Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-02-22
Letters to the Editor
Old Tarlffs Out Of Date
To the Editor Of the Evening Pubic LEDGE

To the Editor Of tho Evening Public Ledger!
sir--Your editorial In yesterdays issue.
''old Tariffs out Of Date" echoes what
every internationaiist In the land IL propa-
eating, especially the ankcr internationalist
We are told We must not lay profane
hands upon our sacrosanct foreign business
ESPECIALLY exports OF msnufactures-by
enactins any tariff law that will interfere
with the unlimited infiux Of foreign goods.
because. they say. these Europeans have
no sold with which TO pay for our exports
nor sufficient credit that these bankers are
willing to cash. and so. like good. broad. sen-
crous citizens OF the world. emancipated
from our former narrow Isolation, we must
let them pay in goods.
Were these gentlemen to go as far as
you do In prociairnins themselves free trad.
ers. no exception could be taken, but whom
conscious msgivings compel them TO an
nounce their continued allegiance TO the Re-
publican party and devout loyalty TO pro-
tection--but. etc., etc. tas witness Banker
A. Barton Hepburn not long ago. we have no
alternative but to suspect either lack OF
knowledso or titanic strusslo between
principal and interest. You frankly state
that "a tariff law adapted to the situation
must be framed with almost as much regard
for tho foreign producer as for the home
manufacturer But. Mr.. Editor. just as
Lincoln proclaimed that this nation could
not endure half slave and half free. SO we
today cannot endure half proteetion'st and
half free trade. There is no 'almost' In
our economic vocabulary. We must be either
nationalist or rnationaiist-American or
hyphenate.
Our oid.esta blished industries. under the
benefcent influence of protection. nave been
developed TO the point where they can easily
supply tho entire requirements OF the nome
market. Not one Of them that needs pro-
tective duties TO eouallze differences IN pro-
duction costs here and abroad can. Tor oo-
vious reasons sell its products In foreign
MAJ fst. In rortnptitipn with EurOpeane.
Therefore every yard or pound OF goods I'M
ported means corresponding stoppase OF
such home machinery and loss or employ
mcnt to some home workman.
What Is this Utopia that Is 30 persistently
dangied before our eyes7 The last statistics
avaiable--,he census OF 10i4-kive the TO-
tai value of our domestic manufactures as
about twenty-four times the total value OF
our exports Of manufactures. To be exact
4. SO per cent went TO this land OF promise
while 85.t7 per cent stayed right here In the
best market on earth. Shall the tail was
the dog?
No Mr.. Editor. there Ia no such thing
as old tariffs out OF date in the sense you
mean. The principles that govern them are
eternal, and no war has changed or can
cate. 1t is those who. like Old oionious, Nrc
mistakins a hawk for a hand-saw.
GEORGE c. HETzEL.
Chester, Pa, February 10. 1921.
In saying that the old tariffs are out OF
da tc the EVENING PCRLiC LEpiER WAS merely
rrrea ting In another form what William Nc
Kiniey said in his famous last speech III
Buffalo about twenty years ago This news
paper is not d,ancing free trade, but
/: has been insisting for the past three or
four years that II would be grievous mis-
take to ignore In framing thrir law tho
great economic fact that the United states
has become o creditor nation within a dec
sde and cannot safely pursue the tariff pol.
Icy Of a debtor nation-Editor.