AGRICULTURAL RELIEF Mr. WELLER. I would like to have seen it adopted. Mr. Jones. At least, the McMaster resolution would have opened up the question and given an opportunity for readjustment. I think that any Member*of the House who was really interested in the subject should have supported that measure, to have gone into that tariff and to have had the adjustments and tried to get them on the same level. Mr. WELLER. My personal opinion is it should by all means be on the same level. Mr. Kercaam. I want to tell you some of the farm leaders in the House did not do it. Mr. WELLER. To my disappointment. Mr. Jones. To say the least, there are some products, such as aluminum, steel, and a number of others that might be mentioned here on which the tariff is exceedingly high. There is a tariff of approximately 70 per cent on aluminum, and a 30 per cent tariff would easily cover all the differences that are argued about in the cost of production; and there are a number of other articles the tariff 1s exceedingly high on. At least on those commodities the tariff could well be lowered without injuring in any way the productive: industry of this country, and at the same time on any commodities from which customs duties might be derived, of the nature of farm products, if occasion justified it, might have been raised. Mr. WELLER. Providing we could raise them. That, of course, is what we attempted to do, to have some means of having the tariff effective. I made some figures at one time and I had to dig it out myself. The result may have been inaccurate, but it seemed to indicate that the northwest European farmer put up one bushel of his product in exchange for a manufactured commodity that cost us four bushels or measures of our product. Mr. Jones. For the last five or six years the representatives of the West, both in and out of Congress, have been crying and urging that there is an inequality between industry and agriculture because of the tariff. That has been stated over, over, and over again, both in the House, in this committee room, and throughout the country and throughout the West. They have been saying and have been threatening that if we did not give them what they want they would strike at this tariff. That is the threat that has been held up by the members of the so-called farm bloc in the House time after time. That includes the gentleman from Iowa, Mr. Dickinson, who claims to be the head of the farm bloc. I have heard him time after time state in the House that the protective tariff gave industry an advan- tage over agriculture, and that if they didn’t give agriculture what they wanted they would turn immediately, and he stated in very dramatic fashion, “We will turn and change the tariff schedules.” And yet the only time during all these years of agitation that there has been an opportunity in the House to go into that question and really secure readjustments and see what is the matter and make any changes that are necessary, most of those western fellows who have been talking so much, including the gentleman from Iowa, Mr. Dickinson, voted against going into it. Mr. WELLER. I think he made a mistake. Mr. Joxes. They could make such adjustments as they saw fit, and the Congress through its chosen Representatives could deter- 239