Evening star., 1934-07-01
BY JAMES w. GERARD.

DOVERTY or prosperity-whlch
In facing the serious prob
i lem of selecting an economic
policy, shall We again choose
the mad dance of internationalism,
with Europe calling the tune ana
the American people paying the
piper with their economic 1reeoom
and security? Or shall we, rather,
see things as they are. make ADJUST
ments in keeping with conditions
however painful and severe those ad-
iustments may be-and arrive at
sensible, sane American policy?
America must not return to the
old game of huge exports, nnanceo
by huge loans that may never be re-
paid. The old interdependence OF ma
tions has broken down. The old d.
vision of countries into strictly agri-
cultural and industrial nations no
longer obtains. The widespread ap-
plication of science, since the war,
is making all nations self-contained.
Other Nations Develop.
Countries which lived on raw ma
IeIldI ehpOI dlC oCNSloPAAAS AiCAAAS
Industries. while industrial nations
are concentrating on agriculture and
the synthetic manufacture of many
raw materials Germany is self-suf-
ficient in agriculture. Italy Is nearly
so. and even England is encourag-
ing home farming South American
nations now manufacture shoes and
other products. Thus to an increas-
ing degree, what one nation formerly
exported to another, the latter now
grows or makes at home.
Foreign markets are breaking down,
disappearing. Nitrates, formerly sup
piled by Chile to the whole world,
are being produced synthetically in
the United States and other major
countries. Camphor was once a nat
ural monopoly, but our chemists have
rendered us independent of the world.
The development of hydroelectric
power in Italy and Norway is cur
failing Britain's coal exports. Textile
industries in Japan and India are re-
ducing England's markets in the East.
International trade is collapsing. Ma
tions all over the world are becom-
ing self-contained.
What policy then, is the sensible
one for America to choose in the
face of this worldwide movement?
whole world, to sacrifice ourselves
for the benefit of special interests
or groups and blindly pursue our old
disastrous course of internationalism
Or shall we sanely choose a policy
In the best interests of the whole
Nation and try to maintain a bal
anced economy and preserve our
standard of living under a policy of
self-containment? This is a policy
both possible and logical.
Foreign Needs Few.
We have the ingredients for self
containment. We can supply all our
essential needs except coffee, tea, silk,
rubber, sugar, tin and some lesser
metals. We are perfecting rubber;
rayon is supplanting silk; we could
curtail our sugar imports, and metal
lurgists say they can find substitutes
for the lesser metal. In other words,
our essential imports could easily
be reduced to one and half billion
OOlldIS d year ITOLl our 1SZL-Zo dV-
erage of nearly four billion dollars.
Our prosperity need not depend on
our exports. They have rarely ex-
ceeded per cent of our national
production. Our agriculture and in
dustry have the greatest market in
the world in which to distribute their
products-the United States. We
have greater purchasing power than
any other nation. The net income
per person for the whole world in
1929 was $l53 For the United States
it was $657. What more, then, do
we need for prosperity than more
than enough for our own needs, and
the greatest market in the world?
Naturally. there is no desire to i'm
pose -containment upon the Ma
tion Immediately. There must be ad-
justments. We must, for instance,
help farmers dispose of their sur
Dllses elsewhere for the time beinr