AMERICAN Photo Veiga Magellan Monument and Plaza, Punta Arenas, the Southernmost City of the World January, 1924 i^r 11 iii y i ii 11 ii 1111111 ii 11 ii 11111111111111 ii 11111111111111 ii 11 it 1111111 ii 1111 ii 11 ii 11 ii 111 ■ 111111 ii 111 n 11 ii 111111 ill i ii 11111 mi 11 ii 11 ill 11 M 11 iiii THE STANDARD OF VALUE The American Dollar is the Standard of Value all over the World. Regardless of where you are located, you should maintain a banking connection with Washington, D. C. WHY NOT SELECT THE FEDERAL-AM ERIC AN? Foreign Exchange, Letters of Credit, Travelers Checks, Commercial, Savings and Trust Departments, and $14,000,000.00 in assets, assure you of adequate facilities to transact any financial business you may require. Our officers are always glad to advise upon financial matters. FEDERAL-AMERICAN NATIONAL BANK WASHINGTON, D. C. W. T.fGALLIHER, JOHN POOLE, Chairman of the Board President 5iiiiimiiimimimiiimiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiimimiHiiiiiiiMiiiiiiimiiMmimimiiii!imMMimMiiiiiiiimiiiiiiMMiiiiimiiiiiin Press of RansdeU Incorporated Washington, D. C. vmp) •• «• P ox CON sue LLETIN W 1 PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE AMERICAN CONSULAR ASSOCIATION VOL. VI. No. I WASHINGTON, D. C. JANUARY, 1924 The United States Tariff Commission Its Work and Functions in Relation to Commerce By JOHN R. TURNER, Chief Economist, United States Tariff Commission [The writer, although a member of the staff of the United States Tariff Commission, personally assumes full responsibility for all the statements contained in this article.] SELF-INTEREST is a guiding motive maxim of public policy that one party to a in all business conduct, in all the pur¬ trade must get cheated, that to the extent suits of wealth. The degree to which one might profit another must lose. Hap¬ it is enlightened marks the difference be¬ pily, this root of commercial strife is no tween civilization and barbarism. Self- more. An enlightened sense of self- interest accompanied by ignorance becomes interest has dispelled the type of commer¬ ferocious greed and (as F. A. Walker puts cial policy which made of international it) disregards the public well-being in its trade a game of deceit and violence. ravening quest for wealth, at whatever cost Unfortunately, we have not as yet of misery to others. It is an idea new to grasped the full significance of mutual commerce that self-interest gains its object profit in trade. Many have yet to learn through exchanges mutually profitable. that we can develop world markets only One hundred and fifty years ago it was a by contributing to them, and that we can IH ^ ^HLLETIN have their benefits only by sharing them with agencies, each and all, have their special functions other nations. and particular services to perform. They can It is the common experience of industrial coun¬ have the full benefits of cooperation only when tries that in certain lines their productive capacity they avoid the wastes of duplication. But their must have foreign outlets. By reason of foreign efforts can properly be coordinated and overlap¬ markets the nitrates of Chile profit the people of ping avoided only when each may know the func¬ that country and benefit the world at large. Apart tions and work of the other. from a foreign outlet the enormous wool supply Of the various governmental agencies which of Australia and Argentina would become negli¬ cooperate in the matter of promoting foreign gible. So also British rubber, Sicilian lemons, trade, the consular service of the Department of Southern cotton, and Canadian wheat would be State and the commercial attaches reporting to the almost completely lost to the world were the for¬ Department of Commerce are clearly in the best eign markets closed to them. These world sup¬ position to secure foreign trade information of plies would become largely useless, their produc¬ value. Only direct contact can give the perspec¬ tion reduced or abandoned, and consumers every¬ tive necessary to grasp the situation in a foreign where would share the loss. market; to appraise its needs, to estimate its credit PRODUCTION AND INVENTION THE SOURCES OF or purchasing power, and to determine the best COMMERCIAL PROGRESS means of introducing our commodities therein. A week of direct or personal contact in a foreign Commerce is the spring that sets industries in market may be richer in results by far than pro¬ motion. It fosters large production and the accu¬ longed correspondence carried on from a distance. mulation of great wealth. It turns inventive The information supplied by these and other genius to account and converts idle resources into governmental agencies stationed in foreign coun¬ effective organizations of production. Industrial tries is coordinated and applied by the various progress is the condition of general well-being, departments of government which have to deal, and it can be furthered only as the commerce each in its special sphere, with different aspects which supports it is extended. of the problems and difficulties and controversies Invention is the root idea in the evolution of connected with foreign trade. Perhaps the most industry. The land, or source of supplies, is fixed controversial of all the problems of international in amount, whereas the population is multiplying commerce are those relating to tariffs and tariff and the demands of the market are growing in the rates, which are the special charge of the United direction of a greater amount and variety and States Tariff Commission. What does the Tariff superior quality of products. Standing between Commission do and how does it do it? the fixed amount of land and the growing de¬ mands of the market is the art of invention. But TARIFF COMMISSION THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF the full use of invention, either in mechanical CONGRESS IN EXPRESSING TARIFF POLICY appliances or in effective organizations, cannot be restricted to limited communities. They burst the The Tariff Commission has nothing to do local barriers of trade and can have full scope directly with the making of tariff policies—that only when the world is the market.* Congress does and must do; and the policy of The commercial strength of a country depends Congress is the policy fixed upon by the voters at primarily upon its productive capacity—upon the the polls. But it is one thing to declare a policy— abundance of its natural resources and the pro¬ to determine that the tariff shall be high or low— ductive genius to develop them. But, as above and it is a very different and a very difficult thing indicated, it is upon the promotion and regulation to express that policy in the form of a law. A of commerce that we must depend for the develop¬ complete revision of tariff rates requires that for ment of our productive capacity. the thousands of articles mentioned in the tariff accurate statistical data must be gathered, expert IMPORTANCE OF THE CONSULAR SERVICE AS AN knowledge used to avoid technical blunders in AGENCY IN FOREIGN TRADE classification, and economic judgment exercised as The task of extending our commercial interests to the effects of the rates. The tariff makers are is of first importance and is worthy of the highest burdened with conferences and hearings to the talent we have to offer; it calls for the effective point of exhaustion. Their desks are loaded with cooperation of business men and commercial statistical documents and petitions of interested agencies, both private and governmental. These parties. During the eighteen months of preparing the present tariff law, upwards of 10,000 pages of * Macgregor’s Evolution of Industry develops the information were printed for the Congressional thought of this paragraph with admirable clearness. committees. Considerations of common justice 2 and the interdependence of industries cause the as the “greatest contribution towards progress in rate on one article to be fixed with regard to the tariff-making in a century.” It is hoped that rates on others. The rates throughout the law experience will justify this high appraisal. As must have a reasonable balance and proportion to yet the provision is on trial, and its well-wishers one another. would spare it from abuse, either by misuse or But there is always something of haphazard in overuse. the rough and ready fixing of rates by Congres¬ The President can adjust tariff rates^upward or sional committees, due entirely to the system, and downward, as provided in Section 315; but only certainly not to the fault or negligence of any after the Tariff Commission has made an investi¬ individual. Furthermore, our economic condi¬ gation to determine for him what changes in rates tions have been, and are necessary to equal¬ are, undergoing post¬ ize “the differences in war adjustment. In costs of production in Europe the political un¬ the United States and certainties, together with the principal competing labor troubles, unem¬ country.” ploy m ent, unbalanced Congress embodied in budgets and depreciated the Act of 1922 the currencies, have ren¬ policy or rule which governs the Commis- dered the competitive : strength of their indus¬ s on and the President tries incalculable. Euro¬ m the modification of pean conditions, partic¬ rates. The fact that ad¬ ularly in Germany, have justments in tariff rates been so chaotic that our must be based upon industrial leaders could carefully conducted have no means of fore¬ scientific investigations, casting whether imports as provided for in Sec¬ from there would be tion 315, should com¬ large or small, constant mend itself to all, cer¬ or fluctuating, or at tainly to all thoughtful what range of prices people. Yet an able they would be offered authority on tariff mat¬ in competition with ters condemns these American products.