The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1930-05-29
FOREIGN TARIFF PROTESTS

FOREIGN TARIFF PROTESTS
The strength of the pro-European anti-Ameri
sentiment in this country was evidenced in the
cutlery of the metropolitan press against proposed
protective rates French lace made by American
lace manufacturers and workers who have been suf.
fe1ng from cheap labor imports It was alleged that
the proposed increased rates American motor cars
practically prohibitive, imposed by France were in
retaliation for this increase in American lace rates.
and American automobile anufacturers were induc-
ed to JOIN IN the cutlery. Under this pressure the
conference committee which had the tariff bill in
charge struck out the increase in the tariff rate on
lace.
The truth is that American products have been
the targets for French discrimination for number
OF years. 1t will be recalled that an attempt to put
sAhat amounted to an embargo on American motion
pictures by the French government was recently
thWarted only by the protests of French exhibitors
who depend on their patronage on the popularity of
american pictures, and the announcement Of the
American motion picture concerns that they would
cease business in France Nevertheless an increased
olscFmlnatlon against American pictures was impOs-
ed, undef temporary arrangement terminating IN
1881. 1t is a safe guess that the concession made
TO France at the expense of employment in the Am
erlcan lace industry will have no effect in preventing
discrimination against American motor cars France
frames her tariff IN the interests of France and will
continue to clio despite the fact that her wage
IS much below that of the United States and there
is no such basis as exists here for protective DocV
based on lower foreign labor costs
writer II the Saturday Evening Post gives the
l0W-doWn on the discriminatory attitude of French
lndustralists and politicians toward American prod
ucts and even American visitors and residents She
also eXplodes the theory widely exploited in this
country about the poverty of France and the compar
atVe wealth OF the United States offered as the JUS
t1lcauon for sacrificing American interests in all
dealings with France France today not only has
no unemployment, but hundreds of thousands of It.
allaTS and other southern Europeans have been
Drought into the country to do the manual labor
france today owns more gold per capita than the
United States 1t may be added that while the pre-
war rate of growth of wealth in the United States
was slowed down five-sxths during the decade 1912
* the war period the growth of the wealth in France
curing the same period was greatly accelerated
Yet With unemployment wide spread in the I'm /
tied States due to the visible presence of an excessive
quantity OF commodities imported from foreign cheap
labor markets, the proposal to cut down these inl-
portatlons by tariffs which in some degree equalize
the difference in labor costs at home and abroad isl
fought Virulenty on the theory that this will do in
justice to foreign countries There is much discuss
sion Of the unemployment problem. It cannot be \
credited with sincerity long as we have here SO
Gtrong an opposition to the short cut to the elm
lpatlon OF the unemployment through more cheap
labor products from abroad This is too practical 4
remedy to appeal to the economic crystal gazers |
who would rather put American workers on dole N
than provide them with job. But there are other |
countries with sense enough to Historically Aus
tralia which has frankly cut down imports of COM 1
petitive commodities which dspace Australian labor
and create unemployment by greatly increased tar
if on many commodities and complete embargo on
eighty.
Much of the tariff discussion of TODAY is based
upon the theories and conditions of twenty wears ago
which have entirely changed Internationazed Fl l
nance and industry oppose a protective tariff be-
cause it nterferes with the shifting of their manu-
featuring activities to cheap labor markets in other
land ToIa IoI~ LooL az1..-
tive tariff, and what affects labors employment and
standards of living affects our whole economic svs
tenn. We measure prosperity today by the diffusion.
rather than the accumulation of wealth by the abil
1y OF the masses to buy not only necessities but
forts and luxuries. That ability to buy can come
only through heathful state of EMPLOYMENT and