The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1929-11-22

Note, how clearly Borah him.
self points out that, "the Presi-
dent enlarged the scope of the ses-
SION" Of course, everyone above
the age of a school boy under
stands that this was a deliberate
move by which the industrial ex-
nIoiters were to be given an op.
nortunity further to ride the backs
of the producing masses. Defend
ers of the President will no doubt
attempt to camouflage this DELHI
crate act by the President in OPP
ening wide the door to the tariff
looters. But the facts again show,
(although not generally known to
and not made public that two
months before the call for the
special session, Hoover discussed
this very factor of the situation
with Republican leader to determ-
inc what dangers were involved.
Campaign for Tariff Lost.
And so, when next autumn de-
tenders of the President convent
emily seek to excuse Mr.. Hoover,
the farmers of the Northwest
might inquire for an explanation
as to why the administration de-
liberately perverted a move for
farm relief into a campaign for
tariff loot. And if the justifica-
ton is. made that the eventuality
could not have been foreseen
(when as a matter of fact, it was
discussed and considered "safe")
then these defenders of the admin
istration might be called upon to
explain the possibility of such po-
litical innocence and lack of fore
sight on the part of those who re-
ceived their training in the cabi-
net of Fall, Daugherty, DENLY and
Company.
But even more disastrous than
the perversion of the special ses-
sion has been the complete re-
versal of the whole movement for
farm relief. When, after the far
cical Emergency Tariff of 1921
and the equally futile Fordney-
McCumber act of 1922, so far as
their relief for the farmers was
concerned, had become generally
recognized, the realization began
to grow that relief through the
tariff could mean only downward
revision of the industrial rates gen.
orally. Of course, the farmers
still looked for tariff increases on
certain products as they do today,
but tariff redajustment" to aid
agriculture came to mean some
thing quite other than increased
rate on exportable products. By
the beginning of 1928 this view
had gained sufficient recognition
by the farmers to force considera-
ton in Congress. On January 16
of that year, by vote of 81 to
"a the Senate adopted a resolution
introduced by Senator McMaster
of South Dakota giving it as the
sense of the Senate, "That many
of the rates in the existing tariff
schedules are excessive, that the
Senate favors immediate revision
downward of such excessive rates
establishing a closer parity be-
tween agriculture and industry, be-
lieving it will result in the gener-
al benefit of ALL" This resolution
was, of course, a harmless ges-
ture, worth about Is cents a
gross, but it is of considerable i'm
portance in putting the Progress
sives on record as to what they
understood by farm relief thru
tariff adjustment.
Hoover No Innocent Victim,
Such was the real meaning of
the move for tariff relief. By the
time the Tariff Bill had passed
the House, however, the move
ment to adjust industrial rates
downward had been transformed
into a revision upward. Your
correspondent has already had oc-
cas1on to characterize this special
phase of the issue. By the logic
inherent in every such political
deception the movement, like the
Hegelian dialectic, had led to its
exact opposite.
The farmers will be told that
the President has been an innocent
victim in the process. But the
facts prove otherwise: 1t is COM
mon knowledge that the tariff
bill as reported to the House was
dlctaed by a small group of adj