The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-04-10
Hi-Jacking World Trade

Every so often the spectre of war with England
over trade keeps bobbing up. Says former supreme
Court Justice Cohalan of New York
ove daiv are taking away English customers
And since England must depend ON IoreleH
markets for existence this means that we are drV-
ing her to the wall and she must retalate for SELL
protection -.
"She is trying to do that now by organizing world
opinion against but if she fails to stop
us by diplomacy, I think trouble of more mill
tant nature is unacceptable"
IF both Britain and America are to be governed
in the future by second rate statesmen what former
Justice Cohalan says is true But not II our leaders
car see beyond the ends of their noses.
IT is simon-pure bunk to assume that there is
onlv so much trade in the world and that if our
trade increases Britans or some other nations trade
must decrease A good many statesmen seem to have
that idea it is true but that only shows their lm-
tations
Two-hfths of the worlds population do almost
all the buying The other three-ffths consume next
to nothing besides e-produced stuff OF the most
primitive nature. The three-tifths are unbeheVaby
ignorant and poor What's to hinder Britain America
and the other great exporting countries adopting
brand new policy to build up the purchasing power
of these backward peoples?
Our exports to the British Isles, whose population
is only 100000, amounts to about $1OOOOOOOOO
year If China with her 400,O00000 bought from us
on the same Scale-as doubt she would if her
people had the money-we would be selling her more
than $8OOO0O0OOO worth of goods annually instead
of the puny $15OOOOOOO worth which sell her now
Get the idea? The advanced country is
and the greater the earning capacity of the indi~
yiduals inhabiting that country the more they buy
Up to the present. however, the foreign trade
nolicies of all the great powers have been stupid
beyond belief Their way is to obtain concessions
from the more backward peoples for mines, mills,
lands and this and that then spend the rest of their
time sitting on the natives to hold them down.
Movements calculated to better the natives lot
are taboo.
This policy is as short-sighted as it is vicious.
1t is not even intelligent self-nterest 1t is like
being given freedom in mint and Juggling off a
lot of pennies when gold is to be had just as easily
There are approximately billion more or less
backward peoples inhabtng the various parts of the
earth If their standards of living raised to the
point where they could afford to buy only $40 worth
of exports per capita year, there would be created
$2OOOO0OO worth of new trade right there for the
exporting nations to divide-more than twice the
present total export trade of Britain and America
put together
More than half the people of the world have
not yet even started buying There is practically no
limit to the market if properly developed The thing
for Britain America and other producing nations
to do therefore, to drop all this talsof hijacking
each others present puny trade and seriously set
about creating new demand.
This can be done by a systematic policy of boost
ing the whole worlds standard of living, beginning
with that of the bottom three-fifths And in this
Rritain and America should lead the way.