TARIFF REVISION 469 



nent commission, like the Interstate Commerce Commission, has been 

 spoken of, which should have authority to investigate, and upon giving 

 notice of from one to three years, to change the rate or schedule within 

 certain limits prescribed by Congress, say from three to five per cent. 

 A commission, however, with such powers would be unconstitutional. 

 Article I., section 8, of the constitution provides, " The Congress shall 

 have power to lay taxes, duties," etc. The power is given to Congress, 

 and according to the familiar principle that no legislative body can 

 delegate to any other person or tribunal whatever the power which was 

 conferred upon it, such power can not be delegated to any commission. 

 Congress must not only lay the tax and duty, but it must lay one which 

 shall be uniform, definite and certain. It can not entrust the slightest 

 modification or change to the discretion or Judgment of any other 

 tribunal. If a slight change in the tax can be made by a commission, 

 then Congress can authorize it to make a great change. There is no 

 middle ground. The entire power of laying taxes and duties is con- 

 ferred on the Congress and that power can not be shifted. A commis- 

 sion is in no sense a representative body, and the right to lay taxes is, 

 under our system of government, peculiarly limited to a body which 

 is representative of the whole people. Such essentially is the Congress, 

 to which the authority was given by the constitution. 



All the benefits which would legally flow from a commission could 

 also be had from a bureau of tariff in the Department of Commerce 

 and Labor, and with less friction and more efficiency. Such a bureau 

 could furnish data and memoranda with verifying witnesses, who could 

 be examined by the Ways and Means Committee and by parties inter- 

 ested. In this way the whole people of the country would be repre- 

 sented before the committee in a substantial manner, where now they 

 are practically unrepresented so far as the presentation of the case by 

 witnesses and counsel is concerned. As a check upon the accuracy of 

 the work of the bureau, parties interested should have the privilege 

 of cross-examination, and also the right to bring before the con- 

 gressional committee, which is independent of the bureau and of the 

 department to which it belongs, experts of their own; these experts in 

 turn to be subject to cross-examination by counsel representing the 

 bureau of the tariff. 



By such a procedure facts can be elicited upon which an orderly 

 and scientific revision of the tariff can be made. These suggestions 

 are not intended to unnecessarily postpone or indefinitely delay the 

 present proposed revision of the tariff, but simply to indicate a method 

 of procedure which should be made permanent. 



