TAUSSIG MARKS FUTILITY OF SMOOT-HAWLEY TARIFF

That the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 was, as a whole, futile and that the various measures adopted therein are little more than gestures, "made because the Republicans had vaunted the tariff as a never-failing remedy and were under bonds to keep their promises for this sort of relief," and that the most important result of the new tariff up to now has been to irritate Canada are the opinions expressed by Professor F. W. Taussig '79, Henry Lee Professor of Economics, in an article which is to appear in the November issue of the Economic Quarterly.

His opening statement is that "the nature of the outcome, whether in the end a rate higher or lower than the corresponding one of 1922, depended on compromise, 'trading,' accident, and not infrequently on the persistence or dominance of some individual." He shows that the farmers themselves looked for little help from the tariff although they naturally took high rates on agricultural products when they could get them and that the manufacturers were already so well protected that no further change could be of any importance.

He criticizes the system of tariff adjustment and refers to it as proceeding in a "haphazard and irresponsible fashion." "To give the farmers higher duties on swine, corn, and meat is a continuation of the old process of trying to throw dust in their eyes." "One is often led to suspect that the pervading process of log-rolling and swapping has ended in changes which some particular domestic interest and its Congressional representative had at heart."