...We think, too...
...hence, finally that the tariff when made by a Commission just as when made by Congress is bound to be a resultant of conflicting pressures...
...Phillip G. Wright of the Brookings Institution of Washington and an authority on tariff making...
...Wright points out, be composed of men of the highest intellectual calibre, "non-partisan rather than either bi-partisan or partisan...
...But, he finds, the operation of both the Commission and the flexible tariff provision must be turned from Its present course...
...that The Progressive Is a wonderful paper and know it is doing a world of good in these times.—Eva M. Hcter...
...Wright, so far as giving the Commission the power of setting the rate, doubts that such action would be Constitutional, and also he doubts that a Commission could be composed to properly discharge such an enormous power...
...The very fact that the Commission was entrusted with such power...
...He hoids that It places too great a responsibility on the President as he is head of a political party as well as the nation...
...DOING A WORLD OF GOOD [Bellevue, Ohio, Sept...
...Wright sees little hope for such an ideal, and therefore supports the retention of the bi-partisan commission as at present...
...3.]—We took La Follette's Magazine for years and years, and always read It with tntc-rcsy passing it on In neighbors who could .'careely wiat until wo had fliu lied with it...
...But, as he says...
...But Dr...
...2) that it has not taken the tariff out of politics but has in fact injected poll-tics into the Tariff Commission...
...He'.suggests that the Commission be charged with appraising the benefits and burdens resulting from existing rates and estimate the effect of changes...
...It Ls on the character of the Commission, Dr...
...In this connection, he says: "It should make cost studies, as at present, and estimate to what extent the industry as a whole ls dependent on the duty, and what would be the effect on the industry (including wage earners), on subsidiary industries, and on industries using its products as raw materials, of an increase or lowering of the duty...
...I fear, make it the creature of great protected interests, and these interests would be even more firmly entrenched in their power over the tariff than when tariff making Is lodged with Congress...
...Wright of Rawleigh Tariff Bureau (Questions Hoover Opinion (Special to The Progressive) WASHINGTON, D. C—Value of the flexible tariff provision in making readjustments promised by President Hoover to remedy inequalities in the new Smoot-Hawley law, was brought sharply into question with the issuance by the Rawlelgh Tariff League of a searching study by Dr...
...In his conclusion, Dr...
...After setting out his and other arguments relating to the flexible tariff under the general heading of "In Quest of a Phantom," Dr...
...Wright holds hope for good from a Tariff Commission when it is,organized along the proper lines and is operated by the proper personnel...
Vol. 1 • September 1930 • No. 41
