The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-02-26
THE PRESIDENTS VETO

President Coolidge's message to Congress veto
ing the McNary- Haugen farm relief bill says, in eff
feet that it is wrong for the of the country to be
shaken down for the benefit Of the farmers.
His indignation at the proposition would be more
effective if he were not committed through the adj
yocacy of the present high tariff rates, to shaking
down the rest of the country including the farmers
for the benefit of the manufacturers.
Much sound sense is scattered through the mes
There is little quarrel with his contention that
the bill is unavoidable. Its provisions were clumsy
and complicated, and for them to work out right
would have been, perhaps, miracle
But his denundation of the price fixing and
taxation" features of the bill is funny Here, for
instance, is his paragraph denouncing the equali-
cation fee:
ut is tax for the special benefit of particular
groups AS a direct tax on certain of the vital
necessities of life, it represents the most vicious
form of taxation. It's real effect is an employment
of the coercive powers of government to the end that
certain special groups may profit temper
arily at the expense of :. the community at
large"
These words may be true of the McNary- Haugen
bill but they are just as true of the present high
tariff rates. The only difference is that the special
groups, benefited under the tariff include the East
ern industriasts such as Secretary Mellon through
the high aluminium tariff rates; Judge Gary through
the high steel and iron rates, and the Presidents
former Senator William Butler, through the high
textile rates. instead of the millions of farmers.
The rest of us now pay the freight for Mellon,
Gary and Butler just we would have paid the
freight for the farmers.
Again. the President says that the McNary-
Haugen bill involves governmental fixing of prices
price fixing, furthermore some Of the
Nations basic foods and materials. Nothing is more
certain than that such price fixing would upset the
normal exchange relationships existing in the open
marketing and that it would finally have to be ex-
tended to cover multitude of other goods and
services.
Governmental price fixing, once started, has
alike no justice and end, and is economic folly
from which this country has every right to be
spared"
These are good words, but they apply to the
present tariff schedules which the pride of the
President as well as to farm legislation
Again, the President says:
whatever may be the temporary influences of
arbitrary interference can deny in the long
run prices will be governed by the law of supply and
demand"
This is copy book economics. 1t is not true
things actually work out, because tariff which did
not interfere with the law of supply and demand
would be no tariff at all.
The McNary- Haugen bill was foredoomed, be-
cause of the Administrations known attitude and
because of peculiar farmerpolitical forces which
joined to pass it through Congress At first glimpse
it would seem that the veto left things they
before. But it doesn't. The long discussion of the
BILL and the peculiar applicability of the arguments
against it to the tariff have started thousands Of
Republican farmers to figuring out what is really
hurting them.
They find it in the unconscionabe tariff rates
which aid to make the cost of living high for them
as well as the rest of u.s. And when they start to
act on that discovery Eastern industrial domination
of politics will be lessened and equable tariff
system will result