Evening star., 1934-03-11
NEW POLICY ON TARIFFS
FRAUCHT WITH COMEDY
Roosevelt Probably Will Get Good
Laugh Out of About Face Since
Presidential Campaign.

trammeled Congress. The Constitu-
tionalists were transitorily victorious.
They won by At to AZ
Among the At constitutionaliStic he
rOeS who then voted against even the
very first nudging of the presidential
CGmelS head into the tent OF con-
greSsional traditional power and duty
were the following Democrats who are
still members of the Senate:
Ashurst, Barkley, Black. Connally.
Copeland, Dill, George. Glass, I!arri-
son. Hayden, King, MlKellar Pittman,
Robinson, Sheppard, Smith. Stephens,
Thomas o. Oklahoma, Trammell,
Tydings, Wagner. Walsh. Wheeler-23.
Also the following Republican Pro
gresSives': Borah, Cutting, Frazier,
Johnson. La Toilette, Norris, Nye-7.
These 80 Senators should now pro-
GLce at least 80 good speeches While
MI RooSevelt's bill for complete, eX-
elusive executive control of tariff du-
ties and of all other aspects Of foreign
trade is going through the Senate.
And, if they decide to support the
bill. what can they best say?
The best they can say is to quote
Horace's famous line, "Tempora mu-
tantur ct nos mutamur in ills"
Which. being translated into prac-
tical public affairs, means:
In politics what man is mostly right?
The one who most has changed from
overnight
The fact is that the international
commercial trade Liberalism to
which our American "Progresslves'
and Jefersonians aspired in 1929 and
1880. and even IN 1881 and 1882, Is
a derel ct now on the international
trade seas 1t is a derelict partly
through the fault of the "Progressives'
and Jeffersonians themselves.
They have gone in-all over the
world-for planned economy with
in national boundaries. A planned
economy" within national boundaries
means necessarily also a planned
economy" in the exchanges OF COM
modittes between countries. You cam
not order" the internal national eco
numic life without taking care slmul-
taneouslv to order the exports from
tfat internal national economic lie
and the imports into 1t.
Means Rule of Executive.
But planned economy" means
also necessarily the rule OF the eN5cu-
tiye It is a matter Of infinite detail
and the multitudinOus Congress can
not handle 1t. 1t is the turning OF
the Government into business; ana
a business must have one head. HaF-
r1atINn1l
economic life to one head. We are IN
common sense obliged to cohho1 ou1
international economic life equaIly u
one head. and the same head,
This is the alibi and the out Tor any
and all Senators who opposed HOO
Yer in the flexible tariff proposition
and who may now intend in that same
nronositjOn. accentuated. to follow
Roosevelt. They can thus find 1t log
ical to loin up with Walter Elliot ana
his fellOw-reyiyers of the BRUSH
eighteenth century in turning the
whole world once more into vast
struggle between contending diplomats
fer swelling the exports Of the pugna-
CiOus manufacturers and merchants
of their several ambitious and COM
petitiVe countries.
We shall find the British stanchly
IN the field ahead Of US. 1 noticed IN
London last Summer that at that
time they had already concluded at
least six of these reciprocal trade
treaties" for restoring" international
trade by taking it away from some
body else. They had agreed. for in
stance. to take 1875 900 hundredWelghts
of butter per annum from Sweden. III
return for which Sweden had agreed
to do a little forgetting of German
coal and of French coal and to take
at least At per cent of all its coal I'M
ports from British coal-miner owners.
We now are beginning to have a
surplus of butter in the United States.
Secretary of Agriculture Wallace is
frightfully concerned about 1t. Mr.
Wallace is also vehemently interested
in international trade and in the find
ing of foreign markets for our surplus
agricultural commodities. 1t is for our
diplomats now accordingly to go to
the diplomats of Britain and say:
we, too, are coming into this re
ciprocal trade treaty game. The new
law under which we are doing it pro-
vides not only for treaties to change
tariff duties. but also for treaties to
fix quantities of importations. Why
do you take so much butter from
Sweden? Also, why have you en-
gagged to take so much butter-2 ,300,-
900 hundredWeights of it per annum-
from Denmark? We Americans are
buying quite a lot Of British Woolen
cloths. We could buy more of them,
And-don't ever forget tive could
buy less of them. Which do you
want us to do? Our advice to you is
to ease the SCandinavianS down a bit
and to give a chance to the Dairy
mems League of New York, which has
been making life miserable for us III
the State Department on this very
point What do you say? How can
you get loose a bit from your Scan
dinaYian treatieS?"
That statement is an altogether
faithful summary of the tendencies
which the approaching reciprocal"
commercial diplomatic negotiations
must show. Every trade interest III
the United States, instead of lobbying
on Capitol Hill, will lobby in the State
Department; and every American dip
lomat everywhere will be intriguing
to take a consignment of butter or
some other commodity away from
every foreign diplomat. Why call it
beautiful? Why not come down to
earth and call it simply inevitable?
For the moment.
(Copyripbt 1Oy1