Speech #760057039

The Government of the United States would save money by having its battleships and cruisers and other seacraft constructed in British shipyards. or in the Scandinavian countries. but there has been no demand from the cattleproducing sections that the United States economize at the expense of American shipbuilders and American labor. Undoubtedly English woolen goods could be purchased more cheaply than American woolens. but the cattleproducing region has made no demands that the tariffs be reduced to allow these woolens to compete on more even terms with American woolens. Undoubtedly labor costs in the United States could be sharply reduced if the restrictions on immigration were removed. and cheap labor were allowed to flow into the United States. The farmers of the United States have supported the American tariff policy. they have supported the restriction of immigration. and they have done this in the face of the fact that these restrictions on imports from abroad compel them at times to pay high prices for everything the farmers have to buy. No wonder the people in the great agricultural regions of the United States feel they have been betrayed. when the President of the United States deliberately proposes that foodstuffs from abroad be used by the United States Navy because they are cheaper! I appreciate that the motivation of the Presidents statement probably was diplomacy. a desire to curry favor with the Argentine Government and other South American peoples. but I object most strenuously to having the farmers made the scapegoats for a foreign policy.