The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1933-02-24

new era. Historians
New Order in urge that the record
World Affairs of events repeats
itself with amazing
regularity, but does history show any
period wherein statesmen have turned
to each other with an appeal, with
willingness to make concessions and
sacrifices?
Such is the perspective that we get
of the next five or six months. With
Creditor America receiving Debtor
England and Debtor Italy and other
debtor nations to talk over the war
time loans made to them and means
of settling the obligations, and with
the international monetary and eco
nomic conference arranged for, is
there any parallel in history?
But why the debt discussions? And
why the conference of nations on eco.
nomic and monetary matters?
The answer is the peoples Of the
world demand that something be done
to remove the barriers and the bur-
dens that hold commerce and industry
with a deathlike grip. Statesmen
charged with official responsibility are
settling to their task. They have re-
sponded, as they must, to the public
call. Some observers think the picture
indicates a new and higher order In
world affairs. It certainly sets down
the year 1888 as epochal
.
While the United States has con-
sistently maintained that the debts
owed this nation on account Of war
loans are matter separate and apart
from any of the other world problems,
the contention has been, and Is now
being made to apply only to the ex-
tent that readjustment of those debts
would never be considered in the same
conference with economic problems.
No one in authority here doubts the
relation between foreign debts and
numerous other phases of the great
depression. It is simply that the
United States is not disposed to do
horse trading with her debtors while
they are trying to give US Model T
Ford in exchange.
Senator Borah, of Idaho, stated the
situation succinctly when he said he
was willing to concede some new and
easier terms for the payment Of the
war debts provided the nations which
owe the money were willing to forego
some Of their own selfish purposes in
return. He wants to use the wal
debts as club to force cuts in mill
tary and naval expenditures by those
nations who find it hard to pay their
debts; he wants. to compel them by
force of circumstances to live within
their income, and ne seeks at the same
time to remove the undetermined and
scheming conspiracies to which so
many of the world powers are ad-
dicted.
The debts approximate S11,000,000,-
600. Their influence. therefore, is
quite beyond that Of simple COM
mitment to pay. 1t hamstrings the ma
ton owing the money; it burdens the
people of that nation, and it is bar
rier to trade because it involves the
transfer of moneys between nations,
known as international exchange.
But the international debts consti-
tute only one barrier. There are
others. The list is
Many Barriers impressive: unstable
to Be Faced currencies, fear and
uncertainty, private
debts, disordered government finances
in this country as well as abroad,
trade restrictions laid down to help
pay international and other public
debts, restrictions on exchange so that
there is not free flow of money be-
tween nations in payment for commod-
ities passing in commerce, falling
prices, and contracted and disturbed
markets.
The list explains why they must all
be considered together. It explains
why we have heard constantly that the
depression is not problem peculiar to
the United States. Every nation seeks
to trade with every other nation. If
either one or both parties to the
transaction is handicapped, just to
that extent is trade slowed down.
The surplus of goods which America
sells constitutes only about 10 per
cent Of the total normal output of this
country, yet when that 10 per cent
fails to move into the channels of
trade with other nations, hard times
invariably result. 1t is easy to see
from the list set forth how that sur
plus which we ordinarily sell is
blocked from foreign markets.
Take the trade restrictions, for ex-
ample. Many foreign nations, in fact,
most Of them, have established max
imum quantity Of many commodities
which they permit to be imported. If
that maximum is half of normal, our
trade has suffered accordingly. The
purpose of such a restriction is to
create home industry in that ma
tfon, but it has raised havoc with us
and with others in the meantime, add
ing to the unemployed of selling ma
lions and destroying the markets for
the raw material which those factories