New Britain herald., 1928-09-20
Why Democrats Have Xeered To Protection By Tariffs
Time -Honored Opposition to High Duties Gone Because Industry Is Now In: the Saddle In the South,

, ten iA ths South becomes tncreas- ,nssy important
 BsfoEs the elevation of the tariff principle ia the South 1t was regard l cd -asr : lseaj tasus oAly. Loulsiana susaF planters destrsd protection on sugar but. on i, no other ,industry. Ysars of. this species of industrial sslssaAnsss brought, no conspicuous 1 results. Political expedieney. then tssk the saddle and it was agreed thst protection fer one industry could bs sseured only through CO., operation With. ether industrie.
 ,TAs rssxit of this tariff agitation in the South, has been evident in Csngress, where an. Increasing num- ber of southern Democrats are not inc1insA to vote for low duties. Sem atsr en,eet of Utah, rfotectionist par excellence, with pleasure noted in the Congressional Record this year that when the Fordney-Mccumber btil vas under consideration in 1s.z thttteen southern Democratic sena- tors voted for higher duties than those srecomnasnds by the Senate eemmtttec. The higher duty votes of thsse ls senators tctalled' 70.
 The inevitable, effect of high tar If development throughout the South is to force the Democratic party to veer from its earlier prin- ciple of free trade towards one that differs in no important respect from Republican principles. If the Hous- ton platform and Smith in his &C., ceptance speech had harked back to . "we-denounce-the- -present-tariff' attitude not only the country north of Mason. and Dixon's line would have been aroused but the new in- dustrial South as we'll. The present Democratic tariff policy continues to reflect the wishes of an influen- ttal part of the South; but much southern tariff opinion in 1928 does not differ from that in the North. These section are in the same boat industrially. The northern manufac- turer may be uneasy when he faces l southern competition, but he at least has the satisfaction of know ing that the southern competitor has proved an aid in removing the qua drenntal threat of tariff revision downward.
 The Democratic party is not . leopard which has gone contrary to its nature and changed it's spots. It is party which. retaining its chief sustenance in the South. must re- fleet the changing attitude of that section toward the tariff.
 This altered course of Democracy mantfestly fails to consider asricul- ture. Farmers have been complain ing of the ''high cost of manufac- tured goods" and the How price of farm products for some time. Many blame this disparity upon the tariff. Despite. what the 1928 platform says, certain Democratic spokesmen continue to denounce the tariff prin- ciple in order to influence farmers to side with the party. Others point to the fact that farmers who have complained about the tariff for years have consistently voted the Republi- can ticket in Republican agricultur- al states, and this during campaigns when the Democrats emphatically promised low tariff if elected. If | lI1C Id11N $USE COuiQ IlVt UC 6cCuICu at time when the Democratic party had . strongly low-tariff policy, these observers argue, it probably cannot be greatly influenced by . tariff argument in 1928. when the party has modified its earlier prin- cipaes.'.
 The farmers in the agricultural west. of course. may be influenced by . more definite farm relief pro- gram than tariff benefits. In this lies the strategy that undoubtedly will be followed in the corn belt.
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