Pinkerton on Trade
James Pinkerton’s “Limiting Trade Will Guarantee Black Mondays” (Commentary, Oct. 29) is incorrect in its premise. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 did not cause the 1929 stock market crash.
World War I (1914-1918), which dislocated world trade, along with the excessive reparations directed against Germany after the war, had more to do with the worldwide depressions than any tariff the United States levied in 1921 (Emergency Tariff Act), 1922 (Forney-McCumber Tariff Act) or the 1930 Smoot- Hawley Tariff Act. These tariffs were a reflection of the 1920 depression and the 1929 depression rather than the cause of them. As Pinkerton said, let the facts speak for themselves.
BALDWIN T. ECKEL
Upland
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