The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-15
TRADE BATTLE
PERILS WORLD.
OFFICIAL SAYS
State Department Aid
Predicts Another Great
War as Outcome.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS
Times Special Writer

Times Special Writer
y WASHINGTON. Jan. 15.-Creat
nations struggling for trade with
armies and navies at their demand.
and with "the world be damned
as their slogan. are now headed
toward new World War. In one
of the most outspoken pronounce
ments ever to come from a high
official of the State Department.
Assistant Secretary of State Francis
Bowes Sayre today made public
this warning.
The peril, he declared, comes from
the new economic nationalism
which has gripped the world since
1918, Enlightened interest, he
adds, should prompt America to as
sumo and assert the responsibility
Of leadership out of the danger.
The Sayre thesis was released by
the World Peace Foundation under
the title, America Must Act"
Publication date was advanced be-
cause of the Supreme Courts AAA
decision-"I'riple A" having been
made necessary by the loss of our
foreign markets.
Foreign Trade Called Vital
Foreign trade, Mr.. Sayre asserts,
is vital to the United States. The
loss of markets for 10 per cent Of
our total production means a los
OF more than 10 per cent of the
total income because of obvious
ramifications. But even more
important is the effect unstable
SURPRISES have on domestic prices.
Some 100000 farmers in the
United States, for example, know no
other employment than cotton rails
ing. Normally three fifths of this
staple is exported. Of our leaf to-
bacco, 80 per cent is disposed of in
the same way. with "a per cent of
our lard. 40 per cent of our dried
fruits. "a per cent of our lubricating
oil, Al per cent of our copper, So
per cent of our turpentine, 81 per
cent of our office appliances, 10 per
cent Of our industrial machinery
and so on.
Jobs, wages, markets and living
standards accordingly are al stake
Likewise we need imports-coffee
rubber, tin, silk, tea, bananas,
manganese, wood pulp for news
papers, etc., for our comfort and
progress.
Nations in Big Business
Other nations, some even more
than we, must import and export
to avoid disaster. Yet bacause they
fear attack, or wish to become self
sufficient for other purposes many
are now placing every conceivable
obstacle in the way of trade.
Nations, therefore, are in big
business. From controlling and
regulating trade, sooner or later
they will be led to take over and
operate at least their basic indus
tries. The public be damned" atti-
tude Of the trusts of the nineteenth
century is sin the way of becoming
eclipsed today by profoundly more
powerful units.
Today great nations, competing
relentlessly one against the other
for business of the world, with
armies and navies at their COM
11and manifest far too fire.
quently an attitude of the world be
damned
Economic nationalism," Mr..
Sayre reminds, reaches its cul-
mination in imperialism. If order
ly processes of trade break down as
a means for exchanging products
and securing a distribution of the
necessary raw materials of the
world, only force remains. i. :"
When Men Fight
1T Is when political or economic
conditions become intolerable that
most men fight. The turn which
economic issues take today in large