468 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



A PEEMANENT TARIFF BUREAU : ITS RELATION TO 



CONGRESS AND PROPER PROCEDURE FOR 



TARIFF REVISION 



Br SEYMOUR C. LOOMIS 



NEW HAVEN, CONN. 



FROM the six volumes of conflicting testimony given by over six 

 hundred witnesses, during the six weeks' session of the Ways 

 and Means Committee, it is evident that the framing of a new tariff 

 law is fraught with many perplexities. It is important to make it, as 

 nearly as possible, adapted to the accomplishment of the desired end. 

 Frequent changes are to be avoided, because they upset calculations 

 which are at the foundation of trade. Even if the object of a tariff is 

 agreed to and settled, that object may not be attained by the means 

 proposed. A tariff builder always has in mind one or both of two ideas 

 or results; first, revenue with which to run the federal government; 

 second, protection to domestic industries. These ideas may be, and gen- 

 erally are, antagonistic. A schedule which produces a large revenue 

 may not be protective, and one which is protective may produce no 

 revenue at all. Between these extremes there are numberless conditions 

 where the relative amounts of revenue and protection change as the 

 duty is more or less. And when the modifications of supply and 

 demand and the variations of cost of production are considered the 

 situation becomes worse than kaleidoscopic. Persons may even agree 

 as to the principle upon which a tariff law should be drafted, and yet 

 be hopelessly apart as to its application to a given case. The essential 

 facts relating to many industries are hidden, and, if discovered, are 

 not easily placed and held at their true relative value. They need to 

 be coordinated with other facts relating to other industries here as 

 well as abroad. Iron and steel enter into and form a part of so many 

 articles, structures and things in general, that, it is claimed, if the price 

 of those commodities was the same here as in other countries, foreign 

 markets, now closed, would be opened to our manufacturers who use 

 iron and steel as their raw material. This is also claimed concerning 

 other staples. Whether this be true or false depends upon a great num- 

 ber of facts, which only an expert disinterested person can discover. 



For these and other obvious reasons it is apparent that a corps of 

 men in the emplojmient of the government under the civil service, 

 whose permanent duty it should be to probe into, obtain and correlate 

 these facts, would be of great public advantage and utility. A perma- 



