Introduction

This chapter presents American politics and international communication. "The Tariff" had once been a central issue of American politics. Many new men in Congress still remembered it as the touchstone which separated Democrats from Republicans—Democrats for low tariff, Republicans for high. The chapter examines the communications behavior of the American business community, that influential stratum with most interest and most voice in the shaping of foreign-trade policy. The methods that employed includes sample surveys of the heads of American business firms, analysis of historical and contemporary documents, and relatively informal interviews, such as are employed by newspaper reporters. A sample survey of the heads of American businesses could not, of course, give a complete picture of the making of American foreign-trade policy, nor even of the communications behavior of businessmen. The main emphasis might be placed on the problems which faced American business and the world economy.