The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-06-07
M. E. Tracy
The Smoot-Hd1oIey Tdrif Blu
Not Only Should Be Killed;
1t Should Be Killed With
oMt DeLdu.
SAYS:

ID USINESS is not improving SIS it
ID should. Congress and the
President are largely to blame
congress for dilly- dallying; the
President for taking no definite
stand.
How can industry go ahead until
it knows what it has to meet? How
can corporations interested in for
eign trade perfect their plans?
The whole country, If not the
whole world, is being held back.
The Smoot- Hawley bill not only
should be killed, but it should be
killed without delay.
Doubt as to its fate is having as
bad an effect as would its adoption,
if not worse.
If 1t were to become a law, we
at least would have the advantage
OF knowing what we were up
against. Under existing conditions,
all we can do Is twiddle our thumbs
and prepare for the worst.
Those fathering the bill commit
ted crime enough when they wrote
1t. They only are adding insult to
injury by continuing to wiggle.
THE Smoot- Hawley bill is only
Il one more example of that un-
considerable conceit which gripped
certain elements of this country
after they had made millions by
Matching war babies.
During the last ten years this
element has been busy with nothing
So distinctly as trying to kill of the
last vestige of that idealism with
which we sent the boys to Franc
Cost plus 10 per cent contracts
appear to have inspired them with
the idea of cost plus 40 per cent
tariffs.
It looks as though they could not
be satisfied with anything less than
all, and the tragic part of it is that
they excuse the performance in the
name of improved living condi-
tons" or farm relief"
No wonder foreign countries &C
cept such an attitude as justifying
resentment and no wonder they
carry it to illogical extremes.
The splendid isolationists," anti
leaguerS and enemies of the world
court, are forging a ring OF hatred
around the United States, and the
Smoot- Hawley tariff bill is but an
incident in their general scheme of
things.
If the policy continues, American
automobile manufacturers. not to
mention those Of dozen other lines,
are going to find it harder and
harder to obtain the foreign market
they need.
This country is being Unanswered
into a trade war, as wildly is il
Illustrated by the general assault on
American movies.
CIR JAMES PARR, head of the
~ British Film Institute, spoke in
London the other day on the
"Americanization of the Dominions
by Films" and what he said was
aplenty.
He attacked American films be-
cause of their bad effect on young
people and their anti-British SEN
timent, but really let the cat out
Of the bag when he declared: We've
got to realize that the American
film is the best advertiser of Ameri-
can business and American trade
in the world"
1.-THE British empire" he said,
"has suffered many calamities in
recent years, but nothing has
eclipsed in seriousness the menace
Of having our young people brought
up with American ideas, with an
attitude that isn't wholesome as re-
CARDS the future of the empire"
You probably have wondered at
the frequent mention of opposition
to American movies in other lands,
and you probably have attributed
it largely to rivalry among pro-
ducers in the business.
But there is more to the story
than that, because the movie is
more than a medium of entertain
ment. AS Sir James Parr admits,
it has been a great advertiser for
American ways and wares, and what
1t can do for them 1t can do for
those of any other country.
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