Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1912 — FACTS SUPPRESSED AND ISSUES EVADED BY TAFT TARIFF BOARD [ARTICLE]

FACTS SUPPRESSED AND ISSUES EVADED BY TAFT TARIFF BOARD

By ROBERT KENNETH MACLEA,

Formerly Consulting Expert of the Tariff Board.

Under the pressure of promise to fight chicanery and fraud in tariff legislation, I deem it a public duty not to withhold the facts in my possession relative to the investigation of the cotton manufacturing Industry. Regretful that my experience with the board warrants such conclusions, I am compelled to present the following Indictment:

I. That the tariff board, j n jt a report on manuSUPPRES- facturee of cotton cm SI (Schedule I) has supSION pressed findings of vital Importance to the cotton Industry, to the public and to the government, but inimical to the special privileges of a few New England manufacturers who were permitted by Senator Aldrich to write the cotton schedule' to suit themselves. 11. That the tariff board T"" 1 "" has perverted other PERVER- acts, thereby avoiding cm KI exposure of tariff injusoluN tices that have beneflt_ed the few at the expense of the many manufacturers. 111. That the tariff board has not, as stated by President Taft to congress, drawn any conclusions that would “be valuable in advising the congress and the people * * * of the changes that ought to be made to make more equitable their (she wool and cot- , ton schedules) effects.” EVASION The board did not attempt to draw conclusions, “scientific” or otherwise, from its “scientifically” collected data, but sidestepped that responsibility by arguing that such deductions as its data justified were not called for under the specifications of its employment. IV. That the tariff board’s report was arranged so as io be Incomprehensible to either legislators Or laymen; that tables were deliberately disaasociated or emasculated EMASCU- f not suppressed, and I A Tin KI that a congressman LAIIUN would require the serv- — _____ ices of a statistician and a clerk six months to make head or tall of the jumble of data presented as a basis for intelligent tariff revision. V. That the tariff board CIUADIT avoided altogether inrAVUnII- vestigating certain IQU phases of tariff graft lOIVI hidden in "jokers” of the Payne-Aldrich law. VI. That the tariff board falsely reported that it was impossible to obtain abroad

cost data on weaving necessary to enable it to make an intelligent comparison with ibi a AIT costs at home; that the I Hit AAU I board was offered opportunities for obtalnIng such data, but did not use them; that such foreign data as were obtained were in some cases suppressed and in others were Inadequate for honest comparison, although so utilized. VII. That the tariff board betrayed the confidence of American manufacturers by publishing data that should have been held iisir- a m for confidential informaUNrAIR tion °f legislators; that competitors were given thereby valuable trade secrets, while the foreign manufacturers divulged nothing of similar character or importance. VIII. That the tariff board’s nmißinr-Ai treatment of economic uISINGEN questions vitally affect11 Al IO I’ 18 ’ the relation of the UUUo tariff to the prices ex-’ —I acted from consumers was disingenuous and misleading. IX. That the tariff board has proved not to be the “nonpartisan” and scientific instrument promised by President Taft; that its members displayed inexperience In business, incompetence and extravagance. I have been forced reluctantly after a year’s Intimate association to accept the opinion that the tariff board has — been nothing more than i an effective cog in a rißn-rioAßi "standpat” political maPARTISAN chine; that some of the men who clamored most ___loudly for a tariff board and some of the men appointed thereto worked all the time complacently in the knowledge that the creation of the board was a scheme to prevent genuine tariff reform as long as possible by “gumming the cards and delaying the game,” a charge frequently made, but which I for a long time discredited. X. That such facts as the tariff board has reported sustain the charge, as to both the wool and the cotton schedules, that the conCONVICT- ias been robbed I Kin outrageously as a conING sequence of excessive duties and that the profits have not gone into the pockets of the laborer to "maintain an American standard of living." —From New York World