It is estimated that customs receipts for the present fiscal year will
exceed $615,000,000, the largest which were ever secured from that source.
The value of our imports for the last fiscal year was $4,466,000,000, an
increase of more than 71 per cent since the present tariff law went into
effect. Of these imports about 65 per cent, or, roughly, $2,900,000,000,
came in free of duty, which means that the United States affords a
duty-free market to other countries almost equal in value to the total
imports of Germany and greatly exceeding the total imports of France. We
have admitted a greater volume of free imports than any other country
except England.
We are, therefore, levying duties on about $1,550,000,000 of imports.
Nearly half of this, or $700,000,000, is subject to duties for the
protection of agriculture and have their origin in countries other than
Europe. They substantially increased the prices received by our farmers for
their produce. About $300,000.000 more is represented by luxuries such as
costly rugs, furs, precious stones, etc. This leaves only about
$550,000,000 of our imports under a schedule of duties which is in general
under consideration when there is discussion of lowering the tariff. While
the duties on this small portion, representing only about 12 per cent of
our imports, undoubtedly represent the difference between a fair degree of
prosperity or marked depression to many of our industries and the
difference between good pay and steady work or wide unemployment to many of
our wage earners, it is impossible to conceive how other countries or our
own importers could be greatly benefited if these duties are reduced. Those
who are starting an agitation for a reduction of tariff duties, partly at
least for the benefit of those to whom money has been lent abroad, ought to
know that there does not seem to be a very large field within the area of
our imports in which probable reductions would be advantageous to foreign
goods. Those who wish to benefit foreign producers are much more likely to
secure that result by continuing the present enormous purchasing power
which comes from our prosperity that increased our imports over 71
per cent in four years than from any advantages that are likely to accrue
from a general tariff reduction.