Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-05
IONCWORTH'S SINCERITY
TO AID TARIFF PROGRAM
Guilelessness in Exchange of Courtesy
With Carner-Held as Lessening
Chances of Opposition.

out, the super hlgheSt, so 10 speak, Lal
if in the history of the country.
So much for the Republican side Of
the fight-again one uses the qualihca-
ton IF it is a fight"
II Democratic Leader Garner does not
get all heated up with ardor to revise
| the tariff downward, he but reflects the
prevailing attitude of most of his Demo
! cratic followers. He but reflects also
! the attitude the Democratic platform
! makers took at Houston last Summer
and the attitude the Democratic presi-
, dental candidate, Gov. Smith, took
during the campaign. In short, one
fails to find among the Democrats IN
the Lower House any united, whole
hearted, fighting determination to OPP
pose the theory or practice OF protective
tariff duties.
The exceptions among the Democrats
are represented by Representative Hull,
who has been quoted above. What re-
mains to be seen in this session in just
| how many adherents Representative
Hull can command. He is an earnest
man and an able one, but has not the
particular kind of temperament nor the
particular technique of oratory or de-
bate that would readily amaSS a follow
ing either within Congress or through
out the country.
Also one feels that even Represent
alive Hull is little inundated by the
increasing disposition of his party
either to look with tolerance upon the
protective tariff or at the least to
duck" the function of fighting earnest
ly against it. The writer of this article
has observed Representative Hull as a
spokesman of lower tariffs for good
many years, and one gathers the i'm
preston that even with him, time and
events have blurred the sharpness Of
his position.
Representative Hull still says, it Is
true, that the tariff is the most in
equitable of all taxes" But in the most
recent of his statements of what he
thinks should be the Democratic tariff
position he has had an effect of mild
ness. Last month he said: The oppos-
ing view" (thatHS. Democratic view-or
more accurately Representative Hulls
view of the Democratic view would
work in the direction Of tariff and
commercial policy calculated to avoid
retaliation, promote Sounder domestic
structure. augment our exports
and secure more equitable taxation. To
this end there should at once be sub
stituted policy by which the trend of
tariff revision would be downward to
level Of moderate or competitive
rates ."
That does not sound like a compact
fighting slogan behind which masses
can rally; does not look like clear,
sharp contrast. such as is necessary to
make battle.
For several years events and tenden-
cies have been making it increasingly
difficult for the Democrats to stand by
the low tariff position-to offer united.
thoroughgoing opposition to the policy
of protection.
First of all, in the present tariff re-
vision. now under way, the farmer is
to be taken care of. 1t is to benefit the
farmer that the session was called, and
the common point of view is that, as
respects the tariff, the farmer is to be
given substantially everything that he
wants or asks for In the way of pro-
lection. There are plenty who believe
that protection can do little for the
farmer when 80 per cent of the Ameri-
can acreage raises crops that are sold
abroad. But this does not alter the fact
that, as respects the tariff. the principal
program of the present session is to give
protection. or more protection, or both,
to the farmer.
This fact makes it somewhat more
difficult for Democrats representing
Southern farmers - where diversified
farming has come to raise miscella-
neous crops-to oppose the theory of
protection. Some of the most vehe-
ment demands for protection, in the
present revision, come from Texas
farmers raising early vegetables and
Florida farmers raising fruits and
early vegetables, against the COMPETE
ton of Bermuda and the West Indies.
Furthermore, to a greater and greater
degree, manufacturing is penetrating
the South and factories arising there
With manufacturing comes zeal for
protection. The most rampant protec-
tive tariff periodical coming before the
eyes of the writer Of this article is a
weekly that speaks for Southern buSi-
ness from Virginia all the way to Texas,
the Manufacturers Record. Increase
of manufacturing in North Carolina,
with some other causes, has caused that
State to pay the second highest internal
revenue tax among all the States. There
are, in North Carolina, business men
so confident about the growth of manu-
featuring there that they say it will
become kind Of Pennsylvania of the
South"
AS respects Northern Democrats in
the lower HOUSE, most OF them come
from States like Massachusetts, where
textiles are a leading industry and pro-
lection is indispensable; or from scat
tered communities elsewhere, where
steel or other industries demand pro-
lection.
All of which tends to support what
Speaker Longworth said namely, that
as to the tariff the two parties differ
only In detail Nearly every Democratic
member of the lower House has in his
district at least one industry or COM
modify as to which he Is under pressure
to be a protectionist. The Democrats
are very few who. like Hull of Ten
nesSee, can step out in front and take
the old Democratic low tariff position
all along the line.
All this is not meant to say, with
finality, that there will be no tariff
fight in the present session of Congress.
There may be one, a real one. But II
it comes it will come in the Senate.
It will be initiated probably less by
Democrats than by Western Repub-
licans.
Blazing Cat Sets
Fire to 400 Houses
A whole village in Bengal Province,
India, consisting of over 400 cottages.
was recently burned down by a cat.
Because the cat had stolen her week S
supply of cream, an old woman tied
jute to its tail and lit the inflammable
appendage. Leaping away in agony the
cat jumped to a matched roof, pauSing
long enough to start a blaze Then it