Evening star., 1939-12-14
Trade Pact Policy
Threatens 10 DISRUPT
6. 0. P. Convention
Porty Is as Divided
Over Question
As Democrats

BY the Associated Press.
Almost buried in the background
of big push fof Republican har-
mony lies a pulsing difference of
opinion over reciprocal trade agree
ments-one which may be strong
enough to kick up quite a rumpus
at the party's next convention.
The Republicans are no more
united in their denunciation Of the
trade agreement policy than the
Democrats are in its support. The
tariff had ceased to be a positive
dividing line between the parties
long before the Democrats came into
power
In the old days of tariff bills, there
was a continual clamor from farm
States for better treatment. His
torically, the alignment of farm
States against high tariffs and in
dustrial States for them goes all the
way back to the first tariff bill,
passed in 1789. The complaint
throughout was that the tariffs
lifted the prices which farmers had
to pay for manufactured products
but did little or nothing toward sup
plying them with more money with
which to buy.
Hoover Promises Recalled.
The Hawley-Smoot Act, which
forms the base for the trades that
are being worked out with foreign
nations, started out to be tariff
bill which would try simply to meet
this complaint. In the middle Of
the 1928 campaign, Senator Borah,
Republican, of Idaho, got from Her
bert Hoover promise to call spe-
cial session of Congress after elec-
ton for the sole purpose Of helping
the farmer through alteration of the
tariffs and other appropriate legis-
lation.
A special session was called in
the summer of 1929 to fulfill that
promise Plans we're set to restrict
the legislation to that specific OBJ
ject.
Then the Eastern industrialists
turned on the heat Washington
swarmed with enough lobbyists to
crowd the hearing room of a later
investigating committee. The Haw-
ley-Smoot Act was the result. 1t
carried a general increase in rates,
tried to plug all gaps in the tariff
wall.
Farmer Still Complained.
At least one highly placed Re
publican has called it one of the
worst measures ever passed.
The farmer still complained that
the tariff made dear the things he
had to buy, and a domestic surplus
of farm products lessened the
amount he had to buy with.
In the present case. the arguments
have been somewhat altered, but
the underlying complaints that the
! farmer is getting less than square
break are the same. The objectors
to the trade agreements come chiefly
| from cattle and beet sugar States.
Senator Borah again is one of the
leaders of the opposition.
Yet, when ALT M. Landon was
running for President in 1886, his
criticism Of trade agreements was
not directed at the theory of lower
ing tariff barriers, but against the
method by which some Of the agree
ments had been worked out.
Farm Groups Divided.
The farm organizations them
selves are divided on the question.
OF the big three, one is opposed to
trade agreements, a second is like
warm, the third is for retention Of
the policy with perhaps slight
changes.
Three possible courses are being
discussed. One calls for fiat aban-
! donment of international trade bar
gaining and return to the old form
of tariff making The second would
have the Senate approve trade
treaties. The third would keep up
the present practice with some mod
ification of method.
A few are strongly of the opinion
that the whole business must be
held in abeyance until Europe cools
down. One prominent Republican
thinks America should hold itself
ready to help Europe to an economic
readjustment after the war, by lend
ing the gold with which to stabilize
barriers which would impede the
currencies, and by removing trade
movement of raw materials needed
by Europe.
That sounds a little like Secretary
Hull