OCR Text |
Show THE HORSE TRADE THEORY. A great many free traders approach the question of the tariff as though the exchange of goods between America and Europe were as simple a matter as trading horses. They say that we sell more to Europe than we buy of Europe and that therefore sooner or later we must suffer because, with the balance of trade in our favor we will get all the gold and Europe will be unable to buy from us. That this horse trader's theory is' wrong is evidenced by the results. We have had the protective tariff for about six years. We are still selling to Europe more than we buy from Europe. Yet Europe is not bankrupt and our trade with her is not falling off. One fact which upsets the horse traders' theory is that Americans pour so much money into Europe every year through tourists, and much money is sent by wage earners in America to less fortunate relatives in Europe. But even striking all this from the balance, our trade with Europe; is far from as simple as the advocates of the horse traders' theory would have us believe. The free traders tell us continually about our selling more to Europe than we buy from her. But as William H. Cliff, secretary of the Home Market Club, stated recently: re-cently: "They rarely consider the figures pertaining to South America, Amer-ica, Asia, Africa, etc. For instance, for the year 1926 our imports from South America amounted to over $567,OOO,C'0O and our exports ex-ports were only $433,000,000, from Africa we imported goods worth $96,000,000 and exported $101,000,000 in value, but with Asia our puchases amounted to over $1,400,000,000, while our sales were only a trifle over $350',000,000. "We have always exported much more to European countries than we have imported from them. Our imports have always exceeded ex-ceeded the exports with the other continents." The fact is, of course, that world trade is a much more complicated com-plicated problem than the free traders- would have us believe. Many elements enter into it and these elements must be taken into consideration con-sideration in considering the results of our tariff. Foreign trade is not a matter of straight-out bargaining between two countries, as a horse trade is between two individuals. A horse trade is an isolated iso-lated transaction but world trade and the balance of trade are things which concern all the nations alike. |