The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1932-08-15
(Official City, State and County
Newspaper
Foreign Representatives
SMALL, SPENCER, BREWER
Uncorporated)
CHICAGO NEW YORK BOSTON
Pressure on the Tariff

Pressure on the Tariff
One of the unusual phases of the
impending political campaign is the
fact that the tariff bids fair to play
only small part in the political ar
guments.
President Hoover declared himself
unequivocally for the present high
rates and the Democratic stand has
yet to be fully outlined. The Demo-
cratic platform calls for lower tar
if but it is not very specific and the
tendency seems to be to soft-pedal
this as campaign issue.
The result may be disadvantageous
to the country, for there are unmis-
taxable signs that our tariffs are too
high.
Nearly everyone is in favor of rea-
sonable protection for American in
dustry and labor, but the log-rolling
which was done when the Smoot-
Hawley bill was enacted, and again
at the last session of congress in con-
nection with the purported effort to
raise additional revenue, makes it
rather obvious that the people most
interested in the tariffs are not in IA
vor of reasonable rates. The plain
fact is that it has become an instru-
ment of commercial warfare, not with
other nations but between industries
in this country.
An interesting review of the tariff
situation recently was made by
James D. Mooney, vice president of
General Motors corporation in charge
of overseas sales. The fact that It
is being printed and widely distrib-
uted by the National Automobile
Chamber Of Commerce indicates that
our motor manufacturers agree with
MONEYS sentiments.
Mooney points out that for 10 years
after the war, we sold goods abroad
to world which could not pay for
them in gold. Much of the money
to buy these goods was loaned by our
own bankers and Europe ran serious
ly into debt to US.
I'VE should have known that the
debts represented by these credits
could be discharged ultimately only
IN terms of other goods and services"
says Mooney, "yet, in face of this very
obvious fact, we deliberately shut the
door on the possibility Of ever re-
ceiving payment for the goods we
sold"
We shut the door, Mooney con-
tends, by making a tariff barrier so
high that few, if any, European goods
could come over it.
Moneys contention is that the ex-
cess OF exports over imports, as shown
by federal statistics, represents goods
which we have actually given away
during the last 10 years. We have
given them away because the only
thing other countries can use to nav
for them are goods or services and
we will not let their goods come into
this country.
The statement Is fully susceptible
to statistical proof and no one con-
tends that the situation outlined by
Mooney is not a fact. Yet the high
tariff fetish has become so firmly
established in this country that our
national leaders either cannot or will
not see that it is open to serious
question.
There was a time when high tar
ifs were sound policy for America
but that time seems to have passed.
The status Of creditor nation which
we achieved during the war changed
the situation completely. To main
tain the American standard of Iiy-
ing In competition with foreign coun.
tries we may have to find some
means Of more equitably distributing
the benefits Of capital investment
and the production OF labor, but If
we are to do business on any large
scale we must revise the tariff down.
ward.
MONEYS summation Of the situa-
lion Is worth study. Hers it Is:
Where does all this lead us.
and what can we do about It?
Il. America in general, and
the American automotive indus
try In particular, is not self-con-
tanned and self-supporting. Pros
perity and high living standards
are derived directly from q maxi
mum interchange Of goods and
service among men and among
nations. This maximum cannot
BE- obtained without q generous
and unhannpered flow Of goods
Internationally. The keynote to
ptopeyity y not = deliberate st-