Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1928-03-08
By HON. HENRIK SHIPSTEAD

that a former distinguished Senator
from Minnesota, Hon. Knute Nelson
far more distinguished than the
Senator who has the honor of adj
dressing the Senate to-day-was here
when the Fordney-McCumber Tariff
Act was passed. He said, among
other things, in speaking of the tariff
on agricultural products:
| ing for the farmer. to make him believe
| that he will get all the excess duty
in one form or another. and to make
| it easy for him to swallow the high
duties on manufactured goods.
He also said:
1t is evident. it seems to me. that
the Senator from North Dakota CIr.
! McCumber). in his zeal to put such an
| immense tariff on agricultural products,
| higher than we have ever had before,
| higher than there ever was any neceS-
| Sity for. has done simply to Oil the
protection machine for the wooden
schedule and some of the other sched-
ules in the bill.
He said:
am very sorry that the committee
have gone to such extremes as they
have. l had hoped, Mr.. President. that
protection would not run mad as it
has done.
Mr.. MCLEAN. Mr.. President, but
the Senator has reached the conclu-
sion that the rates in the Fordney
McCumber bill were only per cent
higher than those in the Underwood
bill
Mr.. SHIPSTEAD. That is, in the
aggregate.
Mr.. MCLEAN. In the aggregate.
Mr.. SHIPSTEAD. l do not mean
to say that they were uniformly that
throughout the two bills. My pre-
decessor. the Senator from Minnesota,
who was here at the time and whom
l was quoting, said that they had
gone mad l take it that he meant
on certain schedules, and not in the
aggregate.
| do not care what kind of a price
level you have in this country, wheth-
er you have an inflated one under an
initiation of the credit structure and
under the high protective tariff, or
low one, provided you have it uni
form and maintain it at all times.
Then every one is on an equal basis.
Every one is on the same price level.
But when you have a situation where
the dollar of agriculture is down here
and the dollar of the manufacturer
is up there, you have a maladjust-
ment that affects the distribution of
wealth; and, as the Department of
Commerce and the Bureau of Labor
Statistics and the Department of Ag-
riculture showed, when wealth is pro-
duced as it has been produced here
in the past six years the distribution
has been absolutely unjust to agri-
culture and to labor.
1 want to refer again to what the
Senator from Indiana (Mr. Watson)
said the other day when he said,
I'VE have discovered now that the
tariff on agricultural products is not
effective"
In my opinion, if an investigation
under this resolution should show
that some of these schedules are en-
tirely too high, they ought to be re-
duced. If some schedules are too
low, they ought to be raised. If any
schedule for agricultural products is
to be effective-as the Senator from
Indiana admitted and the Senator
from Idaho (Mr. Borah) this after
noon admitted that they are not, now
some way must be found to make
these tariff schedules effective for
agriculture.
l do not claim that this resolution
embodies any complete remedy at all.
never claimed for the McNary-
Haugen bill that it carried a COM
plete and adequate remedy for agri-
cultural relief; but it was at least an
attempt to make the tariff effective
and l want to call the Senator's at
tention to the fact that while it might
not have been as long stride in
the right direction as could be taken
fail to see where the Senator from
Connecticut has pointed out a better
way to go in finding a solution.
Now, Mr.. President, want to say
a few words about something we have
heard great deal about, and that
is the so-called sectional point of
view.
| We of the Northwest have been
charged with having not national
point of view but sectional point
of view. The distinguished Senator
from Connecticut this afternoon adj
mitted that, so far as he was con-
cerned-and l want to compliment
him for his honesty in that-environ-
ment affected the point of view. I
think it applies to all men. That is
perfectly natural. They are all hu-
man. But we of the West in the last
few years have been accused of being
unduly sectional in our point of view,
and the general impression seems to
have been carried out in propaganda
that that is peculiar to our section of
the country.
Mr.. MCLEAN. Mr.. President, the
Senator will realize that, inasmuch
as we have different points of view
and l think we have had expressed
| hnro in tho Cbop