| OCR Text |
Show Bruchart's Washington Digest President Wades Into Political Buzz Saw on Argentine Beef Deal Affair Costs Mr. Roosevelt Dearly in Personal and Political Polit-ical Prestige; Executive's Explanation Never Caught Up Willi His Original Statement on Transaction. By WILLIAM BRUCKART U'NU Service, National Press Bldg., Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON. When I was a kid on the farm, rny father used to warn me against getting too close to the big saw that was used to cut up wood for our kitchen stove the old buzz saw, it was called. He was right. It could have done to me exactly what it did to logs of oak or hickory. Many times since those days, I have thought of the wisdom of those warnings as applied ap-plied to other acts of life. And, the other day, I thought of how much trouble President Roosevelt could have avoided if only his advisors had guided him away from the buzz saw of Argentine canned corned beef. It must be painfully evident to the President and to his advisors now that he waded right into a few million political buzz saws when he instructed the secretary of the navy to buy canned beef from the Argentine Ar-gentine Co-oii!!ratives, Inc., for use of Uncle Sarins blue jackets. As a matter of fact, most of the President's Presi-dent's stalwart supporters not only recognize that he got his hands badly bad-ly mangled in the saw, but that he failed to have a "doctor" handy in the form of an offset for the grievous griev-ous political error. But the details of the situation ought to be reviewed in order fully to understand why so many people are saying that the Argentine beef affair has already cost Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt dearly in political and personal prestige. Many are saying, indeed, that the cost has been greater than his ill-fated and badly judged plan to change the makeup of the Supreme Su-preme court of the United States. All of the facts ought to be stated clearly for the reason that none now can foretell how widespread this prairie fire will be. Obviously, the Republicans will use it as ammunition ammuni-tion in their warfare, and in all probability quite a large segment of old line Democrats are laughing up their sleeves about the damage the beef case will do to their pet hates, the New Dealers surrounding the President. Facts of Argentine Corned Beef Affair Briefly, the facts are these: Pursuant to law, the secretary of the navy called for offers to sell the navy certain quantities of supplies, sup-plies, including 48,000 pounds of canned corned beef. The law says that government agencies must award the contracts to the lowest responsible bidder the bidder regarded re-garded as able to fulfill the requirements require-ments of the navy. There is, however, how-ever, another law that says, in substance, sub-stance, the government must award the contracts to a firm of citizens of the United States and that the products prod-ucts be made from the United States provided they are equal to or better bet-ter in quality than a foreign-made product and that the price is not too much higher than the foreign bid. The reason for this being, obviously, ob-viously, to encourage business in the United States and give jobs to our citizens for whom, as a national policy, pol-icy, the American standard of living must be maintained. So, there is, first quality and price, and, second national policy. The bids on corned beef reached the navy offices. Argentine Cooperatives, Co-operatives, Inc., offered to sell the 24 tons of corned beef at about 16 cents a pound. The nearest bid from the United States was approximately approx-imately 23 cents a pound. In addition, addi-tion, there is a tariff duty of six cents a pound that is applicable to imports of beef placed by congress con-gress to protect cattle growers in this country. But the navy would not have to pay that tariff duty. Thus, the real cost to the navy would be that much less. Navy officers felt there was considerable con-siderable difference, but they were unwilling to assume responsibility for what some critics might say was a violation of the "Buy American" law. In the course of the consideration, consid-eration, the department of state learned of the situation, and Secretary Secre-tary Hull took a hand. You see, Mr. Hull has been having his own troubles with United States relations rela-tions with the Argentine government. govern-ment. It has been necessary to prohibit pro-hibit importations of fresh beef from the Argentine because there is so much foot and mouth disease in the vast reaches of Argentine grazing graz-ing areas. It has even become necessary nec-essary to forbid the Argentine government gov-ernment to bring in steaks for use in its government pavillion at the New York World's fair. That did not leave a good taste in the mouth of the Argentine people. Mr. Hull was anxious to make a peace offer of some kind or another. President Became Tangled Up With the Buzz Saw And it is to be remembered, too, that Mr. Roosevelt has been striving to knit North and South American nations together under his good neighbor policy. It would be a friendly gesture to buy something. Besides all of these, there is Mr. Hull's reciprocal trade treaty policy pol-icy that needs bolstering eveiy now and then. There was little mention of this phase; yet it seems reasonable reason-able to assume that it was in the back of the official mind. The question was put on Mr. Roosevelt's desk. He decided that the contract should be given the Argentines. That happened about the middle of April. There was no flurry about the matter then because be-cause few persons knew of the transaction. Eventually, however, information about the award leaked out and somebody asked Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt in a press meeting whether it was true. That was where Mr. Roosevelt really became tangled up with the buzz saw. Now, it is well to know that Mr. Roosevelt likes to talk. He also insists in-sists on telling the news writers all about a given situation if he talks at all about it. He is decidedly fair that way. He talked at great length about the problem and the result of his speech to the writers was numerous headlines which read something like this: "President Roosevelt Orders Navy to Buy Argentine Ar-gentine Canned Beef Foreign Product Prod-uct Found Cheaper and Superior in Quality, President Says." Came Outbursts on Floors Of the House and Senate Within a few short weeks, Mr. Roosevelt's political hands were torn and bleeding. He was being ridiculed because he frequently referred re-ferred in political campaigns to the need for helping "our undernourished undernour-ished one-third, our illy clad and illy housed" people. There were outbursts on the floors of the house and the senate. The New Deal leaders lead-ers in congress could do nothing about it. The representatives and senators from the cattle country were denouncing his action and one whole day was occupied in the house of representatives where the President's Presi-dent's political body was torn limb from limb. The heat of the battle became so great that the house committee on appropriations which happened then to be considering the annual naval appropriations bill took action. It included in that bill, a prohibition that will prevent such a thing ever happening again. They were shouting: shout-ing: "The idea, feeding our navy men on Argentine beef," etc. Obviously, Ob-viously, under such circumstances, the prohibitory clause was accepted by the house and the senate and it will be the law of the land. This heat came of two causes. First, the cattle business is none too good and the cattle producers are politically powerful. They protect pro-tect themselves, as they should. To see even a small business contract go outside of the United States was bad medicine, even though the beef bought would amount to only about 75 steers. It was the principle of the thing. Then, when you add to that, the resentment engendered by Mr. Roosevelt's statement that Argentine Argen-tine beef is a better quality well, you speak your own piece about it. Explanation Never Caught Up With Original Statement Subsequently, Mr. Roosevelt sought to explain what he meant by the statement that Argentine beef is superior in quality. He 1 pointed out that the Argentine practice prac-tice is to can better cuts of beef because of the slack sale for fresh meat in that part of the world. But the explanation never has caught up with the original statement, and it never will. When this attempted explanation came from the White House, I heard an old time political battler at the capitol observe: "That is mistake No. 2. One of the first rules in politics is 'never make a statement that you have to explain.' If you do, your explanation explana-tion will get you into trouble. It is better never to explain anything." Yet, in fairness, it must be observed ob-served that the price in the United States and the price the government must pay, therefore, results from a combination of circumstances. Our national, policy for years has been to encourage what we advertise adver-tise as the American standard of living. To that end, congress has passed laws, many of them. The Walsh-Healy act, for example, says that the government may not buy from any manufacturer who does not comply with stated requirements require-ments as to hours and wages for work. There is the so-called fair labor standards act the wage and hour law for another. Fifty more could be named. Nor dp I wish myself my-self to be placed in ue position of condemning all of them. I point to them merely as causes for the situation situ-ation in which Argentina underbid our own folks because most of our people on relief live better than the employed workers in South America. Amer-ica. It serves, moreover, as an illustration il-lustration and a proof that most so-called statesmen advocate national na-tional policy and national laws without with-out knowing where or when or how they may have to eat their own words. (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) |
