Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1933-04-23


the address of Prime Minister
Ramsay Macdonald yesterday
i at the National Press Club:
Mr.. Chairman and hosts o.
the National Press Club, I am really
delighted to be your guest once again
AS was being led into this room
nv attention was drawn to one Of
those plaques, the matrix which you
have used for decoration purposes, anc
upon that plaque 7 saw what l tooR
to be a very humane warning-The
food gets worse"
You do yourselves great injustice
Lively as are my recollections OF the
last lunch you gave me four years ago
I can assure you. my friends, VII
take away with me now still hve'
]ier recollection of your very hospltaple
entertainment.
We have set today a perfect mode
of press communique. That COM
munique, so brief, SO true, SO econom.
ical practicing the great national
virtue of the moment, couched IN Sucn
good English, and leaving you an alb
solutely boundless field for the exercise
of your own Imagination.
WELL as the chairman has been good
enough to say, have come to America
once again upon a mission. Inc last
time disarmament. The last time we
were trying to tackle that eXtraordl-
nary trouble of why people build up
wear upon year and decade upon decade
piles of armament for their security
although. as a matter of fact, every
chapter of history tells you that those
arms have never been used for Sc
curity; they have always been used
for war.
IAN Irrational Position"
It was an irrational position. 1t Is
the sort of thing that makes sane men
ponder upon mass psychology.
Today am here on the invitation OF
your President, your very mild, force1ul
and courageous President, to face an
other problem equally curious. equally
absurd in its features. In America al
this moment and in Great Britain there
are millions of men who want work and
can't get it. There are millions OF
families that want to be clothed ano
cannot be clothed. There Is spare Ia
Dor; there is potential demand. And
yet, by what magic, by what sinister
device should those who want to clothe
the naked be kept from clothing the
naked? Why is it that those who are
inadeuuately clad, wishing to give serv-
ice to the community for an economic
return, whilst the community Is crav-
ing for that service, cannot have the
opportunity Of rendering 1t SO that they
might demand the labor of the workers
who consume its products?
The same is true in England. We are
told almost every day that we have got
three million unemployed men. We are
told in the adjoining column OF the
newspapers that hundreds Of thousands
of families are living under inadequate
conditions of life. And yet. the text
of both columns, by some strange de-
vice, cannot be brought to wipe each
other out and bring happiness, peace
and contentment to the mass OF the
people.
Governments can not be Indifferent
to q state of things like that. Your
President and I, with our friends. our
admirable expert friends, have begun
to consider what we can do to md the
solution to these problems. In short
time, the International Economic Con-
ference, we hope, is to meet.
Purpose Of the Farley.
And what IS it going to meet for
It Is going to meet for the purpose OF
trying to discover how, by wise inter-
national government action. the Amer.
lean farmer can acquire a market and
a good price, simply by bringing natural
economic laws into operation so that
by the ordinary operation Of demand
and supply, the exchange of labor made
effective by the ability to consume, the
farmer may 60 out in lightness OF heart
sowing his seed in the Springtime, come
In in the Autumn still with gladness OF
heart, bearing in his sheaves, knowing
that there is not only a market for
him, but that there is good price, and
by the simple fact that he gets his
price he may in turn become an en-
ployer of town labor, and labor In all
its forms of expression from one end
of the world to the other.
We want the machinery Of produc-
ton and of consumption to begin to
go round again; and we can't do that
by any system of pure nationalist
And, my American friends.
If you want to come across a good
go to Scotland in order to
find him. 1 am proud of being ma
tionalist; I am proud of NY history; I
of 49,, ,,,If,,ra. am r1rOllG