Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-22
MOVE FOR BANANA TARIFF
REJECTED BY COMMITTEE
Request Based on Theory of Aiding
American Agricultural Starch
Products by Substitution.

your tongue longs for q banana, let
your hand reach for a potato.
Mr.. burst produced statistics about
relative calory value of bananas as COM
pared with dried beans or other foods
that can be raised in America. He
ries in cents worth of bananas than
in the same qauntity of bread, cornmea!.
rolled oats, rice potatoes or dried beans.
He did make some concessions to the
banana. He admitted the banana Is
superior in calory value to cabbages
and onions.
Mr.. burst avowed the extreme pro-
lection theory. saying that
ANY foreign (food) product which
comes into the country displaces GER
tain acreage of American products.
For the proper protection of American
agriculture there must be a duty on
such products, no matter whether they
are produced in this country or not"
For the illumination Of this thesis
Mr.. burst again took to statistics He
produced figures showing how many
additional acres Of corn, oats and other
American crops might be raised In
America if we did not import any ba-
nanaS, and II We were willing to pay
high prices for exclusively American
grown Galleries instead of low prices for
Galleries grown with cheap tropical labor.
The bananas we import, he said. are
equivalent to ABS, 900 acres of wheat.
256.000 acres of corn, 389. 900. acres Of
oats. $50, 900 acres of sweet potatoes OF
$4,000 acres of tomatoes.
ShOrtridge Sympathetic.
The plea for tariff on bananas, the
reader may infer. did not get very far.
About the only Senator on the finance
committee who seemed sympathetic to
this particular tariff demand was the
tall and Solemn-looking Sam Short
ridge of California. Both the tall Sena-
tor Sam and his colleague. the short
and stout Senator Hiram Johnson. take
pride In assuring their State that Cali
Union" On about every other subject
under the sun the two California Sena-
tors disagree. Shortridge being a very
orthodox and very regular Republican
and johnson being q highly explosive
Republican Of the type which you call
radical If you don't like them, or
progressive" if you do. AS to the
tariff. however shortridge and johnson
are loving twins. They believe in
tariff on everything produced in Cali
fornia. Since the best way to get
tariff for your own products Is to sup
port a tariff on the other fellows prod
uctS, 1t follows that Senator Shortrtdge
gives amiable attention to about every
body who wants a tariff on anything.
So far as the record shows. Shortridge
is the only Senator who didn't seem
disposed to smile at the idea of tariff
on bananas. though there may be some
others. Doubtless the coming debate on
the Senate floor may bring out some
expressions Of opinion. -
Some Tolerance Shown.
There was tolerance, however for the
same principle. Protection against COM
petition by substitution" as applied to
some other products. a
Sage, tapioca. yarrowroot and cassava
are tropical products. On no acre OF
the United States could they be nor
they produce starch. American-grown
corn also produces starch. Therefore
Mr. Gray and the other farm repre-
sentativeS demand a protective tariff
against Sago, tapioca and the others.
They said. that If all four of these trop-
ical products were completely excluded
from the United States we could raise
and sell 100000 bushels more corn.
In this particular demand the farm
ployeS of the Corn Products Refining
Co. Senator Watson of Indiana, with q
cruel suspicion that is foreign to his
normally sunny nature, asked:
Are they interested in the farmer or
in the Corn Products Refining Coz"
The extremely acute Senator David
Reed of Pennsylvania looked UP some
scientific data on arrowroot starch. He
found that 1t all comes from the Island
Of st. Vincent, that the quantity i'm
ported Is very small. and that:
ut Is used mostly for feeding sick
babies. ." It seems to me it is
pretty small potatoes to take that from
sick babies"
Mr.. Gray replied, in effect, that It's
the principle Of the thing. He wants
to put a duty on all things from which
starch might be extracted, in order that
we may get our starch from home
grown corn. Our position" he said,
"is this, briefly. that any starch coming
on our markets is q competitor OF the
starch foods that we produce here IN
the United States" f
Mr.. Gray really made progress with
his plea for protection against tapioca,
as he did not in his plea for protection
against bananas. The reason for the
greater consideration given him on tap
ioca is that tapioca starch has an In
dustrial use, in addition: to its use for
food. Tapioca starch is used In wood
glue, In textile finish and in adheslveS.
For this reason largely the principle OF
protection against competition by sub
stitution" was given some weight, both
as applied to starch from the tropics
and also as respects oils from the trop-
les, especially cacoanut oil, which Is
A -