The Tariff-Makers

The Ways & Means Committee last week completed its public hearings on recommendations for changes in the tariff law. Now the Committee will go into a brown study and emerge with a tariff bill that will try to satisfy the people back home--and Mr. Hoover. Some final recommendations, mostly upward, by the people back home, included the following:

Jewels. Jewellers urged that rough diamonds be admitted free, that duties on pearls and unset stones be reduced from 20% to 10%. Reason advanced: there is no other way of stopping wholesale jewel smuggling. Five hundred of America's 1,000 diamond cutters are out of work because of smuggling. Walter H. Kahn of Manhattan held up a small fountain pen containing $10,000 worth of diamonds, poured $30,000 worth of diamonds out of a cigaret lighter. Said he: "There is at least one diamond smuggled in for every one regularly imported."

Handkerchiefs. New Jersey manufacturers asked a higher duty. Importers objected, saying no more handkerchiefs could be sold in 5-&-10-cent stores. A representative of F. W. Woolworth said 95% of their handkerchiefs were U. S.-made.

Machine-made Laces. 90% to 200% duties asked.

Hat Braids. Increase opposed.

Raw Human Hair. Manufacturers of "press cloth" (for straining foods in commercial kitchens) declared that 80% of all imported human hair is used in their product. Formerly camel's hair was used but trouble in Russia cut off the supply. Queues cut off by Chinamen following the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty were substituted. Makers of press cloth wanted the hair duty abolished.

Leather. Tanners asked a 20% duty on shoe leather (now free). "We tanners run a free trade show in a protected country," complained an Ohioan.

Rope Wreaths, Hard Rubber Combs, Musical Instruments & Accessories. Increases asked.

Carillons. Pleas were made that the present duty of 40% should be abolished. Three times the House has passed bills repealing this duty, but they have not become law. A formidable phalanx advanced again in favor of repeal. The committee was told that carillon-making was an ancient art, that U. S. bellmakers are inept. William R. Conklin of Manhattan told that John D. Rockefeller Jr., could not get in the U. S. the $250,000 carillon wanted for his Park Avenue Baptist Church, that he would have to pay $100,000 duty on it. It was related how the sympathetic Treasury Department had designated certain church towers as "storehouses" so that carillons could be installed with the duty in suspense until Congress should act.

A Congressman from Massachusetts, a representative of Grace Church, Plainfield, N. J., a representative of the University of Chicago, all asked abolition of the duty. Last but not least came W. Curtis Bok, obedient son of Publicist Edward W. Bok. He told a distressing story: how his father had paid $33,588 duty in order to import a carillon to make proper music for the public and the birds in the new Bok bird sanctuary in Florida (TIME, Feb. 11).

Pipe Organs. Alfred L. Smith of Manhattan asked that duties be about doubled.

Violins. Duties of $1.25 each and 50% of the value asked.

Phonograph Needles. Duty of 8-c- per 1,000 asked.

Sponges. Increase from 15% to 45% asked on four varieties to protect Florida sponge fishers.

Gold Fish. Duty of 33% asked to compensate for cheaper living conditions in Japan.

Lead Pencils. Higher duties asked and objected to. Nathan Bilder of A. W. Faber Pencil and Rubber Goods Co. declared: "It certainly is a display of extreme selfishness when an industry that leads the world and exports more than twice the value of competing importations asks for higher duties to exclude importations amounting to only 2% of consumption."

Briar Pipes. Reduction from 60% to 30% or 40% was asked for Dunhill and other pipes. Others asked a duty of $10 per gross on pipes sold for $1 or less.

Umbrellas, Bleached Beeswax. Higher duties asked.

Christmas Trees. Abolition of the present duty of 10% was asked.

Cod Liver Oil Meal Cake. Quaker Oats Co. wishes it to come in free.

Corsets and Corset-like Garments. The Corset & Brassiere Association asked that the wording of the law be brought up to date, asked for a duty of 60%.

Bananas. The American Farm Bureau asked a duty of 75-c- a bunch. The National Horticultural Council asked a duty of 1 1/2-c- a pound.

Raw and Prepared Horseradish. A duty of 45-c- a pound asked.

Sago, Tapioca, Casava. Increases asked.

Building Brick. Duty of $5.25 per 1,000 asked. Importations are said to have increased in three years from three million to 100 million.

Cotton, Copra, Broom Corn, Vegetable Oils, Hides. The American Farm Bureau Federation asked for duties on all these things as well as on bananas and horse-radish (above).

Bibles. A Philadelphia publisher asked that the former duty of 25% be restored.