Tariff Approval

President Hoover at last declared himself on the Tariff Act of 1930. He said he would sign it. Though he had been described as "open-minded" on the measure and determined to subject it to expert study beforehand, he did not wait for the bill to reach his desk before proclaiming his intention of approving it. While the measure was still waiting in the Senate for its last formality--the signature of Vice President Curtis--astonished newsmen at the White House were handed a typed statement in which President Hoover declared:

"I shall approve the tariff bill. . . . This tariff law like all others . . . contains many compromises. . . . No tariff bill has ever been . . . perfect. It is bound to contain some inequalities and inequitable compromises. ... A new basis for the flexible tariff . . . has been incorporated in this law. Thereby the means are established for objective and judicial review of rates. . . .

"With it [a workable flexible provision] the country should be freed from further general revision for many years to come. . . .

"In this highly complicated and intricately organized and rapidly shifting economic world, the time has come when a more scientific and businesslike method of tariff revision must be devised. Toward this the new flexible provision takes a long step. ... If, however, by any chance the flexible provisions should prove insufficient for effective action, I shall ask [Congress] for further authority for the [tariff] com-mission."

(Observers were puzzled by the President's emphasis on "the new flexible provision ... a long step." The new flexible provision is less flexible than the old. Previously the President could, upon being advised by the tariff commission that a rate needed altering, make any change he saw fit up to 50% of the standing rate. Now he can alter rates only to the degree the commission recommends.)

"It is urgent that the uncertainties in the business world which have been added to by the long extended debate on this measure should be ended. They can be ended only by completion of this bill. Nothing would contribute to retard business recovery more than this continued agitation.

'I do hot assume that the rate structure in this bill is perfect but I am convinced the disposal of the whole question is urgent . . . the bill gives protection to agriculture and to several industries. . . . With returning normal conditions our foreign trade will continue to expand."

Thus was the record preserved inviolate: in 140 years of tariff-making, no U. S. President has dared veto a tariff bill.

First big result of President Hoover's statement: stocks on the New York exchange, having coasted downward for a week as the tariff's passage grew more certain, definitely plunged in the year's blackest trading day thus far. P: President Hoover greeted at the White House Senhor Julio Prestes, President-elect of Brazil. At a state dinner in the Pan-American Union President Hoover accorded for the first time full social honors to Mrs. Edward Everett Gann, sister and hostess of Vice President Curtis, by escorting her to the table, seating her at his right. Mrs. Nicholas Longworth, wife of the speaker of the House, who contests title of second lady of the land with Mrs. Gann, absented herself from the function. P:Hearing from Tokyo that William Cameron Forbes of Boston would be persona grata as U. S. Ambassador to Japan, the President sent Mr. Forbes's appointment to the Senate. Also appointed last week: Ralph J. Totten of Nashville, Tenn., to be first U. S. Minister to the Union of South Africa.

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