Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-07-12
The Tariff RIP Van Wrinkles

~ Ne might well suppose the makers o.
the Fordney tariff bill to be so many
y Rip Van Wrinkles recently Weakened
and quite ignorant of the momentous things
|. that have come to pass in the last seven
years. Certainly they ignore the great war
., and it's deep-reaching consequences. They
ignore the needs of people long burdened
= with excessive living-costs and just now
J sensing little relief. They ignore the prob
= lens of a nation whose prosperity depends
- more and more on foreign trade and whose
capital is now largely invested IN foreign
loans which can be paid only in goods and
services. To these and other conditions OF
- vital import, the Fordney tariff contriVers
. have been apparently as oblivlous as the
: slumberer in the Catskills to the lapse of a
generation and the arrival of a new age.
True to their partys spirit, they look only
IS backward, unable it would seem, to think in
20 terms of the present or to 81 tsp higher
- political principle than that of the ancient
regime of privilege and plumber.
How else account for heir trebllng the
tax on imports, which means, of course, a
10 treble tax on the consuming rank and file,
when people are looking anxiously for ease
81 ments in the cost of living and when the
wiser forces or business are exerted to that
end? Far-sighted merchants and manu-
. .facturers wish to hasten readjustment, see
ing how essential it is to recovery and prog
IL ress But pell-mel against all this come the
~ tariff extortioners. If their reckless work
40 should do no further harm nan to confuse
-. the process of readjustment and add to the
? consumers burdens, that of itself would be
u, grave indeed, but the mis1hiof will not end
there. Graver still will be the results, of
= raising tariffs wall against those from
> whom we must bus- if we would sell to them.
IA European countries that have been and still
are the best markets for American products
2 are indebted to us in the sum of ten billion
i-edollars-eleven billions, with accrued inter
! fest. To smut our ports against them by a
= virtually prohibitive tariff would be not only
to forfeit their trade but also to deprive
them of the sole means of paying their debts.
L-Painfuly easy it is to imagine the far-reach-
q ing depression to business. Scarcely field
'Oof industry Or commerce would escape, for
THE interests involved are as varied and vi
4tal as they are extensive. Vast amounts of
American savings would be jeoparded and
serious would be the injury to labor and en-
'1terprise through the reaction against our
overseas ra1e and the resultant falling off
vim demand for our manufactures and other
products. For each of the few special inter
ests that would profit by this procedure,
hundreds of thousands would suffer
The opOsAls are threatening to ma
tional welfare that thoughtful Republican
themselves have been moved to protest
Whether they can control or dissuade their
party's blind seekers of privilege remains to
be seen. In any event the country is coming
to realize what hazardous thing it was to
entrust government to minds so reactionary
that they heed not the plainest needs Of the
present nor the plainest perils O. the future