MCNARY-HAUGEN MOVEMENT 373 



Tariff of 1913 would be revised upward when the Republicans took office 

 in 1921. But for all practical purposes this revision would have amounted 

 to nothing more than a gesture, because the lower schedules of the Un- 

 derwood Tariff never had had a chance to operate. The war years not only 

 had provided American industries with a type of protection that legisla- 

 tion could never have extended to it, but also had whetted the appetites 

 of the protected groups, who clamored for more. 3 Their position was im- 

 plemented by the fact that the war years saw the conversion of the United 

 States from a debtor to a creditor nation and the growing desire of the 

 indebted nations to meet their obligations through payments in kind. 4 



One could hardly say that protectionism was something that was con- 

 fined to the United States alone, or that it was ushered in by conditions 

 that were peculiar to it. This was a world-wide phenomenon. The war 

 had thrown world trade and economies out of balance, and governments 

 anxious to promote their interests placed embargoes on gold, which helped 

 bring about wild fluctuations in exchange rates. For instance, France 

 threatened that it would not permit the free importation of American 

 goods unless their payment was arranged for in terms other than in the 

 exportation of French gold. Likewise, it was obvious that Germany, a lead- 

 ing export and import nation before the war, was in no position to trade 

 unless she could pay for her imports with goods that would compete with 

 some of the industries in the United States. The possibility that European 

 nations would return to their normal rates of production, and thus com- 

 pete with the United States, was a fear that haunted many Americans, 

 who began to feel, in increasing numbers, that unless tariff barriers were 

 raised the nation would be flooded with foreign goods. 5 Among the recent 

 converts were the western farmers, who preached the protectionist gospel 

 with evangelical vehemence. 6 



The first links in the chain of agricultural protection were the emer- 

 gency legislation of 1921 and the Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922. Both 



3. F. W. Taussig, "The Tariff Act of 1922," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 

 XXXVII (November, 1922), p. 3. 



4. George Soule, Prosperity Decade, From War to Depression, 79/9-7929 (New 

 York, 1947), pp. 252-59. 



5. Monthly Letter of the National City Ean\ of New Yor^, May, 1919, p. 4; ibid., 

 January, 1919, pp. 5, 10. 



6. Taussig, in Quarterly Journal of Economics, XXXVII (November, 1922), 

 pp. 3-4. 



