The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1922-01-12
PROTECTION IS IN SERIOUS
DANGER

Various successful arguments and I
expedients have 50 far been success
full in causing the postponement of
the enactment of an adequately Pro T.
tective Tariff, from time to time. |
Whatever the cause, so long as there
is a pOstpOnement, the ends of Free !
Traders are served, the enemies of
Protection succeed. Just now, the at
tack continues with undated vigor
against the American valuation, the
fairness of which because of its just
uniformity, is what Free Traders so
greatly dread. The plea most in
vogue now is that, with the schedules
of the new Tariff as made up IN
changed, the degree of Protection
that will accrue to American indus
tries viii actually be prohibitive of
importations. Tariff experts do not
agree with this view, and they are no
more DESTROYS of having the new
Tariff prohibit importations than are
Free Traders; the Protectionists be-
ieve that the Protection that will fol
cording to the testimony of the Free
! Traders themselves, the revenue from
the new Tariff will be greater through
| American valuations. Thus, ad-
vocates of an adequately Protective
! Tariff believe that the twin purposes
of our Tariff legislation will be
achieved, to wit: Protection and
! Revenue.
Meanwhile, permanent Tariff legis-
lation is postponed. The signs of the
times indicate that it will be we'll into
next year before the new Tariff is
adopted, and the question is, how near
the elections of next Fall will such
enactment occur? There are quite a
number of things that cause uneasi-
ness if not actual apprehension in
Republican camps as to the outcome
of the Congressional elections of next
year, and as the time approaches the
true Protectionists in their ranks, who
still greatly outnumber the interna-
tionalists and those who are indiffer-
ent, or the few out and out Free
Traders among them, will be apt to
visit their wrath upon candidates for
Representative in Congress, in order
to demonstrate to the Administration
that untitled pledges do not jibe well
with Protectionists' ideas of deserved
political support.
In the end an adequately Protect
i've Tariff is sure to be enacted. It
would be singular thing, though, if
a temporary boom should cause the
postponement of the enactment of the
new Tariff beyond the election of
next Fall, with the ensuing session
of the 9th Congress all too short to
get through such a measure. And, if
it should transpire, as indeed it might,
that the newly elected Congress con-
tanned majority of those opposed to
a Protective Tariff, and a new Tariff
act should be permanently shelved
then Protection would be in the great
est danger. Could Republican-Pro-
tectionists enter upon the 1924 cam
paign with reasonable assurances OF
success if they had failed to enact .
Protective Tariff in place of the pres
ent Free-Trade Tariff? They may
think they could, but we do not share
such a view.
Nearly a hundred years ago Tin
1929 the seeds of the suspension OF
Protection for our shipping in foreign
trade were sown, the suspension be-
coming general in 1850, the general
belief being that American shipping
could succeed better under Free
Trade than it had succeeded under
Protection, although just how the
country believed that better than ar
average of eighty per cent of our for
eign carrying could ever be looked
for, we cannot imagine. Anyhow
Protection was abandoned, and con
temporaneously American shipping II
foreign trade declined. This was no.