Evening star., 1932-07-17

Assistant Secretary OF Commerce OF tne
United States.
~ F course, Uncle Sam will not be
at Ottawa "in person" What
I ever these trying times may
" have done to the old gentle
mans disposition and temper
it is to be hopsd that his good man
ners are still with him; the British
Empires Imperial Economic Conference
at Ottawa is strictly family party" !"
at which even a friendly neighbor must
not presume to intrude.
But, even so, 1t Is not only likely
but inevitable that the major topics
to be discussed at this meeting, which
opens next Thursday. will be of pro-
found significance to our own economic
position. In recent years an average
of 40 per cent of our exports have
found markets in the British Empire.
and about 33 per cent of our import
traffic is from that globe encircling
chain of commonwealth and colonies.
And our interests in the empire are
financial, as we'll as commercial. The
total American investments under the
British flag in all parts Of the world
today exceed SIS 900, ,ooo, 900. as against
about $3.50, 100000 in 1913. Canada
accounts for about four -tlfthS of today's
large total, but there has been a notable
increase in the amounts being poured
into other parts of the empire, as We
have discovered In connection with
Australia's recent trials.
The ownership of these securities Is
scattered throughout this country so
that there is an all-pervasive direct in
terest among our people in the prospect
for revival Of prosperity in the empire.
Anything that is accomplished at Of
tawa toward the rehabilitation of the
enormous and widely varied economic
structure of this imperial organization
will be felt by thousands of our in
vestors, cotton farmers, tobacco growers,
fruit raisers, automobile mechanics,
petroleum well operators and many
others throughout the United States.
Significance Escapes Notice.
The significance of our rapidly in
creaSing dependence upon the empire
as a source of essential raw materials
has too often escaped attention. If
some unimaginable catastrophe were to
obliterate or seriously impair CONNER
cial contact between the empire and
the United States 1t would mean, among
other things, that many Of our news
papers would cease publication for lack
of Canadian newsprint paper. The
wheels of most of our automobiles would
soon be running on their rims for lack
of Malayan and Ceylon rubber Our
farmers would be wondering what to do
for sacks in the absence of Indian jute
The disappearance of Canadian nickel
from our factory raw material stocks
would soon paralyze several of our metal
industries. Iced tea would become but
i pleasant memory for countless thou
sands.
1t takes 81 raw materials to make a
telephone-14 minerals and 7 agri-
cultural products; and among these all,
except silk, are predominantly drawn
from American or British Empire
sources It Is not difficult, therefore,
to appreciate the gravity of the prob
lem confronting our vast telephone in
dustry and its countless afiliations in
the electrical world, with their hun
dreds of thousands of stockholders and
wage earners, If the flow of these ma
terials from the empire to the United
States were seriously impaired In any
way.
Now obviously, there are natural and
synthetic substitutes which might in
time be summoned to meet at least a
portion of these needs and thus replace
the empire as source of necessary
supplies for scores of essentials and
comforts of our everyday lives In fact,
eventually the amazing achievements
of our technologists may well bring
about such substitutions In many lines.
But there can be no doubt that for
years to come the natural sources of
these raw materials will continue to be
of paramount importance to American
industry and living standards. This
will, Of course, be especially the case ii
the present low prices for all Of these