CONTENTS The Revenue Commission of 1865 The Commissioner of Revenue, 1865-70 The Tariff Commission of 1882 . 42 THE TARIFF COMMISSION ITS HISTORY, ACTIVITIES, AND ORGANIZATION CHAPTER I HISTORY LIBRARY The United States Tariff Commission, an independent establishment, is a non-partisan permanent agency whose function it is to assist Congress and the President in tariff legislation through investigation and study of the operation of the customs laws of this country, the fiscal and industrial effects thereof, and the tariff relations between the United States and foreign countries. The creation of the commission followed many years of agitation for such a body. The need was long recognized for securing such results in this country as were obtained through quiet investigation in European countries by the "continuous activity of permanent officials of the different governmental departments concerned in tariff legislation . who devote themselves solely to the problem and who have been studying all factors involved in tariff legislation for a generation."1 Under the cabinet form of government in Europe, these officials who are not subject to party control have been able to exert a direct and frequently a controlling influence on legislation. Such a system was, of course, not workable in the government of the United States with its "union of powers organically and separation of powers personally." Moreover, aside from the general nature of the system of government, fundamental economic and political conditions in the 1 Emery, "Economic Investigation as a Basis for Tariff Legislation," American Economic Review, Vol. II, no. 1, Supplement, p. 18 (1912). United States have been such as to discourage the effort to induce Congress to yield any portion of the responsibilities and activities which have been involved in tariff legislation, even the mere study of the underlying pertinent facts. The tariff has been a matter of such vital significance to the various sections of the country that the electorate or the controlling portion thereof has generally insisted upon immediate and rect responsibility of its representatives in Congress for legislation in this field. In consequence, the national legislators long looked with suspicion upon any attempt to create any body which might in any way hobble their efforts to meet the demands of the dominant influences in their constituencies. Nor was there any strong pressure of public opinion to force a departure from the prevailing unscientific and crude methods which were as satisfactory to the protectionists as to the advocates of a tariff for revenue or of free trade. The protectionists were usually able to obtain their ends directly through Congress. In fact, it has been pointed out that “no form of legislation has been more subject to extra-parliamentary influence than the tariff bills of the Congress of the United States." 2 It was feared that scientific and impartial study of the tariff problem by an independent government body might demonstrate that conditions of international competition did not demand such high rates as were in effect. On the other hand the advocates of a tariff for revenue 3 and the free traders objected to such a body because the very name "tariff commission" presupposed the existence of or need of a protective tariff and was a banal concession to what they deemed a fallacious doctrine. With underlying conditions thus unfavorable it is not surprising that a permanent independent branch of the government for the study of Tariff problems was not established until 1916, although a precedent and model for such a body 2 Cyclopedia of American Government, III, 473. 3 It has only been recently demonstrated that even the establishment of a tariff for revenue requires expert study as well as the protective tariff. See article by H. C. Emery cited above. could readily have been found in the Interstate Commerce Commission which had had an uninterrupted existence since 1887. Attempts were made before the creation of the present commission to provide for scientific and expert study of various aspects of the tariff question by government agencies, but these were all temporary bodies aimed to meet special circumstances and emergencies. Since the present commission represents the fruition of the experiences of its predecessors, a brief account will be necessary of each of these ephemeral agencies.* The Revenue Commission of 1865. The first impetus to the utilization by Congress of an outside body to aid it in tariff legislation came just before the close of the Civil War * Only_those_governmental agencies are considered in this monograph which Congress established definitely for the purpose of assisting it in framing tariff legislation. There were, however, various bureaus or divisions established primarily for other purposes which were of utility to Congressional committees in this direction. As far back as in 1842, the Secretary of State was required by act of August 16, (5 Stat. L., 507) to lay before Congress annually at the commencement of its session, in a compendium form, all such changes and modifications in the commercial systems of other nations whether by treaties, duties on imports and exports, or other regulations as might have come to the knowledge of the department. Subsequently a Bureau of Statistics was established in the Department of State, which prepared and published several volumes on "Tariffs of Foreign Countries." A report on "Modern Tariff Systems" was prepared in 1902 by the Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Department. This bureau was consolidated with the Bureau of Statistics on February 14, 1903 into the Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Commerce and Labor and the work of collating and arranging tariffs of foreign countries from the reports of the International Bureau for the Publication of Customs Tariffs was assigned to it by act of March 18, 1904 (33 Stat. L., 138). A division of foreign tariffs was created in the bureau for this purpose. On June 1, 1906 this division was transferred to the Bureau of Manufactures which was consolidated with the Bureau of Statistics into the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce on August 23, 1912 (37 Stat. L., 407). Congressional committees have often made use of this division when dealing with tariff legislation as well as the reports of special agents of the Department of Commerce, which frequently contain valuable information on economic conditions abroad, costs, prices, duties, etc. For a more complete account of the above agencies see the Institute's monograph on the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. |