The New York herald., 1922-07-05
WEDNESDAY, JULY 5. 1922,
Get the Tariff Right or Let the
Tariff Wait.


itself in as awkward a position in
the matter of the tariff measure as
any Congress ever has faced since
the first mutterings of the civil war
arose to dumtound a nation and
paralyze many of its leaders.
This Congress felt in the beginning
that any of its members of the ma
jority who should be called upon to
go on trial at the polls next Novem-
ber could neither wisely nor decently
meet the American voters without a
record of tariff amendments in keep
ing with the new economic conditions
of the country and of the world. Con-
gress was right in that conception Of
the work ahead of it. 1t has been
wrong, very badly wrong, in the at
tempted execution Of the work.
No Congress brain of legislative
judgment and capacity can now
dream that in the few weeks remain
ing before the fall elections it will be
possible to enact new tariff law that
can be even remotely consistent with
and worthy of the fundamental prin-
ciples and tested practices of the
American tariff system as the coun-
try knows it and believes in it. No
mind of that quality can hope that
any complete measure that could be
thrown together in the next few
weeks out of the litter still strewing
the legislative chambers could be
much better than an economic mon
strosity and a national hazard.
At the same time it has become
plain to all discerning eyes that the
perils that seemed to lurk two years
ago in the economic chaos of the Old
World have NOT come to plague and
falling tariff protection, wreck this
country. On the contrary our situa-
.tion has grown not worse but better.
In spite Of irrational strikes in
unprecedented numbers, in spite of
unparalleled unemployment, in spite
Of laggard and only partial delation
from the dangerous war extremes.
the country's industry and business
have gained headway for months
They are gaining faster now than
at any time since the tide turned.
Idle labor has gone back to work
by hundreds of thousands, even by
millions. Agriculture has pulled out
of the valley and is now on the
ridge. The nation as whole, except
for those malcontents or madmen
smitten with the strike mania, is
again on the iob-the American job
of building inch by inch for perma
nent prosperity.
So the tariff changes that nearly
all of us supposed were Immediately
necessary to ward off imminent for
eign menace have not proved the
only thing that could save the day
Far from it, the day has been saved
end well saved, with no new tariff
law at all except for the emergency
agricultural provisions hurriedly en-
scted more than year ago.
And with the country now so much
stronger and sounder in economic
health than it was two years ago and
one year ago. with its enterprise so
much more confident and it's incen-
tive so much more eager TO press on
in this present national aspect It is
not credible that the country will
not give good account of itself in
the next several months without any
complete revision Of the tariff if it
cannot have complete revision that
is sound in economies and right for
the American people. There is no
shadow of doubt that the country,
having gone so far, can go further
and go in better spirit to get the
tariff that is right.
But it is an unsafe gamble for
Congress to assume that the country
would view with courage a revolution
ary tariff threatening to increase the
public's living costs inordinately
and to renew the economic horrors
of imitation. 1t is an unsafe gamble
for Congress to trust that the Amer
ican people would indorse at the No
vember elections hurried, imperfect.
scrambled. wretched tariff in which
nobody really believes
Congress could wisely and hon
estly go before the voters next
November with the frank. manly
statement to the country that it had
striyen with it to the last possible
hour but had not yet been able to
work out complete tariff measure