The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1922-10-07
The Pulse of the Nation
MUCH DEPENDS ON FLExIsILITY
FEATURE,

With the Fordney- Nc Cumber tariff law
in effect, editors are watching with great
interest the operation of the fIexibility
feature, inserted in the bill at the re-
quest of President Harding. Criticism of
the law as finally completed generally is
unfavofable, but there is a disposition
On the part of Republican editors to ar
que that if the President acts wisely in
exercising his newly conferred powers to
evfse rates the law may yet prove a
beneficial one
Hope for the public, after all. rests
with the President, the New York Tri-
bUne CRep) argues. and his new job g
-, not an enviablc one. Yet if he mails
his ltbors as a tariff reviser a mem.r-
abb" contribution toward progress and
economic st.bility none will be more lie
lighted than those who have been able to
find little comfort in the Fordney Nc
Cumber BILL The Washington star
Und.) likewise assumes that the "fex;-
bilty" feature of the measure will prove
its supreme test and it holds that lit is
courageous. not to say audaclOus, thing
which the President has done. He has
let himself in for much trouble, and dur
ing the next two years he IS likely to
find himself more sorely beset than any
Of his predecessors ever were" The Sa-
Nannah Press Dem) with wealth of
sarcasm, assals the free list Of the
measure, citing the various articles in
cluded to show that they are Of little
benefit to the ultimate consumer, and
adding that we do not see how the
Fordney- McCumber crowd is to be kept
out of the list of public benefactors and
public phianthropists from the thought
that has been given to the things that
are to stay on the free list
The bill will curb exports, the Newark
News Qnd.) argues, because "as a ma
ton we produce beyond our actual needs
and the disposal abroad of some ten
per cent of production, therefore makes |
much Of the difference between pros |
perity and depression, so we must make |
up our mind to pay for the tariff not
alone in an era of higher prices at home,
but in falling off in exports, including
raw materials. The agriculturist will be !
bound to feel the pinch every whit az
much as the manufacturer for export"
In the view of the Milwaukee Journal |
Und.) the measure was written not by
Congress in the interest of the country |
hut by the interests seeking a profit for
themselves. Even if it should prove
the best tariff ever written" the delay
IT,
it, will make it IAN expensive piece of
legislation" the Cleveland News iRep
argues, and it holds that the new tariff
threatens to be the best argument ever
offered in favor of duties fixed by some
other agency than CONGRESSMAN innova-
ton not to be sought through Crngres-
sional consent" The law is admittedly
for the purpose of peggiag prices against
recession" says the Philadelphia Evening
Bulletin (Ind. Rep) and "if the elastic
provision OF the measure shall prove
actually operative injustice attempted
under these rates may be checked. The
if is the big factor which may deter
mine the ultimate verdict of the people
on the bill and its sponsors"
1t is the opinion of the Raleigh News
and Observer CDem.) that the bill will
impose on the consumer ian annual tax
of three billion dollars" and it holds
that the new law lis a quarter of a CEN
fury out of date while, according to the
Nashville Banner Und.), this return to
normally is return to the old, and as
the country had thought, discredfted sys-
tenn of tariff for the benefit OF a few
favored interests. at the expense Of the
masses. And that is normally The
mystery is solved. It means taxing the
average citizen into distress and, many
times, into actual want, for the profit OF
the protected few. 1t is a pretty word
normally But the scorpion is a pretty
creature The night shade has a pretty
flower. And the photographers of
pathology have bestowed upon the most
dreadful of disease the most beautiful Of
names. Normalcy,' The measure prob
ably will not remain law for very long in
the view of the Chicago Daily News
Und.), which points out that "five Re-
publican senators, four of them highly
influential and widely respected for abiI-