Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1933-07-23

~ DISAGREEMENT OF the LONDON
Economic Conference serves to
emphasize again the truth SO
IL often disclosed in the post
war era that great public inter-
national gatherings cannot achieve ad-
justment of policies of nations when
these policies are themselves irreconcu-
able. London has failed as did Genoa
IL years earlier, because national inter-
ests and therefore national policies were
hopelessly divergent And the Dis
armament Conference supplies still
more recent example of this fact.
In the Disarmament Conference,
which nominally still continues in be-
ing, the status quo powers which are
armed refuse to surrender their mill
tary superiority until they are guaran-
teed against the political purposes of
the revision States, which are com
paratively unarmed In the London
conference the dollar and gold bloc
camps face each other in the same I'M
compromising state of mind.
For nearly a year and half the at
tempt has been made to keep up the
illusion that eventual accommodation of
major issues, over which great powers
were at odds, was assured, and that
meantime the conference was making
progress in minor and technical mat
ters The truth has been, however, that
the conference was deadlCcked from
the start and President Roosevelt's July
3 message made all later attempts at
camoufiage impossible.
U. S. Holds to Experiment.
AS a consequence, it is plain that the
United States will not stabilize until 1t
has completed its present experiment
in initiation and price-raiSing. 1t IS
equally clear that the gold bloc will not
even consider new experiment In in
flation after having suffered In
calculably by earlier playing with the
same fire. And while the gold bloc
resists, the British are, in the language
of the prize fight, willing to keep the
ring" for the two contestants, but not
to support either decisively.
The world is thus effectively dead
locked over financial as well as political
issues. And the odd circumstances is
that while France and Germany, for
example, still remain at odds over
European territorial issues, they stand
shoulder to shoulder in monetary meas
ures. Thus both are for the status quo
in gold and against the revlslonary
projects of America.
Every one agrees now that the
United States had been clearly COM
mitted to the present policy of the
Roosevelt administration and the Pres
ident and his followers had exactly
perceived the implications of that pol
icy, no conference would have been
held. Europe Is inclined to blame the
President not only for not perceiving
in advance where he was going, but
even more for admonishing the other
fellow rather roughly when that fellow
was about his lawful occasions on the
international highway.
In the same way not few Anleri-
cans are irritated and resentful of what
they vaguely feel to have been policy
of obstruction pursued by the gold bloc
countries. Both emotions are. how
ever, equally unfounded. Faced sud-
denly by the fact that he had to choose
between abandoning domestic policy
upon which he had staked the fortunes
OF his administration and the pros
perity of the Nation, the President nat
urally reacted with some heat. Europe,
on the other hard, was not unnatu-
rally upset to find Mr.. Roosevelt re-
proving her for adhering to program
he had Endorsed in the Washington
conversations
But, in fact times had changed and
the conference had failed to amend its
agenda to suit new situation. The
same thing happened measurably in
the case of the Disarmament Confer
ence. After Japan had embarked upon
its Manchurian adventure, discussion
of pacts of aggression became aca-
demic, and again. with the rise of the
National Socialists in Germany, talk
of disarmament became futile.
"AH Dressed Up 80
When the United States dropped off
the gold standard ard deliberately set
out upon an experiment in imitation
and price-raising, it was no longer pos
sible to discuss sterilization or tariffs
internationally, for both discussions in
volved a cessation of imitation. And
since Mr.. Roosevelt had also excluded
debt discussions involved in advance,
the London Economic Conference was
thus AL dressed up, with nowhere to
CO." 1t can, moreover, if and when it
reassembles, have no destination if the
initiation and debt questions are not
settled before that time.
One thing the London Conference has
done and that is to demonstrate that
for the time being the United States
is committed to a course which is
frankly and uncompromisingly nation
alistic. The corollary of the initiation
airy and price-raLsing plans Of the
President is economic isolation, and
that in itself must stimulate a spirit
OF economic nat1onaliSm. AND While
at London and over the currency is
sue we came into collision with the
French and their gold-bloc allies, it is
the British that we shall encounter
most frequently and formidably in the
world markets
Nor is it less obvious that at the
moment public sentiment in the United
States is running strongly in the
direction of political isolation and eco
nomic self -sufficiency Debt default
has served to crystalline a resentment
and dislike of European policies and
nractices which have been increa sing