Evening Star Newspaper, January 27, 1929, Page 29

EDITORIAL SECTION he Sunday Star, Part 2—14 Pages WASHINGTON, D. C., SUNDAY Reviews of Books MORNING, JANUARY 27, 1929. REPARATIONS EXPERTS FACE GREAT PROBLEMS Parley to Shape European History Ma- terially for Next Few Decades, Observer’s View. BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. T is hardly an exaggeration to say that the next few decades of Euro- pean history will be shaped very materially by the commission on which Owen D. Young and J. P. Morgan are to sit as unofficial Ameri- cans. Nor is it beyond the limits of probabulity that war or peace in Europe will turn on the success or failure of this great undertaking. Nominally this commission is to do no more than to liquidate the Dawes Pplan by settling the amount of German obligations and the term of payments. But behind this seemingly simple task lie all the great problems of contem- porary Europe. The evacuation of German territory by allied troops, the not less necessary evacuation of Ger- man financial fields by Allied commis- sioners, the restoration of full and un- trammeled liberty to the German people —these are the primary conditions of & real restoration of peace in Europe. The essence of the problem can be simply stated. Five years ago Germany and her conquerors, represented in London by various conferees, with whom were associated Vice President ‘Dawes and Owen D. Young, undertook to settle the immediate problem of rep- arations. Germany, prostrated by war, prostrated by inflation, by the occupa- tion of the Ruhr, was incapable of making any payments. On the other hand, her opponents of the war, stag- gering under their burdens, were to- tally unwilling to permit Germany, through bankruptcy, to escape from all payments. Payments Scaled Upward. It was necessary to take the whole question of reparations out of the do- main of politics. In this situation the financiers proceeded to elaborate an intricate system by which, on the basis of immediate and eventual con- ditions, German payments were fixed for the next five years. At the outset money was found in foreign loans to enable Germany at one time to fortify her newly re-established currency and to meet the initial payments under the Dawes plan. - By steadily rising in- stallments German liabilities were fixed and the annual contribution was scaled upward to reach the maximum level of $625,000,000 in the current year. No one knew then, no one could know, whether it would be possible for Ger- many, prosirate as she was in 1924, to fulfill the requirements of the plan, but is was carefully provided that, if failure came, through no fault of Germany, there would be no recourse to coercion. It was also provided that no payments should be demanded, in case such pay- ments threatened to precipitate a new fall in German currency. And to make sure of the success of the experiment S. Parker Gilbert, with a considerable corps of assistants, was established in Germany to exercise what amounted to a foreign surveillance of German finance and business, Every one realized that the real mean- ing of the Dawes plan was discoverable in the provision of a period of five years during which Germany, protected from all political interference, could under- take her own economic and financial ! | Germany will pay accordingly. Ac- cordingly there has arisen the demand that the debt be commercialized: that is, taken out of the hands of the | politicians altogether. In practice this | would mean two things. The German i | i | | railways and forests, owned by the state, | would be bonded, would issue securi- | ties, and these would be sold upon the | world markets. They would actually | amount to something less than $4,000,- | 000,000. German government bonds for the balance of the total, $4,000,000,- | 000 or $6,000,000,000 as the sum fixed | might be, would similarly be sold upon | the world markets. The proceeds would be turned over to the creditor governments. Reparations as such would disappear, and what would re- main would be a transaction between the holders of German rail and government bonds and the railways and government. i | But here there arises a grave diffi- | culty. The sale of $8,000,000,000 bonds {upon the markets of the world would | take time, probably at least W years, | during which the allied nations will still be without guarantees.* Such flo- tation is practically unthinkable unless the United States investing public were prepared to absorb a vast share and provided, also, that the United States Government were prepared to assent to such a flotation. | moment the American bond market is not favorable and the United States Government is frankly hostile. But if the United States will not | absorb the bulk of the German bonds no immediate liquidation is possible. And the problem of the allied countries is stated in the fact that all but France have already pledged themselves to pay the United States on account of debts and are eager for a similar definite pledge. As for France she must ratify her debt settlement this year or pay us $400,000,000 in cash on another ac- count. And France wants to be sure of being paid by Germany before she pledges herself to pay us. Occupation Political Peril. These are the bottom facts in the present - problem. The commission must find some means to insure to Germany prompt evacuation of her soil and her finance, for occupation has become a political peril to European peace. It must also find some way of guaranteeing to the reparations creditors of Germany payments which will enable them all to meet American obligations and allow France and Bel- gium to take up the bonds issued to cover the costs of restoring their devastated areas. 3 The key of the situation remains in PFrench hands. The French will not retire from German soil save as they ere assured of payments sufficient to i satisfy Great Britain, the United States and the holders of their reconstruction bonds. = As. has restored her ce own situation without foreign loans and needs no foreign money now, no financial pressure can be put upon her. As she, with her Polish, and Czecho- slovakian allies, holds the military su- premacy of the continent, no physical pressure can be applied to her. More- over, any attempt by American or reconstruction. ‘At the end of nearly five years it is now clear that the terms of the Dawes plan were reasonable. Germany has recovered her financial and economic stability. She has met all the payments provided by the plan, she i= now under the maximum schedule. And so far the payments have not interfered with the truly marvelous rem:nmn of German domestic pros- perity. Also Seeks Evacuation. ‘We have now reached the point where Germany quite properly demands that the sum total of her obligations shall be fixed. Today she is merely bound to meet the maximum charge of the Dawes plan, $625,000,000 annually, for an indefinite number of years. She also demands that along with this fixation shall go the complete evacua- tion of her territory by both the mili- tary and allied powt 1t is clear that under any fixation of the total sum of the German reparations ob- ligations payment will extend over many years. Whether the Germans are asked to accept $4,000,000,000 or $10,000,000,- 000 as the capital sum of reparations, actual payment will take the form of annual contributions stretching over from 30 to 60 years. But during this time the creditors, France, Belgium, Britain and Italy, once the occupying forces are withdrawn, have no physical means of compelling payments. All the occupying powers are deter- mined before final evacuation takes place to obtain some guarantee that they will be paid. And this determina- tion is dictated by the fact that for more than half a century all of these powers are bound to make annual pay- ments to the United States to liquidate their wartime borrowings, Must Seek Guarantees. Thus the problem of the new com- mission is primarily to fix the sum total of German reparations and the amount and number of annual pay- ments by which it is to be discharged, But not less patently it is bound to seek some method by which Germany's creditors can be assured of payment in | full and thus can be prevailed upon to assent to immediate evacuation of Ger- man soil. In this situation no insurmountable obstacle is found in the fixation of a sum. Germany has many times in re- cent years proposed to pay what amounts to from $7,500,000,000 to $10,- 000,000,000 as a capital sum. In practice reparations are likely to be fixed with regard to three factors— first, German capacity; second, the sum of allied debts to the United States; third, the costs of Belgian and French reconstruction. This means that the allied nations will strive to get from Germany enough to pay the annual costs of their debts to the United States plus the annual cost of recon- struction to France and Belgium. The Germans. on the other hand, will cer- l{nnly maintain that this total is exces- sive. One may fair.y assume, however, that, in view of Parker Gilbert's recent declaration that Germany is able to pay the maximum sum of $625,000,000, no considerable reduction is likely. wsermany is thus certain to be held for an annual payment of not less than $500,000,000. As far as American debts fl:flmfi-fl garrisons of the | tri British /_ representatives to uade France to make concessions Il surely be countered by a French demand for a parl passu reduction of her obliga- tions to us and to the British, con- * totally _unattainable in the American case. Here, after all, is the chief rock in the channel of the new ‘commission. Debts and Reparations. The United States may have to face a new drive for a reduction of allied debts, if the financial experts hold that Germany is unable to pay enough to! meet the costs of the various debt set- | tlements and of Fren:h reconstruction as well. Doubtless we shall hold to the old assertion that tleere is no connec- tion between debts and reparations. However the negotiations may be de- scribed officially, in reality they must At the present | { doomed to come under the Day of European Domination Passes With Awakening of Moslem Peoples—America’s Opportunities BY CHARLES C. BATCHELDER. URKEY, the traditional “Sick Man of the East,” has, it seems, at last arisen from his bed and doctors out of his chamber. Persia and Afghanistan are trying to | follow his example. Egypt, Syria, Mes- | A struggling to throw off European domi- nation. There is unrest among the Ma- hometans in China, Java, India and source of Islamism, hundreds of thou- sands of pilgrims, visiting the holy city of Mecca, are subjected to propaganda tant homes filled with resentment against the European. What does all this mean? Will the Will the whole Mahometan world launch itself against Europe in a fierce cru- sade like the one that swept it to the at the gates of Vienna in 1683? This sudden revival of the Moslem world has come as a shock. for it long Former American Trade Commissioner kicked all the self-appointed opotamia, Morocco and Tripoli are Russian Turkestan. In Arabia, the which sends them back to their dis- dream of the “Red Sultan” come true? walls of Tours and enabled it to thunder has seemed hopelessly decadent and BY. G. GOULD LINCOLN. PECIAL sessions of Congress al- ways are interesting. Twenty-one have been held since the early days of the re- public. The Seventy-first Congress of the United States is soon to meet in its first session to deal with farm relief and tariff revision. The life of the new Congress, which was_elected last No- vember, begins March 4, the day on amount to finding a way to replace a angular transaction between Ger- many, the allies and ourselves, by a direct affair between Germany and our- selves, Germany to pay the allied debts and we to accept the German promises to pay. And. if the negotiation fails, the responsibility will obviously be put upon - our shoulders, because of our debt policy. In recent years we have made very considerable commercial loans to Ger- many. The value of these loans is obviously conditioned upon the amount of reparations obligations, which con- stitute a first lien upon all German resources, while all our claims are thus no more than second mortgages. Thus, as the principal foreign creditor of Germany, we are concerned in having the reparations totals as low as possible. | This “circumstance is sure to be em- | phasized as the discussions proceed. Thus we may expect on the one hand to be criticised for refusing to permit the questions of debts and reparations to be joined and on the other suspect- ed of seeking to lower reparations to protect our private loans in Germany. (Copyright, 1920.) {Plea Made in London To Limit Street Noises A strong appeal, one of the most | forcible of its kind, has been sent to | the British minister of health by the British Medical Association for seri- jous legislation to restrict noise-makers in London. This was immediately provoked by the attitude of the trans- port ministry, which merely persuaded motorists to use softer horns. The association sets forth that while it is possible for workers to accustom the | nervous system to noises like those in factories which are rhythmic, uniform {and predictable, the unrhythmic, dis- | cordant and various noises of the street—the unexpected screech of the | hooter, the rattle of the milk-can-laden | truck, the explosions of motor cycles— | are definitely harmful. Medical ex- { perts are quoted as of the opinion that “the neurosis of the inhabitants of big cities may be regarded as analogous to the shell-shock.” The association pro- tests very strongly against motor cycles with open exhaust. Barking dogs, bawling milkmen and news venders, g0, under existing debt settlements Britain, France, Italy and Belgium now pay slightly more than $200,000,000 annually and the total will rise sharply in the succeeding years to rather less than $350,000,000 at the maximum, On the basis of $500,000,000 annually the German payment would permit the allies to pay the United States and the whistling of engines and the shunt- ing of trains at night, all are de- nounced, but the vigorous language is reserved for the “diabollc” pneumatic idrill, which the association thinks should be banned, at all events near :d'emnss and at night, ! Magna Charta, the most important which the present Congress expires. The Constitution provides for annual meetings of the Congress in the follow- ing terms: “The Congress shall assemble at leact once in every year, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in Decem- ber, unless they shall by law appoint & different date.” In the present instance, howcver, it is not expected that Congress will fix the date of the first session of its suc- cessor, but that the Seventy-first Con- gress will be called into special session by the President-elect, Herbert Hoover, soon after he shall have been inaugu- rated President. Congress is the lawmaking body of this country. Whenever pressing issues of importance have had the attention of the people in a national election, it usually follows that the incoming Presi- dent calls the national legislature into session to deal with these problems Frompfly, without waiting for the open- ng of the so-called “regular session,” the first Monday in December. The inelasticity of a system which might otherwise bring Congress to Washing- ton 13 months after its election by the people is thus in large measure avoided. It is because of the demand for farm legislation and for tariff revision that the new Congress is soon to be as- sembled here. Meeting of First Congress. ‘The first Congress met on March 4, 1789, in New York. In a measure, this sion of Congress. It was considered necessary then because the Federal Government was beginning to function under the newly adopted Constitution. For 15 years the governing body of the Colonies which had revolted and de- clared their independence of Great Britain had been the Continental Con- gress. This Congress was passing out of existence, and it was the Continental Congress which picked the day on which the Government should begin to operate under the Constitution. In its first session, the First Congress canvassed the vote of the States for President and Vice President and noti- fied George Washington and John Adams they had been chosen, respec- tively, President and Vice President of the United States. The first President was at his home, Mount Vernon, and it took the messenger of Congress a week to travel from New York to Virginia to notify-Gen. Washington that he had been elected President. The journey of the first President to New York was a triumphal procession, with ovations along the route. He was finally inau- gurated April 30, 1789. One of First Big Jobs. One of the big jobs of this First Con- gress was to provide a revenue by means of which the new Federal Government might function. It was estimated then that it would require $600,000 a year to the French and Belgians to liquidate the | document in English history, was forced | pay the ordinary expenses of the Gov- bulk of their reconstruction costs. Railways Would Be Bonded. upon John, June 15, 1215, at Runny- mede. This charter of English liberty was held so important that it was cqn- ernment, though a larger sum would be needed to pay the interest and help retire the then public debt. In these But it is patent that the nations|firmed 37 times within the following | days of billion-dollar annual expendi- which are bound to pay the United States over a period of nearly two|ment can be seen in the British|eration of the Government brings a two centuries. The shrivelled parch- generations desire some certainty that Museum. 4 tures the sum required to begin the op- smile, may be considered the first special ses- | It is interesting to remember |economic control of Europeans. Foreign capitalists built its railroads and de- veloped its mines and oil fields. Com- mittees of bankers managed its finances. Foreigners were not subject to the laws of Mahometan lands. Spiderwebs of treaties and agreements limited its taxes and other governmental activities. But now many of these entangling nets have been torn to shreds. The strands |of others which bar the way to free- |dom are strained and snapping. Future Is Uncertain. | Moslem subjects, acquired long ago by conquest or treaty, has clearly been shaken and no one can safely predict the future. It is astonishing to learn | that the King of England reigns over more followers of Mahomet than any | Caliph of Bagdad. There are 100,000,- 000 of them, scattered in India, Malaya, | Africa and the Near East. Queen Wil- | helmina of Holland has 40,000,000 Mos- lem subjects in the Dutch East Indies. The French have another 30,000,000, mostly in North Africa. Even the | United States has 500,000 Moros in | the Southern Philippines. The growing | restlessness of these formerly docile The permanence of Europe's rule of | concern, to be discussed .only with the greaiest discretion. How far is Bolshevist propaganda re- sponsible? A school is maintained in Moscow to train native agitators to arouse the populations of all these lands against their governments. The Bol- shevists continually proclaim their in- | tention of helping all the oppressed | peoples of Asia to throw off the yoke. |Streams of money have been sent to carry on the campaign. When the Ameer of Afghanistan invaded India in 1919 the Indian Moslems were urged by their leaders to join their co-relig- ionists against the English. The reeent revolts in Java were due to Bolshvist influence. Bolshevist “cells” everywhere | are “sapping from within.” From two of the most powerful hu- man emotions—religious fanaticism and the love of wealth and plunder—Ma- homet forged the weapon which en- abled his successors to conquer Southern France, Spain, Northern Africa, the Near East, Turkey, the Balkans, Hun- gary, Persia, Turkestan and Moghul India and to harry the shores of the }vl]cditerrnnenn and even of the British sles. The twentieth century organizations that the first measure of importance tackled by the special session of the First Congress was the passage of a tariff act levying duties on imported articles. Now, 140 years later, the spe- cial session of of the Seventy-first Con- gress, is to deal also with the tariff on imported articles. The original tariff law was the second law put through by the First Congress. The first act of the First Congress was a law specifying the oath of office to be taken by Federal officers, members of State Legislatures, etc., pledging al- legiance to the Constitution of the United States. It was the job of this first special session of Congress also to set up the machinery of government. It created 3 of the executive departments under the President—there are now 10. The departments then created were the De- partment of State, called then the De- partment of Forelgn Affairs: the Treas- ury Department and the War Depart- ment. All the other executive func- tions of government came under those departments, the Navy, for example, being under the control of the War De- partment and the post office was under the Treasury Department. An Attorney General was appointed, but no provision was yet made for a Department of Justice. The first President picked as his cabinet Thomas Jefferson to head the State Department, Alexander Ham- ilton to head the Treasury Department and Gen. Henry Knox to have charge of the War Department. In these days of cabinet speculation for Presi- dent-elect Hoover the selections made by President Washington provide at least a remarkable example. Sets Pace for Short Sessions. ‘This first special session of Congress adjourned September 29, 1789. The second session of the Congress began January 4, 1790, and ran until August 12 of that year. The first ‘“regular session,” in that it began in Decem- ber, specified by the Constitution, was the third session of the First Con- A gress, which opened December 6, 1790, and closed March 3, 1791, setting the pace for the so-called “short sessions” of Congress which have closed each Congress since then. The First Con- gress held two sessions in New York and then moved to Philadelphia for &s third session. The Capitol vas| lished. Since these early days of the Re- public, under the Constitution, 21 spe- cial sessions of Congress have been held during 20 Congresses. One Con- gress broke the record and held four sessions, the Sixty-seventh Congress, which came in with the Harding ad- ministration. In the earlier days a law was put through providing for the opening session of new Congresses on March 4 following their elections, but this was abandoned after two or three Congresses, and the practice has been in recent years for the new Con- gress to assemble for the first time on the first Monday in December following the beginning of the congressional term, unless the Congress should be called into special session by proclama- tion of the President. Dingley Tariff Action. Going back into the more recent past, it is found that Persident William Mc- Kinley, coming into office March 4, 1897, assembled the Fifty-fifth Congress in special session on March 15. Mec- Kinley succeeded Grover Cleveland and a Democratic administration. The tariff was again to the fore, and the special session of the Fifty-fifth Con- gress labored and brought forth the Dingley tariff act, fashioned on the principles of the Republican protective |tariff system. This tariff session ran luntil July 24 of that year. It was dur- ling the following regular session Congress that war with Spain was de- at| hington had not yet been estab- | Growing Threat of Islam litical and | millions is now a matter of the gravest |are trying to repeat the achievement | Special Sessions of Past Twenty-one Times Congress Has Been Called for Extra Labors in Pressing National Problems | of | 1 of the eighth century and to hurl them- selves on the possessions of Christian Europe as their ancestors did on the Byzantine Empire. Gain 10,000,000 Converts. ‘The first organization is the Senussi, an oath-bound brotherhood. It has been waging war in the Sahara against the French and the Italians. Its emissaries, the Arab traders, have been converting the Negroes of Central Africa and even have penetrated into South Africa. It is estimated that they have gathered 10,000,000 black converts in the last few years. Moslems of this type made up the human avalanches which over- whelmed Gordon at Khartum and “broke the British square.” They are numerous among the French Black Colonial troops. The few thousand Riffs held the Spanish and French armles at bay for months. The second organization is made up of the Wahabites of Ibn Saud. They have been conquering the various Arabian kingdoms since the war, and the capture of the Holy City of Mecca has given them a dominant position. They may be called the Protestants of Islam._ They not only are trying to re- "W (Continued on Fifth Page.) President Roosevelt, who took over the office of Chief Executive after the assassination of McKinley, called no special sessions of Congress. He did not undertake to revamp the tariff, and he fought a number of memorable bat- tles with the legislators on Capitol Hill. It remained for his successor, President Taft, to deal again with the tariff. He called Congress together March 15, 1909, a few days after he had been in- atigurated. This session was given over principally to the passage of the Payne- Aldrich tariff act, a law which aroused no little criticism and was, in part, re- sponsible for the Democratic uprising and the Republican split in 1912. Presi- dent Wilson was elected in that year, and under the mandate of the people the Democratic President called Con- | gress into special session April 7, 1913. It was then that the Simmons-Under- wood tariff act, called a tariff for rev- enue only, with incidental protection, was put through by the Democrats and approved by President Wilson. Mr. Taft Called Two. President Taft called two special sessions of Congress during his four- year term. The second, on April 4, 1911, was convened to deal with the provosed Canadian recibrocity which failed, finally, to materialize. During the eight years that President Wilson was Chief Executive, Congress was in session the greater part of the time. First to deal with the tariff, the currency system and the anti-trust laws, and then with the problems grow- | ing out of the World War, which this country entered in 1917. America’s en- try into the war came during a special session of the Sixty-fifth Congress, ginning April 2. That session ran un- til October 6, 1917. The next regular session of Congress ran from December 3, 1017, until November 21, 1918, 10 days after the armistice had been signed. The regular short session of Congress followed. Filibusters by Re- publicans during that session prevented the passage of several of the big annual supply bills for the succeeding fiscal year, and President Wilson called a spe- cial session of the Sixty-sixth Congress, beginning May 19, 1919. What Wilson Congress Did. President Wilson was then on his mission to Europe to establish peace. HC.SP],& his message to Congress, call- ing -atfention to the problems of peace which must be handled promptly, in- cluding legislation to reduce the war taxes which were being levied to meet the necessities of the country at war. This special session of Congress put through, with other things, the reso- lution' proposing an amendment to the Constitution giving women the vote. Also the Senate dealt with the peace treaty which President Wilson brought back with him from Europe, declining to ratify it. The session ended Novem- ber 19, 1919. ‘The next clal session of Congress began on'April 11, 1921, called by Presi- dent Harding. Again tariff was an issue. There was a demand for a re- turn to the Republican protective sys- tem, and the- Fordney-McCumber law was passed, the law which is still in effect, and which it is proposed to revise in the special session which Mr. Hoover is expected to call this Spring. The special sesslon not only dealt with the tariff but with the reve- nue laws and with other post-war prob- lems. President Harding had near to his clared. No special sessions of consreu|hem the establishment of a permanent were called b‘;rehcsldem. McKinley dur- | American merchant marine. He became ing the progress of that war, which was convinced that definite aid should be of brief duration. Continued en Fourth Page.) BY MARK SULLIVAN, HERE is just ahead of us a tariff revision. It will occur either in the special session of the new Congress, which Mr. Hoover will call in April, or it will occur in he regular session in December. It may be that some of the revision will be lone.in the special session and some in he regular session. There is also, as yet, some doubt about the extent of the revision. It may be merely a revising of some schedules, in the form of an amendment to the exist- ing Fordney-McCumber tariff law, or it may be a general revision resulting in a new law, bearing a new name. Even if the revision be restricted to a | limited number of schedules, as an |amendment to the existing tariff law, nevertheless the action will be pretty i broad, and before the end will take in |2 large number of schedules. The better guess would say that there will be a | general revision of the tariff within the | two years’ life of the new Congress, be- | ginning March 4. The demand comes | from so many lines of industry, and 5 | so insistent, as practically to guarantee | general revision, by one name or an- | other. | i | Tariff Revision Big Subject. ‘Tariff revision is a big subject. It is an enormous subject. In the huge volumes of congressional debates for a | hundred years tariff consumes more | words than any other one question. Several statesmen owe their places in | American history to the stand they took | on the tariff. Many familiar characters | owe their preservation from oblivion in large part to the fact that their names were attached to tariff bills in the writ- ing of which they had a leading role. The present tariff is called “Fordney- McCumber.” The one preceding is called the “Underwood.” Before that the “Dingley.” Before that the “Wilson": before that the “McKinley,” and so on back to the “Morrill” and the “Walker.” Tariff revision is a big subject in an- | other sense. It affects substantially all industry. And as American industry has become bigger and more complex, the ramifications of the tariff are wider and more intricate. The coming tariff revision, before it is through, will touch many interests—nearly every interest. It will engage great popular attention. At least, it will if the past is a true guide. Tariff revision is truly a broad and intimate subject. The present articie aims, in the main, to deal with onc striking aspect of the present approach to revision. Coming Action Unprecedented. ‘The coming tariff revision—the pres- ent stage of it—is unprecedented in one | respect. That is, the lack of any for- midable body of public opinion de- manding revision downward; the lack of any leader making himself the spokesman of low, or moderate, tariff. Senator Willlam Cabell Bruce of Maryland described the condition the jother day. If he had any notion of making himself the spokesman of the low tariff viewpoint, he is made im- | potent, because he failed of re-election last Fall. He will not be in the Con- gress that will revise the tariff. Sena- tor Bruce, of course, spoke as a parti- san Democrat. He said: “A general tariff revision is under way. The tariff trough, filled with tariff increases, has been placed in posi- tion, and the pigs, big and small, are gathered about it and are grunting and squealing and jostling. * * * d there will be no representative of the great consuming American public, free from political pressure, to see to it that the interests of the public are properly taken care of.” Representative Cordell Hull of Ten- | nessee, a Democrat, the other day ut- | tered a faint appeal for low tariff, | which is the historic doctrine of his party. He was and is embarrassed a little by the fact that his party, in its recent national platform and presiden- tial campaign, modified its ancient stand by squinting toward kindness for protective tariff. Representative Hull and others who | believe with him—if any—are even more deterred by a prevailing content- | ment with protection. Calls Protection “National God.” America seems to have come to the point where it has set up the high | protective tariff as one of the national | s. In the present state of popular | feeling, to talk against protection seems to take on the impudence of irrever- ence. It is almost in a class with at- taeking religious fundamentalism. To say you are a free trader is to invite a kind of moral odium. It is as perilous as to say you are an atheist. Indeed, there is far more frankness of assault against_the religious fundamentalism | of the Bible than against the economic | —if that is the right word—fundamen- talism of protection. At the opening stage of every previous tariff fight the writer of this article found on his desk every morning many angry arguments against protection; many copies of speeches and other doc- uments from impassioned believers in tariff for revenue only, or other varia- tions of dissent from the high protect- ive theory. There was in 1922 and 1913 and 1910 as much printed and spoken agitation on both sides of the tariff as there is today about prohibition. In the present stage of previous tariff fights, | Washington correspondents and news- | paper offices were flooded with low-tariff propaganda. Free Trade Body Cited. Daily we listened to zealots against protection, who came to our offices and expounded the economic truth as they saw it. There were organizations, there were college professors, there were spe- cialists in conomic theory, there were clubs. There was, at one time, a for- mally organized association favoring free trade. (What has become of that old free trade association—of which Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge, in their respective callow youths, were members? Does that association still | exist?) As for the present, it has been years since a low-tariff argument has ap- | peared in the writer's morning mail; vears since a free trade zealot has opened the office door, proffered a plac- atory cigar and proceeded to preach the true doctrine. - I have said that high protection has become a minor American deity. That is pretty close to literally true. A few years ago, Henry Ford discovered that some steel he needed could be bought in Belgium, could pay the ocean freight rates, could pay the duty and pay the rallroad freight rate to Detroit—and still be cheaper than American-made steel. Mr. Ford, being a man who makes his goods at as low a price as he can, bought the 1 | | | ways ai under the existing tariff, | the 'EARLY TARIFF REVISION BY CONGRESS IS SEEN |Extent of Changes Held in Doubt by Writer, Who Predicts Schedules Will Be Increased to Answer Demands. | cheaper than in the American market. | The officials of the road were reminded | by angry protests that their road made |its living by carrying American-made s. A town council in one of the South- ern States, near the Atlantic seaboard, found it could get cement for paving | from Europe cheaper than the American product. The action, when discovered. | was followed by an outcry that talked | seriously in terms of removing the offi- cials from office. | Navy's “Linen” May Cause Commotion. In the American Navy, by the way, ‘lhere seems to be a condition that | should cause rage to the priests of pro- | tecticn when they discover it. Appar- |ently the law—probably passed when | the protective spokesmen were taking a | nap--provides that the Navy should buy | its supplies where it can get them at lowest cost. However it came about, the |fact is that some of the table linen | (more accurately, cotton) used in the Navy, is made in Europe. When this ‘.{j“‘ is noticed there will be a commo- ion. Previous tariff revisions were a fight. There were two sides to them. The out- comes made and unmade parties. They made or destroyed party leaders. They unseated parties in power and seated the other party. Who now remembers how “schedule K” blazed through the newspaper headlines in 19097 What that mystic phrase meant; the effect it had on the fortunes of the Repub- lican party, on President Taft, and sub- sequently on President Wilson? To summarize comparatively recent history, the Republicans in 1890 passed the McKinley-Aldrich act. It was, all Republican tariffs are, hiwh-protec- tive, though mildly so. Thereupon the Republicans went down to defeat in the congressional elections of 1890 and the presidential election of 1892. Helped Elect McKinley. In 1894 the Democrats revised the tariff downward in the Wilson act, which put wool on the free list and reduced the rates on nearly all textiles, and also on pig iron and steel. After- ward came hard times, which the Re- publicans said were due to the Demo- cratic low tariff (but which sound econ- omists and historians agree were caused in large part by a currency condition). ‘Thereupon, in 1896, the Democrats were beaten and McKinley was elected. In 1897 the Republicans raised the tariff in the Dingley act—and calmly . clzimed credit for the good times which ensued. (Though most economists and historians now sag v good times were due, in iarge part, to aw increased gold supply in the Klondike and elxwhere.) By 1908 the public had come to feel that the protective tariff was responsibi in large. part for trusts and monopalies, Thereupon, the Republican partv as- sumed—or seemed during the campaign to assume—a new role; they promised to revise the tariff downward. Mr. Taft, | running for election to the presidency | in that campaign, promised revision | downward. The Republicans won the | election and proceeded to revise the tariff—but revised it upward. That Payne-Aldrich upward_tariff revision led to public outery. In the congres- sional elections in the Fall of 1910 the Democrats turned the Republicans out of power in the lower house. The Payne-Aldrich act was in large part re- sponsible for the defeat of President Taft, the downfall of Speaker Cannon G?x‘i',o later the elevation of Woodrow n. In 1913 the Democrats passed the Underwood-Simmons tariff, which re- duced nearly all schedules and in par- ticular shattered schedule K on wool. The effects of the Underwood-Simmons tariff could not be normal. The Great War intervened and became, through | the interruption of shipping, a higher prohibition of imports than any writ- ten tarfl could be. In 1921 the Re- publicans returned to power. Imme- diately they passed, first the emergency tariff upward, and later, on September 21, 1922, the Fordney-McCumber tariff, now in effect. The present demand for tariff re- vision comes almost wholly from those Who insist the present duties are not high enough. Practically every in- dustry says it must have more. The d means commitee of the lower house, which is the tariff-making com- mittee, is holding hearings that will continue until February 25. Before the committee comes a procession of heads of industry who wring their hands and wail to heaven that they must have a higher tariff or be destroyed. Demand for Boost Held National. The demand for revision upward s practically national. Before the coms mittee and before the country comes almost no one asking that the tariff be revised downward, either in the in- terest of any industry or in the broad interest of consumers generally. The prospect is for revision upward by a kind of general assent. One wonders whether this condition will continue; Whether any one either in the classifica- tion of politician or of statesman will arise to seize the obvious opening and mncke .ltnfle for h;:\sell, an true that practically all American industry is sick and x!oeds higher protection? That this 18 true of the farmer, everybody admits. But is it true of manufacturing generally? If any voice arises in the wilderness to proclaim against revision upward, one of his arguments will probably con- sist of a compilation of the profits made by American manufacturers during the six years of the existence of the pres- ent Fordney-McCumber tariff. Speaking broadly, the values of stocks of manu- facturing corporations on the New York and other stock exchanges today are anywhere from twice to five or six times the price they were in 1922. This con- dition may not be necessarily a con- clusive argument on the tariff. But nor- mally one would expect it to cut & good deal of re in the (it e, debetes. Dublin Appreciates Position in Leagne The Irish Free seriously its State takes very representation at the | League of ‘Nations, though it cannot be said that the activities there of its representatives attract much public in- terest anywhere in Ireland. ‘y'hnl does not blind the government 0 taelr opportunities. Prof. John O'Sul- livan, who attended the recent session, is of opinion that in no other place in world have small nations a greater uence in proportion to their size, Prof. O'Sullivan attaches much impor- tance to the Free State intervention on the tariff question. It fell to him to ponst out the Imfecm case of countries which are mainly agricultural and only in an early stage of industrial develop- ment. Vice President Blythe, also a foreign steel. The outcroy that went up against him from some quarters was like the indictment of a man who has committed an offense against common decency. An American railroad in the easterly portion of the country found it could get dts steel rails from Europe s little et ! delegate at Geneva, said on his return that he regards the League as a valu- able aid to world peace. “If," he said, “we can avoid for 20 years a war in- Yolving the big nations the League will havaloh&l ul:-:ch s‘.hold u:x world consciousness war is almost certain to be ‘umu"