Evening star., 1925-04-19
DEMOCRATS TO USE
TARIFF AS WEAPON
viii Stir Up Issue in Next
Congress to Bring 1t Into
1926 Campaign.
by ROBERT T. SMALL.

Democratic strategy during the com
ing session OF Congress calls for a
great assault upon the tariff. But the
strategy does not call for any action
up or down. The Democrats want
the issue to go over into the campaign
of 1926, and thus once more the idea
that the tariff can be taken out Of
politics is dissolved
The tariff will prove a fine talking
point in the next session of Congress
which is a long one. The President
has taken his stand squarely on the
issue. National Chairman Butler OF
the G. o. P, has taken his stand, anC
even though all the rocks in the
world should fly from their firm base,
these two stalwarts will remain stead.
fast and true to every principle OF
protection.
THE tariff issue in a wav has been
precipitated by the Republicans, or at
least coterie of them. The cotton
manufacturers of New England feel
that their rates of protection on
the finer grades of goods are too low.
They say they must be protected from
the low cost goods of Europe, or must
lower the wages of the industry in
their section of the country. Several
other industries are Sar to feel thaI
the Fordney- McCumber rates are too
President, under the flexible provision
of the act, has felt himself called upon
to proclaim higher rates in a dozen
instances There have been suggeS-
tions therefore that in the coming Con-
greSS, which is presumed to be safely
Republican, certain schedules should
be reopened and adjusted upward.
Democrats Are Satisfied.
The Democrats have met these sug-
gestions with undisguised glee. In
effect they virtually have dared the
Republicans to spring a move along
that line. The Democrats in the Sen
ate feel that with the assistance of
certain recalcitrant Republicans they
might turn the tables upon the reg
ulars'' and revise the schedules down
ward instead of upward.
President Coolidge and Chairman
Butler have taken cogniZance OF the
tariff uneasineSs in their own party
and publicly have stated there should
be no attempt to tinker with the tariff
at the coming Congress. Nor do they
favor piecemeal revision. 1t must
be all or none, and both the President
and Mr.. Butler are inclined to leave
well enough alone. This stand is par
ticulaFiy significant on the part of Mr..
Butler because he is a New England
textile manufacturer who believes the
tariff is entirely too low on the prod
ucts of his looms.
The upshot of the whole business
will be much tariff talk, but no tariff
revision at the coming session, leav-
ing the whole subject to be fought out
IN the congressional campaign next
year.
May Be Surprises.
The tariff discussions may develop
several unexpected angles, not the
least interesting of which will be the
attitude of certain Southern States
which have forged to the front in.
dustrially in late years, and have been
prospering under the Republican
taYiff policy. Even the most casual
survey of the South reveals the revo-
lutionary change which has come
oveS' that section since the Democratic
party definitely committed itself to
free trade or to a tariff for revenue
only.
Louisiana heretofore has held a sort
of isolated position among the South
ern States on the tariff question be-
cause of her production of sugar, the
crop which has the keenest foreign
competition. Louisiana has been a
'protectioniSt" State. But other COM
monwealths of the South have come
into production of commodities which
the Republicans always have regarded
as entitled to tariff protection, and
it will be interesting to see what in
f1uence the business men of the South
will have upon the politicians in the
coming campaign.
The wool schedule always has been
the subject of the greatest Democratic
attack, but now Texas, Democratic to
the core, has become the greatest
wool-producing State in all the Union.
She has; also her cattle and her lum-
ber- Mississippi has her lumber.
Alabama her steel. Georgia and the
Carolinas their vast new textile mills,
against which New England is fight