The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1919-07-04
A TARIFF AGAINST CHEAP
GOODS OF EUROPE AND ASIA
Will Keep American Labor Employed
at living Wage-Free Trade
Means Unemployment and Low
Wages.

Vice President Marshall is quoted
as saying that every principle known
to economic man has been jostled out
of position by the war; Which is not
true. Not one principle has been jos
tied out of position. Principles do
not change. Mems application of
principles change. Men change their
opinions as to the operation of princi-
Piles. But all laws of nature, either
physical or metaphysical, are eternal.
"The law which impels water to
seek its level is no more definite and
permanent than the law which tends
to place all wages and conditions of
living on the same plane where no
barriers are maintained to support an
unequal level. Vice President Mar
shall says he was a free trader before
the war. Nothing has happened dur
ing the war to render a protective
tariff policy either more necessary or
less necessary as a permanent Amer
ican policy. All that the war has
done in that regard has been to DEM
onstrate beyond further argument
the soundness of the protective prin-
ciple. Marshall may have changed
but the principle has not.
ain 1918 the democratic party en-
acted tariff law to meet the views
of Marshall and his party. As re-
suit of that law, which lowered the
tariff wall, imports to America in
creased, curtaining American produc-
ton. Our exports decreased with our
power to produce until in April, 1914,
the monthly balance of trade was
against the United States. Hundreds
of thousands of men and women were
thrown out of employment by the
closing of American mills and the
shutting down of other industries in
directly affected. The balance of
trade continued against the United
States until the outbreak of the war,
which served as an import wall
higher and stronger than any tariff
law that was ever enacted.
"But no principle has been 'josteled
out of position The principle re-
mained the same-that with barriers
removed wages and conditions will
seek level just as water does when
the dam is broken. With an effective
barrier, wages may be held to a
higher level in one country than in
another, just as a dam may hold the
water higher in one pond than in an
other. The war not only cut off inn
ports but afforded us a new market
for our products, with the result that
America now has an aggregate bal
ance of trade in her favor exceeding
ten billion dollars.
Conditions resulting from the war
make it impossible for Europe and
| Asia to resume at once the shipment
of goods to this country, but just as
surely as the law of gravity remains
in force, the time will come when ma
tions in which lower standards of liv-
ing prevail will send goods here at
prices lower than we can afford to
sell our own products, unless the tariff
or some other artificial wall shall be
erected. The only question remaining
to be determined is when and in what
manner the protective wall shall be
restored. The American people are
not likely to delegate the wall-build-
ing task to men who for more than
half a century could not see the need
of barrier against an inflow of
cheap products from other lands"