In the reports of our committee who were in contact with the tariff specialists at Washington, they greatly impressed us with the scientific method with which the whole matter was handled. They seemed to have a thorough knowledge of both the importer's position and more particularly the domestic manufacturers'. Let me go back to the time of the Hawley-Smoot tariff. The writer well remembers receiving a telegram, when this was upon the point of passing, from one of the leading newspapers asking me to express my opinion. I was in a prominent store in the city of Milwaukee at the time. I wrote, as I felt, which was to the effect that if the Hawley-Smoot tariff was put into law it would bring about powerful retaliations from other countries. Many and most all of these countries owed us a great deal of money, and further that these retaliations would cut off our export business. Also, we would see our factories close and men out of work.

Some years after, in 1932 or 1933, the remembrance of this telegram came back to my mind and how true the thing worked out. I was fully aware of these retaliations because I had to spend a good deal of time in England, France, and Canada. We were the creditor Nation of the world and the only chance these people had of being able to pay us back was by selling us merchandise. The whole thing seemed to me so utterly ruthless and selfish at that time to act in such a manner, and I certainly believe it was one of the main causes of the world depression. Now again we stand in the same position and I think we should give the world a helping hand. I feel confident under the guidance of your tariff specialists which you have at Washington that no part of our country will suffer as a result of the continuance of Mr. Hull's trade agreements.

As a citizen, it looks to me as though the House Members want to bring back into their hands the entire handling of tariff matters. This, no doubt, is their right under the Constitution. I cannot see how a group of men, I believe 435, can have the faintest knowledge of handling such a vast problem. It looks to me a very cumbersome procedure in comparison with the efficiency and knowledge by which tariff matters can be handled by your own specially trained tariff committee group.

I hope you will do everything within your power to encourage the continuance of Mr. Hull's trade agreements.

Yours sincerely,

COPELAND & THOMPSON, INC. By SIDNEY E. THOMPSON.

WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE,

DALLAS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE,

January 19, 1940.

House of Representatives,

Congress of United States, Washington, D. C. GENTLEMEN: It is the consensus of opinion of the membership of the board of directors of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce that the reciprocal trade-agreements program had been and is beneficial to the foreign trade of the United States and the general well-being of our country. This committee favors businesslike and scientific methods in tariff making as indispensable to the safeguarding of our national welfare and of the American standards of living. It is also the belief of this organization that the results of the trade agreements that have been enacted under the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act must be regarded in the light of their general effect on our national economy taking it as a whole and not solely in the light of the effect of these agreements on any particular small part of our industry or agriculture.

It is known to this body that there are some groups that have voiced opposition to certain phases of the program. We, of course, believe that the committee for reciprocity information should give every opportunity to be heard to any and all of these groups that feel that they might in some way be adversely affected in the granting of concessions. We do not want to see any significant part of American industry or agriculture have to carry the burden of concessions that may be granted. These agreements involve commercial considerations of tremendous importance to large sections of both our industry and agriculture, and it is for this reason that we urge an active and constructive cooperation with all interests involved. Wherever concessions are being considered, it is imperative that our people be assured of decisions that are calculated to conserve and further the enterprise of our people with the result that benefits may accrue to the broadest interests of our economy.

209991-40-vol. 2- - 14

The board of directors of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce believes that the best interests of our Nation will be served by an extension on the part of our Congress of the Executive power contained in the trade agreements act to negotiate and proclaim additional trade agreements and to keep in force those already approved.

This position is taken by the board after careful consideration of the alternatives that would have to be faced should the Congress fail to renew the Trade Agreements Act.

Your very truly,

J. BEN CRITZ.

DALLAS-NORTH TEXAS,

FOREIGN TRADE ASSOCIATION,
Dallas, Tex., January 16, 1940.

CLERK OF THE WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE,

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

DEAR SIR: With this letter we wish to present to your committee our views with reference to the hearing for the renewal of the Trade Agreement Act, as we believe that the failure to renew this authority would imperil the remarkable progress we have experienced in our foreign trade as a direct result of the Trade Agreement Act's going into effect in 1934.

We are not going to burden your committee with figures or statistics with which it must already be entirely familiar, but we should like to have our voice heard on behalf of the firms which compose this Foreign Trade Association, a division of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce, which firms have organized themselves as an assoication for the purpose of increasing their foreign trade and protecting their interests in foreign markets. It is beyond our understanding that any person or persons should take it upon themselves to defeat the Trade Agreements Act when facts have so clearly proven that our foreign trade with those nations with which we have reciprocal-trade agreements has increased 61 percent, while with those with which we have not had agreements our exports have increased only 38 percent during the same period—that is, during the years 1937 and 1938. We believe that within the next few years a continuation of these trade agreements would result in perhaps a 25 percent increase in our exports, and certainly this would benefit our national economy; put millions back to work, aid in the exchange of all kinds of goods.

According to figures of the United States Government, the income of our farmers has increased since the reciprocal-trade agreements went into effect, and considerable advantages have been obtained for farmers regarding the sale of their products to foreign countries with whom the agreements have been signed. As far as we can see, from figures and statistics available, there is not as a whole any branch of our industry, agriculture, or commerce that has suffered any damage as a result of the reciprocal-trade agreements, and it is beyond our intelligence to understand how anybody can stand up against the overwhelming evidence of benefits obtained by them.

We are ourselves located in an agricultural section of the United States, and we have in times past seen more prosperous times for our farmers than we see at this time; we have also seen much worse times for them; and certainly anything which will improve the farmer's or cattle-raiser's income should be done. We believe this must come eventually through the further development of industry in the United States, particularly in the South. And industry in the South can be developed to substantial proportions only by combining domestic with export markets-by finding buyers abroad as well as at home.

If the cattle people would develop for themselves the industrial end of their business, that is, the preparation of their hides and skins, and would supply the normal domestic demand as well as the demand from abroad, they would not need to cry about that infinitesimal portion of their business which may be lost as a result of the signing of trade agreements with other cattle-raising countries. Most of the members of the cattle-raising industry do not realize that the majority will not be imperiled by the small damage to the minority, and that for the good of all some small sacrifices have to be made. Some agriculturists and some cattleraisers think they are in great danger as a result of these reciprocal-trade agreements, but we have faith in this Government, and we believe that by following the example already set for itself in the signing of the reciprocal-trade agreements in force up to the present, which amount to agreements with 21 different nations, this Government will not injure any part of this country appreciably to gain

advantages for another part, and certainly not for the advantage of any foreign country. These are hard times all over the world, and a patriotic spirit is necessary at this time from everyone, and particularly from those who have high responsibilities, as well as an intelligent and sincere consideration of the long view of our problems. Now is the time for all of us to pass over our personal feelings and interests and antagonisms with a view to the ultimate good of all.

It is also the belief of the members of this association that one of the main guarantees of our prosperity is a good, sound, and prosperous foreign trade, and by "foreign trade" we mean importing as well as exporting. We have seen our foreign trade shot to pieces in the Orient, we have also seen it disrupted several times with the different nations of Europe. Up to very recently, and by "recently" we mean a few years ago, the attention of the Government in Washington, so far as foreign trade was concerned, was concentrated everywhere in the world except in the Western Hemisphere. It looked like we were deliberately ignoring the rest of the Americas; and it is our thought that our foreign-trade interests should rather be concentrated on those nations South of us and that it should at this time be concentrated more strongly than ever on them, with the present and the future in mind. If our trade channels were fully open to the Latin-American countries, if we would devote our time to the consideration of the possibilities we have there, and to the creation in these countries of needs for our manufactured products through the same means that they have been developed here in the United States, we would not have to be bothered with the rest of the world-with Europe for instance. After all, this hemisphere, call it North America, South America, Central America, or the Caribbean-it is all practically one strip of land and geographically belongs to all the nations that inhabit it, whether they be Canadians, Americans, Brazilians, Mexicans, Cubans, etc. And it is to their common interest and benefit to create and build up riches which they will own in common.

This sort of business cannot be built up by the cancelation of the trade agreements or by the raising of tariffs to a point where a give-and-take policy will be impossible. We are fast finding ourselves in the position of the little boy who was the best marble-player at school and now has all the marbles, and though he may lend them to other little boys in order that they may play with him and with each other, if he demands they be repaid in marbles alone, the game has to stop. There comes a time when he must trade some of his marbles for other articles his friends have, or the games have to stop. We are going to find some day that our vast horde of gold and other products will do us no good-it is going to be frozen in our pockets unless we trade some of it or some of our wheat for cattle, for coffee, for rubber, and keep the game going on in our part of the world. Maybe our closest pal doesn't have all the marbles he wants yet, and we'd rather he'd rather have plenty before we start playing again with the strange boy down South of us, but it just doesn't work that simply; the whole game has to go onit takes more than just one to make it worth while. Given enough trade, each section with a product that can be consumed stands to gain.

It is true that most of the nations of this continent are agricultural nations, and therefore each section is afraid to let a similar product come into his country from a foreign nation. He must not forget that it works both ways: that when each section is afraid of foreign trade in its product no one gets enough of the goods he wants, and everyone has to pay higher prices. If the cattle man wants to build a house, he is thankful to pay for the materials at prices he gets as a result of both domestic and foreign production: he must not forget that the same is true of his own product. There are millions of people in the world who have never been able to buy all the beef they want and could consume, but if something permits beef to be cheap enough for them to buy, they will consume more, and in the long run the demand and consumption of his beef is going to work for the benefit of the producer. He need not fear that already we have too much beef in this countrynothing could be further from the truth-we simply don't have enough people working at other things to enable them to buy all the beef they'd like to have. Another thing we must take into account as agricultural and cattle-raising nations-any nation in which progress does not stop becomes more industrialized as time goes on. We learn to work up our own raw materials, we learn to use the machinery which we have built and which we operate so expertly. It is better to do this and sell the products than try to keep ourselves artificially an agricultural country, while other nations of the world catch up with us industrially, at the same time that they, like South America, produce also their own raw materials. Particularly is this true of the South, where cotton, tobacco, sugar cane, and rice no longer compete to a profitable extent with foreign products for many reasons. The South must be industrialized or be lost to us and to hers She has cheap

enough labor, she has power, she is well located. She should be industrialized and in return for South America's buying her manufactured products, let us buy beef or other products from her which our South will then be able to purchase and

consume.

South America, for instance, produces not only agricultural and raw products (and at the same time is an enormous market for our machinery and manufactured articles), but she produces certain tropical foodstuffs and minerals which we need, can use, and which do not compete with our own, as we do not produce them. If their communication and transportation systems were developed to an extent that would make their mines, forests, etc., accessible for development and the products accessible for trade and commerce, they would greatly benefit economically and politically. We might point out that no more secure guaranty of the integrity and continuance of our Monroe Doctrine could be obtained than the mutually beneficial interdependence of the Americas on each other through a close foreign trade: Europe would have no interest and no opportunity to involve us in her age-old and seemingly insoluable quarrels if we traded with and grew with each other.

A sound foreign trade is an excellent guarantee of the monetary stability of a country. We never want all our eggs in one basket, and a foreign commerce between all the nations of this hemisphere, of which there are many, would be one of the best guaranties that our money continue to have a purchasing powerthat it not be hoarded gold laid up and useless. Money has no value within itself, it must be used in exchange before it has any value, and the gold we have idle is listed on our liabilities.

As we understand the Government's policy regarding trade agreements, they have for their basis the equalization of the export-import possibilities not only of the United States but of the nations with whom we sign them, and unless this policy is continued we foresee hard and dark days ahead of us, and undoubtedly the economy of this country will be adversely affected. These trade agreements, we understand, concern basic, sound products-not war or "boom" materials, which might later work to cause another depression. These are products which we sell and which we buy from day to day, which our people need and consume every day of their lives; they are not war materials such as Europe is now buying from us, but rather bona fide commercial exports and imports. Take away the products we are now exporting to Europe which are for wartime use only, and our trade with her makes a sorry showing. This is not the sort of commerce we wish to build up. This kind of business is one of the things which, directly and indirectly, got us into the depression we are still trying to climb out of. We want to build up with young nations like ourselves a peaceful interchange of mutually desirable products which will contribute to the comfort, enjoyment, and prosperity of all of us. When in the midst of her age-old quarrels, wrongs, and bloodshed Europe lies ruined we wish to find ourselves not in the position of having furnished the arms with which to complete that ruin, and in debt to our own citizens for them; but rather we wish to have spent this time in building up in the new hemisphere another civilization based on trade, work, and the confidence that security and employment give to nations who bend their energies toward peacetime rather than martial pursuits.

Very sincerely yours,

FRANCISCO MILLET, Manager.

ELECTRIC WHEEL Co., Quincy, Ill., January 16, 1940.

Extension of reciprocal-trade agreements, House Joint Resolution No. 407
WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE,

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

DEAR SIRS: Referring to House Joint Resolution No. 407, providing for extension of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, the undersigned companies, who are engaged in the export of products of the United States, favor the extension of this act in its present form.

The foreign commerce of the United States, being an important part of the national economy, requires effective methods of encouragement and protection from discrimination in foreign markets. We believe the reciprocal-trade-agreements policy is an effective instrument for these purposes and that its continued prudent employment is in the national interest.

The uncertain and changing conditions in world trade and the adoption by certain governments of methods of barter or other devices designated to win for

them exclusive advantages in foreign markets, confront foreign commerce with many difficulties. These are likely to be intensified after peace is made.

We believe that the authority now conferred on the Executive by the Trade Agreements Act is helpful to American traders everywhere and the abandonment of this authority through expiration of the act would leave the present and future foreign trade of this country in seriously exposed position.

Yours very truly,

Hon. ROBERT L. DOUGHTON,

ELECTRIC WHEEL CO.,
R. N. STILLWELL,
President and Treasurer.

EXPORT MANAGERS CLUB OF CHICAGO, INC.,
Chicago, Ill., January 18, 1940.

Chairman, Ways and Means Committee,

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

MY DEAR MR. CONGRESSMAN: On behalf of our club, which is comprised of representatives of the principal foreign trade interests in the Chicago area, I record our unqualified approval of the proposed extension of the Trade Agreements Act.

It is our considered judgment that the treaties thus far consummated have resulted in a substantial increase in the foreign trade of the United States, and also made a valuable contribution to our national economy. We believe failure to extend this act would be a grave mistake.

Very sincerely yours,

Hon. ROBERT L. DOUGHTON,

C. A. PRICE, President.

FOLKARD & LAWRENCE, INC.,
New York, N. Y., January 15, 1940.

Chairman of Committee on Ways and Means,

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

HONORABLE SIR: We understand that your committee is now considering a proposed joint resolution to extend the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act for a further period of 3 years and is now conducting public hearings in connection with that resolution.

This coporation is and has been engaged in business as a wholesale dealer in both domestic and foreign textiles and has therefore had an opportunity to study the operation of the reciprocal trade agreements insofar as they affect our business. From our experience we have become convinced that the reciprocal trade agreements have had a most beneficial effect in stimulating trade and in removing discriminatory imposts and in our opinion has contributed, in some measure at least, to the removal of barriers to the free flow of world trade upon which a large measure of the welfare of American business is dependent.

We strongly urge the adoption of the resolution extending the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act for an additional period of 3 years and respectfully request that this letter be made a part of your committee's official records in connection with the pending joint resolution.

Respectfully yours,

Hon. ROBERT L. DOUGHTON,

FRAZAR & Co.,
New York, January 12, 1940.

Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means,

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

DEAR SIR: Frazar & Co. is a copartnership and has operated as international merchants for over 100 years. The partners are Americans descended from American families of many generations. Mr. Frazar, the senior partner, is the grandson of the founder and, like his ancestors, continues to fight for American international trade throughout the world. Frazar & Co. represents, in certain territories, the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Chrysler Corporation, and many other representative American industrial corporations.