Evening star., 1926-10-14

America watches with friendly
eyes the combination or steer manu-
facturers of Germany, France, Bel
GUM. Luxembourg and the Saar
Valley. Taking advantage or the
friendly relations now enjoyed by
their respective peoples and govern
ments. the steel men have formed
"consortium'' to regulate manufac-
ture and marketing to their mutual
advantage, thus, in the opinion or
MANY observers, taking an important
step toward assuring peace In Eu-
rope. H..
1.-THE steel interests Of western Eu'
rome have acted wisely In forming a
combination to regulate their pro
duction." says the Providence Jour-
nal at ought to conserve economic
resources at a time when such con-
servation was never more needed on
the Continent" Seeing in the devel-
opment "the long-heralded conti-
mental steel trust" and a fair step
| coward AmericaniZation of European
Industry and the betterment of IN
ternational relations" the Louisville
Courier-Journal believes the combine
is "a movement toward an economic
United States of Europe. with free
trade within the continental bound
aries"
In line with this thought Is the OBJ
servation made by the Champaign
News. Gazette: "When the feeding of
the hungry mouths of one nation de-
pends as much upon the welfare OF a
sister country as on the home coun'
| try. the sister country Is not so ready
to work harm upon the other. Eco
nomic dependence, of course, Is a far
safer peace guarantee than all the
leagues of nations in the world"
The Rochester Times-Union finds 1t
| interesting to note how the inevitable
operation of economic interest has
brought previously conflicting groups
| together. 1.-THE retrocession OF AL
SAGE Lorraine to France" this paper
saws. "has been fruitful of good re-
suits. not only directly, but indirectly.
For the Lorraine iron and Ruhr coal
are mutually complementary. When
both were in the hands of Germany
there was no motive for international
| understanding. Now there is very
powerful one, and one that certainly
| seems to have operated with real
power It Is a solid gain for Europe
| that this great economic accord has
buttressed the treaties Of Locarno
and the admission Of Germany into
the League Of Nations"
X X X
| Explaining the new combination,
the Brooklyn Daily Eagle points out
that 1.-The agreement just formed does
not indeed constitute a trust IN the
| strict meaning of the term. 1t does
not put possession of the steel plants
! of the several countries into the
| hands of trustees The producers re-
! tain the control of their own mills.
but the plan sets supposed norman
| total production" the mills OF each
nation in the consortium producing
"a certain percentage of this total. )"
| Citing statistics, the Norfolk Ledger
| Dispatch describes the agreement as
| limiting Germany to 43.18 per cent
/ of the total production, France TO
31.19 per cent, Belgium to 1l.63. Lux
| embourg to 8.23 and the Saar to 5.77,
| the total output to run from 25.OOO,-
600 to 30,000,000 tons; and this paper
sees In the arrangement "a hopeful
sign that Europe is preparing to get
down to work, after eight years of
pickering, threats and international
| grimaces."
! The Springfield Union looks upon
the plan as "basically and principally"
an endeavor ito secure cooperation
| between the vast ore mines of LOr-
raine, which is now French. and the
coke production of the Ruhr on ad-
vantageous conditions" and charac-
terizes it as "in reality return to
conditions as they existed before the
war when Lorraine belonged to Ger
| many and the cooperation between
the two districts was completely in
| German hands"
| Naturally there Is study Of the stu.
alton in relation to the steel business
OF this country. On this point the
Waterloo Tribune says: Neither the
British nor American interests have
been approached to enter into ar.