Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1936-09-10
SEEN !!]E
HEARD
around the !.
NATIONAL
CAPITAL
d. -
By Carter Field .


should. 1t has been argued for many
years, and with apparently fawless
logic, that in order for foreigners
to buy American products, it was
absolutely essential that we should
import foreign goods. Else how
would the foreigners pay for what
they bought? ~.
No answer is apparent to that
question, and yet shrewd students
of international trade, foreign ex-
change, and all the intricate prob
lens involved, are far from being
certain that what seems to be such
an obvious two plus two equals four
will work out.
There is no doubt about one phase
of the problem. America is going
to increase her purchases of foreign
goods enormously in the next year.
She has no alternative. If there
had been no drought, it is possible
that agricultural imports might
have been less-what with the AAA
knocked out and soil erosion con-
tracts not yet firmly settled. 1t
may be that American farmers
would have produced so much more
than last year, when AAA restric-
tons applied, that last years rath-
er heavy farm imports would have
been cut. -.
r But, with not much of a surplus
left over, and with crops down to
fractions of what they should be
because of heat plus lack of rain,
the United States is going to have
to import feed for cattle, grain for
humans, and, after few months,
meat.
T For .the present the dumping on
the market Of cattle for which there
is neither feed nor drinking water
will keep the domestic supply
plentiful. Later on meat must be
imported, just as it was last year,
only more of it.
Will Test Theory
Then will come the test of this
old tariff theory on which the two
major political parties have been
debating since the days of Grover
Cleveland without either ever con-
vincing the other, theory on which
college professors and pure intel
lectuals have generally taken the
side Of the Democrats, holding that
the sensible thing to do was for
this country to produce what it
could most economically, sell that
abroad, and buy from abroad things
~ xr,oc ,,ooro ovropcix,o mn porbo rc
impossible, to produce here.
But no one ever really questioned
the Democratic statement that we
could not eat our cake and have it
too. Every one has always thought
. that in order to export we must
import. Nothing else seemed to
make sense.
Incidentally this is the theory on
which the reciprocal trade agree
ments are based. The theory seems
excellent. The difficulty, as in all
tariff matters, is in the practical
application. Naturally there is con-
siderable bitterness in certain sec
lions because of the foreign compe-
tition with local products this poll
cy involves. Lumber in the North
west, for example, f., hs
But with the whole world topsy-
turvy, two and two may not make
four any more. Any nation with a
surplus to spare, and some that cam
not really spare. it Gas when Russia
sold us wheat in the early Hoover
days and made her people do with
black bread) will sell to us.
Weird Politics
Out in Nebraska they are having
some weird politics this year. Not
that this should be so surprising in
the state which projected William
Jennings Bryan and George w. Nor
.ris into the national. political arena,
but there are some interesting new
twists to the situation.
- Most of it revolves around gen.
tleman whose name is fairly new
nationally, but who happens to be
the: Democratic nominee for United
States senator, seeking the toga now
,adorning George row. Norris. His
name is Terry McGovern Carpen-
ter, and he won the Democratic
nomination in a primary, although
his state convention seemed little inn
pressed thereby. The convention
wanted. to follow Franklin D. Roose-
Yelt and. James A. Farley, who
Thought Nebraska should return I'm
Y Gle George Norris to Washington.
80 What brings the situation to a
head right now is the public dis
cussion, started by Senator Edward
, r. Burke himself, as to whether he
should not resign as Democratic
national committeeman because he,
Burke, does not want Carpenter
elected. Burke's theory is that per-
: haps a national committeeman
should be for the whole ticket. AS
he is. not. for the whole ticket, he
wonders if he should not resign.
- But this is highly embarrassing
to Farley; chairman of the nation
al committee. For Farley is abso-
lutely with Burke in being against
Carpenter, and for the same rea-
sons.
. There used to lie just one reason
: desire for the reelection of Nor
ris-but Carpenter has not taken his
S1iphting living down. He has had