The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-11-21

IN the kaleidoscope swirl of events
4 in international politics forces ly-
ing dormant come into play over
night, smouldering antagonisms sud
denly develop into acute crises. Hap
penings in one part of the world have
immediate repercussions in other
parts. The Italian debt settlement
cannot be considered apart from these
events. In fact, the recent events in
Europe had much more to do with the
soft terms Of settlement granted Italy
than the mere internal situation in
Italy.
: American finance capital penetrat-
ing ever more deeply into the eco
nomic life of Europe involves this
country in all the contradictions and
crises of the Old World The ever
accelerated pace at which American
capital is being exported has forced
the administration at Washington to
turn from the consideration of do
nestle affairs to foreign affairs The
most important senate committee to-
day is the foreign relations commit
tee of which Senator Borah is the
chairman. Because Borah is the
spokesman for that element in the
republican party still defending the
1920 theology of the group that
elevated Harding to the presi-
deney on a policy of isolation as OPP
posed to~the Wilson policy of active
y participating in Europe thru the
league of nations every step of the
administration carries with it the
danger of accentuating the internal
party conflict.
When the Coolidge administration
endeavors to formulate and apply the
political consequences of American
participation in European affairs stub
born resistance is met from the Borah
group.
Realizing the political implications
involved in the cancellation of por-
tions of the European debts in order
to clear the ground for more invest
ments of finance capital, Borah tries
to thwart the administration by in
sisting that all European obligations
be met. Important concessions will
have to be made to his group to avoid
an open fight against the debt settle
ments in the coming session of con-
gress. Concessions on the Coolidge
Mellon tax plan have already been
made. Further concessions may be
made in the form of accepting into
the republican party councils the in
surgent group of the middle west.
Whether these concessions will be
sufficient to pacify the opposition
within the party is questionable.
Opposition Forming.
A LREADY opposition to the Italian
"A debt settlement which amounts
% a rs per cent cancellation of the
principal and interest of the debt is
manifesting itself, not thru the words
Of statesmen, but thru the powerful
publicity organs of industrialism in
the middle west That foremost
spokesman of the harvester trust, the
Chicago Tribune, asserts in an edi-
torial of November II, that the settle
ment of the Italian debt is a means
of making things easier for Musso-
lini." The high moral Indignation ex-
pressed, as a cloak to conceal the
economic interests involved, is typical
of this organ. Says the Tribune:
Congress shortly will be called
upon to ratify the italian debt set
Element agreed upon in Washing
ton few days ago. The settlement
throws three-fourths of the debt in
to the Atlantic Ocean ~. We give
Italy sixty-two years to pay back a
fourth of what she would owe with
interest. Our debt commissioners
looked into the question Of ltaIy's
ability to pay and said we should
settle for rs cents on the dollar
because that was all we would ever
get.
1.-THE accounting may be correct,
but we think congress had better
90 slow in giving its approval to the
terms. Mussolini's behavior is not
calculated to inspire our confidence.
He is the government Of his coun-
try. He has stifIed the opposition
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