The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1939-05-04

There is no doubt but what we
will reach the As billion debt limit
fixed by law within the next 1S
months. Then it will be necessary
for Congress to raise the ante. We
may not know where we are going
but we are all painfully aware OF
the fact that we are on our way.
Thinking In Circles
1 have before me a copy of a
| speech delivered recently by L. r.
Edminster, Special Assistant to the
Secretary of State, before the Lea
que OF Women Voters in Chicago,
which contains some remarkable
observations on the question of
protection. He points out that Of
the so million persons gainfully
employed in the United States
nearly cne-half are in the service
industry, such as transportation,
wholesale and retail trade, public
utilities, hotels, professional ser
vices, etc, and therefore are not
affected either way by tariffs. Mr..
minister's attention should be cali
ed to the fact that the % million
engaged in service industries are
dependent upon the other IS mil
lion for their livelihood and as
these are directly dependent upon
the tariff for security it follows
that all so million have the same
interest. Mr.. Edminster failed to
acquaint his audience with the fact
that we import, enormous quanti-
ties of products that we cannot
produce at home, such as coffee
tea, spices, rubber, chromium and
other items, the total of which
runs into the hundreds of millions
of dollars. He also might have
called their attention to the fact
that sixty-odd per cent Of all items
mentioned in the tariff law are on
the free list. Someone should call
Mr.. administers attention to the
testimony recently given by Cover
nor Winship of Puerto Rico, and
DR.. Gruening, Chief of the Insular
Bureau. AS beth of these gentle
men were appointed by President
Roosevelt, I assume thy are friend
ly to the New Deal. Here is a por-
ton of DR.. Gruening's testimony:
Mr.. Knutson: Let me ask you
this: Have any of the reciprocal
trade agreements we have made
been felt in Puerto Rico?
DR.. Gruening: Yes, sir, they
have.
Mr.. Knutson: Which enc?
DR.. Gruening: The Cuban treaty
in particular; the British treaty
and the Swiss treaty.
Mr.. Knutson: I would be glad
If you will give us a few details.
DR.. Gruening: Puerto Rico had a
flourishing pineapple industry and
we were all very much pleased with
this industry. because it had all
the factors that a crop needed in
Puerto Rico, uniquely so; it COM
peted with no crop en- the Ameri-
can mainland or Territorial mar
ket-it didn't even compete with
the Hawaiian pineapple. which is
of a different type and used for
canning-Puerto Rico's was a crop
of fresh pineapple and sold chiefly
along the Atlantic seaboard. It had
the second advantage that it was
hurricane-proof. A crop like cof-
fee, if a hurricane hits it, is not
merely lost for that year but for
several years-other crops are al
so injured by hurricanes, but pine
apples are hurricane proof. 1t is a
small mans crop. A fellow could
go out and grow pineapples on
half an acre or on 1 or 2 acres, so
that 1t was desirable, both eco
nomically and socially. In the Gu
ban Treaty the differential was so
lowered that the Puerto Rican
pineapple industry is being put out
of business.