Evening star., 1932-04-14

on the tariff. And I repeat for that
purpose the formula which I used in
the 1923 campaign in my speech at
Louisville-that the determination of
tariff schedules should be the business
Of an expert commission free from all
political influence and pressure.
But since 1923 the situation with
respect TO the tariff has been COM
pletely transformed. The Hawley-
Smoot tariff law of 1880 was a drastic
unnecessary, unscientifc upward revi-
sion of the tariff law. The expert COM
mission was ignored. Increases were
not based on any scientific analysis.
The consequence of the Hawley-
Smoot bill have been tremendous. both
directly and indirectly. Directly
American foreign trade has been
steadily dWindling; the customs reve-
nues. have gradually diminished and
unemployment has increased by leaps
and bounds. Indirectly-the high Sched-
ules OF the Hawley- -Smoot bill caused
European nations to raise their own
tariff walls not only against us, but
against each other. This means eco
nomic strangulation for the people of
every country, for prosperity can exist
only when goods can be exchanged in
ternationally.
AAN NA1oNNAllNiAb VI ldL al StlltdultO
will hereafter have to be made with a
view to their international aspects
after careful study by the proposed
Tariff Commission.
Federal Bonds Proposed.
1t makes little or no difference what
remedies may be suggested for the relief
of the present unemployment situation
n this country. We will have to come
cut of it gradually. There is no such
thing as waving the magic wand While
a settlement of the foreign debts queS-
tion upon the basis that 1 just sug-
geSted and readjustment of the tariff
will eventually attack the disease at the
root, meanwhile relief can come, and
Will come, provided the Government
will stimulate industry and promote
employment by the issuance Of Federal
bonds sold on a wartime basis for the
promotion Of American prosperity
These would be used to finance neces-
sary public improvements, both those
provided for by appropriations from the
general funds and those projected and
designed, but for which up to date no
provision has been made by the way of
appropriation
Exception to this has recently been
taken in a Nationwide speech by
prominent Democrat on the theory that
it is stop-gap. Whoever said that it
was anything else? 1t is at least better
than nothing, and infinitely better than
a continuance of the disguised dole in
States and municipalities encouraged
by the Federal Government until the
localities have given to the point Of
exhaustion and have reached a point
where they are close 10 the limit of
their constitutional borrowing and tax
ing power and at the end of the prl-
yate resources of their citizens.
1t is the easiest thing in this country
today to tear down. 1t is the easiest
thing in the world to criticize. 1t is an
easy thing to tell what is the matter,
but it is an extremely difficult thing
to construct, to suggest and to have
behind the suggestion the element of
possibility of accomplishment. The
country is flooded with statesmen who
crate and stop at that. Oratory puts
nobody to work. In a little while, un-
less it carries with it constructive sug-
gestion, it will be unpopular even on
the radio.
The Government is short of money.
1t needs close to a billion and a half
dollars Of new revenue to meet the
estimated budget of 1888 with which
Congress- is now concerned. People all
over the country are clamoring for
relief from the eighteenth amendment
and what has been termed by Federal
judge the senseless Interpretation of
an lntoxicant promulgated by Congress.
Effects of Prohibition.
We have spent in recent years hun
dreds of millions of dollars in the futile,
foolish endeavor to make people tenn
perate by law, and while we are spend
ing that the farmers are losing the
millions of dollars which formerly came
to them from the sale of their cereals
for use in alcoholic beverages, and
thousands of men legitimately engaged
in that industry are out of employment.
And yet some members of Congress are
too cowardly to apply to this situation
the sound Jeffersonian doctrine of local
government. They stand meekly
by while a police ordinance grated
on our Constitution shuts off millions
Of dollars of income and causes mil
lions Of dollars of wasteful outlay; they
quake with terror before small organ