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REGARDING OUR IMPORT TAXES There is a strong tendency in considering measures for raising a huge war revenue by taxation to avoid any tax on imports however reasonable or productive it might be because it would be sure to raise a controversy over protection and free trade with which it need have nothing whatever to do The real partisans on that issue especially those who have the protectionist haUit seem to have a pe ¬ culiar incapacity1 for making distinctions or reason ¬ ing straight There is a clear distinction between duties on imports for revenue and those for pro ¬ tecting home industries by keeping foreign goods out of the market or making their prices extrava ¬ gantly high highThe The House Committee on Ways and Means has thus far refused to consider duties on imports as a means of adding to revenue receipts while the ranking Uepublican on the committee Fordney of Michigan persists in advocating it as a protective agency for American industries though in present conditions that issue is utterly suspended Kefer ring to the fact that the English Parliament has put a tax on many imports he is quoted as saying that England the greatest example of free trade has rushed to a protective tariff basis during this war while the United States once a leader in pro ¬ tective tariff has become the most noted free trade country England he says will raise this year 45000000 of 1025 per capita from import taxes while the amount raised by the United States will not amount to more than 108000000 or 108 pel head headWe We have not verified this statement but if it is correct it has nothing to do with free trade or protection The heavy duties imposed in England are for revenue only and laid mostly on things not pro ¬ duced in Great Britain chiefly luxuries or costly things In no case is it for the purpose of keeping them out or protecting domestic goods from their competition It is for revenue only Something like this might be done here to advantage for raising additional revenue from articles so classified that it would have no unfavorable effect on the home mar ¬ ket iu large measure those not produced here at all or in small volume Tariff for revenue and tariff for protection are quite irreconcilable but Fordney seems to regard them as twins It is that kind of lack of reasoning that makes it desirable to avoid the controversy which lie and others like him would raise and keep up indefinitely New York Journal of Commerce
