Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-06

Statements by W. W. Atterbury
president OF the Pennsylvania Railroad
and Chairman Smell of the Rules Com
mittee of the House OF Representatives
which are interpreted as hostile to the
present tariff law, have caused much
speculation as to the future policies OF
the country. These two leading Re-
publicans are believed to have indi-
Gated q tendency away from economic
ever, are observed by prominent news
papers.
"Heresy! Horrors" exclaimS the
Providence Bulletin, referring to the
Atterbury description Of the nations as
Theoretically sealed compartments, y
and the Smell statement that the coun-
try has gone the limit in a tariff. "
The Bulletin adds: when two sturdy
Republicans so depart from the path
of regularity as to take crack at the
tariff, then something Is in the wind
The Richmond TimeS-DiSpatch de-
clares: Mr. Atterbury INDUCES in no
idle talk. He is not a candidate for Of
flce. He is under the necessity of ap-
pealing to no political group. But Mr..
Atterbury. once high priest of protec-
ton, Is power in the party and man
whose opinions are valued among all
classes of American citizens"
There Is little doubt" thinks the
Chattanooga Times, that the Eawley-
Smoot tariff will be roughly handled by
Congress in the very near future" The
Columbus Ohio State Journal offers
the Judgment: "a tariff, after it gets
so high, defeats its own purpose. It
retaroS trade. Trade is the life blood
OF prosperity. Isn't it reasonable to
suspect that opposition to the tariff has
been made to happen because of what
it has done and will continue to do to
trade?" The Portland oregon journal
holds that mfr. Grundy and his fol-
lowers far overplayed their hands" and
that they Should not now be surprised
because even conservatives have brand
ed kne tariff policy of the adminiStra-
tiofdAas one Of the grave mistakes in re-
cent political history"
Recognizing that this sudden and
unexpected diversion conceivably NAV
set the tariff up again as q live politi-
cal ISSUE" the New orleans Times
Picayune sees uncertainty as to whether
1t will force the high tariffites into re-
treat or hasten a genuine downward
revision of the tariff" The Rockford
Morning Star concludes: This much
is certain-there is rising feeling that
the division Of the old Democracy and
the old RepublicanIsm is an outmoded
division; that the political ideals that
separated them have been outgrown;
that the complex national growth has
swung them so close to each other that
a new division is imminent; that the
new division will be along economic
lines"
Observing that Senator Reed Of
Pennsylvania takes direct issue with
Gen. Atterbury, contending that 1t is
not going to help America to close our
factories in order to give work to for
eign factories" the Harrisburg Tele-
graph says: Senator Reed is precisely
right. He knows more about the tariff
In five minutes than some of the critics
OF the tariff ever will learn. Articles
which Europe produces which We do
not already are cared for in the tariff
law. To begin another tariff revision
would merely retard the period of bust
ness improvement upon which we now
have entered"
The two critics of the present law
are described by the Topeka Daily Cap
ital as "the high-tariff chairman of
the House Committee on Rules" and
"kingpin of the Pennsylvania machine"
and accepting reports that President
Hoover ''frowns on the apparently grow
ing interest in another general tariff
revision next year" that paper voices
the suggestion: Nobody can blame
President Hoover II he is hostile to gen.
eral revision OF the American tariff by
Congress. Such revisions ordinarily
occur about once every nine years, but
the administration has hardly rccor-
cred from its fight with Congress over
the last reviSsan. scarcely year ago.
The best YaFof avoiding clamor Tor