Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-04-03
AMERICAN TARIFF LAWS
" The Tariff of 1924
BY FREDERIC j. HASKLN

blow to the protectionists, but none of
them took the matter to heart so seri-
ously as the Lexington (Ky) Public
Enquirer. 1t appeared with the olack
borders of deepest mourning, and COM
manded: Noun, oh we sons and
daughters of Kentucky! oh, we inhabi-
tants of the United States, put on sack
cloth and ashes, for the great enemy of
your independence has Prevailed"
The defeat settled the question for
the time being, so far as congress was
concerned, but it gave only renewed
life to the agitation before the country.
There was no effort to revive the bill
in the senate during the second SEES
sion of the Sixteenth congress-, and
tariff legislation in the Seventeenth
congress got no further than desul-
tory consideration in the house in the
committee of the whole. But In the
meantime the census of 1920 had been
taken 1t brought about a reapportion-
ment that considerably enhanced the
protection strength in the house, and
the high tariff people looked forward
with high hopes to the Eighteenth con-
gress.
The proceedings of congress in en-
acting the tariff law of 1924 was but
the Gettysburg Of the campaign that
resulted in the recrudescence of the
protection sentiment of the country.
President Monroe had referred to the
matter in such way in his messages
to congress that both sides have since
been able to derive comfort from his
! words. But his attitude was no more
uncertain than that of others. Madl-
son once made a statement with ref
erence to protection which the friends
of the policy asserted was in its favor.
The enemies of protection construed II
as being against the policy. The eff
feet of his utterance was to say that
he could not be written down as a free
trader, but it did not go far enough
to justify his being called a protec-
ZIONIST.
The two most gifted orators of the
day drew rival pictures of the times.
Henry Clay portrayed the country IN
the throes of the deepest depresslon'
factories idle, industries crumbling,
men unemployed, people hungry-these
were the familiar essentials. Daniel
Webster drew the answering picture.
He had not seen in the situation the
things Clay had painted. He saw Ia
Dor never rewarded with more success
the rewards of effort might have been
greater, but certainly they had never
been more lasting. on the whole, times
were not so bad. Looking at the rec
ords of the importation of tea, he found
that never was there more of 1t brought
into the country. And tea, he said, was
only drink of good times. In that
particular he was like Nelson ". AID
rich, the present chairman of the sen
ate fnance committee, only Mr.. Aldrich
takes the apple as his basis. He was
once a grocery clerk, and with that
keen perception that has made him the
leader of all the leaders of the senate,
he saw that when the laboring men ate
apples regularly times were good with
them; while falling off in the de-
mand for this kind of fruit spelled 9
.-,...1o~o1diner dapra1Sa in income.
New England rum and Kentucky
whisky Joined hands in the protective
tariff legislation of 1924. The balance
of-trade argument was heard for the
first time while this legislation was be-
ing considered, and also the argument
that we must have a high tariff be-
cause of the difference in wages here
and abroad. That the bill was not
defeated on it's passage to the third
reading on the senate side was due to
the two Tennessee senator's, Andrew
jackson and John Henry Eaton. The