New-York tribune., 1918-12-08
Redfield Sees
Peril i'm Race
For Commerce
Success of Plan Would Mean
Piling Up Europe's Debt
Beyond Point of Safety
U. S. Duty Is to Help
Cabinet Member Says Capa-
city Of Worlds Tonnage
Is Mortgaged for a Year

William c. Redheld, Secretary of the
Depaftmeht OF commerce. spuaklng be-
tore the Brooklyn Chamber of Com
merce yesterday, predicted grave com
p'lcatlcns should thls country plunge
INTO race for foreign trAue. He sand
campaign for foreign trade waged
aow might pile added debt on the al
ready burdened countries to such an
extent that it would take away their
earning power and make it impossible
Tor them to pay.
must 40 large part in helping France,
belgium, Italy and Poland in recon
strutton ond that the problem of fur
nlshing food material and equipment
TO the world belongs TO America. 1t
VIII also be this country's duty to fur
nlsh credits with which to buy them,
he asserted.
There are 1000 tons of machinery
tools waiting in this harbor now to 20
over over, Secretary Redfeld declared
1here IS an order for ten million dol
lars worth of mining machinery pend
ing in the United States now to help
start up the coal mines in northern
France.
Must Supply Materials
I'VE face demand for raw mate
rials and other equipment constituting
an immense foreign trade, running into
billions, all probability, which we
must supply chiefly We must send
abroad many million tons of bread
more this year than last. If we for
get them, people will die of hunger by
the thousands, and it is possible that,
behind the viel which has been drawn
over RUSSIA, forty, to sixty millions of
people may be cold this winter,
loft
count, feeling that their needs should
be satisfied when they can be, but that
the nations that have bed in our be-
half come first. These are the burdens
land upon the heart and conscience of
the United States now, because we have
the power, the means and the supplies,
and we are not going to be found want.
ing when people have suffered for u.s.
Il have already pointed out to you
the demands which will in themselves
create an enormot.5 international trade
sumo as speedily as possible, and free
from every restriction that can possi-
bly, be waived, our own commerce. But
beg you to observe, as a sober fact
that as manufacturer | must take into
account, and as bankers you must take
INTO account, certain things in addi-
ton.
Buying Power Reduced
"The buying power of the world is
not what it was. All of these nations
owe vast debts, and, in addition to the
debts that are visible to us, there are
many not so visible. The cities of
France have in themselves acquired
great debts. They have not the buying
must buy of US the things which are
the necessities of live to them. 4 i
There is a fifth lion in the path-Aa
lion that, | think, is getting out of the
path rapidly, but still is there.
II ask you how the world would
pay and whence would come the means
to pay? ! ask you who is going to
carry the food and the materials and
equipment, and where is the carry ing
poweri 1t is not in the world now.
The reasonable probability is that
every ship the world now has, and all
that it could get for at least this year,
and possibly for next year. has its
carrying capacity mOrtagaged in ad-
vance for food and equiLm Mt and ma
terials, and the needs of our own army.
Uncertainty of Russia
"And it must be recalled that we
some months in Germany, that army of
perhaps 100000 men. And still behind
that, as constant check upon hys-
terra, lies the uncertainty of Russia.
We do not know what is there to be
done yet. In my own thought, the
peace conference is a preliminary to
the lifting of the Russian veil, then to
be determined what the world needs
to have done.
POSSIBLY the league of nations may
be necessary for that great task, but
one thing won would not permit, and
that is that Russia shall continue and
fifty million souls shall continue to be
a fostering sore upon the world And
the task may be there-some task Ike
know is there. Our men are already
in it in two places. How much more
we do not yet know. 1 don't speak of
it as serious threat; I speak of it as
a task to be done for the upift of the
world, to which we may have to set
our hands, hope with others-but it
must be done somehow
No Need for Hysteria
"Now, these are the conditions and
have not tried to overstate them:
have tried to understate them think
they are realities. They need cause no
fear nor hysteria, but they are things
to make men quietly thoughtful and
for that quiet thoughtfulness | would
plead with you and your fellows at
this time.