Speech #760106098

This was a Machiavellian stroke of diplomacy which had the psychological value of putting the onus of the worlds trade troubles. in the eyes of.the European public. on the United States. The truth was that the United States was the worlds largest buyer of raw materials. with average annual imports constantly increasing. But the invisible items of our foreign trade. our immigrant remittances. insurance payments. tourist expenditures. payments for foreign shipping services. amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars annually. items which affect bur favorable physical balance of trade to the immense advantage of foreigners. Of course. the HawleySmoot Tariff Act of 1932. although 65 percent of the import items remained on the free list. caused a new storm of European criticism. our brethren in America who saw their exports falling and our politicians seeing an opportunity to pander to this criticism. gladly joining. But I believe the HawleySmoot Act was the first real attempt in our history to take the tariff out of politics.