Evening star., 1940-01-11

strictly limited In both scope and
duration. am glad at this time
to report on the manner In which
we, who have been intrusted by the
Congress with a difncult and re-
sponsible task, have sought to per-
form it.
vi.
I should now like to turn to
another aspect of the problem.
There are some who claim that we
have gone too far in tariff adjust
ment in cur efforts to expand trade.
There are others who think that
we have not gone far enough. To
all such critics I would say that
they have failed to take into con-
sideration all the various and COM
phcated aspects Of the problem.
There Is nothing paradoxical In my
statement that the duty adjust
ments we have made have not been
such as to prejudice the interests
of our domestic producers and yet
have been sufficiently attractive to
other countries to enable them to
grant us valuable concessions for
our exports. Many of the COM
modities with respect to which duty
adjustments have been made are Of
a type of which we do not produce
quantities sufficient for our needs,
Notwithstanding that we have long
imposed extremely high tariffs on
most of them. Again, many i'm
ported commodities are so different
in grade, quality, price. or marketing
season from commodities produced
in this country that reasonable re-
ductions of existing duties on them
help foreign producers and benefit
our consumers without hurting our
producers. All of these imports,
while being useful and beneficial
to our people, provide otr foreign
customers with the means of paying
for our burdensome surpluses.
This situation is frequently con-
fused by the use of misleading
slogans designed to deceive us into
a disastrous policy of complete en-
bargoes which would destroy both
our foreign and our domestic mar
kets. The size of the American
market depends upon the Nations
purchasing power, which, in turn,
depends upon the volume of business
activity-that is to say, farm pro-
duction. factory production, employ
ment and all the other factors
which create the Nations purchas-
ing power. There is a direct and
unmistakable connection between
business activity and the volume of
exports. Our cotton belt, our to-
bacco belt, our wheat belt, our corn
hog industry, our fruit and vegetable
growers, our lumber producers, our
machine manufacturers and many
other branches of our production
cannot prosper unless they have
adequate foreign markets for their
surplus output. Deprive them of
such markets and their purchasing
power shrinks and with it the whole
Nations purchasing power declines
Finding Middle Ground
Is Crux of Effort.
Let me cite again the cases of
dairy products and of cattle. The
dairy industry supplies over SO per
cent of the domestic market. The
cattle industry supplies from 95 to
SO per cent of the domestic market.
Under system of complete embar-
goes, these two industries would
have 100 per cent of the home mar
ket, but it would be vastly reduced
market, disorganized and shrunken
as result of the destruction Of
purchasing power In the hands of
the exporting industries and the
consequent curtailment of the Ma
tion's purchasing power.
Under a system OF complete en-
bargoes, we would take out of call-
tivation four times as many acres
as we could put into cultivation by
attempting to produce the agricul-
tural commodities We now import.
That, as Secretary Wallace once
said, would be like trading dollars
for quarters.
To be sure, there would be no sense
at all in our going to the other ex-
treme and throwing our domestic
market open to foreign competition
without any regard to the effects of
such action upon our domestic pro-
ducers. There is a middle ground
between these two extremes. There
is a way of clearing the underbrush
Of excessive protectionism and, in
the process, stimulating rather than
impairing the healthy growth of our
national economic activity for the
good of all of its parts.
That is the crux of our effort. It
requires caution and infinite care.
Our task is to correct the errors of
the past without producing new dis
locations. Our aim is to pave the
way for expansion and progress, not
to tear down what must be preserved
if expansion and progress are to be
made possible.
VII.
It is necessarily slow process. In
q u,orld hoo doI Ct 40 div IN tba 1irar.