Evening star., 1923-10-04
Can Europe Hold Together?

~ JOHN F. SINCLAIR

We have now studied and analysed
the economic and financial conditions
in thirteen OF the great European ma
tfpns. Perhaps we should just call
the roll of the rest. -..
Spain, Bulgaria and Greece are un-
der the control of military dictators.
The economic and financial condition
in each case is very bad. At this
time. each of these nations is under
martial law.
Switzerland. Holland. Denmark.
Norway. Sweden and Portugal are all
hard up, and SO far have not been
able to balance their imports with
their exports. Neither have they
been able since the war to pay their
way, to make their government ex-
penses come within their receipts
Why? Because, like England and
Belgium and Italy, these countries
live by International trade. With
out such trade they must go down
to lower standard of living, to a
lower level OF life. That is just what
has happened in these countri Fac
tories closing, unemployment growing
and becoming a real burden within
each on these countries. Switzerland
lived before by selling luxuries and
mountain scenery. Neither is in de-
mand now in Europe. The hotels are
empty and the matchmaking plants
are idle. Holland, Denmark. Norway
Sweden and Portugal are ALI seafar-
ing peoples But hundreds of their
vessels are rotting and rustdng in
the harbors OF northern and eastern
Err ope without a thing to do.
Before the great war the twenty
different Of
mad submerged their national SOW
ere ignties to point where inter-
national trade was fairly free be-
tween them. 1t was sufficiently free
maintain her rate of exchange at
the gold point. Not SO now.
Zone of Work Split by War.
Norman Angel. the distinguished
English economist. put it this way:
The factory which before the war
had easy access to coal, raw mate
rials, markets, because they were
mainly within the. same state. now
finds the coal In one, raw materials
IN another. markets in a third foreign
state, and sometimes. as unsurmount-
able obstacles to the necessary COM
bination, stand customs barriers.
varying currencies. suspicious rival
rles. mutual POPULATIONS Of obliga-
fions, Withholding of raw material
for political reasons. anti-dumping
Jaws, the resentment OF each little
state of the trade of the other, and
the attempt to stop that trade"
rms is hard for us to understand.
We are accustomed to operate and
trade in the largest free trade area
in the world. 1t is not unusual to go
from New York to San Francisco on
an hours notice. and il can be done.
But to travel that same distance in
Europe would take possibly a month
TO get the necessary passports, pa
pefs. permits. And to ship goods
across the number of frontiers in
yolved-well, no man even tries to
do it, Two or three frontiers are
about all that can be successfully
crossed. Picture, IL you can. America
divided into thirty-five different
states. each with its customs barrier.
consular wise. shifting currencies and
armies at the border ready to fight
for national honor. The people OF
Europe are trying to live and grow
under just such conditions .
The war again intensified national
ism and broke the machinery for in
ternattonal trade besides. After the
war. the number of independent ma
tions was increased from twenty
hve to thirty-five. Each of these ma
tfons since the war has been irving
desperately to become an Independent,
economic unit--to live unto itself
alone. Instead OF Europe moving
closer and closer to the idea of one
economic unit-a perfectly natural
and inevitable process-we now have
the spectacle of Europe trying to de-