Imperial Valley press., 1937-12-17

income from our cotton and wheat
crops controls the pocket-books Of
hundreds of communities in the
South and West. Factory payrolls
dictate business activity in the
great industrial states of the North
In normal years, 40 per cent of
our cotton crop, is per cent Of our
wheat harvest. 10 per cent of our
automobile output, and Is per cent
of our office appliances are sold
across the seas.
We must export a good portion
of these products and many others
because We raise and manufacture
more than we can eat and. use.
Workers in Asia and Europe need
our surplus goods. They all have
surpluses which they must also
sell. We need their goods and we
buy them. If it were not for this
exchange of s,irpluses we would
have to cut our production to do
mestic consumption. Other coun-
tries would have to do likewise.
The obvious result would be less
goods for world workers to divide,
With corresponding lower stand
ard of living. Yet, here is simple
economic fact almost universally
forgotten today:
Workers of the world can have
more goods to divide only as more
goods are produced!
How Tariffs Hurt
uTo coll Ylart n,Ir pnt tnp cllr.
plus to Japan. She sells part of
her silk surplus to u.s. For years,
Japan has been improving her
textile machinery. BY efficient
looms and low wages, she can. un-
dersell our cloth in our own do
mestic market. She buys our cotton
So, thinks Japan. why shouldn't
we buy her textiles? But we do
not let her sell cloth to us because
it completes with our American
clothse. Hence, we put tariff on
Japanese CLOTH Japan gets angry.
She looks for new source OF raw
cotton She invades and captures
big chunks of China. China raised
2.259,000 bales of cotton in the 1885,
1886 crop year. We exported $780,
900 bales of cotton to Japan in the
l936-1937 crop year. How much
cotton will we export to Japan two
or three years from now?
Meanwhile, our cotton crop this
year is the biggest in our history.
So is the world crop. When, our
crop ran 100000 bales a year, we
exported 100000 bales of cotton
annually. This year with 18,000,00
bales, we will have sold about S.
100000 abroad What will become
of our surplus? The price has al
ready dropped from Is cents a
pound on this years crop. In ad-
dition, the new Farm Bill calls for
cutting down our acreage by pay
ing planters for not raising cot
ton. Certainly this means there
will be less for Americans to trade.
Far-Reaching Effects
Business concerns, among others
pay the. tax. They pass it, right
along to the cosumer in higher re-
tail prices. The cost OF living in
creases, forcing workers to strike
for higher wages, thus boosting
manufacturing costs. Shoe imports
increase because Czechoslovakian
shoes can now unGerSell ours
American, shoe makers secure an
increase in shoe tariffs Czechoslo-
vakia retaliates by, shifting her
American cotton purchases to an
other nation. The net result for us:
Higher. taxes, lower cotton income
increased retail prices, less factory
production, smaller payrolls. Thus
the vicious circle goes on. Each
group wants the government tC
protect it or to guarantee it against
losses.
If the American standard of liv-
ing is to continue upward, we must
make some sacrifices. Our standard
of living is actually tending down.
ward right now. We are constant
ly boosting our production costs
SO long as the output Of our. work
ers increased faster than our costs
we were safe. Today, the magical
efficiency of new machines is. no
longer able to close up the gap of
shorter hours, higher pay, and big
ger taxes! The unit output of each
worker began to slide in early 1887.
This means the standard of living
has started down-hill. To turn it
upward again. world production
must be stimulated by fostering
forein trade.
Aid To Many Products
Unravelling the snarls built up
ever the past forty years is an
almost super-human task. Yet in
spite of tremendous pressure from
American as well as foreign inter-
esus, Secretary Hull has neotiated
sixteen reciprocal trade agree
ments. He has had to fight with
every American industry to take a