Evening star., 1940-01-10
A Way to Peace


gret and concern the political storm
which is blowing up around the pro-
posal to renew the reciprocal trade
agreements program which will ex-
pire on June IL unless legislation
authorizing its continuance is en-
acted in the interim. In making a
decision of this kind there is no
place for partisan politics, no room
for the manifestations of narrow
sectionalism which have character
lied some of our tariff policies in the
past. It is a determination which
calls for craftsmanship of the high
est order, and if the Congress fails
to meet this requirement-if it does
not look beyond the selfish argu-
ments of special interest groups-it
will have rendered disservice to this
country and to the world at large
which will have evil consequences
for many years to come.
When Secretary of State Hull goes
before the House Ways and Means
Committee tomorrow to open the
case for renewal of the Trade Agree
ments Act. which authorizes the
President to raise or lower tariff du-
ties by so per cent, his principal
thesis will be that the United States
must buy from other countries if it
expects to sell its own products to
them. In effect, he will say that this
country must sacrifice its present
standards of living if it intends to
draw apart from the other nations
of the world behind insurmountable
tariff barriers and pursue the will O.
the wisp of economic autarchy.
Mr.. Hull will be prepared to show,
In terms of dollars and cents, that
the Nation as whole has benefited
from the nineteen trade agree
ments now in effect, even though
some producers may have suffered
minor disadvantages. This national
gain may be illustrated best by re-
viewing briefly the history of the
past ten years. When the Hawley-
Smoot Tariff Act was passed in 1880
our foreign trade volume stood at
$e,OOO,0O0 1000. Two years later it had
dropped almost to one-third that
figure. The high rates of the 1880
tariff were not wholly responsible
for this decline but certainly they
played an important part in it, and
there can be no doubt but that this
impairment of our foreign trade
served to deepen and intensity the
depression.
For five years Secretary Hull has
struggled to regain our lost export
import business, and by the end Of
1888 it had climbed back to the five
billion dollar level. The precise in
fuence of the trade agreements In
this recovery cannot be estimated
but it is significant that during the
1878 period exports from the
United States to countries with
which we had trade agreements
showed an increase of 61.2 per cent
against an increase of only 37.9 per
cent in exports to non-trade-agree-
ment countries. In this connection,
when critics of the trade agreements
program charged recently that the
farmer was being injured through
loss of his home markets, Mr.. Hull
responded by pointing out that
$3.50, O,0O0,O 900 of the $7s5, ,OO0, 900 Of $50
called agricultural" imports during
the first nine months of 1899 con-
sisted of such non-competitive prod
ucts as coffee, rubber, cocoa beans,
silk, tea and bananas. On the basis
of this showing, it must be conceded
that the customarily mild-mannered
Secretary had considerable justifica-
ton for his observation, Never was
a more palpable and insidious
falsehood perpetrated on our farm
people"
But the benefit to our own econ
omy is not the only important rea.
son for renewing the reciprocal trade
program.
America must look forward to tht
day when the present European war
so largely an outgrowth of narrow
nationalistic trade policies, will b'
over. When that time of reconstruc'
ton arrives, the United States ma!
well be the only important power II
a position to lend effective influence
to the establishment of a sound ane
enduring peace. If the experience
of the past twenty-five years prove
anything, it is that peace worth!
Of the name must be predicated OF
the resumption Of friendly trad'
relations among the nations of tn
world, and the Hull trade program
with its emphasis on the lowering o
tariff barriers and equality Of treat
ment for all nations, is the one hope
full move which has been made IL
that direction.
The Hull program Is not panace'