Evening star., 1940-02-26


abnormal situation and calculated
to aid In bringing about conditions
IN which . permanent policy would
become feasible.
Grave emergency conditions. re-
sulting from the tragic errors Of the
past, existed In many phases Of life
here and abroad. The trade and
other economic policies Of the Pc
riod following the World War were
in effect, instruments Of intense
and destructive economic warfare
Largely under their influence, there
occurred growing weakening OF
social stability within nations and
an ominous deterioration OF inter-
national morality and Of political
relations among nations. There was
no hope Of arresting these fatal
trends, unless friendly and mutually
beneficial trade relations were tc
supplant the existing system OF
economic warfare.
The trade agreements program
enabled us not only to promote
directly our domestic recovery
through an expansion of our for
eign commerce, but also to take q
position Of leadership In efforts to
check the spread Of suicidal eco-
nomic nationalism and to build q
firm foundation for the kind of in
ternational trade relations which
are indispensable to the mainte-
nance of enduring peace-without
which there can be no sustained
prosperity for our Nation, or any
nation.
1t was not to be anticipated that
the immense task involved could be
accomplished overnight. The de-
structive forces released by the dis
astrous policies Of the past were too
powerful to be overcome easily or
swiftly. Substantial progress in this
direction was made since 1894. That
progress has been interrupted by the
outbreak OF new widespread wars.
Whether what has already been ac-
complished will be completely wiped
out or whether it will, after the
termination Of hostilities, serve as q
foundation and a powerful impetus
for further progress will depend, in
decisive measure, upon what our
country does now.
Says No Substitute Offered
But Smoot- HawIey Regime.
Most of those who oppose the ex-
tension Of the Trade Agreements Act
propose no substitute for it, except q
return-open or disguised-to the
Hawley- -Smoot regime. That would
be where we would find ourselves If
the act were permitted to lapse or If
its effectiveness were to be destroyed
by the adoption of Gripping amend
ments.
It requires no imagination, but
only recollection of what happened
under the Hawley-Smoot Act in
1930-1932, to visualize what would be
the result Of return to a policy of
virtual embargoes and attempted
self-containment at any cost. Our
people are not likely to forget how,
10 years ago, the proponents Of ever
higher tariffs made solemn promises
to the farmers, to the workmen, to
the businessmen. to the Nation as
a whole, that increasing prosperity
would follow the prohibitive tariff
schedules which they were placing
on our statute books-nor how those
prumises were fulfilled In bank
ruptcy for the farmer, In staggering
unemployment for labor, In q COL
lapse Of prices and values for the
businessman, in distress and despair
for the entire Nation. Our people
are not likely to forget the contri-
button which the enactment of the
1890 tariff made to the intensifica-
ton Of economic warfare among
nations, to the growth Of trade bar
riers, to vicious spirals of resent
ment, ill will and retaliation.
Other opponents of the trade
agreements program are putting
forward proposals which, in the
guise of an allegedly more realis-
tic" approach to the whole prob
lem of foreign trade, would go be-
yond the extremes of the Hawley-
Smoot policy and would commit this
country to the use of exchange con-
trolls, quotas and all the other de-
vices which in recent years have
disrupted ard retarded international
trade. To abandon the trade-agree-
ments program and to substitute
for it system of this kind would
be to destroy the only policy which
In recent years has offered effective
resistance to spread Of these de-
structive practices. It would he
equivalent to committing our Ma
ton to course of far-reaching
economic regimentation, since the
experience of other nations shows
clearly that, in an effort to make
extreme trade controls function
effectively, regimentation has to be
constantly extended to other phases
Of business activity and of economic
life in general. It would be Z
starkly realistic approach. not to an
effective promotion Of our foreign
trade, but to governmental control
over business activity on . scale
never before attempted in this coun-
try and to policy Of plunging this
country into destructive economic
warfare-from which no nation ever
emerges the gamer.
Trade Avoids "Strait- Jacket
OF Government Control.
The trade agreements program
has enabled us to expand our for
eign trade without subjecting It to
the strait-jacket Of extreme Gov
ernment control. Under it, our
trade has increased far more
markedly than that OF any other
of the commercially important ma
tions.
The program has been devised and
carried out as means Of creating
conditions in which free enterprise
can function most effectively. Re-
version to q policy of extreme pro-
tectionism or substitution for the
trade-agreements program Of 4
policy under which We would adopt
all the instruments Of economic
warfare that have been 20 disas-
trously prevalent In the recent past,
would not onlv viuA ot,t mr. reranf