Evening star., 1934-02-25
BY WILLIAM HARD.
RESENTIY we may need another
Woodrow Wilson to abolish

secret diplomacy in the do
L ings of the worlds national
trade authorities and in the
Cioings also of the worlds natlonal
monetary authorities.
President Roosevelt hopes soon to
feel bold enough to request Congress
10 clothe him with power to move
tariff duties up and down strongly
and abruptly in accordance with the
needs of the present inceSSant battle
between all commercial nations for
more foreign trade The idea, on its
surface, is for international CO.
operation" and reciprocal trade
treaties" and the expansion of inter
national commercial intercourse" At
bottom and in practice the idea is
essentially combative.
Foreign Action Rapid.
The French government and many
other governments are nowadays so
organized that they can think of
new tariff duty at midnight, decree it
at 3 am. and put 1t into application
at dawn Then the American apples
which arrive at Cherbourg hour
after dawn will pay higher and an
unexpected entrance tax.
It is thought that We ought to be
able to be equally smart and prompt.
No more of these long -winded con-
gressional debates on tariff duties! No
more of these tedious hearings on tariff
duties before the Tariff Commission!
Give the President power and let him
delegate the power to new dis
cretionary bureau, with an omnipotent
administrator" at the head of it, and
then let that administrator keep an
eye on the French If they refuse to
be good, and if they insist upon being
cruel to our apples. why, the admins
traitor, in the middle of some dark
night, will totally exclude from this
country all French laces with mesheS
less than seven-eighths of an inch in
diameter.
He will also Immediately open ne
gotiations here with the Belgian Am
bassador for the purpose of getting
our laces hereafter from the friendly
factories of the Belgian cities. This
will accomplish two things. First, it
will make the French feel bad. Second,
it will stir up a row between the
French and the Belgians.
War Is On.
The argument for it all is that all
the European countries are now doing
1t and therefore we must do it, too.
A grand war is on. The thing to do
Is to join it.
Thus in the name of progress we
60 right back to where the world was
a century ago. In the year of 1926 Mr.
George Canning as foreign minister OF
Great Britain, sent dispatch in code
to Sir Charles Bagot, British Minister
to the Netherlands Bagot spent a
whole hour deciphering it and then
discovered that it consisted of the
following light, but emphatic verses:
"In matters of commerce the fault
Of the Dutch
Is Offering too little and asking too
much.
The French are with equal advan-
tage content.
30 we clap on Dutch bottoms just
twenty per cent"
The idea in such maneuvers is as
old as time. By progressing toward
them we could easily advance at last
into the days of the Pharoahs. And
always and everywhere that sort of
trade diplomacy is conducted in the
midst of dense secrecy. The arbi-
trary trade authority which is about
to lift or lower a tariff duty let's you
know nothing about it beforehand 1t
contends that the whole strength of
its blow would be lost if the recipient
of the blow were to know that it was
coming. The strategy is exactly that
of war The attack must be prepared
secretly and it must surprise the
enemy.
This is the whole basic reason
throughout the world for transferring
more and more of tariff making
authority from the legislative branch
to the executive. The executive can
act more secretly, more suddenly, more
belligerently.
Causes Of Wars
Yet it is perfectly we'll known-and
always has been-that trade between
countries is in and of itself one of
the great causes of wars Woodrow
Wilson stated publicly and plainly
that the late great war was in its
origin a commercial war. He was
preceded bit in such analytical ef-
forts by Socrates. Socrates says in
Platos Republic that the sea is the
cause of wars. 1t is the cause of wars
because cities built on the sea get
readily into trade with one another,
and the trade between them develops
into wars.
This being so. if Woodrow Wilson
were alive today, he would certainly
be sorry that he contented himself
with driving secret diplomacy" out of
the conclaves of political diplomats.
He would surely endeavor to drive it
also out of the conclaveS-and
bureaus-of our commercial diplomats.
1t is they who are infinitely more
dangerous to the world than any OF
the diplomats who discuss only politi-
cal questions. Nations do not fight
any longer about mere politics. They
fight about bread and butter.
At the same time it is idle to try to
oppose the erection in each country
of a single decisive tariff authority.
Economic circumstances have forced
each country into being an economic
unit in an unprecedented sense. No
American political party will ever
again be able to break the United
States back into being as many
economic units as it has States or as
many economic units as it has banks
or as many economic units as it has
industries The country has become
one and it will remain one. 1t is
logical therefore that it should have
a tariff authority that can hurl its
united strength in a given desired
direction.
Let that be granted Let it also
be granted that we probably presently
shall have a supreme national mon
etary authority with amazing and
prodigious powers not only of ma
tional, but of international action for
good or for evil.
Representative Goldsborough Of
Maryland has introduced a bill-H r.
7l57-which is the dawn of that de-
velopment. 1t is entitled "a bill to
establish a Federal monetary author
ity and to control the currency of the