The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-07-20
HOW SHALL WE CoLLECT?

Men who are insistent that Euro
pean nations shall pay their debts to
this country are among those who ad-
vocate a tariff policy which would re-
move the possibility of such payment.
1t should not be forgotten that our
loans to Europe were made mainly in
goods and not in money. The money
was not removed from this country.
How then can we expect them to pay
in money? They have not the cash
and can get it only thru sale of their
goods.
The credits established here repre-
scented exports of food stuffs, war ma
terials and other commodities. If
Europe discharges her obligations it
must be in the form of goods. We let
Europe have. approximately. $10.-
0O0. 100000 worth of goods. A liqui-
dalton of this debt would represent
SIC, 1000, 100000 worth OF goods plus
interest in the form of goods By
raising our tariff wall we insist that
they give US not only these billions
and interest in the form of goods, but
other billions represented by 20 per
cent, 40 per cent, so per cent and even
more, in the form of higher tariff
rates. This represents a burden
which a prosperous Europe, to say
nothing OF an impoverished one, can
not shoulder.
There is another feature of the
tariff matter that evidently has not
been given the slightest consideration.
This is the result of our development
trial nation. 1t is time for us to rec
cgnize this change in the situation:
BY our shift from almost exclusively
agricultural activities into one where
industrial enterprise dominates, we
have made our former tariff policy
impracticable. Much al the protec-
tionfsts proclaimed their champion
ship of the farmer a year or so ago,
there is no doubt that agriculture was
taxed in order to help our growing
industries. Our farms produced so
abundantly and SO cheaply that a
tariff on farm products twenty, thirty
and forty years ago would have been
hailed as an absurdity. The tariff on
manufactured products. however,
made the farmer pay more for what
he was forced to buy
As a result of our tariff program
the farmer sold his produce for such
price as it would bring, protected in
dustry was able to pay high wages to
its labor and these employees in turn
found the cost of living comfortably
agriculture to charge more for it's
wheat, corn and other products.
Our expanding industry. however.
has drawn labor away from the farms.
The hired hand no longer gets up in
the morning at o'clock and works
until at night during the busy sea-
son. for $40 a month and his board.
Wages are up and competent labor
is hard to find. In some years we
are not producing enough grain and
foodstuffs to keep prices down, and
this attracts wheat, corn and meat
products from other countries. We
are getting eggs from China and but
ter from Denmark and Holland. AS a
result of this changed state of affairs.
the agricultural bloc gets busy and
asks for high duties to keep out wheat
from Canada, Argentina and Aus
tralia, potatoes and onions from Ber-
muda, and so on.
Heretofore industry has received a
price for its output representing the
cost of production and a profit that
would reflect the high tariff rates,
while the farmer received what the
economists have called the marginal
cost of production which just about
enabled him to break even.
Under the policy now being consid-
cred it is held that the farmers will
establish themselves on the basis of
world prices plus the increased duties
on agricultu al imports. But in this
way the advantages of a high tariff
cancel themselves. Every occupation
is protected, and each product sells
on basis of it's production cost with
the tariff added. Everybody gets
more and everybody pays more 1t is
about the same as if there were no
tariff at all so far as the relations be-
tween our various domestic producers
are concerned. At the same time.
however, we would lose the 10000
600, 900 which we loaned to Europe.
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