The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-11-05
NEA Service Writer

Washington-Neve before have there been such concreted attempts to instill confidence in us all by the repeated assertion that confid- ence is the medicine which can cure our economic troubles.
 The Hoover-Lavai communique issued after the conference be- tween president and premier was was designed to assure the world that the heads of the two most powerful nations were cooperating to speed the worlds recovery and were making "real progress" An nouncements of agreements, in and out of the statement, were of the type demanded by the bankers to stimulate confidence. Newspapermeu who waited be- lieved more time had been spent in devising the communique than in actual conference. 4
 Current disputes as to wheth- CT Hoover or Laval won "diplo- matic victory" and whether the conference was brilliant success or flop seem rather silly to this writer. The victories" cited had already been accomplished by de- velopments which the conference merely served to emphasize. A survey of the results and official and semi-official statements about the results shows that Hoover and Laval agreed upon certain econo- mic actualities about which there Is no controversery anywhere. On a.Na n n agreements easily anticipated. The America began the conference re- mained the same. "Failure" lay in the Fundamental divergence of the two positions at important points-success in that two states men met face to face. emphasized their respective positions, did the best they could and agreed to CO., operate to the extent they mutually believe possible.
 Hoover had to retreat from cer- tain positions this government had taken long before the conference, but he couldn't help that and American self-interest would have compelled it whether Laval had come or not. France had become the strongest European nation and 1t was no longer feasible to high hat her and ignore her viewpoints
 -as he, at least. thought we had done consistently.
 We hadn't consulted France when Hoover called for the one year moratorium and France near lv wrecked the plan. She was in a position to insist that future re- paration revisions be made on pro- visions of the Young Plan and Hoover was in no position to insist otherwise. We also had always had government policy of insist ing that war debts and separations had no connection-reitera as late as Hoover's moratorium an- nouncement last June. But that was definitely thrown overheard when Hoover agreed that as soon as German reparations were light ened Congress would be asked to reduce the debt burden in propor- ton.
 All this, not because Laval out smarted Hoover, but because France held the cards. After clinging tightly ever since the war to such principles as no arms re- duction without security. no rep- arations cut without a debt cut. and no Versailles treaty revision, France would hardly weaken on them after attaining a peak of military, economic and financial dominance in Europe.
 The agreement to stop heavy French withdrawals of gold from American indicate the French strength. Our government and bankers are skittish about such things. holding the theory that any developments which might ag- gravate the financial situation should be promptly checked. Noth- Ing was said about gold with drawals in the inspirational com munique lest 1t appear that we were taking them seriously. but