The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-06-14
The Middle West Looks Abroad

1t used to be that very few people, even on our
seaboards, cared rap 70. what was going on in
foreign countries.
In dull times a Balkan war was played up bit
in the newspapers, but more as space killer than
for any real interest the public might have displayed
while a Chinese famine earthquake that only
snuffed out fifty or hundred thousand lives got
pretty scant attention.
But times have changed, as Senator Arthur Cap
per of Kansas, tells in the current issue of For
egn Affairs Says he:
1.-THE sincere way in which the Middle West is
studying foreign affairs these days is one of the
worthwhile facts to be noted along the relatively diff
hcult trail which it is travelling.
This development should mean much in a
broader national outlook for it brings the last section
of the country up out of the slough of indifference
that frequently has characterized the attitude of
a large proportion of people toward other ma
TONS"
And what is the reason for Americas new-found
interest in other nations? It's simply that we have
discovered the world is small; that it is lust COM
munity broadened OUT that whatever happens any,
where, even in the most remote corners ultimately
has very definite effect every of us over here
For example: young fellow of unpronouncable
name in the Bosnian city of Seraevo shot Archduke
Francis Ferdinand and his WIFE That was June 28
1914 On that day wheat selling in Kansas at
81 cents bushel BY the following spring it was SELL
ing at $3.50 and couple of years later saw it soar
above So bushel
That is the way it works. An incident in an OBJ
scure corner of the Balkans quintupes the price of
wheat in Kansas and Nebraska, pays the mortgages
off thousands of farms in the Mississippi valley buys
tens OF thousands of automobiles for American citi
zens and does world of good and mischief besides.
In fact, much of the examped prosperity which
the United States has enjoyed for years and much of
the rim some have suffered, are result of those
pistol shots at Serajevo.
ThisNis an extreme example, of course. But it
shows how foreign happenings have their effect on
us all. Sometimes the effects are great sometimes
small, sometimes for good and sometimes for evil
An instance of this last may be found in the pres
ent agricultural depression throughout the country
Were England, France Italy, Germany and tbs
countries of the old world prosperous if Russia wero
not still in chaotic condition; were not the near and
Middle East in state of unrest and the Far East
torn by war, it is likely could dispose of our sur
plus farm products at good price and stimulate the
market at home
Y In other words" to quote Senator Capper "wher-
ever we turn we find the Middle West and its eco
nomc woes tangled up in the elusive foreign stua-
ton with which it used to concern itself very little"
Senator Capper is a Middle Westerner himself
and is talking mostly about the Middle West. But
what he says with equal force for our country
as a whole and for us as people
The war in China, the row between Britain and
Russia, Premier Mussolns edict calling for six mil
lion reserves in eight years. the fuss between Albania
and Jugo- Slavia-any one of these things-and many
others besides may easily double the price of our next
years shoes or make rich we don't care how
high they go.