The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1922-01-12
A SPADE is A SPADE


editorial which appeared in the Balti-
more (Md) Manufacturers Record
of December IT:
Flexibility and elasticity in Tariff
rates is a proposal that sounds well.
We know of nothing, however, which
would so certainly prevent normally
as the grant to a board in Washington
of absolute authority to order drastic
changes IN Tariff rates at Will We
have the whole transportation bust
ness OF the nation now under the
orders of one board in Washington.
and the full control of finance under
another. If a third board is to have
delegated to it the Tariff-making
powers of Congress, what business
Will there be left in the nation with
any independence whatever? ~N'Take
the Government out of business
was a campaign slogan. Yet insid-
lOusly Government creeps further and
further into control of business, and
its touch is the touch of death. If
the unsteadiness in human affairs, at
this juncture, is such that wise states
men are convinced it is necessary to
establish rates within minimum and
maximum limits, the actual rates to
be determined by the Tariff Commits
sion, then by all means the law should
require the Commission to give formal
notice of any contemplated change in
rates, to have full hearings, and to
make public report to Congress ex-
planning why the rates had been
changed and how each member of
the Commission voted. 1t would pay
every citizen, in these fast days, to
have engraven in his heart the
thought that the price of liberty is
eternal vigilance.
The Presidents short paragraph on
American Valuation indicates that
the propaganda with which the i'm
porters have flooded the country has
corrupted Administration thought.
We have heard it bluntly stated that
the difference between American val
uatlOn and foreign valuation is that
the former is honest and the latter is
not. The form of smuggling known
as differentiation has been rampant
for generations American Valua-
ton would absolutely prevent it. The
intimation that American Valuation
might make "Our Tariffs prohibitive"
hardly indicates a close knowledge of
the facts. What American Valuation
does do is to make the countries of
low production costs pay the same
amount for entrance of their goods as
countries pay whose production costs
are closer to our own. American Val
uatiOn would give our allies an ad-
vantage in American markets over
our late enemies and over the cOolie
products of the East. The failure of
American Valuation would give Ger
many marked advantage over Eng
land and France in the United States
That is the arithmetical fact which no
SOphlstry can conceal.
We may as we'll be honest with our
selves. We are either going to main
tain the Protective principle or we
are not. To repudiate American Val
uation and pretend to pass a Protect
i've Tariff measure would be sheer
hypocrisy. Rather than have that
kind of bill it would be preferable to
have another plebiscite. Meantime,
there may be some man in Congress
with spine enough to demand a thor
Ough investigation to discover which
American manufacturers, if any, have
bought mills in Germany and Austria,
are shipping raw materials there for
conversion into finished goods, are
bringing them back for sale in Amer
lea, and whether or not such manu-
facturerS are the ones who are so
insistent that American Valuation is
dangerous. A little truth may wash
the dirt out of this complex Tariff
situation, and little truth is needed,
even if it hurts. Moreover, it does
not require a seer to forecast that if
we do not have American Valuation,
we shall have soup lines longer than
we have ever known before, and the
day the Republican party decides
against American Valuation that day
also may it abdicate its right and its
chance to be returned to power.
The importers of New York, the
Eastern press, the manufacturers who
are making easy money by paying
wages to German and Austrian labor,
do not speak for America. The heart
of the nation is elsewhere. Let the
Administration beware lest it mistake
the much noise of the propagandists
for the deep conviction of the whole
people. Purposes and intents can
never outweigh results. 1t does not
pay to trifie with policies and institu-
tons that have made America great.
One of Two Things
Unless this country is going to shut