Evening star., 1931-12-06

1@HE full text of the address OF
Senator Connally Of Texas, de-
livered last night in the Ma
l. tional Radio Forum, arranged
by The Washington Star and
broadcast over a Nationwide network
OF the Columbia Broadcasting System,
follows:
Ladies and gentlemen Of the radio
audience:
Public attention Is now centered on
Washington Day after tomorrow Con-
gress will convene under unusual and
remarkable conditions. Since the crash
of 1929 the country has been stagger-
ing under the most far reaching and
heart breaking depression that has
blighted the commerce and the in
dustry of the United States within half
a century. The country Is filled with
demands that Congress shall restore
prosperity-that 1t shall cure this eco
nomic ailment, that it shall remedy
that business i'll, that it shall give
stimulant to industry's heart action,
that it shall bind up the fractures in
finance-in short, that 1t set up a
business financial and industrial clinic
to treat and cure all the ailments
in business, industry, agriculture and
finance.
World Trade Breakdown.
Our difficulties do not arise from
shortage of crops or of manufactured
articles or lack of transportation or
the breakdown of any other normal
function of our business life. Para
doxically enough we have an unusual
surplus of farm products, of food and
the raw materials out of which clothing
is made. We have plentiful supply
of useful articles of general consump-
ton. In the midst of plenty, there is
scarcity Stark want Is surrounded
by swollen surpluses. Six or seven
millions of unemployed with idle hands
and hungry stomachs must face the
shock Of coming Winter. Farmers with
bountiful crops have no means to pur-
chase manufactured goods and manu-
facturers are unable to sell their ac-
cumulated stocks. There has been
breakdown in exchange between the
nations of the world of commodities
and the products Of human industry.
There is a cause for that breakdown.
Somewhere and somehow the channels
of trade have been clogged and OBJ
structed.
I do not charge that the Hawley-
Smoot tariff bill enacted by the last
Republican Congress is entirely respon-
sible for the present economic distress.
There have been several contributing
factors Postwar def1ation, the over
capitalization of industry and the wild
orgy of stock market gamblings, the
fall in the price of silver and the in
crease in the value of gold, war debts
both national and of corporations. in
dustries and individuals, have had their
effect in producing present conditions.
Some of these abuses cannot be cor
rected by legislation. Some lie beyond
our shores.
Question of Tariff.
I cannot deny the conviction that the
unfortunate enactment Of the tariff act
of 1880 largely contributed to the dis
asters which now surround us. In 1880
the Democratic campaign for Congress
men and Senators made the Republican
tariff an outstanding issue. The Demo-
Gratis regarded the act of 1880 as ex-
orbitant and unnecessary. The rates
heretofore in effect in general were
more than adequate. They made a
fight against its provisions. They voted
against it. They thought the President
should veto 1t. But the President an
nounced he would sign it before 1t
reached his desk. Before passage it
was proposed as an aid to the farmer
and the laboring man. After its pas
sage farm prices dropped to the lowest
general level reached In IS years. Be