The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1933-08-11

10 the existence
and the subsequent death of the world
wide economic conference in London,
and the aftermath of those sessions.
True, there never could have been any
thing come of the conference for the
simple reason selfishneSS ruled that
meeting as 1t rules every other meet
ing of representatives of different peo-
pies. But it appears from this vantage
point that our government is now
ready to embark on new course, one
which it could hardly have tackled
had the London conference never been
ence resulted in clarifying the general
situation from our own standpoint.
You have seen the signs of moves
by our government in the last month
in guarded announcements to the eff
feet that Department of States experts
were surveying the possibilities of
trade treaties with many nations.
They are called bi-lateral treaties and
affect, of course, only the two nations
entering into the compact. While the
London conference was going on, 1t
would not have been gesture of hope
for success in that gathering had the
United States at the same time moved
openly TO arrange individual treaties
with nations participating in those dis
cussions. That very thing was being
done, nevertheless, and now the eff
fort is no longer concealed. The
70 70 do In, no
treaties with individual nations some
of the things it sought, and failed, to
do at London.
Secretary Hull is back from London.
He has had a night of confidential con-
versation with President Roosevelt. He
is ready to go ahead, indeed, he is
charged by the President to proceed,
with the new plan of action. Conse-
quently, in the next few months we are
likely to hear much about agreements
between the United States and various
other nations by which trade barriers
better understandings will have been
obtained about commercial relations.
There are so many barriers to the
free flow of commerce these days, aside
from the low level of purchasing power
resulting from the depression, that one
can see possibilities of great results.
Yet as observers here view the situ-
alton Secretary Hull has q hard job.
Nations are selfish, or their people are.
They naturally want to protect their
markets and they obviously are I'M
willing to give up anything unless they
gain something else. So there is to be
trading; there will have to be trading,
and the United States will have to
give In somewhere with every ma
ton in the treaty negotiations.
For instance If new trade treaty
were to be negotiated with France,
It appears that France certainly would
have to agree to remove limitations on
certain kinds of imports from the
United States. They are called
quotas. They prescribe that only so
many thousand pounds, say, of Amer
ican wheat can be imported into
France In turn, no doubt, France
will demand that the United States es-
tablish lower tariff duty on some
commodities which that nation hereto
fore has shipped here in large quanti-
ties.
But to get back to the London con-
ference: I recall having written in
these columns at
Plans Another the outset of those
P,oJ sessions that Pres
ident Roosevelt
was in highly advantageous position
when he promoted the meeting of some
"a nations. Whether he expected the
widely advertised conference was go
ing to fail, as a great many persons
believed, by entering intellectually
into it, sending large American dele
cation to participate and doing the
other things that gave the appearance
of sincerity, he Unanswered at the
very same time to build another road
which this country can follow. When
the London conference was called, the
big issue was whether our government
should act In unison with other world
whether we were to become an in
tensely nationalistic country. There
fore, while Mr.. Roosevelt on the one
hand was pushing American plans and
proposals into the conference for an
international understanding, he was
on the other hand driving legislation
like the farm adjustment act highly
nationalistic in character, through
congress.
While every ounce of energy is be-
ing used TO stabilize American crop
production within the limits of our
own needs and while every effort is
being utilized to create a manufacture
ing structure self-sustaining within
our own limits, the President now is
seeking to fortify those acts and
strengthen our position by treaties
with individual nations on trade rela-
tions In other words. he is complet-
ing the picture of nationalism.
Whether his program is to develop
successfully is quite another matter.
He has rejoined what 1 believe is the
majority of the American public in the
view that the United States cannot
ever act jointly with most of the world
powers. Conditions and traditions
heretofore have made it impossible
and the view l have expressed cannot
be illustrated better than the position
which the senate took with respect to
the Versailles treaty after the World
war. The same thought seems still
70 be dominant, for the proposal that
the United States adhere to the World
court has been pending in the senate
so long that it is approaching de-
terioration. The Roosevelt theory, as
thus far unfolded, fails to give the i'm
preston of isolation for the United