Roanoke Rapids herald. [volume] (Roanoke Rapids, N.C.) 1914-192?, 1921-04-15


alone among the great powers, IS
solvent right now.
Obviously, this situation offers
to this country very unusual ad-
vantages. Equally obviously,
it involves some extremely deli
cate and complicate adjustments.
To have almost monopoly OF
world trade sounds attractive;
but to have a monopoly of world
trade when all the rest of the
world is broke is rather a mock
cry. If the United States is to
reap the fullest advantage from
its present position it must find
means of helping the rest of the
world to a position in which it
will be able to buy. This we
have not as yet succeeded in do
ing, and the consequence is felt
in the comparative stagnation
even of our domestic trade.
1t is a politico-economic prob
lem, with ramlfcations as wide
as the world. The commercial
men alone cannot solve it; neither
can political leaders do it alone.
To reach a solution, business and
government must supplement
each others efforts, for either,
by unwise action, could make a
hopeless wreck of the others
best endeavors.
This country has lost the moral
leadership of mankind that it
once possessed, but the economic
leadership has been thrust upon
it. One of our characteristic err
rors in the past has been a ten
dency to place too much reliance
upon government to achieve eco
nomic re forms. Too often we
have inclined to the belief that
Congress has power to modify, if
not to repeal the law of supply
and demand; and constant politi-
cal experiments, most of them
foolish and unhappy experiments
have checkered our career in
consequence.
But this year we are up against
a situation in which the acts Of
the government have a direct
and very powerful influence upon
economic conditions. This is
true because the really sinister
factor in the situation is lack OF
confidence. No act of govern
ment can increase the wheat
crop by a single bushel, or re-
duce cotton production by as
mnch as a pound; but the acts of
the various governments can,
and constantly do, affect credit.
If the United states trades with
the rest of the world at all, it
must trade on credit; but credit
cannot be established on the ba-
sis of a confidence that does not
exist; and confidence cannot and
will not exist until our political
leadership has revealed to the
world what it has in mind.
That is why we have consist
emily maintained that the ques-
ton of foreign relations ought,
regardless of what else may come
before the Congress just assem-
bled; to have the first and most
earnest consideration of official
Washington. All our other
problems eventually bark back
to that one, and until that one is
at least pat in the way of settle
ment, all our other labors must
necessarily be in the nature of
patchwork.
Instead of saying the country
is poor but sound" or which is
just as true = "the country is rich
but sound" the st. Louis man
should have said, "the country is
sound but stalled. The United
States is unchanged, but there
is a wreck on the line ahead; to
be sure, it is not our smash-up,
but it is on our right-of-way, and
It blocks US just as effectually as
if it were our own rolling-stock
that filled the ditch. Is it good
sense to SIT back and wait for
the battered crews of the wreck
ed trains to clear the track by
their own unaided efforts?-
Greensboro Daily News.