Evening star., 1934-01-14
KEY TO WORLD RECOVERY
lis SEEN in RECIPROCITY
Tugwel Says, However, That
New Foreign Policy Must Not Peril
Internal Program of U. S.

their hearts And the Secretary Of Agri-
culture has repeatedly and forcefully
expressed an almost religious wish that
We might better the condition Of all
nations by wise cooperative action.
The road to recovery is long and
hard one which those Of us who did not
know 1t In advance are discovering now.
We face innumerahle economic read
justments which might be made inf
nitely easier If we did not have to make
them without cooperation. Perhaps
we shall not have to. The world wheat
agreement did, after all, come out of
London. That instrument was not
wholly satisfactory, but it did enable all
of us to make one adjustment together
others might conceivably follow for
other commodities, and not only agri-
cultural ones. 1t may even be that this
way is best; for by following it those
interminable and unfruitful disputes
about general principles which serve
only to enrage partisans and which ac-
complish no results can be escaped.
But q program Of restriction, though
II may be necessary for adjustment to
changed conditions, can, even II 1t Is
world wide, not go to the root OF the
matter. These adjustments are needed:
but something more is also needed. And
will increase some kinds of trade as
well as restrict some other kinds. For
the United States the lesson which must
be learned is that imports must be
expanded.
Paradox Persists.
If 1t could come home to every work.
man, every farmer and every business
man that there would be an increased
number of jobs at higher pay, an in
crease in the market for farm prod
ucts at higher prices, and an increase
in the volume of trade at profitable
levels, if our imports were enlarged, we
should be in a better position to pro-
ceed with means to enlargement. But
many Americans emphatically do not
believe that They still think it possi-
BILE to sell abroad without buying from
there; and how that paradox can be
driven out OF American minds no one
seems to know. 1t is perhaps so stub
born a belief that we shall have to
proceed in some such way as we pro-
ceeded in the other matter of the wheat
agreement. 1t would, at least, be worth
| trying.
The administration was fairly COM
mitted, by President Roosevelt's cam.
paign speeches. to bargaining agree
ments. As these are worked out into
real system the practical problems
which are faced one by one may clear
away the general difficulties We may
/ find foreign trade enlarged without ever
having undergone systematic revision
of the tariff. The difficulties and dan
gers are obvious. We cannot bargain
unless we have something to trade.
Every country will demand the opening
Of our markets to some kinds of foreign
goods To this there will be interested
opposition There is real question
whether the incurring of these vehe-
ment oppositions one by one is not more
dangerous than it would be to incur
all possible ones at the same time, fall
ing back on the general defense that
trade must be increased
1t will be interesting to see how all
this works out in the coming months.
1t seems unlikely that we shall stay
where We are in the matter. 1t would
make the agricultural adjustment pro-
gram vastly easier if some of our goods
could move to foreign markets And
great efforts will be made to move them.
1t will not be possible to do so, how
ever, unless we discover some way for
payment to be made. This will newt
ably involve the acceptance of imports;
and decision as to what imports these
will be must become a more and more
pressing problem.
There are other industries than agri-
culture which would benefit from ex-
ports; none, Of course, which involve so
! great a percentage of our production,
or in which surpluses have become so
burdensome, but still many which could
expand Immediately under the stimulus.
We shall come more and more clearly
to see that this expansion and the
consequent employment and profits, de-
pend on the acceptance of imports
which cannot come in unless and until
we reduce certain tariffs either gen.
orally or for given period. This close
connection of our own expansion with
the acceptance Of imports will be a
powerful lever for revision, and it seems
to me almost certain to come.
New Devices.
There is good reason for feeling also
that some new devices will be used for
guiding the channels of this trade. We
shall want 1t used, probably, as directly
as possible for expansion purposes, and
this might not happen if the old
mechanisms Of foreign exchange were
trusted to. There will therefore be
many suggestions for ways of accom-
| plishing this and for the substitution
OF new devices for old ones. The most
obvious Of these Is that export and I'M
port corporations be set up which would
| guide and handle the new trade which
was bargained for. Many people have
suggested this device and it might COM
mend itself, suitably worked out, to the
Executive Committee on Commercial
Policy and to the President.
Whatever devices are used and what
ever discussions take place they must
ultimately center upon the position
which Secretary Wallace has urged so
forcibly. We must guide our internal
policy by what 1t is possible to do in
the international field. But we cannot
create the kind of foreign policy which
will jeopardize our program for re-
covery. The expansion of foreign trade
must. If we can accomplish 1t, be made
effective. But it must take place In
commodities and by means which do
not threaten other measures which are
equally important.
It is nice problem. It calls for a
kind Of thinking and negotiation which
Is utterly different from the laissez
faire procedures we are used to. But
an administration which found the re-
sources to create a program for domes-
tic recovery ought to be able to find
others for international cooperation to
any extent that other nations make 10
possible.
(Copyright. 1884,
|