Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-11
WATSON PRAISES
. HOOvER'S RECORD
Republican Leader Broad.
casts Legislative Review
in Forum.
lContinued PROM Tenth Pagel

Following the recommendation of tins
President, Congress proceeded to revise
the tariff so as to preserve to tht
American farmer larger share of his
market right at home. and at the same
time to maintain that home market al
full consuming power by giving Il
American industries, suffering from un-
employment because Of foreign cheap
labor competition. adequate tariff rates
against the products Of pauper labor
In other lands.
Two important changes in world con-
ditions made tariff increases necessary
on industrial products. First. wages
have arisen more rapidly in America
than in Europe. In 1918 wages in the
different European countries varied &c
per cent, while in the United States they
we're 40 per cent higher than the aver
age in European countries. In 1929
wages in the same European countries
varied 86 per cent, while in the United
States they were 240 per cent higher
than in the lowest European countries.
Therefore, if We we're to execute the
policy to which both political parties
seemed committed in the last campaign
namely. that American labor was en-
titled to tariff protection equalizing the
difference in wages at home and abroad
the necessity of upward revision in
many industries suffering from cheap
labor competition was obvious
Foreign Labor Poured In.
Due to these changed conditions, ex-
cessive importation of cheap labor
products from abroad began to pour into
the country and thus aided in bringing
about the condition of unemployment in
certain American industries, which in
fact began five years ago. The evidence
OF this can now be found in hundreds
of industrial plants that in that time
hoE ~ oil Il
IN all parts Of the country. This condi-
ton did not produce general attention
or cause Nationwide injury until last
year because new and growing indus
tries, such as the motor radio and air.
plane manufacture, were able to absorb
the slack. The extent of this diSplace-
ment of American labor is not fully re-
Tealed by the official figures on impor-
tation because they are based on foreign
valuations and in many instances on
under-valuation, and yet the result was
none the less effective and none the less
disastrous, and these immense importa-
Tlons, produced by cheap labor in for
elgn countries, so wrought upon our in
ouStrial and financial structure that the
crash in the stock market last October
shook 1t from dome to foundation and
from center to circumference.
The second change was that Ameri-
can industrialists have since the World
War invested three billion dollars in
industries competing with our own in
foreign cheap labor markets, thereby
adding American management efficiency
10 cheap labor as growing menace to
the American standard of wages and
living. This fact chiefly accounts for
the strength of the opposition to in
creased industrial rates in the new tar
III law. Neither the American farmer
nor factory can flourish in unequal COM
ha n1a in,
production secured through the sacrifice
OF human values, unless we are willing,
which We are not, to level down our
standards of life for the masses to those
OF foreign lands.
Nevertheless, the new tariff law is
CHIEFLY IN its rates farm relief meas
ure. OF the officially estimated in
creases in customs collections aggregat-
ing S106.426, 769 under the new tariff
law, S72,181 ,314 falls on agricultural
materials and the compensatory rates
on industrial products made from the
raw materials thus affected in price.
HoOver's Main Objective.
President Hoover spoke in the last
campaign of the abolition of poverty as
the objective Of an enlightened civili-
cation. Our highest achievement in
America has not been that we have be-
come the richest country in the world
Odb tltdL mere wealth. more WlQ6lY
dlnused, than in any other country;
that the masses of Americans enjoy
standard Of living beyond the dreams
OF any other land or time If we could
olduse these living standards through
out the world without sacrificing our
own standards, it would be a duty
gladly performed. but so long as so
much of the remainder Of the world
persists In a system of cheapened pro-
duction through the cheapening of the
worker, We must protect our standards
against destructive competition with
the product of such standards or else
sink to the world level We cannot thus
advance toward the solution of the
problems of poverty, but would, as An
Grew jackson once declared in opposing
the disastrous policy his party now
proposes. make paupers of ourselves"
Inc Republican party believes that the
american worker is entitled not to
Charity or a dole, but to that full op-
portunity for employment upon which
All progress in measures of social JUS
tice must rest.
In this belief, Republican majority
IN congress has passed, and President
Hoover has signed. tariff law which
VIII IN due time vindicate itself, as all
other protective tariff measures have
IN the past, by the restoration of nor
MAJ. prosperous conditions in the United
states Foreign powers, most of them
With higher tariffs than our own. which
nave protested against the new tariff
law VIII discover that the restoration of
prosperity in the United States will
help and not hurt the rest of the world
and that 1t will promote and not dimin-
ish foreign trade
Flexible Provision.
The special wish of President Hoover
vision, under which the President and
the Tariff Commission are authorized
Under a showing Of facts, to adjust any
inequltles in the new tariff law. For
The first time in our history we have
Squarely placed tariff making on a sci
entl1c, fact-hnding basis. When con-
ditlons arise which justify either the
towering or the increasing of given tariff
rates our Government is now in a DO
sltion to promptly meet the situation
without resorting TO a general tariff re-
vision, which always is disturbing to
trace and dlsquieting to business. IN
oountedly the unprecedented delay in
enactlng the new tariff law, due To a
1actlonal and partisan opposition, to-
gether with stock market panic which
the uncertainty produced by this delay
helped TO precipitate, were the prime
causes OF that temporary period of de-
preston we are now sharing with the
whole world. The turn now is upward
and the political calamity howlers. who
pin their hopes to the continuance OF
national adversely. are destined to have
their fond expectations blasted We
are still incomparaby the richest and
most prosperous Nation in the world
operating under the same economic pol
1cieS IN accordance with which We
achieved that enyiable position anc
with national genius capable of sur