Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-18
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

Democrats. That fact is not
4 recognized yet in Washington,
but 1t is recognized in the South;
that is. in those quarters of the South
that are most interested in the tariff.
Of the Southerners who favor the
Sort-the principal spokesman Is the
Manufacturers Record. That periodi-
cal, by its name, sounds like something
published in New York or Chicago. Ac-
tually its field is the South. 1t is by
far the leading business periodical-al-
most the only important business pc
riodical-in the section between Balti-
more and Ell Paso, Tex. 1t has the
energy, the bulk, the up-to-dateness and
all the other qualities of the most ad-
vanced business organs in any Eastern
industrial district.
The Manufacturers Record has talked
high tariff ever since this session began.
It has inspired and applauded organ
lied demands for a high tariff from
Southern communities. It has scolded
Southern Democratic Representatives
and Senators who opposed the pending
bill. In its latest issue 1t publishes an
"open letter broadside. The point of
this open letter is that 1t does not stop
with demanding protection for Southern
industries and interests; it does not
stop with the familiar appeal to the
RepuDllCanS 10 leu Tie
spread its favoring shade over the
South as we'll as the North.
This present utterance, to use a
Southern phrase. goes the whole hog"
We have here for the first time from
any Southern source so important as
this a plain declaration that Southern
Democrats in Congress ought to vote
for an all-around high tariff-ought, in
short, to take exactly the same position
as the most thoroughgoing high-protec-
ton Congressman from New England.
This utterance is a landmark. 1t is
doubtful if anything like it has come
out of any important source In the
South during the hundred years that
the tariff has been a political issue.
More Than Landmark.
This utterance is not merely a land
mark in the historic sense. 1t has
most pointed bearing on the stage to
which the pending tariff has now come
What the Southern organ says the
Southern Democrats ought to do con-
stituteS the key to whether or not this
Congress will enact a protective tariff
or any tariff.
The Manufacturers Record, with the
emphasis of black type, exhorts South
ern Congressman thus:
Every Southern Congressman knows
-" =" that he cannot win for his section
unless he works in harmony with lead
ers from other sections. Other
sections will get to large extent what
they are demanding. The South will
get very little of what it needs and
some of its people are demanding I'M
less its Congressman unite with the
Congressman of other sections in this
work and cease antagonizing the pas
sage of well-rounded tariff bill for
everything In all sections"
In another place it says, again in
italicized type: "A protective tariff bill
will be passed by the present Congress"
That is common expectation. It Is
by no means certain to be fulfilled. In
creasingly from now on it will be real
lied that no tariff at all is decidedly
one of the possible outcomes Of this
session. If this Congress passes tariff
billiard most especially II it passes a
well rounded tariff bill for everything
in all sections"-it will be done with
the aid of Southern Democratic votes.
It cannot be done otherwise.
Votes Of Democrats.
The Democratic votes may come, but
they must come in considerable num-
bers, and that will be a new thing.
It is not unusual for a scattering mar
gin of two or three Democratic Senators
and q half dozen Democratic members
of the Lower House to help the Repub-
licans pass a protective tariff bill.
Again and again, for half century
past, the two Democratic Senators from
Louisiana have voted with the Repub-
licans on a general tariff bill for the
sake of their local interest in sugar.
Already in this session the conSpicu-
Gus Democratic Representative from
Florida, Mrs. Ruth Bryan Owens, voted
for the pending bill as it went through
the House One wonders what her
father, William Jennings Bryan, would
think, or her Uncle Charlie, sometime
Democratic Governor of Nebraska and
Democratic candidate for Vice Presl-
dent in 1924.
To pass this tariff bill in anything
like its present form; indeed to pass
any tariff bill at this session-to give
the bill the momentum which 1t must
have and which it has actually been
losing lately-for that purpose there
must be, practically speaking, general
Democratic assent to 1t.
The reader will have begun to wonder
why sthiS is So-in what respect the
pending tariff bill differs from preced-
ing ones which have been passed with
extremely little aid from Democrats
Part of the answer is that the psy-
chology Is different.
A Democratic candidate for President
nearly so years ago, Winfield Scott
Hancock in 1880, earned q good deal
of derision for himself, slew himself as
a serious presidential candidate and
coined a phrase that blazed through
into serious history, by saying. in ERECT:
"The tariff Is local ISSUE" To say
that any one tariff can be q psyche
logical matter may seem even more
grotesque. In fact. however, Hancock
was right. The tariff is local matter.
And the question of the passage of the
pending tariff bill Is largely psyche
logical matter.
Conditions Are Unfavorable. FL.
The psychological conditions are I'M
enough large business interests in the
North and East have their shoulders
behind 1t. They are not sufficiently
interested.
Here, in this present month Of Au-
gust, we are having the most prosper
GUS month the United States has ever
known. the largest volume Of business.
the largest OF ratio of profits the high
est prices for securities ever recorded
on the New York Stock Exchange, prob
ably the least unemployment 1t is
banner month, an excelsior month,
Eureka month-anything you choose to
call it.
Obviously, when business is that way,
business leaders are not consumed with
anxiety about getting an increase In
&na tariff. BY the same token it Is dit-
fcult to make anybody feel that higher
protection Is imperatively necessary.
The existence Of prosperity works In a
subtle psychological way against the
tariff.
this extreme prosperity constitutes an