Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-15
BY WILLIAM HARD.

The forces besetting the President 10
induce him to veto the tariff bill are
of vast political and economic mass
and momentum; but there is posi-
bility that they may not prevail. In
deed, the best informed guess here Is
that the chances are at least 81 to 49
that the President, unless some wholly
new thoughts are thrown into the bal
ances Of hts Judgment, will give to the
bill a somewhat unsatisfied signature.
Against the bill there are arrayed the
importers, the exporters, the surviving
free traders, the economists OF the uni
versities, the economists of the bulk of
the largest financial and industrial cor
porations, most of the traditional farm
ers of the South all the agricultural
"progressives" Of the Northwest, viz
tually all the international bankers" of
Manhattan Island most publicists, most
newspapers and at least IS per cent of
the citizens who are earnest enough to
write letters to the White House.
It is a safe calculation that the Presi-
dent has heard four or five times as
much against the bill as in its favor.
The forces against the bill have pretty
we'll driven the supporting forces clear
of the voluble argumentative field
They advance now upon the President
and say:
SHOW some courage. and agree with
us, and veto the bill"
Their assumption continuously Is
that in order to veto the bill the Presi-
dent will have to be the posSessor Of
courage. The truth here in the interior
Of the whole matter Is the precise OPP
posite. The principal money gatherers
of the Republican national committee
and Of the Republican campaign COM
mittees for this Fall are among the
bills severest critics. The sentiment
vitals of the Republican national or
ganization. All that the President needs
in order to veto the bill is a willingness
to spread his sails to the existing winds
and lie on the deck and let himself be
waited to immediate popularity.
The crtx of the problem Is In the
word Immediate" The President is
known to perceive clearly that the in
slant effect of q vetoing Of the bill
would be highly advantageous to him.
It might be also highly advantageous, it
is argued. to his party. This conten-
ton has been pressed upon the Presi-
dent even by some legislators who for
local reasons have aligned themselvs on
the side of the bill.
They say that we face the prospect
of several months more of economic
depression. They say that If the bill
becomes q law IL will be blamed for
the continuance of the depression.
They say that the thing to do Is to
eliminate the bill and to let the depres-
sion get blamed upon the stock market
gamblers and their recent self-made
crash.
The contrary contentious brought TO
the Presidents presence by the MI
nority, which advises him TO sign the
bill, are contentious not immediate but
ultimate. They fall into two classes.
The first class is economic and the sec
ond is political.
From the economic point Of view
some people tell the President that the
new duties in the bill cannot possibly
hurt the country as much rs 1t would
be hurt by permitting the tariff con-
troversy to 20 unsolved and thereupon
to be revived in the next Congress
They say that the most deplorable set
Element now is preferable to continued
unsettlement all through next Winter.
They also maintain that the bills
deplorableness has been much exag-
gerated by the genius of Mr.. Charles
Nicholson, the Democratic national
committees press agent extraordinary
and propagapdist publicist plenipotenti-
AIRY. They severely accuse the President
of a basic political error in lettering
the Republican national committee to
a soft pedal and a gag while Mr..
Nicholson was permitted by the Demo-
cratic national committee to proclaim
the faults of the bill with all stops out
and in his most unimpeded and highest
tenor notes They openly declare that
the President has brought the party
close to immediate ruin by allowing the
public tariff debate between the two
parties to consist almost entirely of a
virtuoso solo by Mr.. Nicholson.
-
They insist that q wholly different
attitude on the part of the general
public toward the bill can be speedily
created If the President will only au-
thorize the Republican national COM
nittee to do publicity for this bill as
vigorously as the Republican national
committee under Chairman John T.
Adams did publicity for the tariff bill
of 1922. Approximately the same ele-
ments which oppose this bill opposed
that one. Approximately the same
arguments about an increased cost of
living and a decreased volume of ex-
pOf8 were uSeQ. approximately ITle
same prophecies of hardship at home
and of i'll will abroad were uttered.
The difference only was that then the
Republican national committee con-
tinuouSly, day by day. fought back,
whereas this tin1e-until the last few
weeks-it has spent its time principally
pulling the bedclothes over it's head.
The friends of the bill thereupon ad-
wise the President to show some cour-
age and sign the bill and terminate the
tariff storm and then again show some
courage and let Mr.. James West, the
Republican national committees pub
licity paladin, grid on his cleaning
sword and really do battle for the bill,
no matter whose skulls he cracks. They
point out that the difference In iniauity
between the present operating tariff law
and the new proposed tariff bill Is to be
measured by an advance from along
about 33 per cent Of tariff poison in our