Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-05-23
CONDITIONS IN EUROPE.

economic conditions in Europe have nothing to
do with like conditions in the United States, but
they are mistaken. In some instances they nave
learned their mistake. When France refused to
permit American made motor cars to come INTO
France because she needed the money kept at
home to keep down exchange on things like cot
ton and food stuffs which she had to buy here
because they had no surplus to sell elsewhere in
the world, we growled little about her selfish
ness but it did not hit us hard We needed our
motor cars at home for our prosperous working
men, and we sell very few luxuries in France
anyway The shoe is on the other foot. France
has always sold us articles of luxury and bought
in return articles of necessity and raw material.
But when Great Britain put on an embargo
against American luxuries, and included such
things as canned salmon and fruits in the list of
forbidden imports from the United States
howl went up from our business men dealing in
those things and it found it's echoes in congress.
Republican senators who have ridiculed the Ia
points set forth by President Wilson, and on
which the armstice made and the treaty OF
Versailles founded, and declared these Ia points
silly and absurd, have suddenly discovered that
they are sacred and binding on our allies al
though rejected and disowned by u.s. and that
this British embargo is in violation of one of the
Wilson ID points - international freedom of
trade. A few senators from states with anti
British voters in considerable proportion have
even gone so far as to threaten Great Britain
with war unless she repeals her embargo against
American luxuries. Others threaten reprisals,
and already bill has been introduced to repeal
the equal treatment in the matter of tolls on all
vessels passing through the Panama canal as
measure of reprisal.
This sudden devotion to the principles of the
Versailles peaceNreaty on the part of men that
have found these principles SO obnoxious is sure
" amusing Of course, their logic is rather halt
ing If an embargo against foreign luxuries
entering country is violation Of the principles
of free commercial intercourse so is customs
tariff made purposely so high as to exclude for
eign goods from competition with home pro-
duced goods of the same kind. Every nation in
the world has been doing that except Great Brit
ain in the past.
AS matter of fact the British embargo
against American luxures is just what we would
do ourselves if we were in the same boat 1t is
an attempt to correct the sterling exchange so
that her citizens will not have to add 25 per cent
to our prices when they buy food, cotton, oils
um for our money. If they buy less from us or
sell US more that handicap will disappear. In
one way that would be beneficial to us as well as
Great Britain, because when exchange is at a
parity the volume of the trade is increased.
When Great Britain has to pay premium of 25
per cent or less on exchange when purchasing
goods in this market she naturally buys as little
as possible, looking to other sources of supply
where her money is not at discount, but at a
premium. If the British embargo against Amer
lean luxuries serves it's purpose, it will make
food and other necessities of American origin
cheaper to her citizens and American luXuries
not obtainable. 1t will also encourage trade be-
tween the two countries by correcting the dispar-
ity in exchange. We have no reason to holler
about it except that presidential election is
near and politicians need votes.
From time to time we hear tales of desperate
suffering in Asia and eastern Europe, where the
flames of war have never been entirely extin-
guished. Poland Russia, Turkey and Japan are
still fighting more or less, and destruction of
life and property proceeds over wide areas in the
east And in western Europe where the fight
ing and the clash of arms has ceased, another
form of war which destroys production is in full
swing. That is the strike 1t withdraws men
from production just as efficiently as war did,
perhaps even more efficiently, and it makes the
world poorer. A world already impoverished by
the lack of necessities of life cannot bear with
patience the inflictlon of more losses of it's
scanty stores by such continuous withdrawal of
production Already in Europe there is organi-
zation to meet the strike by anti-strike forces.
The Chicago Daily News recently remarked that
"n Great Britain there has been formed the