TARIFF REVISION 455 



denced in the last campaign. Mr. Taft said to labor, " I will give 

 you what you deserve, neither more nor less," and that statement se- 

 cured for him the biggest labor vote ever given a president. So always 

 of American labor. Upon sober thought it wants what it deserves, 

 neither more or less. 



The statements made before the Ways and Means Committee within 

 the last few days by those who wish to bolster wretched rates imply 

 that it takes about two American mechanics to do the work of one 

 European, as measured in wages. Except in tarifi-making we hear that 

 it takes two Europeans to equal one American. Let us not hastily de- 

 clare that high wages and other splendid considerations given Ameri- 

 can labor are an economic loss. It pays to give men a good education; 

 it pays to feed them well, to give them meat twice a day. Porterhouse 

 steaks are good for a workingman, if he will only work hard enough 

 to earn them. And ours do. Manufacturers usually say that their 

 highly-paid men are the cheapest. This statement can be made inter- 

 nationally also. Said J. B. Sargent, a great New England manufac- 

 turer of hardware: 



I ship abroad most successfully those of my products which carry the 

 largest amount of the highest paid American labor. I have little success with 

 those which carry either cheap labor or little labor. 



I mention steel and other important products only as examples. 

 The tariff is as bad generally in textiles. For instance, it lays extra- 

 heavy burdens upon the poor man's purchases and induces the sale of 

 shoddy and cotton as good wool. It affects chemicals, even the medi- 

 cines of the sick. It reaches in all directions. 



As Mr. Taft has said, a doctor will not cut off a patient's head to 

 cure a cold. "We must not destroy in seeking to correct. The tariff 

 must be taken out of politics and put into the hands of a semi-judicial, 

 non-partisan commission composed of men especially of the highest 

 integrity, who shall investigate schedule by schedule and report their 

 findings in the form of recommendations to Congress and the executive. 

 The right to make tariffs rests wholly in Congress; a commission can 

 only recommend, as it did in Germany. We must believe that the Con- 

 gress of the United States will legislate justly and wisely if only it is 

 fully informed. The commission must be given authority and inde- 

 pendence only that it may be efficient as the servant of Congress. 



The commission idea is not new. There are hundreds, if not thou- 

 sands, of commissions, national, state and municipal. Most of the great 

 legislative reforms of this generation were based upon the findings of 

 commissions. There is a tremendous movement now in favor of a 

 tariff commission. We shall have one soon, it being only a question 

 whether this next tariff will be based upon the findings of a commission 

 or whether this tariff will be the last one to be made after the old fash- 



