Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-31


States has become a world power in re-
cent years that the wholly domestic
matter of tariff should instantly raise
foreign circumstances of the first inl-
portance.
The pending tariff revision calls into
immediate question our relations both
with Canada and with South America
The former has become the greatest OF
our customers abroad, the latter is the
field in which President Hoover has
clearly indicated his purpose to push
American commerce. But while trade
and commerce-busines in all it's in
ternational details-are primarily in
volved, it is not less apparent that our
popularity If not our prestige in the
Western Hemisphere will be materially
affected by the action Of Congress this
Summer.
When Mr.. Hoover went to South
America, frankly seeking to strengthen
friendships and dissipate suspicious and
resentments, there came from Canada
many comments, which were summed
I'D in the phrase: IF it is worth while
to seek new friends in the south, is it
not equally worth while to retain the
old friend to the north?" And this
vas the clear expression OF Canadian
apprehension at the prospect of tariff
revision calculated to raise the duties
on precisely the things which Canada
sends to us. To balance this Canadian
comment might recall the word of an
American familiar with the conditions
in Argentina. Said he: Good will tours
are fine, but if Congress raises the duty
on linseed oil few pennies, Mr..
Hoover's visit to Buenos Aires had bet
ter have been avoided"
Tariff Struggle Is Sure.
The pending tariff discussion marks
a clear stage in the development OF
the United States. It forecasts strug-
gle between those who would have the
United States go forward in the role
which it has unconsciously come to I'LL
in recent postwar years-the same role
played by Britain before leland
those who would have us revert to a
narrow policy of domestic concentra-
ton.
Today we have come to the point
where we have replaced Britain as
the first nation, in commerce and in
finance, in the Canadian market
Canada buys from us nearly a billion
dollars of goods year and sells us
about half as much. American money
is supplying the capital for the vast
industrial and mineral expansions all
over the Dominion. While no people
possess finer or more clearly defined
national sentiment than the Canadians
and any notion of political penetra-
ton would be at once absurd and HARM
full, nevertheless, within the limits pre-
scribed by a proud and conscious ma
tional spirit, the Canadians have come
to have a very close relation with us.
No one can mistake the fact that
many Britons have looked with regret
and even anxiety at the development of
American Canadian associations and
to what seems, in their eyes, the gradual
replacement of British by American
goods and ideas in the great Dominion.
Despite various British efforts, there
has been no miStaking the extension
of the double process; on the one hand,
Canada has become more and more a
nation within itself. and on the other,
this Canadian nation has steadily de-
veloped as better market for American
goods and more favorable field for
American capital. .-.
The value of the Canadian market
for our goods has been and remains
to a considerable degree dependent
upon the opportunities Canadians pos
sess for selling in our market. A tariff
war between the two countries would
1nmistakably lead to cooling of friend
ly feelings. A policy of reprisal would
inevitably follow violent change in our
tariff rates.
The essence of the problem is found
in the question as to whether we are
now prepared to consider the foreign as
well as the domestic consequences of
tariff lpOiglofinn While
chiefly the raw materials and food
stuffs which the world required, such as
copper, cotton, wheat and beef, it was
possible to treat tariff as a purely do
nestle matter. We could keep out for
eign goods, which We could produce
ourselves, while the rest of the world
could not punish us by reprisal, because
1t had to have our raw materials. More
over, as borrowing Nation we offered
a profitable field for investments, and
the surplus represented by the differ
ence between our exports and imports
was invested here by foreign nations.
Now We Are Vulnerable.
But we have at a single bound be-
come a creditor nation and a great ex-
porter of goods. Our manufacturers are
now not only concerned with the mo-
nopoly of the domestic market, but
from necessity are seeking foreign mar
kets. AS a creditor nation, whose in
vestmentS and credits due to war debts
must aggregate more than SIS ,0OO, 000,-
900, we are in an utterly different
situation from the United States of 1900
or even Of 1914. And, as a great ex-
porter of manufactured goods, we are
no longer insured against repriSal We
are vulnerable to any counter offensive
provoked by our own tariff legislation.
Broadly speaking, the question is now
taking form in something like the fol-
lowing dilemma: "Shall the admins
tration seek votes at home or trade and
friendship abroad?" Friendship we
manifestly cannot expect in Europe, but
friendship we just as clearly have in
Canada and have sought in Latin
America. Is the Argentine market, with
all that this implies, more or less valu-
able than the interests of the farmers
of the Northwest for whom linseed oil
Is an important detail?
Again, the situation seems to be de-
veloping much as 1t did in the days be-
fore the Civil War, when the manufac-
turers of the North sought tariff and
the cotton planters Of the South Strove
for free trade. Only today the issue is
between the manufacturer and the
farmer, with the former seeking or
bound at no distant date to seek tariff
legislation designed to give greater OPP
portunities In the world markets and
the. farmer striving to protect himself at
home.
One thing is clear. No form of farm
relief through tariff revision is conceiv-
able which does not inflict very grave
wounds upon our American neighbors.
None of these neighbors will conceivably
refrain from reprisal. And inevitably
these reprisals will strike at American
exports in manufactured goods. The
manufacturer will be called upon to
paw, many times over. for the small
benefit bestowed upon the farmer.
But the thing does not stop there.
The real beneficiary is bound 10 De
Furope-Britain, Germany, Italy and
France, which in various directions are
our competitors. Our proposed, and