Evening star., 1935-02-24
Continued From First Page.)

4AA VIC AhoU piuNC, VIC SOhAA Aoo Wv
this II we wanted to. In the second
place, it would be four-base eco
nomic error If we could do it. And
in the third place, we would probably
end up in a large war If we tried it.
The notion that we can put this
country back to the economic position
of England in the year HOO is fam
tastic, but 1t is possible for Con-
gress to attempt 1t. Nor does 1t seem
likely that the present Congress will
be governed by the economic merits
of the case. The little America"
movement will be stopped before it
goes far by the pressure Of business
interests that face ruin II 1t is trans
lated into law.
The background for this movement
is found in the World War. The war
left the nations of Europe bankrupt.
Their lands were ravished, their cap
ital eaten out, their resources diSsi-
pated. their gold currency vanished,
their man power reduced. 1t left in
all of them a heritage of debt, hate,
disappointment and economic 1eal-
ousy. They all adopted a blind and
snarling nationalism.
The United States was fat with war
profits, rich with war gold. Our eco
nomic equipment had been enor-
mously expanded We demanded re-
payment OF war loans and refused to
accept goods in payment. We pro-
ceeded to lend recklessly to these
stricken nations, to enable them to
continue to buy the output OF our
expanded equipment and our over
priced farms At home this developed
a mad fever of speculation and over
valuation of assets. In Europe 1t de-
veloped imitation and insolvency.
When these unsavory ingredients were
thoroughly mixed a world depression
was the outcome.
All Trade Stagnated.
It was not foreign trade that caused
the depression 1t was the war, as
sisted by an ill-balance OF trade due
to restrictions. Nor was 1T the com
petition of foreign nations that
Frustrated our agriculture. Foreign
peoples have been hungry all through
the depression It was not the COM
petition of other countries that ruined
Enelands export trade. The other
nations could not sell either. 1t was
the paralysis of depression that
brought economic stagnauon TO all
trade and all nations.
But practically all of them IN their
distress turned to RECOMMENDATION OF
their domestic economy and artificial
efforts to create international advan-
tage. England, whose greatness de-
rived from her free trade, set up
protective tariff which will eventually,
if she persists make her little Eng
land, her history one with that OF the
once mighty Spain and Holland. /.
France adopted tariff policy that Tor
petty but harmful interference with
trade rivaled the tariff restrictions OF
the Middle Ages. Italy embarked on
a domestic agricultural program that
undoubtedly hurt her normal export
business. We in this country first
passed the ruinous Smoot- -Hawley tar
if, then adopted a vast agricultural
restriction and finally tried currency
depreciation.
The depression dragged on. each
nation following the fatuous theory
that it could benefit by spiting the
other fellow and all of them sinking
deeper into the mire. In the Summer
of 1893 there was a still-born plan for
a return to sanity. 1t was the World
Economic Conference. There was
never much hope of a common agree
ment on trade But there was one
practicable program for world recov-
cry. That was through a currency
sterilization agreement. But the
United States repudiated this one hope
of speedy recovery. We wanted to
have our fling at currency manipula-
ton. Those lamp globes from Japan
had terrified our statesmen. We have
had our fling, and year and half
later our foreign trade is still dead.
All we have is a proof of what all
economists already knew, that you
cannot create prosperity by juggling
the currency.
Part of Nationalism.
This is the background of our self
contained American movement. 1t Is
a part of that unhappy and baleful
1ationalism which has SO long retarded
world recovery, which has been seized
upon by dictators, politicians and Spe-
cial interests In dozen countries and
made to serve their ends After ca
lamitous experience with interference
with natural international trade rela-
70
noStrum IN the form of complete abo-
lition Of normal trade with other coun-
tries. The very economic troubles due
to unnatural distractions to normal
trade are now represented as due to
the trade itself. We are asked to
abandon foreign trade, stop foreign
investment and become "self-suffl-
cient." We are to stop the enormous
export flow of cotton, wheat, tobacco
machinery, automobiles, typewriters,
cloth, meats, copper, oils and all the
rest. We are to do without rubber,
linen, paper, tin, nickel manganese,
mercury, platinum. tungsten, chro-
MUM, and many other indispensable
materials. We are to give up coffee,
tea, sugar, chocolates, bananas, cocoa
nuts, olives, tropical fruits. cigars,
quinine and a thousand other basic
materials of our daily life.
This Nation cannot become an eco
nomic hermit. The hands of time
cannot be set back. For good or i'll
the nations of the world are knit
together by ties that cannot be broken.
The head hunters of Borneo are a
self-contained people, and they are
doomed to extinction. Since the dawn
of mans history trade and contact
among peoples have been the meas
ure of the progress of mankind. More
than 1000 years ago the hardy Phoe-
nicians built levantine civilization on
their trips to Britain-for tin. The
trade routes of medieval times were
the high roads to the development of
the worlds civilization.
Basis of Civilization.
In an age when all meats spoiled
for lack of refrigeration the search for
spices discovered America, and built
the British Empire. With the coming
of steam and steel, the railway and
the steamship, the commercial Coop
Grafton Of nations became the basis
IL,