Evening star., 1936-09-14
BY BRENT DOW ALLINSON.


The views of Sumner Welles, As
sistant Secretary of State, on trade
restrictions and high tariffs as
cause Of war and ornaments, and Oh
the duty of an enlightened pan-Amer-
acanism to remove them, indicate
sense of economic realism and reci-
procity at Washington, in the difficult
approach toward national recovery
through international collaboration
and the opening of new roads to wider
markets and increased trade and
confidence.
Regarded as the vehicle Of culture
and the surest means of creating the
basis OF higher solidarity of civilized
democracy, increasing international
commerce and social intercourse is
certainly the surest way to peace and
progress both for ourselves and others.
On the physical side, Mr.. Welles
expects continued improvement in
inter-American aviation and COM
munication and greater popular in
terest in completion of the pan
American highway, linking Canada
with the CordilleraS, for which Con-
gress already has appropriated Ger
tain grants in aid of bridge construc-
ton in Central America. He sees,
likewise, an impetus to improved
steamship and railway facilities.
Neutrality More Important.
More important, however, than all
else Is the movement to unite the
Americas in common policy of ef-
fective neutrality in the event of non-
American warfare, and to devise some
method whereby the youth of Amer
lean republics may be enabled to know
one another better in order to help
one another master common prob
lens and Misunderstanding through
an enlarged interchange of teachers,
students and professional men and
women.
"It is matter of constant surprise
TO me-" said Mr.. Welles, ito realize
how few of our own people appreciate
the riches that are to be discovered
IN the history, the literature and in
the arts of our sister republics, and I
believe that the reverse is also true.
Gould there be anything more con-
duc1Ve to removal of the causes of
controversy between us than an en-
hanced knowledge of our respective
cultures?"
Greater knowledge of Hispanic
American culture and increased politi-
cal understanding and confidence rest
upon mutual respect and the assump-
ton OF legal equality. On this point
the Roosevelt administration has gone
further, perhaps. in the pledges Of
non-aggression which it has made. and
In its recognition of equality of right
toward Latin-America, than any of
its predecessors.
Bases of Cooperation.
There now exists" said Mr.. Welles.
"a greater realization on the part of
the people of the United States of the
value to themselves of a sure politi-
cal and commercial understanding
with the other republics of this hemi-
sphere. There should exist an inter-
American relationship based on a
recognition of actual and not merely
theoretical equality between the Amer
lean republics; on complete forbear-
ance from interference of any one re-
public in the domestic concerns of any
other; on economic cooperation, and
finally on the common realization
that in the world at large all of the
American republics confront the same
international problems, and that in
their relations with non-American
powers the welfare and security of any
one Of them cannot be a matter of
indifference to the Others"
These are ideas of the utmost
significance at this hour, on the eve
Of the gathering of the inter-Ameri-
Ian conference. They gather in
creased significance and moral energy
from the spectacle of an armed and
disorganized Europe, and wolfish in
ternational anarchy beyond the seas.
There is more than rhetoric, therefore,
In the statement of Mr.. Welles that
during these past three years Pan
Americanism has become instinct with
the breath of life, for there exists to-
day between all of the republics of this