| Show reciprocal trade Is vital to well being of the world by news analyst and commentator washington despite the spirited battle over extension of the reciprocal trade agreement authority nothing which even its best friends could hope to do about it would be definitive for everyone knew from the start that final action must be postponed until next year reciprocal trade agreements have been a definite part of our foreign trade policy tor for 14 years it they were of any value in the past they are of even more value now but with an election a little more than four months off and congress trying to break a log jam of legislation lengthy debate on the subject was impossible putting it backwards the necip bocal trade agreement policy is this if a country is prevented by a high tariff wall from selling to us it cant can t get the dollars to buy from us or it if the country has borrowed money from us it cant can t get the dollars to pay us back that s what hap bened after world war I 1 and the break down in foreign trade was one of md the great factors in bringing on depression but that isn t the only thing that tariff walls do they tend to force isolationism extreme nationalism on a country and behind the tariff walls as ex secretary of state cor dell hull used to say so often grow the roots of war secretary of state marshall stated that the gearhart bill would destroy the substance of the reciprocal trade theory a theory which is not only the cor ner stone of our general foreign trade policy but the principle which we have insisted must be foil followed owed by nations participating in the european recovery pro gram the secretary said that only the shadow of the original act would be preserved in the substitute bill pro posed by representative gearhart while its substance would be de stroked ed and he added I 1 th nt nc our national interests would be bet ter preserved to permit the trade agreements act to expire than to permit H HR R to be enacted he pointed out that any serious weakening of the trade agreements act at this critical period in world affairs would almost certainly be regarded by other countries not only as a surrender of our leader ship in the international economic field but as a repudiation of much that has been accomplished under our leadership in that field presumably he meant this when we agreed to the european recovery plan 11 C A one of the things we emphasized demanded in tact fact was that the countries re ceiling our aid would break down tariff barriers against each other and the rest of the world lie ile knew there t be economic recovery it if there was not a free flow of world trade even before the E CA A was ever thought of since 1934 as a matter of fact by vigorously pursuing the reciprocal idea by concluding re cipro cal trade treaties with so many countries we have then them the n with all but six or seven of the marshall plan participants we have encouraged the world to reduce tar iff walls thus it would hardly seem consistent suddenly to reveraa ourselves and go back to the old days of high tariff economic isola the measure as the house pre dented it had another drawback in the eyes of secretary marshall and supporters of bis his point of view the bill would force the president either to accept the recommendations of the federal tariff commission on ad just ments above or below a certain bracket or submit them to a con gressional gress lonal veto that sounds rea in theory but what it does is to smash absolutely the whole basis for reciprocal trade negolia tion lion anasty A nasty little joker in the meas ore lire stating that tariff commission recommendations must be made on the principle of protecting the caal interests concerned revealed tt e intent of its framers that pro vision would destroy the purpose of negotiation by removing trade agreements from the field of the general good and narrowing them down to a question of whether the particular industry is to be pro from competition th thus us not only would international relations and conditions have to be ignored entirely but broad national inter ests as hell uell secretary marshall arshall BI used strong words in criticizing this clause when he said the bill in effect makes pure protection the eole sole criterion tor for tariff action very few groups outside of the big industries which want to keep down foreign competition oppose the reciprocal trade program the great majority of the chambers of commerce are for it earl shreve national president of the chamber ot of commerce has said that any restrictions on or crippling of the trade agreements program would have very undesirable re percus discontinuance or impair ment would destroy consistency in united states policy and would undermine world confidence former can presidential cand date alfred E landon came out in favor of the three ear ex tension of the trade agreements act as urged by the administration he said that failure to extend the act would be contrary to the ican policy plank of 1944 4 frequent public opinion polls have shown that the majority of the people favor trade treaties in fact persons who know what trade treaties are vote better than eight to one to retain anem I 1 in no economic expert but all I 1 have ever read or heard about the old high protective tariff de bates hates the exper ence under the smoot hawley bill the post world war I 1 debt repudiation and depres son s on would seem to indicate that the high tariff idea should and would be dead as a dodo if not it means we spin the wheel backward to the grand old days of high tariffs which killed foreign trade mads made it impossible for for e agn countries to sell us goods and spend their money here or to pay back the money they owed us s aply to protect certain private interests this convention Is different As the republicans swing into ac tio with the greatest hope they have had for electing a president s nee nce the I 1 fth b of th s year s first voters there are a num ber of striking contrasts to be noted betic between ln this convent on in phila delph a and former GOP conclaves one b g contrast is in the size of the aud ence which actually will behold the speakers as they step forward onto the rostrum in 1940 some 10 people not actually in li the hall witnessed the convention two television cameras mir bored the scenes to a fairly select audience some of it composed of persons fortunate enough to share the hospitality of the railroad club in the same building as the hall there one could escape the sound and fury the glare of the lights the heat beat and aridity and could snack and sip in a comfortable chair this year in philadelphia the estimated television audience will be counted in the millions for net works will carry the scene to view ers from massachusetts to call cali fornia forma instead of two lonely cam eras there will ba be the pooled p ment and programming of the va rious nets but there Is a greater contrast in the republican political situa tion than in the delegates cal surroundings between today and 1940 no one who witnessed the willkie stampede can forget it was just about as unorthodox a procedure as history records tor for the candidate was chosen not in the hall nor in a smoke filled room either but out in the sticks if this I 1 to be a wireless convention the 1940 at af fair was a convention by wire A group of high pressure araa ama deurs who were no amateurs when it came to organized action was putting pressure on the big men in ever every Y community and the big men were getting to bosses or to the delegates direct by telegram and telephone the willkie ama geurs stole the show from the pro f fessio ronals nals end and the professionals swore it never would happen again it isn t happening this year another highly interesting con between conventions this time between 1948 1943 and 1944 is the hectic atmosphere of today as op posed to the comparative calm then there was a dewey has it in the bag feeling back in chicago four years ago which took the zip out of the chicago air also the war over shadowed the conclave then the national republican the party newspaper started off its lead ar tide on june 20 26 1944 with the invasion news commanding com banding the at of the entire convention another contrast between id 44 and antl 48 Is in the attitude toward foreign policy then it was the most delicate question which faced the platform plat lorm committee today senator has for eign policy wrapped up in a neat package signed with his name and sealed with his ring that issue is no war worry ry at all |
