Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1929-11-08
Mr.. Hoover's Statement.

Mr.. HOoVer's Statement.
Editorial in Baltimore Sun OF Friday.
1t is impossible to describe President
Hoover's statement on the tariff yesterday
as other than so many paragraphs of nom
sense.
II Mr.. Hoover sought to use the White
House sounding board to make partisan
argument to the country that the Democrats
and Insurgents who have opposed the
Smoot-Hawley bill have Improperly delayed
consideration and action, he trifled with
the intelligence Of the country. The bill
has not been improperly delayed. and
everybody. including the President. knows
this to be true. Mr.. Hoover speaks Of the
bills having been in the hands of the Sen.
ate since June. But he well knows that il
was late in August before the Finance
Committee. controlled by his party and his
followers, presented the measure to the
Senate. 1t has been open to discussion on
the floor for approximately two months
little enough time for such sweeping re-
vision as has been attempted, little enough
time in comparison with other tariff debates
in the Senate.
There is no trouble in understanding that
Mr.. Hoover is disturbed by the develop.
ments in the Senate's debate on the tariff
bill. He called Congress into special session
to enact legislation for the relief Of the
farmer. This legislation was to take two
forms. One was the measure setting up
great revolving fund to be loaned to CORPORA
tives. The other was to be a revision upward
In the tariff rates on agricultural commodi-
ties-a dubious undertaking. but one the
farmers wanted and one Mr.. Hoover had
pledged. Mr.. Hoover is in very grave danger
OF failing to redeem his tariff pledge to the
farmers, and Of having the issue run into
the Congressional campaign. which will
open within few months. In addition
he is within hairs breath of one Of the
most embarrassing upsets in the Senate
any Of the Presidents has known. The
feeble Mr.. Coolidge knew nothing in the
first year of his term like the threatened
debacle in the Senate. 1t is being COM
pared with Woodrow Wilson's defeat. But
that occurred at the end OF Mr.. Wilson's
second term and when he was physically
hat on his back, stricken man.
Mr.. Hoover, in his statement yesterday,
offered as an excuse for his silence that he
could not be expected to pass on rates for
thousands Of commodities. That also is
nonsensical. Il is the kind of thing man
says when he does not wish to act In the
first place. Mr.. Hoov,r has at his elbow
the machinery by which he could obtain
information on all the rates as fast as the
Senate. In the second place. Mr.. Hoover
can form judgment upon industrial rates
as well today as he could If and when
completed tariff bill were presented to him.
Is the country to believe that. in the event
Mr.. Hoover's party could have its way in
Congress. he would sign any tariff bill
submitted to him simply because he felt
that he could not pass on thousands of
rates I Is that-a man with his hands
down-what the country has to expect
from the great business executive voted
into the White House last year.
There is suggestion in this strange
statement of yesterday that Mr.. Hoover
may really believe that amazing course
would be proper. He talks of the impossi-
bility of his passing on the rates. He talks
Of the difficulty the Senate has had with
rates. as shown in the protracted debate
Then he talks Of the beauty of the flexible
tariff plan--that eeorseous system which.
as Mr.. Hoover's friend. Alfred P. Dennis,
OF the Tariff Commission. has explained,
does fiex. but only upward. Assuming this
part Of the Hoover statement to have any
real meaning. the only conclusion from It
must be that any sort of tariff bill may
be passed by Congress and any sort of a
tariff bill may be signed by the President,
provided only that the President may sub
sequently revise rates at will. And il that
means anything. It means that Congress
shall 20 through the Constitutional motions
Of representing the people in the levying
of taxes. but that actual power to tax shall
rest in one man-Herbert Hoover.
II is not necessary to argue the vice Of
any such surrender Of Constitutional power
by Congress. But il 1t were necessary, one
could turn to the speech of Mr.. Hoover in
the 1928 campaign. in which he sono-
rously declared that the American people
will never delegate power over the tariff
system to any commission save Ito sc
his own words) the great commission Of
their own choosing the Congress of the
United States.