DOUBLE-EDGED TOOL

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 711, 10 January 1910, Page 5

DOUBLE-EDGED TOOL

GERMAN TARIFF. .-.:-- : RETALIATION.-IS IT TIME TO CBY '•;. ' '.'_. "HALT"? ';••:. By Telegraph—Press Association—GoDvriKht. ■V London, January 7. . ; The ."Westminster Gazette", states, that the. annual report v of; the College of Al-. dermen of .'Berlin,- summing up the conditions of the. various .trades,;condemns high protection. By levying high duties upon natural products, .Gernlany is having a tariff wall, raised: against her all round in retaliation. .'.' ■'''•';" .!

. The report instances, .the action of Prance, Sweden, Holland, and the United States, and adds:'"Suoh action compels the question whether a stoppage and a reconstruction are not in the interest of all nations." It-contains a severe, critic., ism, on the taxing of grain and food[products.. '..'/■- •.■':'■ / ■ HIGHLY-TAXED {GERMANY. '3 - The ' burden of-' the hugely, increased German naval estimates (for 1910; £22,153,000, including over ,£12,090,000 for new construction and armaments).. and'; the Consequent increased taxation is being severely, felt .throughout Germany,, and writers are predicting a recurrence of the; Socialist wave there. V. W. Wile writes:' 1 "Prosperous as Germany undoubtedly iB, discontent is universally/rife;:: / The. cost of living; has; been materially in.the ' obnoxious; taxes /of'the 'Finance Reform' Bill. There /is /not' a housewife ; . in the : Fatherland. who ;■ does not feel- their, pinch. /The business world is angry; and, aroiised over, agrarian domination of'.government'. It is an atmosphere /in;, -which /Social >- Democracy thrives. The' present Reichstag has; only a yearanda'halfto live. In/1911, unless events. force lit sooner, / a dissolution /will be necessary.'according ..to ithe. Constitution. So .to conduct affairs in Imperial GermanythatSocialism'may not dominate; the;/neit; Reichstag, sufficiently! to block supply/for Army: and Navy—to stop the -..very -wheels- of.'.■ Government itself— is the 1 herculean problem to which ICai-. s'er,\Chahcellor, / and parties have ;now-to dedicate, themselves.'* --.' .•'.-■. -. / ' ; : The_ German Commercial. Treaties Association states that /the- revised-' French tariff'; will, deal a / seriousbblo t , at /,Ger : man exports., .It will practically destroy .the market in.pianos,' and metal manufactures, and will annihilate ; the: trade. in/Nuremberg toys.