Show national affairs written lor for the park record by FRANK P LITSCHERT with the debate on the new tariff bill in n full swing in fix the senate the interest of the american people has naturally revived to some extent in the whole question of the tariff it Is interesting to note too that the stock arguments used by the free trade newspapers and their allies are the same that were employed when the present tariff law was up lor for consideration in the reconstruction p period e following the world war great advertisements were run in the metropolitan newspapers especially the washington newspapers where these ads would meet the eye of the national legislators to the effect that it if the fordney mccumber bill were passed the cost of 0 living would go skyward clothing would become so expensive that there would no longer ion bo be any joy in picking out EL a new tier a suit and all of 0 the other things mentioned in the tariff schedules would go up in a relative degree ab 0 41 ap 0 congress however refused to pay any attention to these dire predictions the tariff bill was passed the cost of living did not increase to any appreciable extent in fact in some lines affected by the tariff costs fire are less than in the days preceding the enactment of the present tariff bill while in other lines where there Is no protective tariff prices have risen appreciably think of this the next time you attend a shirt sale or buy a pound ol of coffee the greatest effect of the protective tariff bill passed a few years ago was to steady our industry following the postwar post war deflation and to set get the national steering wheel for the greatest comeback on the part of uncle sam ever recorded in the history of this or any other nation 0 0 0 As another of the arguments used by the tree free trade publications repeatedly in every tariff fight concerns our foreign trade it Is admitted that wo we consume about nine tenths of our products in the home m market a arket but the tree free trader and his low tariff ally declare that we must look after the other ten per cent that goes into foreign channels and see that it Is properly disposed of tor for the reason that if we raise the tariff and prohibit imports the other nations cannot buy from us As a result we will lose sale tor for the ten per cent ot of our products which go abroad there will be a great surplus in our home market and we will stand I 1 a ruined nation the unsoundness of this argument has been proved time and again the argument was used against the fordney mccumber bill but our imports have increased and our foreign trade has increased under protection it Is to be remembered that a great many of our imports are not affected by the tariff at on all and that these imports come from rom countries which are among our sest best customers nations which are constantly buying more and more aro from m u us s foreign trade no longer depends 0 on n t the h e simple exchange of commodities between two wo nations it Is now a complicated process involving a great many countries back and forth and cross wide and it Is implicated complicated further by tourist trade tor for sign ign investments and many other things I 1 1 0 0 40 the free trader however keeps his yes eyes to the clouds he Is sure that we cannot annot keep that foreign market tor for ten per cent of our products unless we let in many times as many goods goodal from abroad without tariff in order to look after the ten per cent which goes abroad he would remove the tariff barriers and throw open to cheap labor competition the great home market which absorbs ninety per cent of our products the protectionist would not do it that way he would first protect the great home market and keep the wheels of industry humming and our producers fortified and prosperous so that they would be all the better prepared to engage in competition abroad he knows that the well paid and well fed man has generally been able to accomplish more than the fellow who Is on his last legs so 60 to speak lie he believes in foreign trade but he does not want to get it at the expense of placing the american wage earner up against european competition conceding tor for the moment that it could be gotten that way which Is a more than doubtful question 4 0 in spite of occasional predictions from the timid and pessimistic and in spite of the ups and downs in the stock market uncle sam continues to be prosperous end and tho the official reports from various parts of the country steadily bring out this fact according to the current bulletin of the national industrial conference board new production records were made during august in many lines of activity and most noteworthy Is the fact that the demand tor for automobiles continues to break the records for this season of the year wholesale and re tall demand the report continues generally gives many indications of being greater reater than last year and fairl fairly y well sustained the slight recession noted in n july which Is seasonal continues to remain slight quarterly reports of the earning of various corporations bear out this statement ot of the national industrial conference board at present there Is ie little reason to believe that the steady growth of our prosperity will not continue this prosperity was built upon a sound foundation and has been furthered further cd by wise and constructive legislation and federal administration as aa well as by sound business policies there has abeen a tremendous development in american business as a whole following the postwar post poet war slump as every citizen of the country knows and the noteworthy fact Is that the trend Is still upward after several years of steady and consistent recovery there Is every assurance now that the national policies which have made this growth possible ble will bo be continued indefinitely ril bitely tely the danger of the disrupting influences fluen ces of war seems further away now than ever before the people and the nations nation are talking in terms ol of peace and in terms of the limitation of armament and tor for the time being at least thought of conflict lias has been puttied into the discard the greatest great ert economic danger perhaps would be the return to the ancient and discredited doctrine of tree free trade or at least unlimited foreign competition but of this there Is little or no likelihood the country Is thoroughly sold on the subject of protection so BO thoroughly sold in fact that no political party in the last campaign would have dared offer to the people a tariff policy which would have subjected the american producer to the perils of european low wage competition it Is true that there 1 Is a tariff on 1 in congress now but the question Is not one of fundamental policy so eo much as aa of the rates the few statesmen of the old time free trade school who are arc left in active political life are arc now confining their efforts not toward the destruction of the tariff as a whole but toward obstructing revision by attacking the details of the proposed measure this does not mean of course that all of the legislators who object to certain rates are obstructionists obstruction ista or free traders but it Is of course a tact fact that all tree free traders are either actively or passively in sympathy with the movement to slow up tho the bill or at least keep the rates as low as possible the report referred to abo above v a tells us that the value al e of t the he exports in august normally ily a 1 low w month were less than one per cent greater than the exports of august 1928 but were the highest with one exception since 1920 the value of imports however tells a different story imports luring during august advanced alx lx perr per cent over july and nine per cent over i august of a year ago imports are usually accelerated during the months preceding the passage of a new tariff bill when it Is anticipated that protection will tie be strengthened but the steady increase in imports at least refutes the statement frequently made by tree fires traders that wo we are selling abroad but not buying abroad it la Is to be hoped that congress will get through with tariff revisions as soon L as aa possible so that business my may go fo tor r ward as usual then we need have no fear about the immediate economic future of 0 the country |