Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-15
Continued from First Page)

pressure which might conceivably op-
crate to unite into solid concrete the
diverse elements of European national
ism. 1t would not be easy, but it might
bc possible"
obviously there are other factors.
For instance, there probably, even with
out the spur of American competition,
would have been a swing Of the pendu-
lum away from the excessive national
ism of the immediate postwar years.
Allowance also must be made for the
fact that in Britain, France and Ger
many the governments have today dis
tinctly left wing leanings.
BaSically however, that school of ad-
Vocates of the European federation from
which BRAND is supposed to draw in
Spiration rests its case on the argument
that modern industry demands large
units within which to work. 1t holds
the worlds forces are mainly made up
of five distinct forms OF international
thought-American, British. European
Russian and Mongolian-Asiatic. The
United States, it claims, has already
proved that small, isolated states can
not compete against large-scale pro-
ductive units.
Russia-so the argument runs-will
eventually become industrialized IN
the same manner as the United States.
The British Empire tends to become
more and more self-contained. There
fore the United States of Europe should
embrace the European continent and
West Africa-with Britain trading West
and for the East African colonies to
make a territorial European-African
group complete. The fifth group would
comprise China, Mongolia, Manchuria
and Japan.
There would be no tariff walls sur
rounding the component parts of any
one of these groups. The question of
economic protection of one group
against another would be decided by
the World League and be based on the
potentialities of each group to develop
itself by its own resources. Politically
each group would have q central fed
eral government, but with complete in
ternal autonomy for its component
parts.
Much OF Plan "UtOpian."
Much of this is so obviously Utopian
1t may we'll be doubted whether even
BRAND has swallowed it. 1t may be
assumed that the vision Of a United
States of Europe is as far as he has
allowed his imagination to wander.
If such an economic federation as
BRAND has suggested could be accom-
plished 1t would represent a great
achievement and could hardly fail to
bring political and military conse-
Quences IN its train. For instance. If
the armies and navies of the 81 coun-
tries were amalgamated they would
provide by far the most powerful force
in the world. If, conversely, they were
largely disbanded as no longer neceS-
Sary, immense sums of money would be
freed for other employment. while there
would be great increase in the num-
Der of productive workers.
Many volumes could be written about
the economic effects of such a feder-
alton. And after their completion an
other library would probably have to be
compelled to deal with the situation
brought about by the reorientation of a
ing and shipping.
Tariff Figures Shown.
However, pencils need not be sharp
ened just yet. In 1926 Sir Give Nor
rison-Bell produced a diagram, which
has not been seriously challenged, to
show that taking the height of Britain's
tariff wall as represented by the figure
6, others stood: Germany, Is; Austria
Is; Rumania, 10; Czechoslovakia, 81;
JugoSlavia. Is; Hungary, 81; Spain. IS;
Russia: 43. These figures give some
idea of the difficulties even If economic
questions were not complicated by po-
litical considerations.
To make the illustration more con-
crete Is it reasonable to suppose that
powerful and highly protected indus
tries In any European country will ad-
nit free competition in their home
markets for the sake Of problematical
exports into other countries? Would
Renault or Citroen approve free en-
try into France Of cheap Italian or Ger