Evening star., 1932-11-03


| Commission we saved that industry.
New Zealand butter could be sold at
! this moment over the whole Pacific
Coast at less than II cents per poW. ID
similar grades Of butter bring % cents
per pound because Of the tariff. Against
Asiatic beans the tariff has afforded
during the last two years a nearly 100
per cent protection for the Pacific Coast
! farmer. Raisins and figs Of Fresno and
pruneS of Willamette and Santa Clara
valleys would sell in the common mar
kets of the East at rates that would,
despite the low level Of present prices
reduce returns to those producers by
nearly so per cent. The price Of Cali
fornia wool in the Boston market is 38
cents today, whereas your Australian
competitors could sell the same kind OF
wool there for less than % cents, and
| the difference is due solely to the tariff
1t is not difficult to gauge the shallow
| hypocrisy Of Democratic pretentions OF
tariff consideration in behalf of the
Pacific Coast farmer. The same story
could be told of every farm product
nuts, grapes, mslons, tomatoes, celery
and score Of commodities.
Turning to another of our great Coast
| products, 60 cents out Of each 81 pro-
uuCtO AL tllC IdCillC SOdot ISOl lllWCol
| comes from the forests, where higher
wages are paid to lumber workers than
| in any other district in the world. Since
| the passage of the tariff act British Co
| lumbia lumber exports into the United
States have almost disappeared, and
those from Russia, which had rapidly
| developed into q large trade. have al
most ceased.
Doubly Imperative.
And this protection afforded to Pa
ciflc Coast industries by the tariff OF
1880 and since has become doubly i'm
perative within the last few months,
due to depreciation of currencies as a
part of the world collapse As many of
you know, due to more than so per
cent depreciation in Japanese currency
since last Spring, the competitors of our
Pacific Coast fish industries, which en-
ploy nearly 10000 workers and have an
invested capital of more than $lO3,000,-
900, have been confronted with the
gravest peril. As a result of this de-
probation of currency, foreign salmon
| Is now quoted at about half the price of
our Pacific Coast product. Our imports
of canned sardines, which come largely
fro9l deprecated currency countries,
were almost 80 per cent larger in Sep
tember OF This year than in September
1881. And other branches of our i'm
pertant Pacific Coast industries, such
as canned vegetables, dried fruits, beans,
pulp, iron and steel, may also be
threatened with a similar peril.
In the light Of this grave emergency,
I have asked the Tariff Commission to
investigate the situation Immediately
and if the findings warrant I shall at
once increase the protection to these
industries. The fact Is, we on the Pa
ciflc Coast are faced with the necessity
to consider increases in the tariff in
stead of the proposals of the Demo-
cratic party to reduce them.
Our citizens should not be fooled by
promises OF local Democratic candidates
not to reduce these tariffs.
Every man who knows the Constitu-
ton, the character platform and the
traditional policy of the Democratic
party knows perfectly we'll that these
products will rot on the farms and in
our forests of the Pacific Coast under
such a regime. Furthermore, it must
be obvious that the progress the Pacific
Coast has made from the crisis in GER
tain industries toward upward move
ment of the last four months would
Wither under any such proposal We
would go back to conditions Of depres-
sion worse than that through which
we have passed.
Forty Countries Protested.
I would call your attention to an
other phase OF the tariff question; that
is, the proposal of negotiated reciprocal
tariff by the Democratic party. I have
just examined again the protests which
were lodged with the State Department
at the time of the increases in our tariff
two years ago. find that protests were
made by 40 different countries They
are nothing new. They ocur with every
tariff bill, and the Democrats always
ventilate them as being threats to our
national welfare, just as the Democratic
candidate did while in our State. I
found, however, that these protests in
large part relate TO items of interest to
the Pacific Coast States-wooI, hides,
tomatoes, lettuce, celery, onions, pota-
toes, carrots, cattle, hogs, butter, cheese,
eggs, canned goods, canned fish, sugar,
preserved cherries. oranges, lemons
raisins and dried fruits, apples, olive oil.
beans, peas, cement, pottery manufac-
lures. iron and steel manufactures,
lmber and oil.
No reciprocal agreement could be
made with these countries at all except
at the expense of the Pacific Coast
States. Because We have determined to
protect the civilization upon which the
Coast States rest, and their distance
from States Of predominant interest to
that party, the Democratic candidate
tells us that we have been unjust to
foreign nations and that We have
brought calamities on all other States
and the world by our inSistence upon
your protection.
To indicate the practical application
OF our measures to protect the Pacific
Coast from destruction in this crisis and
to advance that recovery, may cite a
few of the direct applications to Call
fornia, Oregon and Washington.
The National Credit Association and
the Reconstruction Corporation at one
time advanced more than sl50,0OO. 900
to some 400 banks, including branches,
in the State of California; to 81 in Ore
gan, and to 80 in Washington. This
sum has been largely repaid. Those
banks have more than 100000 de-
positors, every one of whom was helped
by these loans. which were made solely
for the purpose of protecting their de-
posits and savings and of preventing
undue pressure on borrowers from those
banks during the period of panic. Had
these advances not been made, your en-
tire banking system would have COL
lapSed beyond any doubt. But this &C
ton has tided over the panic, has re-
established the banking system of the
Pacific Coast again on sound basis,
and has kept practically every family
from despair at loss Of their deposits.
T NAV call attention tn the fact that