New Britain herald., 1916-02-09
BUSINESS VIEW OF
 PEACE TO COME
Survey Of Conditions Expected to
 Confront U. s. After War
PRESENTED BY E. A. FILENE

Boston Man Says Lie Has Been Given
 to Charge That American Business
 Men Are Willing to Sacrifice Prin-
 ciple in Greed for Blood Money. Washington, Feb. 9-Addresses on "commerclal relations between the United States and China, bv pr. Well lington koo, the Chinese minister. "A business view of peace to come" by Edward A, Filene of Boston, a member of the executive committee or the international Congress of the Chamber of Commerce, and Work of the International High Commas sion by Senator Fletcher of Florida. held the attention of delegates at today's session of the annual conven
 1oh or the chamber of Commerce of the United States.
 In presenting partial survey of conditions expected to confront the U. S. at the end of the war, Mr. Fi1- enc declared that the chambers TO- cent referendum approving the pro- posa1 that this country take the mi tiative in the establishment of an in. ternationals court to settle disp,1tes of nations has effectively given tho he,' to the charge that "the chief interest of American business men in the war is the chance it gives them to coin the agony of Europe to in- creased dividends"
 Oppose Blood Money.
 "The vote indicates,'' said MT. Fi1- hot
 if they could feel that thereby they were doing their share in keeping the peace of the world. would be will ing to help punish the violators of international agreements by putting an embargo upon all goods as well as munitions of war. Hereafter, the man who charges American business men with willingness to sacrifice principle in a greed for blood money must reckon with the vote on this referendum
 MT Filene said it was the clear duty Of the United States and the states of South America to take steps to complete a Pan-American program which will include international arbi- tratlon with power behind it to en- fofce it's operation. 'If such a pro- gram is in existence he said Cit is
 
 may want to join in it for their self preservation. For the contrasting eN- amples of unprepared Belgium in vaded, while prepared Switzerland, with war on all sides, is intact, will drive them to preparation and involve them in the inevitable cycle of 1n- creased ornaments, increasing taxa ton to pay for the armaments and the revolutionary protests that the taxation will in time produce, unless there is adopted some practical me- thod for settling future disputes along the lines of the proposals the business men of the U. $. have now agreed | upon.'
 Reasons For Agreement. He gave the following reasons for the need of the agreement:
 1. Existing at the time of the diplomatic negotiations at the end of the war, it would inevitably carry great weight, because the war will have proved America to be the big gest and safest source of those SUD- plies on which the success of modern war depends. Thus the very mate rial interests and self-preservation of Europe will be at stake in the answer l they give to such a pan-American l program.
 2. If it should happen that the material interests of Europe did not 1 lead to an adequate international l agreement, at the end of the war and l the diplomats succeeded merely in l holding together the present alliances, 1 then it will be a question of time when the inevitable rivalry in arma- ments, more costly than ever before, l will pile such burdens of taxation 1 upon the already debt ridden people that, by the fact that there is a limit 1 to endurance, radical unrest and reyo- | lutionary protest will arise from the masses. This pressure will force the governments of Europe to go into a 1 world congress in an attempt to find
 something better than the existing a1
 dances as a safeguard of peace, and some plan that will relieve the ten-
 sion of the extravagant rivalry in
 armaments. A definite pan-Amer- 1 ican program would be a centraliz7ng 9 1 force in the actions of any conference
 of world powers.
 Rivalry in Armaments.
 3. 'If this war is settled as all
 other wars have been settled the na- | tons of Europe will face not only 1 the enormous war debts and expense
 of normal rebuilding of their in 1 dustries, but in addition the continu- l ously increasing burden of the rivalry | Tn armamentS. This means that | Europe's need for markets will be
 the most urgent in her history.
 So imperative will be the need
 for markets that the nations of Flu ysyj1 Cn1 {~ I l profit if they can, but if necessary
 they will lower their prices step by | step until they succeed in capturing