Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-09-17
The Hdskin Letter By 's1 %saa
NEW TARIFF ALIGNMENT

of the rates lower than old time pro-
t%ectionist republicans would have put
them.
A statement which shows how the
banks feel about the tariff is confined
in a recent bulletin of the National
City bank of New York, the great
financial institution which stands at the
head of American banks. Discussing
the international situation with espe-
cial reference to Europe's need of SELL
ing her manufactures here so that she
can earn money with which to buy
American food, the bank says:
1T seems altogether probable that
some means will be found for %purchas-
ing it. although the difficulties are
great and the pending unfinished tariff
legislation at Washington tends to in
crease them"
This shows clearly how the banks
feel that the high protective tariff,
once a pet scheme of theirs, now is re-
garded as a factor which increases the
difficulties of doing business.
In a word. what the American cred
itors of Europe say is: Europe owes
US billions which we are demanding.
The only way TO get the money is to
take European goods. A high pro-
I~tective tariff prevents those goods from
coming in and being sold here. There
vent Europe from paying US the money
We want in the only manner which she
has of paying"
1t Is An impasse and is reminiscent
of the old system Of the debtors prison.
In the old days. when a man could
not pay his debts he was put in Jail.
In jail he had no means of earning
| money and therefore could not pay the
debt and be released. America wants
Europe to pay its debt but a high pro-
tective tariff puts Europe in a debtors
prison by removing her one avenue OF
payment.
Such a problem is a good example
of the difficulties which confront a
statesman, for there is the other side
of the picture. If goods made in Eu-
rope with cheap labor come into the
United States under low duties they
can be sold here for a song. This
means American factories making the
same sort of goods must shut dow y
The American workmen who have been
drawing high wages and raising families
in accordance with the high American
standard Of living, must walk the
streets, unemployed. The food raised
on American farms would decline in
| price because foreign farm products
would come in and undersell them.
Representative Longworth. a mem
Der of the committee on way and
means. which frames tariff legislation.
said that 1t would be wiser for the
American people to cancel the whole
S11 ,000, 600, 900 debt than to let Euro
pean products come in here at low
rates and drive the American work
men out of employment and bankrupt
the factory owners.
Another curious reversal in tariff
alignment which the war produced was
the placing of representatives of farm
ing communities and of certain south
| ern Jurisdictions in the high protective
tariff column. When the price recess
sion came, congressman received COM
| plants from farm constituents that
| their prices were cut in two because
| of a lack of tariff protection. Indus
try has crept into several southern
! states. There are cotton mills in the
| Carolinas. a sugar industry in Louisi-
ana. steel in Alabama, naval stores in
Georgia. oil in Texas and Oklahoma.
These old time free trade communities
are experiencing a change of heart
on the tariff and demanding protection
from foreign competition.
1t seems that the country Is under
going a change which is producing the
remarkable situation where the north
ern banker will be the free trader and
| the southerner the protective tariff ad-
vocate.
This is just another of the economic
wonders the var has worked.