The Real Picture

Among all the pleaders for high protective tariffs, few voices are stronger than that of the camera and optical industry--and no one has more reason to yell for protection. Germany alone sells 150 different camera models in the U.S.; imports of cameras selling for less than $5 are equal to 200% of domestic production. On top of that, in four years (1949-53), imports of lenses skyrocketed from 16,000 to 205,000, mostly (38%) from Japan. Before the House Ways and Means Committee this week stepped one of the nation's leading camera makers, President Charles H. Percy, 35, of Chicago's Bell & Howell Co. Percy was there to talk about tariffs all right, but in a way that few camera makers have ever talked. Said he: "I do not represent the photographic industry, for its views are not my views." Percy's view: tariffs should be cut, in line with the Eisenhower Administration's program, and specifically those on cameras and lenses.

Fact Omitted. Percy knows his foreign competition. Before World War II, said he, Bell & Howell brought out a high-priced 35-mm. still camera, lost $1,250,000 competing with foreign manufacturers. "The temptation, of course, was great to seek higher tariff protection, [but] we felt that we had no right to ask the American people to pay a higher price for foreign cameras simply because we had decided to go into this field. In 1952 we discontinued production of the camera."

One of the chief protectionist arguments is that tariffs are needed to safeguard vital defense industries. Said Percy: "Our industry points with alarm to the fact that because of foreign competition there are perhaps no more than 2,000 optical workers in the U.S. This may be true; but the industry fails to mention the fact that in the process of learning the optical grinding business, we have radically changed and improved the methods used in Germany and other countries for hundreds of years. As a result, the present unit productivity of our 2,000 workers is probably greater than the productivity of our optical grinding industry during the war."

Criterion Defined. Can U.S. industry compete with low-cost foreign labor? Yes, said Percy. "The true criterion of cost is not dollars or cents per hour of labor but rather total labor cost per unit produced." For example, when Bell & Howell paid its workers 40-c- an hour years ago, it turned out a movie camera for $49.95. Now, though it pays upwards of $2 an hour, the company still can make a $49.95 camera, and a better one at that. Reason: "The highly paid American worker has become the most efficient in the world, two to ten times as productive as his European counterpart."

The trouble with most tariff boosters, said Percy, is that they are apt to let their fears obscure their vision, forgetting that world trade "can mean business gained rather than business lost ... As foreign nations increase their business in this country they increase their ability to buy in this country ... In this respect the American eagle on the dollar ultimately becomes a homing pigeon."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.