PINCH IN AMERICA

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 137, 8 December 1930, Page 12

PINCH IN AMERICA

POLITICS BLAMED

BATTLE OF TARIFFS

A DISEESPECT EOE LAW

(From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOTJVEK, 12th November. The United States elections for both Houses of Congress have produced a crazy quilt that will furnish no pattern for constructive administration until the Presidential election, two years hence. Neither of tho dominant parties in either House can give a lead to tho country. They must mark time. Four reasons may be assigned for the defeat, of the Kepublicans, for their loss of seats and prestige amounts to defeat. Firstly, they have been in j power a dozen years, and. the people seek change.. Secondly,- the depression has been laid at the door of the Hoover Administration. Thirdly, there is dissatisfaction at the manner of dealing with unemployment. Fourthly, the growing unpopularity of Prohibition, at whose door the present unprecedented crime wave is laid. Taking the last first, there is no guarantee whatever that crime will decrease when the sale of liquor is permitted. Respect for law in the United States, whether there be Prohibition or the open saloon, has dwindled to vanishing point, chiefly because the pooplo have no respect for Judges, Magistrates, and law officials whose appointments depend. on popular vote, or, as is proven in the New York State recent revelations, may be purchased. . TYRANNY OF POLITICS. Politics now permeate every agency of public discipline; there will bo no euro for present ills till the Judge on the Bench ceases to regard the offender in the dock as a possible political supporter. That time will never be in the present generation. The "dry law" has been under attack, growing in intensity, from some of the most powerful newspapers and Press syndicates in the United States, which ascribe to it all or any of tho aggregation of crimes of "violence that make the American people the least law-abiding on earth. So strong is this influence that big brewing interests were preparing, a month before the election, to set up plants for the manufacture of beer. It is a significant fact that, immediately after the election, President Hoover's law enforce- 1 ment Commission began a study of liquor control system. ! The prevailing depression and unemployment are laid by the Democrats at tho door of tho Eepublicans. Holding the reins of office, they should, it is held, have averted tho stock market crash of October, 1929, in which the small investor was the real sufferer. The Administration, in close touch with Wall Street, tho banks, financial organisations, and big public corporations, could, if they had wished, in the view of Democrats, have saved the nation from the huge losses suffered in the aggregate by individuals who could j not afford to lose. The objection is not so much to the measures being taken to relieve tho distress 'and unemployment that have resulted; it is that those losses. should not have been allowed to occur. A country that could, by mass production and standardisation of manufacture, percolate through all the buying markets of the world, should be able to keep the ship of State on an oven economic keel. That is the charge tho Democrats make. "DISASTROUS" TARIFF. What will be the effects of the change1? The Smoot-Hawley tariff, which halted the purchase of American goods by foreign countries to the extent | of a billion dollars in tho first year of its operation, may or may not survive.' Certainly the way is paved for revision. That tariff had a disastrous effect in reviving the sentiment of inter-Imperial trade. British countries, momentarily distracted by the versatility and cheapness of American manufacturers, are now Regaining their confidence in the quality of their own. Canada's purchases of American goods declined nearly by half. Not only was this falling-off observed in the concert of British nations; it extended to foreign countries. America is in., for a hard time, and, with tho Administration rocking precariously, the period of the depression will be extended. Of the nations hitting back at the American tariff, Canada hit hardest. Her weapon was double-edged. . Her retaliatory tariff drove American manufacturers, in their own defence, to set up branches of their industry in the Dominion, to add to the 1500 already here. The Dominion went a step further, and offered the rest of the British Empire a gift of 300,000,000 dollars worth of her trade with the United States. Much of that trade will flow back into British channels. How the United States will make up tho leeway remains to be seen. The road will be hard. A CURIOUS PARADOX. A curious paradox emerges from a consideration from, the election results of the United States and Canada. The Democrats robbed the Eepublicans of many seats because the Hawley-Smoot tariff was considered too high. The Conservatives ousted the Liberals from office because they considered the Mackenzie King tariff too low to protect Canadian industries and Canadian workmen. The adoption of any new tariff by one country is reflected by immediate results in the other. The remedy against harshness or illtreatment, in the case of Canada, is to offer her trade, as much as will be accepted, to British countries. Canada stands to win both ways. She will, under a scheme of expanding preference exchange, find a market within the Empire, while her idle artisans and workers will get employment in branch American factories set up in the Dominion. But it will not conduce to the peace of mind of Americans, Republican and Democrat alike. All these things and more embarrassments of domestic concern aro the legacy inherited by American tariff-makers and constitute anything but an easy task for the Government of tho United States in the immediate future. Ex-President Coolidge, who is now a journalist writing daily reviews for tho Hearst Press, says the people's verdict is evidence of the unrest that prevails in Europe, Asia, and South America. "The difficulty," he says, "is that future action of the National Government is uncertain. We shall have to increase our faith. The country will survive. We can be sure of that. What policy it will adopt in legislation will remain unknown until the new Congress meets in December, 1931, But, with tho same President in office, there can be no sudden or violent change."