Evening star., 1933-01-15
BY WILLIAM HARD.

It Is often said that one of the ways
Of anticipating the policies of new
administration is to note the ones on
which it ran for Office and then expect
their oppoSites. This rule is applied
by its sponsors to both of our political
parties.
Mr.. Taft, Republican, ran in 1908 on
the program of carrying out the poll
cies of Theodore Roosevelt" He car
ried them to the waste paper basket.
Mr.. Wilson, Democrat, ran in 1916
on keeping us out of war" He then
gave us wars which extended our mill
tary experience to the banks of the
Rhine and the forests of Siberia.
Mr.. Hoover, Republican, ran in 1928
as the champion of prohibitory dry
ness. BY 1882 he was a prophet of re-
visionary wetneSs.
These "reminiscences recur to Wash
ington today as 1t contemplates the
development of the policies which will
distinguish the era of the new resto-
ration of the Democrats to national
political power
The Democratic platfo III of 1882
attributed our current economic miSeries
to-above all-the Republican practice
of national economic isolation" 1t
advocated foreign trade" 1t promised
reciprocal tariff agreements" The
Democratic candidate, Gov. Franklin
D. Roosevelt, in his acceptance speech
told the Democratic National Conven-
tion that the Republicans, through their
tariffs, had surrounded this country
with IAN impregnable barbed wire en-
tanglement which has isolated us from
all the other human beings in all the
rest of the round world" He engaged,
with the help of his party, to restore
us to economic fellowship with the
human race.
In theory. then, one would expect
the Democrats in this present session
of the Congress to be devotinP them
selves to at least preparatory labors
for the great task of making tariff
duties go through the legislative mangle
and come out thinner and feebler.
That is, such would be the expectation
If it were not for the rule counseling
us to expect the contrary OF the theo-
retical.
There have been two bills of supreme
importance in the Congress in this
session. One has been the bill passed
by both houses for the speedy inde-
pendence Of the Philippine Islands. The
other is the allotment plan" farm re-
lief bill introduced last week into the
House of Representatives The Philip
pine Islands bill was supported over
whelmingly by the Democrats OF both
the House and the Senate. The "allot-
ment plan" bill is an altogether OIL
cially Democratic party measure.
In theory each bill should represent
an advance toward freer international
economic intercourse. In practice each
bill represents an additional bar to
international economic intercourse.
The Philippine Islands bill bestows
independence upon the Filipinos at the
end of term of years. During that
term it keeps the Filipinos within the
orbit Of our sovereignty. 1t never
strictions upon economic intercourse
between the Filipinos and us. The
restrictions are new and they are asso-
ciated with tariff taxes.
~ X *
The Filipinos, according to the bill,
could send us only 800, 900 tons of raw
sugar, 100000 tons of coconut Oil, and
100000 pounds of cordage in any one
year duty free. On all excesses above
those fixed amounts they would pay the
same tariff duties as are paid by other
foreign producers. While they still
remain American subjects, their trade
with America is to be subjected to
limitations and to possible taxes.
When they become completely inde-
pendent there is to be a conference
between the Filipino government and
the American Government on the
subject Of future trade relations" be-
fpa furn nfrfa no
of that conference, unless there Is a
change in the present temper of the
Congress. can be now completely pre-
dicted. The United States will impose
upon Filipino products the full tariff
duties now imposed upon those same
products from any other country.
The bill for the independence of the
Fflipinos was supported by some of our
national egislators-notably Senator
King of Utah-because of belief in
political freedom for all countries
and all races. 1t nevertheless was
brought to victory in the Congress
only through pressures coming from
agricultural regions. Republican and
Democratic, which desired Filipino in
dependence precisely in order to be
able to levy tariff taxes upon Filipino
If the veto of this bill by President
Hoover is sustained by the present
Congress it will be enacted again in the
next Congress and it presumably will
be signed by President Roosevelt. In
its international political aspect it will
be triumph for the principle of the
self-determination of peoples. In its
international economic aspect 1t will
be one more sundering Of the links of
intimate trade intercourse between
peoples That sundering is In this
instance desired and demanded Just as
much by the Democrats of the Con-
gress as by the Republicans.
Certainly. then. this bill, in its eco
nomic history and In its economic OBJ
| jective. is no promise of any lowering
| of the international harbed wire en-
tanglements so detested and denounced
by Mr.. Roosevelt A. similar comment
has to be made upon the allotment
v,lov,D kill