Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-09-23
New Tariff
Are Now In Effect

I tanned 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 especial reference to
Europe's need of selling her manu-
features here so hat she can earn
money with which to buy American
food, the bank says:
1T seems altogether probable that
some means will be found for pur-
chasing it. although the difficulties
are great and the pending unfinished
tariff legislation at Washington tends
to increase them"
This shows clearly how the banks
feel hat the high protective tariff,
once a pet scheme of theirs, now is
regarded as a factor which increas-
es the difficulties of doing business.
In a word what the American
creditors of Europe say is: "Eu-
rope owes us billions which we are
demanding. The only way to get the
money is to take European goods.
A high protective tariff prevents
those goods from coming in and
being sold here. Therefore, by our
own legislation, we prevent Europe
from paying us the money we want
in the only name 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 protective tariff puts
Europe in a debtors prison by re-
moving her IN avenu 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
Europe with cheap labor come into
the United States under low duties
they can be sold here for a So.
This means American factories maxi
ing the same sort of goods must
shut down. 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 unem-
ployed. The food raised on Ahleri-
can farms would decline in price be-
cause foreign farm products would
come in and undersell them.
Representative Longworth, a
OF the committed on ways
and Means which frames tariff leL-
is%lation, said that it would be wiser
for the American people to cancel
the whole $1,000, 900, 900 debt than
to let European products come in
here at low rates and drive h
American workmen out of employ
ment and bankrupt the factory own
erS.
Another curious reversal in tariff
alignment which the war produced
vas the placing of represent;
of farming communities and of GER
tain southern jurisdictions in the
high protective tariff column. When
the price recession came, congress-
men received complaints from farm
constituents that their prices were
u in two because of a lack of tariff
protection. Industry has crept into
several southern states. There are
cotton mills in the Carolinas, a sugar
industry In Louisiana, steel In Ala
bama, naval stores in Georgia, oil in
Texas and Oklahoma. These old
time free trade communities and ex-
periencing a change of heart on the
tariff and demanding protection
from foreign competition.
1t seems that the country is I'M
dergoing a change which is pro-
ducing the remarkable situation
where the northern banker will be
the free trader and the southerner
the protective tariff advocate. This
is Just another Of the economic won
ders the war has worked.