Evening star., 1929-11-17
SENTIMENT CROWS TO KEEP
TARIFF OUT OF POLITICS.
New and Greatest Industries Do Not
Care About Protection Barrier
to Trade.


them back to the United States for sale.
Senator David Reed of Pennsylvania
took disproving notice of the new de-
velopment and undertook to check 1t by
some sort of action having to do with
patent and copyright laws.
Organized labor In America took
alarmed notice to the new tendency.
They gave out a considerable list Of
American manufacturers who, they said,
have moved some or all of their fac
tories abroad, making their products
with the less expensive foreign labor
and shipping the products to the United
States for sale. (Some of the heads of
business on organized labor's list denied
the charge)
Frequently to Surface.
This tendency of capital toward mo-
bility, toward moving to where condi-
tions are favorable, kept coming to the
surface again and again. Young Sena-
tor La Toilette of Wisconsin, together
with his Progressive and Democratic as
sociates, argued for a considerable re-
duction in the tariff on chemicals. In
the coalition as 1t stood, this proposal
should have had the support of the
Democrats But Democratic Senator
Copeland OF New York observed the case
OF a chemical industry near Buffalo,
just on the American side of the inter-
national boundary. He said he had been
informed that If the tariff on this
chemical were reduced the company
would promptly move its factory across
the Niagara River to Canada, and en-
ploy thousands of Canadian laborers, to
the obvious detriment of the American
laborers now employed.
Under modern conditions factory is
aoc Ell Iy iVac tn laa
old days of heavy, brick-walled build
1ngs, moving factory was formidable.
With the modern steel and glass con-
Struction the cost of building or mov-
ing cuts comparatively little figure.
One inference or observation made
about this tariff revision Is that labor
is rather more largely interested in pro-
lection than capital is. The earnestness
of organized labor about getting pro-
lection was larger in this than in any
previous tariff revision. In the old days
the businesses that were beneficiaries
of the tariff used often to make its re-
quests vicariously, asking for "protec-
ton for American labor" Then they
used to import foreign labor and use it
here in America in competition with the
labor that was already here.
Lesson Again Learned.
There is one lesson that has been
learned over and over and has been ad-
mitted during or after-chiefly after
every tariff revision during the last so
years. That lesson is, as it has always
been said with an off-hand gesture, 1.-The
tariff ought to be taken out of politics" I"
AS pious aspiration, nearly everybody
has always assented to that. But 1t does
not need this article to tell any one
that the present tariff revision is at this
moment a political matter to as great
degree as any one can remember with
respect to any previous tariff revision.
There is politics in the respective
positions taken by all three of the fac
tions-Democrats, Republicans and Pro-
gressives. During the very week in
which this article is written, one felt
that the major part of the maneuverS
about the tariff had to do, not with
its economic phase, but with its polit-
ical consequences. Many Democrats
trying to estimate just what step about
the tariff would lead to the election
of the maximum number of Democratic
Congressman in next years election;
many Republicans trying to estimate
what step would enable the largest
number of Republican Congressman to
hold their seats; Progressive Senators
from Western States trying to put Re-
publican members of the lower house
from the same States lin a hole" by
compelling them to go on record with
vote for or against the debenture plan.
Regular Republican Senate Leader David
Reed of Pennsylvania, candidly taking
the position that it is best to let the
coalition write its kind of bill, then put
the responsibility on them, and have the
lower house defeat the bill Some
Democrats voting for the debenture
plen when they don't believe in 1t and
merely want to register coalition VIC
Gratis maneuvering with much ability
and considerable success to make the
chasm deeper between the two factions
Of Republicans. And so on and so on.
Politics Inescapable.
Let no one suppose politics went out
of the tariff making when the Western
Progressives got leadership on the situa-
ton and with their Democratic allies
took control. In the present method OF
tariff f-making, politics is inherent and
inescapable. When the rate on pigiro1
Senator David Reed patiently explains
the correct term is Iron in pigs') came
up the Western ProgresSives and South
ern Democrats observed that pigiron, So
far at is is concerned by the tariff. Is
commodity made chiefly in Eastern
Pennsylvania and New Jersey. There
upon the coalition gayly reduced the ex-
iSting rate, $l.12l2 a ton, down TO 10
cents ton. The very next day manga
nese came up. The regular Republicans
in the Senate finance committee mao
put manganese on the free list. But
manganese is produced in several West
ern and several Southern StateS-and Is
not produced in the East at all
Whereupon the Western Republican and
Southern Democratic coalition, Will
equal gayety now turned convinced pro-
tectionists, put tariff Of cent pouno
on manganese.
Incidentally, some Democrats charged
that the action of the regular Repupnc-
ans in putting manganese on tne lree
list had been politics Of particularly
recondite kind; politics OF with reverse
English" as they say in the game
of billiards. The intention of the Re-
| publicans-so the Democrats charge
was not really to keep manganese Oh
| the free list, but rather to put pressure
on the Southern Democrats and west
| ern Republicans to vote for the bill as
whole.
Putting Out Bait"
This process is known in politics
as putting out bait" The idea-f the
charge is true-is to compel the Demo
crats from manganese-producing State!
| to come around to the Republican lead
ers and to plead for tariff on tina
product. At which time, according Il
the theory, the Republican leaders arr
supposed to say, "All right; we'll CIV,
YOU YOUR tariff on manganese If you will
promise to vote for the bill as a whole.
Let there be no doubt there is politics
in the making of this bil-politics pro
ceeding from every one OF the three rae
tions. The politics was no wnlt less
| this bill than in any Of the six or sever
bills that had sbeen seen by the olde
Senators and members of the House.
One OF the most thoughtful Repub
| J;con leaders IN the Senate was Seri