Evening star., 1936-07-18

tionalism, no argument in logic or
common sense can be made against
any nation which seeks to extend its
territory by force of arms in order to
aggrandize necessary raw materials.
For, given the thesis that raw mate
rials must be found inside areas which
a single state can control. there is
left to oppose aggression only Chris
tian pacifism.
Thinks Plank Is Wrong.
The Republican platform particu-
larly assails the present reciprocal
trade-agreement law. The platform
states: 1T Is futile and dangerous.
Its effect on industry and agriculture
has been destructive. Its continua-
ton would work detriment to the
wage Garner and the farmer" am
no defender of the administration.
But / doubt very much whether that
statement can be subStantiated. II 1t
can be, I have never seen it done.
It is easy to appeal to demagogic feel
ings by pointing out that We have
imported agricultural products when
there was plainly an agricultural
overproduction, and leave out of ac-
count the drought which would have
had disastrous results whether we had
plowed crops under or not, but the
only way that general Indictment
can be proved Is In terms Of our total
trade, not of any one thing. There
seems to be no realization on the part
of the public that every bit Of money
spent for foreign goods imported into
this country must eventually, by how
ever roundabout q process, be spent
in this country. But the United
States, as Mr.. Raymond Gram Swing
brilliantly pointed out in an article
some months ago. has q debtor-na-
ton complex. We were one for so
long that we got used to it, based our
attitudes on it and simply do not
know how to behave as a creditor ma
ton. So successfully have we repelled
even the thought of our superior posi-
ton that we are gradually drifting
back comfortably into the position
where we owe the world, instead Of
the world owing us.
Group Pressures Assailed.
The Republican platform condemns
1.-The secret negotiation OF the trade
treaties, without public hearings or
legislative approval" The world "se-
cret" overreaches the facts. But that
the tariff should be taken out OF Con-
gress and made an administrative
tn Sfny1
cisely the right direction. 1t Is i'm
possible to have any consequential
foreign-trade' policy at all, any policy
which has the total economy Of the
nation in mind. as long as 1t is sub
ject to group pressures. II our de-
mocracy has proved anything at all.
it has proved that the sum Of all group
pressures is not the public veal
What Mr.. Peek wants Is not foreign
trade but barter That is the sort
Of foreign trade which Germany has
gone in for-not, be it said, because
her leaders think it desirable in prin-
ciple but because. the German cur
rency situation being what it Is. that
is the only sort of foreign trade which
she can have. What Mr.. Hull is try
ing to do. and. inch by inch. has
somewhat succeeded in doing, even in
these distressing times, is to push
open again the economic frontiers Of
the world.
I think that history will prove that
economic nationalism must result. in
the long run, in planned national
economies and in war Perhaps that
is the way the world is going; per-
haps the tendency cannot be stemmed;
perhaps that world will have its viz
tues. too.
But certainly the Republican party
does not welcome such a direction,
and the whole tariff plank seems Gu
riously out of place in the platform.
Fortunately it has, in the third para
graph, something like an escape
clause
tCopyrizht, 1880