FOREWORD.

HIS SUMMARY is a comprehensive recapitulation of available tariff information, and was prepared for the use of the Committee on Ways and Means in anticipation of a general revision of the tariff act of October 3, 1913, and amendments thereto.

The subject matter was furnished by the United States Tariff Commission from its records and reflects available data in the possession of the Government on world commerce and industrial development. Mr. H. L. Barrick, detailed to the Ways and Means Committee by the Customs Division of the Treasury Department, collaborated with Mr. Charles E. McNabb, of the Legal Division of the Tariff Commission, in preparing the résumé of decisions made prior to December 17, 1919, by United States courts, the Board of General Appraisers, and the Treasury Department, found under the heading "Interpretation and comments."

Import and export figures, in some instances, are not stated in annual sequence, the serious disturbance to ocean shipping following the outbreak of the World War preventing the movement of many commodities. The statements of production are based on reports for calendar years; import and export figures are for fiscal years.

A volume entitled "Statistics of Imports and Duties," compiled by the Tariff Commission, contains detailed import information for the years 1909 to 1918, inclusive, and is designed to supplement the necessarily brief and condensed statistical statements in the SUMMARY. Acknowledgments are made to the Library of Congress, the Treasury Department, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Commerce, the Bureau of Standards, the United States Appraiser's Staff of New York, the Comparative Value Reports Bureau, and other Government boards and agencies for assistance rendered and courtesies extended.

The SUMMARY was edited by Mr. Frank A. Kidd, detailed to the committee from the Government Printing Office.

ERNEST W. CAMP, Clerk.

JANUARY, 1920.

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