Evening star., 1924-10-31
Baldwin PIenses America.


Baldwin PIenses America.
Stanley Baldwin's return to the
premiership causes qualification in
Washington on other grounds than
the Russian issue. The Conservative
leader was the author and chief
executor of the British debt funding
settlement with the United States
Treasury early in 1928, when, as
chancellor of the exchequer, he spent
several weeks in Washington. Men
like Secretaries Hughes, Mellon and
Hoover and members Of Congress like
Senator Smoot and Representative
Burton, who belong to the World
War Debt Commission. became well
acquainted with Baldwin and formed
the opinion that he is genuinely
friendly to this country.
In his address, at the opening ses-
sion of the funding conference in
Washington on January 8 of last
year, Mr.. Baldwin said:
The payment of our debt to you
involves much more than the transfer
of huge sums from London to
Washington. 1t must affect the
future we'll being of both countries,
and on their prosperity depends to a
large extent that of the entire world.
The settlement we make here will
welfare of the great mass of wage
earners in Great Britain and the
United States, their wives and chill
dren. 1 do not, 1 believe, exaggerate.
I state this as my deliberate opinion
after having given this subject ma
ture considering. Our wish
is to approach the discussion as
business men seeking business
solution of what is fundamentally a
business problem"
Mr.. Baldwin returned to Great
Britain a few weeks later amid a
hurricane of criticism from both
political friends and foes. who init
mated that the Yankees" had pulled
the wool over his eyes. Baldwin on
arrival at Liverpool gave a remark
able interview, in which he reminded
the Britishers that the rural west of
America was in the saddle at Wash
ington, not the financial east, and
conveyed the impression that it was
that state of political affairs that
made it impossible to secure a better
funding deal for Britain.
May Seek Revision.
1t may be that in the course of the
second Baldwin premiership an at
tempt will be made to secure some
readjustment of the existing funding
scheme. It does not set pleasantly on
the average British chest There is
a very insistent opinion that the Brit
ish taxpayer should not be the only
one in allied Europe to enter upon
liquidation of the World War borrow
ingS from the United States. Millions
of Britishers feel that there should
be round table discussion of inter
allied Indebtedness. There is an ex-
tensive body of sentiment to the same
effect in the United States. 1t was
voiced in definite terms a few days
ago in Washington, on the occasion
of the dedication of the new temple
of the United States Chamber of Com
merce.
Speaking in the presence of Secre-
tary Mellon and Joseph c. Grew, act
ing Secretary of State, A. c. Bedford,
the Standard Oil executive, who is
chairman of the American section of
the International Chamber of Com
merce, went far in supporting the
idea of considering the whole debt
situation afresh Mr.. Bedford sug-
gested that as the International
Chamber of Commerce had been a
factor in originating and promoting
the Dawes plan for settlement of rep
arations, the chamber might well
aspire to bring about similar ar
rangement in connection with inter-
allied Indebtedness.
The Baldwin landslide" in Great
Britain, apart from the Russian issue,
was the result of the Conservative at
tack on the Labor party's economic
and industrial policies. In a way, the
Conservatives made the same sort of
fight, with the same sort of issues,
that the Republicans IN this country
are making on the La Toilette radi-
calls. G. o. P. leaders, contemplating
the overwhelming defeat admins
tered to the British radicals, look
upon it as an omen of impending
events in the United States.
(Copvr;phf 1904