Arizona republican., 1921-07-21
Trade Barriers

Trade Barriers
 recent cartoon in paper opposed to the pro- tective system disclosed high wall side of which was a boat laden with imports and on the other dock crowded with goods marked export. One argument against protective tariff has always been that it provokes retaliation; who cannot sell will not buy of That is only an unsound theory. Nations well as individuals will buy where they buy the cheapest. Neither friend ship nor revenge moderates that tendency
 But there is a way in which prohibitive or very high protective tariff adversely effects exports of ticles which that tariff is laid.
 That is made clear in the advance sheet of .The Bache Review" of July IS:
 "The endeavor to combat German competition by dumping legislation futile and would solve the problem If preventive duties should prove to be effective shutting German goods from this ket. the Germans would concentrate their efforts foreign markets. with results which would prob- ably be disastrous to export trade and ruinous to re-export business. Exports the Hfeblood of the nation. and will be disputed that live and by export trade which for our food and clothing.
 "The difficulties with which we are faced have aggravated by total disregard of economic laws and fight against them may well be likened to kicking against the bricks All have transgressed these laws both government and governed. Notwith- standing the frequent reminders by enlightened pub lie that the world is vastly poorer than in 1914 by of the awful waste of men, mater ia and capital in the yet from the government downwards the nation has been prodiga in it's spend- ing and parsimonous it's production. The strength of industrial Germany lies in the fact that it is only the vanquished who have recovered their sanity and realized the truth that the only road the coming struggle for existence is by hard work. thrift and lesson which the vctors do not to have grasped and certainly have put into practice"
 What a competitor Germany will be to us in for eign markets we may learn from the report of an English engineer who describes the attitude of labor fin Germany as opposed generally to strikes. re- newed will work, steadily diminishing opposition to piece work bonus payments and a gradual to pre-war efficiency. German wages reported by him
 Filters turner's. mechanics tool makers etc. Around six marks per hour. and piece-work bonus work at seven and half to eight and half marks per hour.
 Machine hands-semi- skilled labor-six marks and ten pfennigs per hour. and piece-work bonus work at six and half marks per hour.
 Unskilled labor-Five marks and twenty pfennigs per hour.
 Six marks at the current rate of exchange is about eight cents It will be realized how materially these low rates of reduce the of production in Germany for in many industries labor constitutes as muc has 70 to oper cent of the cost
 That the German goods will sell somewhere at the prices at which the can afford to sell them is certain that wherever they are offered competition will smother similar goods It is only a question where prefer restrict the German mar ket<whether shall leave them foreign mar ket. whether shall meet them own ground in order that people may have the benefit of the lower prices resulting from competition.
 It will make little difference the Germans for if they undersell the rest of the world they will get the trade and all the trade they want
 There is here argument against the protec- tive system But should have where and how apply and should consider the effect prac- tical and plain. not theoretical and vague upon exports. Nor do we want to protect industry at great cost to the people of country or at a cost of the benefits which whole people would derive from protection.