Evening star., 1933-05-07


for The Sunday Star by J. Scott williams
three certain sub-itens entered in the
conference program under the heading
economic questions"
Those three sub-items are "prohi-
bitions and restrictions of importation
and expectation" quotas and other
barriers to trade" and tariff policy"
Mr.. Eull's attitude was in principle
adopted, even before Mr. Hull became
Secretary Of State. by the preparatory
commission" which labored at Geneva,
Switzerland, under the aegis Of the
League of Nations. to annotate and
illuminate the international monetary
and economic conference agenda. The
United States was represented in the
preparatory commission" by DR.. Ed
mund E. Day. director Of social science
of the Rockefeller Foundation of New
York City, and by DR.. John H. WI
ward University In Cambridge. Mass,
DR.. Day and Dr. Williams Joined the
other members of the preparatory COM
mission In signing what Mr.. Hull
might regard as the most important
sentence in the commissions report.
It is this:
1T is impossible to maintain an in
ternational monetary system except on
the basis Of an international economic
system"
Similarly Mr.. James Ramsay Mac
Donald, Immediately upon his recent
arrival in this country, and while still
on the deck of the Berengaria in New
York Harbor, said:
We must strive to clear the obstacles
which block the highways of trade be-
tween the nations and so restore the
hope OF employment to the workless
millions who look to earn their living
in factory and field"
Thus Mr.. Macdonald and Mr.. Hull
might seem on this point to be in basic
agreement. The international monetary
and economic conference shall bend
its energies first to removing prohibi-
tons and trade quotas and to reducing
tariff duties! It shall only then ad-
dress itself TO financial questions" Of
gold, Of currency, of prices.
The Views Of France.
Whereupon, however, there enter the
views OF Mr.. Edouard Herriot and the
interests of France.
Those views and those interests might
be expounded in the phrases following:
We French have built for ourselves
3 quite lovely and lofty chateau with a
deep moat about it in the form of tariff
duties, the waters Of which fall and
rise at our quick command. We addi-
tionally have environed ourselves with
explosive mines in the form Of sudden
1mport-quotas which we set off from
time to time with lively destructive
effects upon the imports from given
countries. C'est dommage! Mais, c'est
la guerre!
Are We to be blamed? Observe the
British pound. And now observe the
American dollar. What is the value in
our francs of physical object manu-
factured at the cost-level of the pound?
What now Is the value in our francs
OF a physical object manufactured at
the cost-level Of the dollar? When we
see British commodity or an Ameri-
can commodity approaching us, how
can we Know, now, what its value may
turn out to be in terms of that stabil-
lied gold yardstick, the franc Of France?
NO. A fiuctuating pound and dol
tuating French defense of tariff duties
and OF quotas. A deprecated pound
and dollar must mean a more elevated
and more energetic French resistance
TO the entrance Of cheapened British
and American goods. It is not true
that renewed economic intercourse must
precede renewed financial normality.
The contrary is true. What Is true
Is that stabilization Of all important
currencies must precede enlarged facili-
tation Of international commodity
movements"
Thus the French: and thus now. in
some relenting degree, the British and
the Americans also.
An Unprecedented Moment.
We come thereupon to a wholly un-
precedented moment In the worlds his
tory. 1t Is not enough, apparently,
that mankind should be called to-
gether to reknit the arteries Of its
circulatory trade. It Is called together
also to reknit the nerves Of its regula-
tory money. It Is to revise the physical
system Of trade-things and its meta
physical system Of money-thoughts at
one and the same time.
Nothing less Is at stage, then. than
the whole system Of the worlds bread.
and-butter life. So great and compre-
hensive a crisis could surely not have
arisen above the international surface,
unless pushed upward by some deep
volcanic commotion beneath it. That
commotion most genuinely and most
powerfully exists. It sometimes Is
called the depression. It Is immeas-
urably more than the depression. It
Is the upthrust and upflare of q mill
tant socialistic nationalism never before
IN modern times In such strength dis
played.
The governments Of the world, in
.(cout!nued on Fourth Hl0al