THE TARIFF COMMISSION, APPOINTED UNDER ACT OF CONGRESS APPROVED MAY 15, 1882. DECEMBER 4, 1832.-Referred to the Committee on Ways and Means and ordered to be printed. The honorable SPEAKER of the House of Representatives of the United States: SIR: The undersigned, constituting the Tariff Commission established by the act of Congress of May 15, 1882, have the honor to submit the final report of the results of its investigations, and the testimony taken in the course of the same, the presentation of which by you to the honor4able House of Representatives of the United States on the first Mon!day of December, 1882, in compliance with the requirements imposed upon the Commission by said act, is respectfully requested. The terms of the law under which the Commission has acted are as follows: Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a Commission is hereby created, to be called the "Tariff Commission," to consist of nine members. SEC. 2. That the President of the United States shall, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint nine commissioners from civil life, one of whom, the first named, shall be the president of the Commission. * * * SEC. 3. That it shall be the duty of said Commission to take into consideration and to thoroughly investigate all the various questions relating to the agricultural, commercial, mercantile, manufacturing, mining, and industrial interests of the United States, so far as the same may be necessary to the establishment of a judicious tariff, or a revision of the existing tariff, upon a scale of justice to all interests, and for the purpose of fully examining the matters which may come before it. Said Commission, in the prosecution of its inquiries, is empowered to visit such different portions and sections of the country as it may deem advisable. SEC. 4. That the Commission shall make to Congress final report of the results of its investigation, and the testimony taken in the course of the same, not later than the first Monday of December, eighteen hundred and eighty-two; and it shall cause the testimony taken to be printed from time to time and distributed to members of Congress by the Public Printer, and shall also cause to be printed for the use of Congress two thousand copies of its final report, together with the testimony. It will be seen by the act above recited that the first duty which devolved upon the Commission was an investigation, or prosecution of inquiries, in relation to all the various questions bearing upon the establishment of a judicious tariff, by means of taking testimony in relation to the agricultural, commercial, mercantile, manufacturing, mining, and industrial interests of the United States, and that for this purpose the Commission was empowered and impliedly directed to visit such different portions and sections of the United States as it might deem advisable. It is proper that a brief recital condensed from the daily records of the Commission should be given of the course of procedure in this preliminary work, the results of which, in the volumes of printed testimony herewith submitted, form a material portion of this report. The first session of the Commission was held at Washington, on the 6th of July, 1882, and the sessions were continued in that city seven days, during which all the details of administrative organization were completed. The first series of sessions for hearing testimony, commencing on the 19th of July, were held at Long Branch, N. J., that place having been selected for such hearings on account of its easy access from the cities of New York and Philadelphia, and comparative accessibility from the principal business centers of the East. The opportunity was also afforded by the proximity to New York to obtain the testimony of the principal experts of the custom-house in that city, in relation to the amendments desirable in the administrative portions of our customs lays. The methods pursued in subsequent hearings were here adopted, viz, of having the sessions for receiving testimony open to the public, while ample facilities for reporting were given to the press; of publishing general invitations, but of making no personal requests for the reception of testimony except to official persons; of assigning by letter or telegraph the time when each witness desiring an appointment should be heard; of hearing with absolute impartiality persons of all shades of economical opinion, and of submitting for publication all written or printed statements read to the Commission, as well as oral statements which were faithfully reported by its official stenographer. After a series of sessions continuing for twenty-nine days, including two days occupied in visiting the custom-house in New York and one day at Trenton, N. J., and hearing all the witnesses who were prepared to give testimony, the Commission deemed it advisable to prosecute its inquiries in other portions and sections of the country. After a session of three days in the city of Boston, Mass., the other New England States not being visited on account of their comparative proximity to the two last-named places of session, a route of travel was laid out to embrace the principal business centers of the Middle States and of the West and South. The Commission originally contemplated visits to the Pacific and Gul States, which were abandoned for want of time. Appointments wer duly published for the hearings in the different cities hereafter named and every appointment was kept with absolute punctuality. This could have been accomplished only through provisions of exceptional facili ties for traveling and an indifference to the fatigue attending rapi transit. Within a period of less than five weeks, public sessions for hear ing testimony were held in the following-named cities, a session havin been held on every working day during that period, and during whic over 6,000 miles were traversed, principally at night, with the additio of 1,000 miles in visiting the last three places. The cities visited during the route of travel above referred to were: Milwaukee, Wis., one day's session, September 11. Philadelphia, Pa., three days' session, October 13, 14, 16. The public sessions, for hearing testimony, closed at the latter city on the 16th of October. The official announcement of the prevalence of a dangerous epidemic in the Gulf States having rendered the proposed visit to those States inexpedient, Commissioner Kenner, of Louisiana, consented to discharge the duty of personally obtaining such testimony in that section of the country as might be offered after due publication of his presence for that purpose, an arrangement which the Commission has reason to believe was satisfactory to the interests of that section. The proposed visit to the Pacific States having proved impracticable within the brief time at the command of the Commission, formal official communications were addressed to each of the governors of the States of California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, and Oregon, and of the Territories of Arizona, Dakota, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, requesting them to give notice of the desire of the Com mission to receive statements from their respective States and Territories. Such statements as have been transmitted in pursuance of these requests have received the same consideration as if personally submitted, and are embodied in the published testimony. Upon this, the first and least difficult part of its work, the Commission permits itself to look with satisfaction, as it may do with propriety, since the only merit claimed for this work is diligence and impartiality in its performance. The number of witnesses examined and statements made was 604. The number of places visited was 29. The number of days occupied in taking testimony was 78, and the testimony taken oc eupies 2,625 printed pages. This testimony presents a faithful photograph of the various economical opinions of the great business centers of the country, at least so far as the interests in question were willing to present them. It is believed that no exhibit of such opinions, or of the facts in relation to the vast and varied industrial development of the country, so condensed and yet so vivid, or so responsible, from the publicity of the hearings and the personal accountability of the witnesses to the Commission and the public, has ever been presented. Of the character of this testimony it is needless to speak, except in these general terms, as it speaks for itself in the printed pages; and of the great variety of subjects which it embraces, as more fully shown in the index of testimony, it would be useless to attempt a complete abstract. The Commission has, however, made an abstract of the testimony relative to labor and wages in the United States and Europe, combined with facts and statistical exhibits from other sources, which will be found in the appendix to this report. The testimony has been invaluable to the Commission for the determination of the immediate questions under their consideration. The most grave and responsible duty which has devolved upon the Commission has been its further work of considering and investigating the testimony above referred to, and such other information as has come within its cognizance in reference to the establishment "of a judicious tariff, or a revision of the existing tariff upon a scale of justice to all interests." The principal object of this report is to state the results of this investigation. Before proceeding to such a statement in detail the Commission deems it proper to declare the spirit in which it has conducted its deliberations, the principles by which it has been governed, and the methods by which it has arrived at its results. In performance of the duty devolved upon them, all the members of the Commission have aimed, and, as they believe, with success, to divest themselves of political bias, sectional prejudice, or considerations of personal interest. It is their desire that their recommendations shall serve no particular party, class, section, or school of political economy. In arriving at results individual opinions have been made subordinate to the object of uniting upon a general system which shall commend itself to the country and Congress as a whole, notwithstanding the minor objections which must inevitably occur to any general measures of revenue reform. The Commission has found itself face to face with the most practical questions within the range of national economics-the question of the national revenue and the relations of the existing national industries with the labor depending upon them to the methods of collecting that revenue. The practical question presented to the Commission is that of reconciling the interests of revenue, including the considerations of its sufficient maintenance or possible reduction, with justice to the interests of the nation involved in the preservation of its industries and the security of its labor. The legislation to be recommended is for the pres ent, and not for posterity, which must meet its own emergencies, and the determination of this question involves considerations of expediency not the least of which is that the measures recommended be such as shall be acceptable to the country and its representatives in Congress. It must accept the facts that discrimination in the imposition of import duties, a discrimination for the most part positive and avowed, and always, at least, with an incidental reference to the defense of the national industries, has been the policy of the country for generations; that in consequence of this policy thousands of millions of dollars have been invested in special pursuits; that the whole business of the country has been adjusted to the conditions of things growing out of this policy, and is inseparably identified with it; and that a subversive or radical change in the present economic system would throw labor out of employ ment, ruinously depreciate values, and create a general industrial and commercial disaster. With these views, with the unmistakable evidences of public opinion against radical changes, with the whole current of the testimony before the Commission in recognition of the necessity of pre serving the general structure of our tariff system, with the clear sanction of the law creating this body and its injunction to render justice to all interests, the Commission has deemed it proper to limit its work to a revision, although a substantial revision, of the existing tariff. The Commission, in making the existing tariff the basis of its work. has waived any attempt to construct a system upon an original and scientific basis, such as the tariff of France is said to be founded on, not only because such an attempt would have been presumptuous in the brief time at command, but because of the practical objections to such a course. If constitutions, as has been said, are not the creations of councils and legislatures, but the expression of the results of the slow and gradual growth of the political opinions of the people, how much more truly may it be said of a national tariff system like ours, that it the result of the gradual growth of the necessities for the time for each of the new industries, or interests of production, springing from year to year into existence, and each in its way securing by discrimi nating duties the national defense from undue foreign importations. A reference to the existing tariff, the gradual growth of generations of defensive legislation, to its discriminations, its phraseology, and its desig. nations, has been found essential for preserving the general structure of the existing system, and although in some cases widely departed from, has always been kept in view by the Commission in the changes recommended. For the same conservative reasons the views of the authorized representatives and experts in the several industries in relation to objects of discrimination, phraseology, and designations have been carefully considered, and have had great weight with the Commission in determining the measures of revision to be recommended. In a theoretically scientific tariff scheme it would have been impossible to preserve the features of the existing system to which the business and industries of the country have become adapted. While giving all the consideration implied in the foregoing statement to the interests affected by revision, in determining the rates to be recommended the Commission has been governed solely by its own views of justice, expediency, and a regard for the interests of consumers and the public sentiment of the country. Early in its deliberations the Commission became convinced that a substantial reduction of tariff duties is demanded, not by a mere indiscriminate popular clamor, but by the best conservative opinion of the country, including that which has in former times been most strenuous for the preservation of our national industrial defenses. Such a reduction of the existing tariff the Commission regards not only as a due recognition of public sentiment and a measure of justice to consumers, but one conducive to the general industrial prosperity, and which, though it may be temporarily inconvenient, will be ultimately beneficial to the special interests af fected by such reduction. No rates of defensive duties, except for the establishment of new industries, which more than equalize the conditions of labor and capital with those of foreign competitors can be justified. Excessive duties, or those above such standard of equalization, are positively injurious to the interest which they are supposed to benefit. They encourage the investment of capital in manufacturing enterprise by rash and unskilled speculators, to be followed by disaster to the adventurers and their employés, and a plethora of commodities which deranges the operations of skilled and prudent enterprise. Numerous examples of such disasters and derangements occurred during and shortly after the excessively protective period of the late war, when tariff duties were enhanced by the rates of foreign exchange and premiums upon gold. Excessive duties generally, or exceptionably high duties in particular cases, discredit our whole national economic system and furnish plausible arguments for its complete subversion. They serve to increase uncertainty on the part of industrial enterprise, whether it shall enlarge or contract its operations, and take from com. merce, as well as production, the sense of stability required for ex: |