Arizona sun., 1947-12-12

WIlGIS ucdI Il4S
p.,,L strength of senti-
ment in favor of
building up the tariff wall that there
was when the Smoot- -Hawley act
raised it to an an-time high (47 per
cent? in $780,
From the time of the Civil war the
tariff wall had grown almost every
time congress acted.
Then came Woodrow Wilson who
demanded that the country be set
free from conditions he thought
made monopoly not only possible.
but easy and natural" The Under
wood law which brought the import
duties down from 81 per cent to q
per cent, was his answer. Under
Harding they went up about IS per
cent, reaching an all-time high un-
der Hoover.
II has been an exciting con-
test. Although COrdell Hull as
secretary of state managed,
with Roosevelt prestige, to pull
them down again, they were still
per cent higher than the Ford
ney-McCumber act raised them
under Harding. Under the agree
ments negotiated by Secretary
Hull, our exports increased, but
foreign competition for various
reasons did not take advantage
of the situation to any great ex-
tent. There was no avalanche of
"cheap foreign gOOds'' to cOp-
tend with.
The Democrats in the pre-Wilson
era always were banging away on
this issue and there were many
colorful debates. The low tariff ad-
vocates had to resort to all sorts of
means to get hearing because they
were backed by no special interests.
Their "client" was the vague and
anonymous American consumer.
The high-tarif pleaders were able
to present their cases armed with
the best legal talent available, whole
libraries of statistics and a thorough
knowledge of the particular indus
tries they represented. And they had
another great advantage in the
number and geographically diverse
industries fighting for protection for
their particular product.
Enough special interests needed
enough help from other special in
q terests so that log rolling was easy
there was usually majority for
everybody's gismo. That is why the
only practical way trade agree
ments can be reached at all is to
have them negotiated like any other
international agreement, through
the state department, which has no
regional strings to tie it down.
Right now the consumer is being
heard from in no uncertain terms,
and any argument for lower prices
wins hearing.
That is evidenced by the speed
with which congress tackled the
,anti-inhation suggestions presented
both by the President in his mes
sage Of November II calling for a
10-point program and those offered
by Senator Flanders of Vermont and
other Republicans.
Despite considerable influential
opposition. the Democrats took for
granted that at least four out of the
Presidents ten points had a good
chance to be adopted. In fact one,
authority to ration certain foods, al
ready had been successfully Re-
publican-Senator Flanders.
None of these points involves
tariff cuts, however, and those
outs already made under the
Geneva agreement are. still
largely academic because most
foreign countries aren't in a
position now to produce for ex-
port to any great extent.
Next session we can expect them
to be debated.
So far there have been almost as
many complaints from supporters
of the reciprocal trade agreements
act as from its opponents. It's most
enthusiastic hackers charged that it
had not been pushed hard enough,
that the state department had not
used all of the power which it had
for fear of arousing the animosity
which would cause its repeal.
At present, those favoring freer
now of trade are In better position
to urge their cause because it Is evil
dent that We cannot continue to give