The Bridgeport times and evening farmer. (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1918-1924, 1922-05-19
New Tariff Bill Is
s'Gold Brick, !" Says
Senator Simmons
BY j. BAR CAMPBELL,
International News Service Staff
Correspondent.

BY y. BAR L.,
international News Service Staff
Correspondent.
Washington, May 10 - The tariff
issue apparently has split the Senate
Horticultural Bloc
. It's Republican members, led by
Senators Capper of Kansas and Nc
Nary, of ORGAN, have gone over,
e TEN rieulturaiTart Bioc. WHICH
| q is insisting upon the highest possible
| rates on food and other farm pro-
ducts.
It's Democratic members declare
I . they see only higher prices and hv
1 ing costs in high tariff rates for the
farmers themselves. Under the gutse
. f1rst time in the history of tariff
tinkertng, says Senator Simmons of
ed a gold brick in the new tartf
/. bill which will undo any benefit he
may have derived from the legis1a-
ton fostered previous by the "Agri-
Most of the effective duties in the
bill are applied to products Of univer-
sal consumption. which are produced
!, farmers" Senator Simmons contends.
''They are only produced by farmers
in certain sections and in certain
groups Take sugar and wool, for
.. Instance. Sugar and wool are con-
sumed by ali the people. Sugar is
produced IN Louisiana and a few
!. duced in good many States it Is
only produced In certain sections of
the country.
sugar and wool compared with the
- total number Of agricuIturists is
small, and yet as the farmers of this
n country purchase from forty to fifty
Y per cent. of all Of the products con-
! ssumed they will have to pay one-half
of the duty on these products plus
n of woolens and refined sugar as
\ result of the additional compensatory
\ duties allowed the manufacturers of
wooden goods and the redners of
sugar
Estimates of Experts,
'It is estimated by experts that the
P gomet6ing ike s s25.ooo.ooO for their
wool, but as a result of the increase
An the rate of wool manufactures the
additional amount which the farmers
of the country will have to pay for
their clothing and other wooden pur-
.chases will be from three to four
times as much the wool growers
gain In other words the American
farmers as q whole will be taxed four
| dollars while a relatively few of their
| number who are engaged IN the pro-
duction of wool will get one dollar.
| @ american prosperity has been
! largely dependent for many years up
son our finding foreign markets. for
our exportable surplus, we have ex
v panded our production of agricul-
tural and manufactured products
Ehis dependence has grown greater
RI and greater. Owing to the expension
brought about by war conditions 1t is
difficult to measure the present de-
gree of dependence of American pros
perity upon foreign markets.
mo part of our population 1s more
dependent upon foreign markets for
s.he sale of their surplus products
han the American farmer. 1t is true
= that we produce a number of farm
y products which are not exported, be
PAUSE the amount of them Is unequal
to the American demand for them,
tut the production of many of the
staple agricultural products in this
country is enormously In excess of
fthe domestic demand.
= Our exports of cotton head the
\ list. We produce under normal con-
ditions more than twice much cot
ton we need or can use In this
country. IF we cannot sell abroad
~ that part of our cotton production it
will become .va1ueless. and the con-
gestion which will follow in the
American market will so reduce the
price of the half consumed product
as to render it impossible and UNI
profitable to continue its production.
Tobacco Included.
1.-THE same is true of tobacco, al
though not to SO great an extent as
generally, it Is true with reference
to nearly all of our staple food prod
ucts. We must either export our
enormous surplus of food products
or curta1 the production of them.
else the surplus will swamp the
sAmerican market and reduce below
ut therefore, is evident that the
prosperity of the farmer is dependent
aupon our export trade and 1t Is too
self-evident to require elaboration
that the volume of our exports is di-
rectly dependent upon and largely
measured by the volume of our i'm
ports. It is a truism which nobody
disputes and a truisn which even the
President of the United States has
emphasized that no nation can expect
TO sell abroad, even under normal
conditions, unless 1t is willing to buy
abroad. This is the basis upon which
our International trade rests.
Before the war we were a debtor
nation Our chief comp etftors in
trade-Great Britain. France and
Germany-were creditor nations. We
transportation, which made us further
debtors to them So that, without
selling any great amount, our an
nua1 Indebtedness would in part &c
. toward the payment of their annual
purchases from us. Besides, the
=. treasures of Europe were then full
of gold. and any balance of trade
against them could be readily
Hquidated without embarrassment.
z That situation is entirely differ
- ent now. We paid off our European
Indebtedness during the war. Europe
owes US, in round figures, about SILL
00o,00o.oo0. If under such changed
conditions. we cut off, by prohtbitivt
o tariff rates, imports from abroad OF
!, materially reduce importations below
Y the present level 1t will inevitably be
Impossible for our European debtor:
d. TO continue to buy our products
largely because the only means they
now have of paying for them is by al
exchange of their goods for ours Anc
no one is more vitality interested
= this situation than the American
farmer"
WY VT XXT%H