Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-14
R|TCH|E PLEA ASKS
FOR LESS POLITICS
Cut in Talk and More Action
Are Urged-Governor Hits
Debt CamoufIage.

AIQSEL ~. ENAO(AAC Va AhAeN~
america needs. s,.r
IF the Academy of Political Science
last night. what he termed "camounase
and political maneuvering
He urged open and frank deanng
with domestic and foreign problems.
He expressed the opinion that amer.
cans do not wish to become mireo
In Europe's politics" adding:
but we are not abandoning our ira
ditional sound policy of political 1soia-
ton If we move forward TO q pohcy
of essential economic cooperation.
1.-The Kellogg pact is an autnenuc
and democratic expression OF co-opera-
tive impulse. The general moratorium
and our banking consortiums nave Ger
tainly had the approval OF this demo-
cratic nation.
"Au that democracy needs ask now
Is that further help be open and con-
structive; that it appraise rightly the
extent to which our own prosperity ana
peace may be affected by the peace
and prosperity of Europe, and that
whatever steps are taken be guided IN
our interests by sound economies ana
not by self-serving politics"
Too Little Action, He Says.
Alanson B. Houghton, former Am.
bassador to Germany and president OF
the academy, presided.
Gov. Richie spoke in part as iol-
lows:
I'VE may take some comfort from
the thought that this is not the f1rst
crisis this old world Of ours has faced
and survived. What confronts us seems
to me as much state Of chaos as a
crisis-a chaos of fears, perplexities
uncertainties and decentralization. II
we could all once get our feet on the
ground see things whole and recover
our morale, this crisis would be over
the sooner.
"Yf the world is once more sick. as
indeed it is, and as it has often been
before. we may also take some COM
ADrt from the fact that never before IN
history has its best intelligence been
sO modified and concentrated on try
ing to find out what Is wrong and what
to do. Perhaps we have TOO many
doctors at the bedside. Too many
plans and experts. Too much dag
f1osis and prognosis. Too much talk
and too little action.
at is my conviction that never be-
fore was faith in democracy so well
Justified as now, in this very crisis, and
that democracy alone offers the one
and only medium through which the
modern world can find fulfllment-the
one route by which 1t can and Will nno
8t0 way OAS VA eAA% RASS~~~N
Lesson Taught by History.
"Yn order to make that good will and
eO-operation which are implicit IN de-
mocracy function in this world crisis,
a better understanding between nations
b perhaps the 'first step, and mere one
need have no fear of the new order OF
eonferencing which has become fash
ionable among the heads of states,
even though these conferences may be
10 some extent gestures or still have
about them something of the atmos-
phere of mystery, secrecy and suppress
sion of the old diplomacy.
''Perhaps more Is to be hoped for In !
the conferences of bankers and econ
omists, for In this crisis the more au-
thentic elements of functioning de- .
nocracy are economic, rather than po-
litical These economists will tell US, /
believe, that we can never collect our |
foreign debts unless as country we |
put our house in order, so as to re-
ceive payment In goods and services
and that in terms, at least, OF world |
prosperity the world crisis win not be !
solved until a more unrestricted and |
balanced trade among nations is re- |
established and the channel Of normal
and healthy credits charted and ma
tional budgets balanced. The problem
Is not exclusively one of the status OF /
separations and debts and Of gold stand |
ards-serious as these are.
Camouflage Evident.
"It may be that the greatest service |
democracy could do for the world Is |
to settle permanently the status OF in
ternational obligations and the assess
ments Of the victor on the vanquished. |
A great deal Of camoufiage and po- |
litical maneuvering, however. Is evil
h@nk I'm this situation.
There seems to me little doubt that :
the payments Of the debts due us by
the allied nations depends upon the
payment Of the reparations due by Ger
many to them. The two extremes may
be, on the one hand, Germany over
cannot make and still prosper, and on
the other hand scaling down or for
giyeness of all international obligations,
Including those due us. II carried to
the point of cancellation, the latter
would let Germany out and let the al
lies out and transfer the cost of the
war, so far as represented by our for
eign war debts. from the shoulders OF
our former allies to the shoulders OF
our own people. No government seems
ready yet to admit that these things
may be SO, and yet II the American
taxpayer should feel that to forego the
debts and assume them himself would
cure the ills of the world and would
also promote his own ultimate welfare,
I believe he would make even that
present sacrifice cheerfully. but the add
ed burden would be so great that he
should not be asked to do this on al
truistic grounds alone. He Is entitled
to be shown that this would be to our
own national advantage and that bur-
den of proof should be fully met. Here
certainly we must look to sound eco
v1n1ifinaI 1aodareniTN
and to an enlightened spirit of demo-
cratic relations between the peoples in
volved, to which the wars aftermath
Of international hatreds, prejudices and
misunderstanding can yield.
1T Is true that political democracy
viii often yield to the defects of its
virtues and to the limitations of poor
old human nature. 1t can and does
succumb to the blind passions of the
mob and sometimes follows the charla-
tan and the fool. It can make a cult
of inefhciency or Babbitry, or be in
tolerant and hysterical.
Faith Expressed in Deeds.
"Perhaps there is a sort Of economic
determinism, or rhythm of history that
shapes events in spite of all our plan
ming and dir ecting so that all we can
60 Is little more than keep clean and
unobstructed the channel in which the
must And In this world crisis, Won
der whether we should not see our
problem more in terms of humanity,
or ct least of life and living, and
whether there is not a misplaced
emphasis on or an generalization of
the materialistic and self-seeking
aspects Of the crisis, and a forgetting
Of those deeper elements and forces
which in the last analysis are spiritual.
"If democracy means what I have