There is no use of the gentleman and me getting into an argument or his taking my time on another subject now. It is all over. The gentleman is coming in too late. I heard President Wilson say from this rostrum that under the Underwood tariff we could meet and beat Europe if American labor would speed up. “Whet your wits”, he said; while Representative Redfleld thought there was no further need of customhouses. Mr. KNUTSON. He was Secretary of Commerce in Presi¬ dent Wilson’s Cabinet. Mr. FOCHT. Yes; and wild for free trade. But Samuel Gompers, the sincere and patriotic labor leader, said American labor could not compete with the wages of Europe unless we starved American labor back into the factories, which we refused to do. We have more domestic commerce than the rest of the world combined, and that is the market for us to protect, and which must be protected if America is to ever again return to prosperity. I venture to say that the greatest men of America, the wisest and most patriotic leaders of the North, South, East, and West, who helped make the Republic and helped pre¬ serve it, would not support the attitude of the President of the United States on this tariff question. Mr. KNUTSON. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield? Mr. FOCHT. Yes. Mr. KNUTSON. I should like to call the gentleman's at¬ tention to the fact that under the operation of the recipro¬ cal trade agreement law we wiped out a favorable trade balance of $235,000,000. Mr. FOCHT. And the debt goes on increasing. Mr. HOUSTON. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield? Mr. FOCHT. Yes. Mr. HOUSTON. I agree with the gentleman fully on the abdication of poverty, but in the event we cannot abdi¬ cate poverty, do you not think we ought to be good sports? Mr. FOCHT. Kill them or what? Starve them to death or what? Mr. HOUSTON. Sure, be good sports. That is what a very distinguished gentleman said the other night. If they lose, they ought to be good sports. Mr. FOCHT. Who lose? Mr. HOUSTON. Anybody. Mr. FOCHT. I do not play poker, so I do not understand what the gentleman means. Mr. HOUSTON. It is one of the greatest of indoor sports, they tell me. Mr. FOCHT. Yes; so they tell me. I would not be here if I knew how to play it. Mr. HOUSTON. Who would? Mr. FOCHT. I would never have had time for anything else, because they tell me it is very fascinating. From the Constitution adopted for the whole country to the constitution adopted by the Republic of Texas in 1836, to the Confederate Constitution in 1861, and the adminis¬ tration of James Buchanan, and the business interest and labor organizations on through, we have the intelligence, patriotism, and chivalry of America standing for tariff pro¬ tecting industry and labor, as well as for the Constitution and the Supreme Court. You will not deny that. Every one of your ancestors, your fathers, from whose loins you got all this fine character and intellect, from Texas to Canada, were for these fundamental things, and we are not going to abolish them now either. Nothing stands out in the heroism of the world in greater or more majestic figures than the men who made the con¬ stitution of the Republic of Texas as well as defended it; nor do I anticipate that there is going to come from the South any such voice of destruction, any such thing as will repudiate that for which brave men led heroic armies over many States in an effort to establish a constitution; nor are men and women anywhere who believe what the flag typifies and symbolizes going to see it profaned or taken down and laid away to accommodate the whim and caprice of a single individual who seems unmindful of the scourge his act may bring to plague and distract a people who have sacri¬ ficed beyond estimate that the heart of liberty may beat on in courage during the trials of the future. Mr. HOUSTON. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield for a brief question? Mr. FOCHT. I yield. Mr. HOUSTON. Does the gentleman believe in a fair protective tariff on commodities produced in this country— not a prohibitive tariff, but a fair protective tariff? Mr. FOCHT. I will tell the gentleman what Mr. Hull said, and this is his theory. He said, “Focht, there is no use of your talking about this thing of raising enough money by a tariff to run this country.” We were living at the same hotel and he said, “We are right now voting $1,000,000,000 and that is what it is costing to run this country and you can only raise $600,000,000 on a balanced tariff. If you bring in too much, you flood the market and if you do not bring in quite enough, then you do not raise i even the $600,000,000. We have got to raise it in some other way." Then came his brilliant conception of taxing the man who has the money. The only trouble about that is you have gone too far and you are taxing the poor devil that does not have any money, and I am one of them. I have been in the red for 4 years and they are taxing me up home with several different kinds of new State taxes every time I go home. Mr. HOUSTON. One little tax more, would not hurt. For instance, in the importation of crude oil, we have fought for years to get a protective tariff of from 85 cents to $1 a barrel, and after all these years we finally have 21 cents. Would the gentleman be in favor of raising that to $1? Mr. FOCHT. I would have that measured up somewhat with the consumption of oil and its cost and the need of it, and so forth. There is a way to balance that. Mr. HOUSTON. We have plenty of oil in this country now. We are all on allowables. Mr. FOCHT. But I will tell the gentleman what I am not in favor of. I am in favor of this Congress sitting across the table with you and having you ask the question and having it answered, but I am not in favor of this 50-percent allowance made to the President in a flexible tariff to run it up or down so that the businessman will not know how much tariff he is going to have tomorrow or how small it is going to be the next day. We must have a fixed tariff and adjust ourselves accordingly. This is a fundamental prin¬ ciple of the tariff. Mr. HOUSTON. But in the case of our oil, we are under allowables now. Mr. FOCHT. Oil is a very liquid, movable, and uncertain thing. Mr. HOUSTON. We have from 5 to 10 percent produc¬ tion out there today. Mr. FOCHT. Where? Mr. HOUSTON. All over the Middle West, and I think we ought to have a higher tariff. Mr. FOCHT. Does the gentleman believe in very much more tariff on gasoline when it is produced at 3^ cents a gallon and you sell it to me In Pennsylvania for 20 cents? Are you not getting your piece out of it? Mr. HOUSTON. Not enough, and they are using it for other purposes now. Mr. FOCHT. Yes; I guess they are. [Applause.]
The Strike Epidemic
With better days coming out of the tall timber, and the cycle of hard business traveling having finished its evil attack upon about everyone and everything, it is not strange that thousands of workers are having a sit-down strike, or suspension of labor, until they may have their wages adjusted somewhat more in harmony with the higher cost of living and the reduced purchasing power of the dollar.
This strike business is epidemic in its scope, and goes from automobiles in Detroit to grub at the Willard and Mayflower Hotels in Washington, to the silk-mill girls of Japan, and stocking factory out on the District of Columbia line, to say nothing of what was threatened in a strike gesture toward the United States Steel and Hershey's chocolate factory.
While the workers seem in good humor over their prank of a sit-down strike. It is nevertheless expensive pastime for them as well as the employers. At that there is good cheer because of the readjustment made necessary in wages of workers on account of the depreciated dollar. In fact, we are having a very good sample of inflation, which will do no harm, providing it does not go too far