American Notes
Passed in the face of the considered and reasoned objections of many nations, leading economists, newspapers, farm organizations, manufacturers, exporters, and bankers, several of them Republican in polities, the Tariff Bill as a whole satisfies nobody. Even some of those who fought most obstinately for it admit that it is a nondescript piece of patchwork, put through by lobbying and log-rolling, and that the many concessions it makes, whether to the farmers or the manufacturers, are offset by the burdens which it threatens to impose upon them. There are wide differences of opinion as to its probable effect upon the American con- sumer and upon foreign trade. President Hoover himself is understood to believe that its bad effects upon our foreign trade have been greatly exaggerated, his opinion being that the falling off of exports is due to wbrld-wide depression and that the Tariff Bill could not materially affect the situation one way or another. The President's belief that by signing the Bill he will remove business uncertainties, and that by exercising the flexible provisions he and the Tariff Com- mission will be able to rid the Bill of its acknowledged vices, finds few adherents. Clearly, so long as the rates are subject to alterations by the President and the Commission, uncer- tainties must continue.
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