Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-30
EUROPEAN PROFIT SEEN
IN u. S.-MEXICAN ISSUE
Battle for Latin American Markets At
fected by Dislike Aroused Toward
Washington Policy.

the world. And the field which Is
indicated Enthusiastically for new effort
is South America. Asia is doubtful
proposition. The present Chinese dis.
turbances. the recent troubles In all
parts of the great Continent. contain
warnings that European influences
may continue to slip. Africa Is di-
vided among states which are able
to close most of its markets to foreign
flags.
But South America is a vast area
within which Europe may well hope
to accomplish much economically and,
at the same time, conduct a political
counteroffensive against the AIneri-
can rival who is also coming to be
considered as a political enemy. II
the millions OF Spanish and Porte.
guese peoples living south of the htt
Grande can actually be brought to
regard the United States as an enemy
and an enduring danger, then the
way will be clear for Europe, when
1t arrives at the situation where it
can resume economic activities. to
replace the transient American infiu.
ence and trade everywhere.
Patiently not in any present time
is Europe going to take the offensive.
1t is not going to attack the United
field. Its great reliance must be any
mistakes of American diplomacy.
Every time there is a quarrel between
the United States Government and
any Latin America people, every time
there is an American failure like over
Tacna-Arica. every time there is a
dispute like that over the present
Panama treaty, the game of Europe
is played, the profits are all European.
Question of IdeaIism.
Since, moreover, the Mexican and
Nicaraguan affairs have now sup
piled all Latin American states with
a new basis for anti-American agita-
tions, European rejoicing is general
and not concealed. But there Is
second circumstance. American
policy has been affirmed equally by
Wilson and his successors to be
founded upon that rather imaginary
circumstance described as American
idealism.
In recent years. beginning with the
Paris Peace Conference. the United
States, officially and unofficially, has
scolded Europe for whole variety
of evils ranging from militarism to
Imperialism. Thus nothing could
more delight the millions of Britons,
Frenchmen, Italians, even Germans,
than to see the foreign policy of the
United States disclosing symptoms
| which rightly or wrongly might be
set down to causes not in the least
different from the European actions
we have so generally denounced.
No delusion can be less justified or
more dangerous than that which ac-
cepts the European state of mind to.
ward the United States as merely
passive. Daily and hourly the Eu-
ropean statesmen are proceeding with
! the inevitable campaign to demon
strate that most of the worst evils In
| Europe are due to the rapacious and
avaricious policy of the United States.
Millions of people in every European
country believe that they are suffering
because we are demanding the blood
money which is the war debts.
For many years we have taken the
moral offensive against Europe. Our
public men have steadily denounced
European methods and morals. All
of these TRADES and preachments
have made bad blood in Europe and
have excited enormous resentmetlts.
American idealism. so called, was pro-
nounced mere and utter hypocrisy by
most Europeans when the United
and retired from Europe. The gen.
eral popular feeling about European
wickedness which exists today in the
United States is exactly reproduced
by a similar European contempt for
American nlaterialism and hypocrisy.
Effort to Show Up U. s.
What delights Europe most is any
thing which from the point of view of
the people of the other side of the
Atlantic contributes to showing US up.
That is why from one end Of Europe
to the other the Nicaraguan affair has
been welcomed, celebrated and fea-
tured. At the moment, probably for
a long time to come, under existing
circumstances, the European peoples
can do nothing to the United States
materially which would in any meas
ure be reprisal for what all think
the United States has done to Europe.
But everything which can in any de.
gree serve to impair the moral sttua-
ton of the United States is of obvious
advantage.
The weakness of American foreign
policy. If in fact the United States may
De said to have a foreign policy In any
real sense, Hes In the inevitable tend
ency to see things separately and neg
aIlVeIy. Our postwar policy, rightly
or wrongly, and the question does not
lie here at all, has not alone n1ade M
intensely unpopular in the world, but
In Europe 1t has supplied the motive
Tor actions which if they cannot now
be politically hostile are limited by
physical circumstances, not by desires.
Europe Is preparing to fight the
United States economically, CONNER.
fin0nNfoI1xy h.
1t Is naturally seeking such allies an AZ
can ind and nowhere Is It more ar,x.
tous to have allies than in South Anaer.
lea. which Is battle-ground, predasS
tined. 1t Is the business of European,
diplomacy and European statesman.
ship to see that the American unpop.
ularity in Latin America Continues
and even expands. But all the more a.
there obvious reason why american,
policy in dealing with Latin American
states should be Influenced not raereIv
by the matter Immediately In hand.
but by, the larger elements In the
problem.
Would Impair q. 8. Prestige.
The first business Of Eurcua. IN
lts7 present state Of mind toward the
United States, in view Of the frit,is-
tlces which 1t believes It has suffered
at American hands and the servitudes
which our debt policy has imposed
upon 1t, Is to destroy the moral no
sitfon of the United States all ova,.
the world. That is the value to the
press of Europe of the Nicaraauar,
and Mexican affairs. That is the DIR.
pose which lies at the bottom AZ
most of the interesting and iIIuuniuaf.
Ing comment In many British and
continental journals.
The supreme blunder of German
craftsmanship in the pre-war years
was not that 1t pursued a single o.
jective which insured conflict with
one people. but that 1t pursued three