The times-news., 1937-11-02
NEWSPAPERS OPINIONS
THE FARMER AND THE TARIFF

The secretary of state Mr. Hull, tells Senator
Arthur Capper, of Kansas, that farmers are about
the last group in the United States that should OPP
pose" reciprocal trade agreements and that it is
preposterous to charge that the program is dis
guised method of selling out the farmer for the
benefit of eastern manufacturers Mr.. Hull says
that there has been "a deliberate intent to ALLEVIATE
public. and particularly farm, support by means of
an incomplete and biased presentation of trade
figures"
Without discussing all the factors affecting farm
prices it must be evident that such figures fail to
square with the fantastic notion that farmers have
been sold down the river by this administration,
either through its tariff policies otherwise. On
the contrary, what they suggest, and what is the
actual fact is that the real sellout occurred when
the Smoot-Hawley act was passed. That was the
time when agriculture received the real body-blow
from which this administration has sought for the
past FIVE years, with marked success, to rescue it"
Agricultural imports, Mr.. Hull emphasizes, are
chiefly of commodities not produced in the United
States, among which tea, coffee, cocoa, beans,
rubber, silk bananas and spices. They have no
proper place in order to swell the total of agri-
cultural imports and thus excite unwarranted ap
prehension the part of uncritcal observers, in
stad of being hurtfu, they are well-nigh indispen-
sable; and yet they are paraded as injurious inn
ports"
Mr.. Hull blames the droughtS for some Of the
imports, omitting any mention of the politics of
the AAA which destroyed seeming surpluses and
paid for stuffs which were not produced. In the
circumstances he is right in saying that "such inn
ports in no sense dspace the products of American
farms They supplement the domestic supply. They
relieve shortages of feedstuffs which could not
Dtba ho Nod ip,nn incl
wheat, wheat flour, folders and feeds, meat prod
ucts, barley, barley malt tallow and butter.
These trade agreements to which Senator Cap
per is opposed are in the way of reducing some of
the Smoot-Hawley tariff schedules. The Roosevelt
administration was committed to revising the tar
if downward. 1t has been using the soft pedal on
this issue and has virtually adopted the law which
was signed by Herbert Hoover Notwithstanding
great storm of protests. The tariff is not in the
interest of agriculture, but of industry. The farm
er pays higher prices for all the manufactured
goods and wares he buys because of the tariff
Here in the South the operations of the Smoot-
Hawley tariff have been particularly unfair.
Against trickle of benefits has been and is a
stream of wrongs
When the SMOOTH Hawley schedules were an
ranged, it was said by the Hoover regime that the
revsions were in protection of American agricul-
ture The contrary is the fact, for goods and wares
farmers must purchase have been and are costlier,
Goods and wares made in foreign countries must
hurdle the high traiff wall before they can COM
pete in the domestic markets. The result is that
the southern farmer is compelled to pay double,
triple, quadrupe. Whatever increase in his income
is swallowed by the higher prices of the goods and
wares he obtains, trade agreements are in the way
of aiding the farmer, but they do not 20 far
enough The Roosevelt administration fears to re-
wise the tariff downward. 1t seeks to hold support
among benefcaries of the high tarf.-Charleston
News and Courier.