The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1930-02-27
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1880.
WHY NOT AMERICA FIRST?

Senator Walsh, of Montana, has is
sued statement pointing to the pro-
posed partial embargo on American
automobiles by the French govern
ment as aretaliatory measure inspired
by proposed increases of the American
tariff. This explanation of French
action will hardly cover, however, the
attempts over period of three years
to apply contingent or embargo sys-
tenn in France to American motion
pictures. And it seems to overlook
the fact that France has maintained
. whatever tariffs the government has
deemed beneficial to French industry
during low-tariff as we'll as high tar
iff periods in the United States. 1t
seems to overlook the fact that an in
.vestigation by bureau of the League
? of Nations shows that there are some
fifty methods of handicapping i'm
ports now prevalent in the several
European nations, in addition to the
tariff method.
American protective tariffs are bas-
ed on wage standards. They are
famed not to give the American man.
ufacturer an unfair advantage in the
home market, but to prevent unfair
advantage being taken of him by for
eign producers who secure cheapness
of commodities through lower labor
costs. This justification for protec-
tive tariffs as against American COM
modities' does not exist in European
countries, since in no one of them are
labor costs so high as in the United
States. European tariffs are not for
the protection of wage and living
standards, but solely to prevent for
eign competition.
While the visible balance of trade
between France and the United States
is in our favor, the expenditures of
American tourists in France pulls
down the scale heavily in favor of
France. That is to say much more
American money is spent every year
in France than French money in the
United States.
American motion pictures and mo-
tor cars are popular in France, not be-
cause they have been made cheap by
cheap labor, but because of better or
ganization, greater technical skill and
above all a huge home market have
resulted in the creation of commodi-
ties the French people prefer to the
home market. Such importations do
not represent any unfair advantage
taken of the French producer. Both
motion pictures and motor cars have
long been on the free list in the Unit
ed States, but this has not prevented
American motor cars and motion pic
lures from paying heavy tariffs at
French ports.
The idea that American tariffs
should be made to further the inter-
ests of alien rather than of domestic
producers seems to have taken strong
root in the minds of some American
Legislators, and the result of this is
that store shelves in the United
States crowded with foreign wares
have their corresponding phenomenon
in widespread unemployment of Am
orleans who would otherwise be en-
ployed in producing these articles.
Americans may be bit dense, but
they are unable to see how such i
program as this gets them anything
but the impairment of the American
standards of wages and living. They
have also the old fashioned idea
that the protection of these STAN
dards, rather than the promotion of
activity in industrial centers across
the sea, is the first duty of American
craftsmanship.
We have entirely too much preach
ing in the United States of the idea
that American prosperity should be
endangered to purchase foreign good
will; that American security should be
jeopardized in order thatpeace may be
underwritten in Europe through our
Involvement in the European political
system; that the United States should
be so conducted as to. promote the gen.
eral welfare of the world even if at
the sacrifice of American welfare. 1t
: is not too early to begin thinking of
the American government yas an in
strumentality for the general welfare
and the common defense of the Am
2 erican people. 1 .4"a. ats = -
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