Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-07-23
Fact And Opinion
What it Will do to America.
BY E. G.. Stengelsen.

1HcIc ScSlllS W US HlOIc VI lSSs
unanimous agreement, among those
who are suggesting plans for the
postwar world, that if there is to
be an end of wars, there must be al
least substantial lowering, if not
complete removal, of tariff walls
between nations.
It is urged that tariffs are unnat-
ural and artificial restraints, which
impede and hamper the free flow of
trade, resulting in conditions which
lead the countries most adversely
affected to seek relief through war.
Whatever may be the merits of
this claim, it is at least heartening
to see that there is an earnest at
tempt to think through to basic
causes.
1t is not only heartening, but un-
usual. Invariably, during past wars,
each side-and we have been no ex-
ception-has claimed that it was
fighting wholly for idealistic reasons.
1t was only after peace had come
that people gradually realized that
the war just ended had been like all
other wars in that it had come about
through economic clauses.
There is probably little doubt that
tariffs are, in large measure re-
sponsible for what is happening. Had
every manufacturer and every pro-
Queer had competitive equality with
all other manufacturers and pro-
ducers in every market of the world,
the series of aggressions we have
seen might not have taken place.
Had the manufacturers of Ham
burg, Berlin, Breslau and Stuttgart,
for example, had competitive equal
ity with the manufacturers of Chi
cago, New York, Detroit and Phila-
delphia in Americas mid-western
market-had they had equality with
all other manufacturers selling with
in all other areas previously pro-
tected-the Nazi's "New Order" in
Europe would probably have found
little following in Germany and there
would have been no march into
Poland.
But while the problem is thus fair
ly clear, the application of remedies
is by no means SO easy as our plan
ners seem to think.
1t is simple enough to say, Ere
move tariff barriers and end wars"
and it is easy to see how this would
vastly benefit such nations as Ger
many, Italy and Japan, which have
an unbalanced economy. But it is
not so easy to figure out how this
could be brought about without SER
ious hurt to other nations.
For it is very clear that for the
benefits to one group, another group
would pay penalty.
Let us take the American shoe
industry as an exmple. Let us say
that it's workers receive an average
daily wage of $500 and that labor
makes up 60 per cent of the cost
of a pair of American-made shoes.
We admit into American markets,
without tariffs or restrictions, the
shoes of Czecho-Slovakia, made by
$1.00 per day labor. What would
be the effect on the American shoe
industry?
The answer is fairly obvious. To
meet Czecho-Slovakian competition,
our manufacturing costs would have
to come down. Since labor forms
the largest part of the cost, labor
would be the chief sufferer. We
could not possibly continue main
tanning the $500 per day wage scale.
The same thing would be true of
every article in every line of man.
ufacture. We should have to meet
the competition of lower-priced pro-
ducts or go out of business.
1t cannot sensibly be argued that
tariffs are other than a hindrance
to the free exchange of goods. But
it is equally senseless to argue that
they have not been largely respon-
sible for maintaining high Amer
lean wage scale. After all, our ex-
ports have not amounted to more
than 10 per cent of our output.
If all the worlds people were en-
| joying the same standard of living
which is to say, the same wage scale
in relation to the things they buy
there would have been little argu-
ment against removal of tariff bar
riers. But they are not. There is a
vast difference between the coolie
of China and the automobile worker
of Detroit. That is a reality our
planners are not taking into account
| It is possible that if tariffs were
wiped out, it would assure a far
greater consumption of goods through
gradual increase of world buying
power. It might not matter SO much
/