Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 247, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1919 — AN AMERICA FIRST MEASURE. [ARTICLE]

AN AMERICA FIRST MEASURE.

Washington, D. C., Oct. 14. —“The Smoot bill levyng prohibitive tariffs on -foreign—merchandise in the United States is a step in the right direction with the foot firmly planted,” is the assertion made by the Republican Publicity association today in a statement given out through the president of that organization, Hon. Jonathan Bourne, Jr. The statement continues: “Senator Smoot is a republican who knows how to put a wallop ■firTßgt^'tibfi.Thhfe = fsndquibbiing or dodging issues or academic wristslapping about his measure. Any competing nation which attempts crooked merchandising in the markets of the United States goes up against a tariff rate that will put it to sleep in the first round. And dumping is crooked merchandising when it is practiced as it has been in the past by certain European governments, particularly Germany. “There is a wide distinction between dumping and marketing in foreign countries a surplus at prices less than those exacted for given commodities in the country of -their origin; ~ Take shoes, for example, whose styles are changing from year to year. The manufacturers find that they have over-estimated the domestic market and a surplus remains on hand which they must dispose of, so' they market them abroad at what they can get, usually at prices below those secured in the home market. But the home people are not hurt by that. Or a surplus of hosiery may be marketed abroad at reduced prices with a view to establishing a trad? in that market. Or, if the manufacturers deliberately produce a surplus for foreign trade the home-folks are not injured, but oh the contrary, they are benefited, for this means the operation of the mills at maximum capacity, which insures minimum unit cost; more jobs for the workmen; greater consumption of raw materials. Lower unit cost, under a system of fair dealing, of course, means a decrease in the price to the home consumer. -

“Jhit the German system of ntii ; iMpiifg-/which-b7rs- ; alsobeeriprac“ ticed by the British considerably in the past, is to manufacture for the express purpose of stifling infant industries in foreign countries in the cradle. For example, when our textile industries were started years ago, the Manchester textile manufacturers inaugurated a campaign of price-cutting in the United States calculated to kill the industry here. They raised a huge sum of money for that purpose. They sold clothes at prices far under those demanded of English buyers at home, and, more than that, the losses sustained by this campaign were recouped by adding to the home prices to the English consumers. And the Germans have done the same thing in -chemicals and machinery. A year or so before the war American sewing "machinesi -weres finding a fuothold in Latin American countries which greatly perturbed the German makers. They sent their salesmen into those Countries witjh instructions to give away, if necessary, the German machines until the American machines were driven out of the field. The expenses of that campaign were recovered by increasing the home prices, and when the American business had been driven out of the Latin American countries, the price of the German machines was raised to a point which would cover all past losses. This is crooked merchandising and an offense against economic law. Those who engaged in’ it have no standing in equity and are not entitled to any sympathy when they fipd themselves barred from our market by a prohibitive tariff. “It is to be hoped that Senator Smoot’s bill will receive the support of the entire republican majority in congress, but that it will receive the approval of Mr. Wilson is extremely doubtful, as he remains a free trader despite the lessons taught by the war. When both the administration and the congress are republican,'" protection to American industries will be assured, and not until then.”'

If you want Boston ferns you had better be looking lor them soon, or the joke will be on you.—Holden’s Greenhouse.