Show tariffs 0 am have their ups and downs geneva trade agreements to affect world commerce by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator washington recently there have been rumblings from congress reminiscent of the old smooth hawley days it was the warning from senator milliken rep colo and representative knutsen rep minn that the vie reciprocal trade agreements act would have a lot of strings attached to too it when it comes up for renewal next year it if that means that tariffs are raised again history will be repeating itself As the amusing illustration in this column reveals the gentlemen have been busy building up and tearing down the tariff wall ever since 1913 what will the next section of the vall all built after 1940 took look like the reciprocal trade drawn up at the recent geneva con ference which re suited in a num ber of slashes in important duties and inspired the knutsen and mil ham statements brought forth an even louder blast from the amen can tariff league at the present writing however there does not appear to be any where near the baukhage strength of sent senti ment in favor of building up the tariff wall that there was when the smoot hawley act raised it to an all time high 47 per cent in 1930 from the time of the civil war the tariff wall had grown almost every time congress acted 0 then came woodrow wilson who demanded that the country be set tree 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 37 per cent to 27 per cent was his answer under harding they went up about 35 per cent reaching an all time high un der hoover it has been an exciting con test although cordell hull lull as ag secretary of state managed with roosevelt prestige to pull them down again they were st 11 II I 1 per cent higher than the ford ney mccumber act raised tl em under harding arding II under lie the agree ments negotiated by secret iry try hull our exports increased hut put foreign competition for varl various ous reasons did not take advantage of the situation to any great ex tent there was no avalanche of 6 cheap foreign goods I 1 to con 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 vacates had to resort to all sorts of means to get a hearing because they were backed by no special interests their chent client was the vague and anonymous american consumer the high tariff 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 k number and geographically diverse industries fighting for protection for their particular product enough special interests needed enough help from other special in teresta so that log rolling was easy there was usually a majority for everybody a gismo that is why the only practical way trade agree ments merits can be reached at all is to have them negotiated like any other international agreement through the state department which has no reg onal strings to tie it down bight right now the consumer is being heard beard from in no uncertain terms and any argument for lower prices wins a hearing that is evidenced by the speed with which congress tackled the anti inflation suggestions presented both by the president in his mes sage of november 17 calling tor for a 10 point program and those offered by senator flanders of vermont and other republicans despite considerable influential opposition the democrats took for or granted that at least four out of the president presidents s ten points had a good chance to be adopted in fact one authority to ration certain foods al ready had been suggested by a be re can senator flanders none of these points involves tariff cuts however and those cuts already made under the geneva agreement are still largely academic because most foreign countries arent aren t in a position now to produce tor 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 its most enthusiastic backers charged that it had not been pushed hard enough that the state department had not used all of the power which it had for tear fear of arousing the animosity which would cause its repeat repeal at present those favoring a freer flow of trade are in a better position to urge their cause because it Is evi dent that we cannot continue to give supplies to europe under a relief program or to lend money tor for the purchase of our goods unless we en courage europeans to sell to us otherwise they 11 land right back where they are now even il if they build up their industries so they are able to produce goods unless they can sell some of those goods they won t have the dollars to pay back what they owe and buy our goods that Is why warnings that strings may be attached to the act have an ominous sound strings would mean either limitation on the amounts by which tariffs can be lowered through reciprocal trade agreements or removal of author ity to make reductions without the approval of congress of the lar item involved that would start log rolling again put an end to our foreign trade and have us back tak tog ing in each others other s washing for a living worlds prosperity hangs in balance what happens to the as yet un built section of the wall of the draw ing will affect the entire setup set up of world trade it can make all the work of the international conference on world trade and employment go for nothing and destroy any benefits derived from a successful european relief plan the 62 nations now gathered at the trade conference in cuba represent countries doing about 95 per cent of the world s trade ard the interesting thing Is that although russia and most of her satellites refused to attend two of the countries under the innis ence of moscow finland aad and czechoslovakia did turn up thereby hangs bangs a tale jt it is be lieveld by some keen observers that despite all efforts to kill the european recovery plan the soviet un ion knows very well that if it works it may be to her selfish interests to get on the bandwagon at least to the extent of lifting the iron curtain high enough to get some of the much needed goods from western europe under it and the way that could be managed would be to have some of the soviet a friendly coun tries in on any advantageous trade deals that might be made western europeans say that this would be the most effective way to break down the communist grip on these countries meanwhile it Is realized in washington that this country cannot carry out its far flung foreign policy unless that policy is sold harder than communist propaganda Is selling its brand of good salesmanship begins at home and a lot of salesmanship is needed right here I 1 rode down on the trolley with a very intelligent secretary to a congressman who said to me I 1 wish I 1 knew what the marshall plan was all about president urges savings bonds speaking of salesmanship the president is believed to have given the green light on an intensified sale of one of the important anti inflation mation measures recommended in his speech when he said another effective weapon against inflation is increased savings by the public every dollar that is saved instead of spent Is a dollar fighting against inflation in order to encourage additional savings the government should intensify its vigor ous efforts to sell savings bonds |