Evening star., 1936-06-06

nunc1atory phrases.
Some of the proposed platforms are
q curious hodge podge of invective and
exhortation The amateurs have some
good ideas but the professionals will
have to rewrite them into platform
English"
There are aspects of these proposed
platforms which touch fundamentals
Hidden away in a phrase here and
there is whole campaign issue. Thus
one of the drafts which is said to be
favorably considered by the Republi-
can high command insists that reci-
procity treaties shall be made only with
Legislative approval"
Reinstates Logrolling.
This means a return to logrolling
and old-fashioned Republican tariff
methods. Actually the Republicans
who are insisting on legislative ap-
proval are reversing the position taken
under the Coolidge and Hoover admin
istrations when through the flexible
tariff provisions the Executive was
authorized to proclaim tariff rates with
foreign countries without getting fur
ther approval from the legislative
body.
More important, however, than the
Republican, precedent for delegating
the tariff task within limits to an ex-
ecutive department is the fact that
foreign countries take advantage of
the United States because of this very
provision requiring legislative approval.
Foreign governments, knowing of con-
gressional hesitancy to reopen tariff
laws because of the log-rolling, and
knowing, too, that Congress is not
In session many months of the year,
suddenly proclaim new tariff duty
and the American Government is pow
erless to meet the situation if legisla-
tive approval is required 1t seems in
credible that the Republicans would
be so far out of step with the world
situation as to insist on legislative ap-
proval of reciprocity agreements when
all the other governments of the world
have attained flexibility through dele
CATION of the tariff making and rate
adjusting power to an executive agency
instead of the legislative.
secrecy CrltlcIZed.
There are, of course, many Repub-
hcans who quarrel with the method by
which the trade agreements have been
negotiated by the Department of State.
Criticism Is heard, for instance, on the
ground that producers are not notified
IN advance and that they get their in
formation more quickly through foreign
government channels than they do
through their own Government here.
Whatever there is to this argument,
and undoubtedly any system of negoti-
alton Is unfair when one party leaks, |
the fact remains that improvements |
in the method of negotiation are de- |
sirable If they do not defeat the pur-
pose and undesirable if they mean an |
opportunity for special interests to de-
feat the trade agreement through log
tolling on Capitol Hill.
The old method was secrecy in the |
Ways and Means Committee of the |
House and only the special interests |
that maintained good pipe lines" to
the committees knew in advance and |
could prepare their lobbieS for par
ticular rates. whereas the producers
who could not afford to do so were
usually left out in the cold. The new
method whereby the Department of
State announces that trade agree
ment with certain country is to be
negotiated puts the industries or busi-
ness affected on notice that all trade
relationships with that country are up
for consideration and that briefs will
be received
Difficult Plank.
Under the system in vogue at the
Tariff Commission during Republican
administrations, the matter ended |
when hearings were closed. AS matters
stand now in the negotiation of reci-
procity agreements, the interested pro-
ducers may send in information and |
keep in touch with the Department of |
States Interdepartmental Committee |
up to the last stages of the negotiation
of an agreement.
The tariff plank is going to be diff
cult one to write if the unreconciled |
isolationists have their way. There
are Republicans who march up the hill |
every year with the same song and
forget that there are any other groups
or sections Of the country who could be
enlisted under the party banner.
The Republican national convention
Is going to have lot of discussion on
platform and debate on the floor and
1t seems probable that cut-and-dried
restatement of Republican doctrine is
not going to attract independents or
anti-New Deal Democrats in the elec-
torate. Judging by some of the plat
forms such as that offered by the group
of New York Republican clubs, there
Is recognition this year that things
are to be different. 1t remains to be
seen, however, how much influence
these progressive and realistic forces
inside the Republican party are going
to have on the final platform that
emerges from the Cleveland conven-