Evening star., 1934-08-20
WALLACE TARIFF
PROPOSAL FLAYED
President Baker of Ship
owners Sees Blow to Ma
rine and Farms.

A sweeping denunciation of the
proposal of Henry A. Wallace. Secre-
tary OF Agriculture, 10 trade of the
American merchant marine in tariff
negotiations with foreign powers was
released today by r. J. Baker, presi-
dent of the American Steamship
Owners Association.
Wallace, in a letter to Representa-
tive Schuyler Otis Bland of Virginia,
chairman of the House Merchant Ma
rine and Fisheries Committee, took
issue with BANDS contention that
shipping was as much entitled to
protection as any other industry in
the forthcoming negotiations. The
Secretary went on TO say that gov
ernmental encouragement of shipping
reduced exports by diminishing the
purchasing power of foreign nations,
and that the United States might
with profit leave to foreigners" a
trade in which our natural advantages
are mot as gerat as in other forms
of production
Il am glad that Secretary Wallace
has voiced his opposition to the Gov
ernments merchant marine policy
said Baker. THE Department of
Agriculture has for some time been
suspected of being hostile to the pro-
gram of Federal support initiated in
1928, without which American ships
In foreign trade cannot survive. Now
that the Secretary'S opinion has been
made public we know where the op-
position lies and in what manner it
can best be met.
Secretary Wallace displays an
alarming disregard for the welfare of
the country at large when he suggests
abandonment of an essential trans
portation service in order to bene-
f1t the particular industry which he
represents. I consider his stand an
unfortunate instance of sectionalism.
Suggestion Is Scored.
1T is strange trading indeed which
Secretary Wallace suggests in his COM
munication to Representative Bland.
Shipping, instead of being a pawn in
the approaching negotiations. should
be guarded jealously as the implement
through which the trades may be ef-
fected. No conceivable concession
would be worth the abandonment of
American shipping 1t would be an
absurd economy to swap our facilities
for delivery in return for the other
fellows markets. It might work out
for time, but there would always be
the day of reckoning when the other
fellow took away his ships The mar
ket might still be there but, without
ships. it might as we'll be on the moon
30 far as we were concerned.
That has happened before. 1t
probably will happen again. Surely
the Secretary CT Agriculture is not
ignorant of what happened to our
farmers during the World War, when
foreign carriers were suddenly with
drawn from our shores. The products
of our factories and fields piled up for
miles behind our piers They were
dumped along the tracks, there to rust
and to rot while we attempted to build
merchant marine almost over night.
1t cost us $4,000. 100000 to get the
ships and other billions in lost busi-
ness. Today. after Is years, We are
still paying nearly 100000, 900 year
in interest alone on the cost of that
-necessitated feet.
I'm that emergency, and in others
that followed. farmers lost most
heavily because of the perishsble
nature of their products. Rates rose
to fantastic heights. Cotton jumped
from $3.50 to $50 a bale between
Galveston and Liverpool, -four went
up to a dollar a hundredweight, and
wheat scared from 8 cents to Sl.36 a
bushel-an increase of 100 per cent
for Wallace's friends of the prairie
States. 1t has been estimated that
American farmers lost not less than
$500. 900 900 through our inability to
offer delivery during the period when
we we're left without ships.
Grave Peril to Farmers.
"The Secretary's stand is fraught
with grave peril to the very industry
he seeks to aid. 1t is patiently unfair
to hundreds of other industries which
depend upon domestic-fiag ship lines
for fast. frequent and economical
service to and from the markets Of
the world. There are American ex-
porters today who could not survive
without the cooperation of friendly
shipping services. There are others
to whom the existence of an American
marine is vital for the preservation of
a high standard of service which
would not otherwise be provided.
American ships act as stimulant
to foreign competitors which. too
often in the past, served us indiffer-
emily on certain important trade
routes. American industry in general
also has a right to employ ships not
: affiliated with the foreign interests
with which they are in competition.
Interlocking relationships are such in
the field of shipping that some of the
s foreign lines that Mr.. Wallacet would
'endow with our commerce are owned
by the very groups with which we
must compete in the international
market They are not. of course,
{. owned by agriculturists, which perhaps
explains the Secretary's willingness to
trade.
The Secretary also implied that
shipping should be sacrificed in favor
of more efficient industries. Appli-
cation of this criterion to the field of
agriculture would practically elimi-
nate farm products from the field of
export. Instead of raising wheat on
land costing from $50 to $500 an acre
why not let the Argentine do it for
us on land selling at $40 the hectare
of 2l2 acres. Russia, according tc
the pronouncement of prominent
American editor, can raise and deliver
wheat at Is cents a bushel The
American farmer, meanwhile, loses al