The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1937-09-11

BOake Carter
War to Protect Property.
The Risks of Business.
The Old Story of 1917.

THE American Chamber Of
u Commerce in Shanghai wires
indignant protests to President
Roosevelt and the State Depart
ment against any abandonment
by the United States of Ameri-
can business interests in China.
Business men swamp the State
Department with hundreds Of
cablegrams, protesting Mr..
Roosevelt's castigation of the
Sino-Japanese war as IAN awful
mess" and warning that Unied
States citizens who do not leave
the war zones must expect to
remain there at their own risk.
American business men and
bankers wonder who will reim-
burSe them for losses already
suffered" reads a Shanghai dis
patch to a New York newspaper.
President Scored for China
Policy" reads another headline.
All, so the old, old story begins
again! Big Business calls for the
United States to risk war in
foreign land once more to pro-
tect their private investments.
X X
0UPPOSE Franklin Roosevelt
~ were to send an army to
China. What good is that going
to do? What assurance will the
presence of a United States Army
in China give to business men
and bankers that a shell or a
bomb still won't fall on their
properties? They speak of losses
suffered already. True, they
have. And if third and a
fourth and a fifth nation
plunges into the Oriental war,
how do they expect to do bust
ness?
The conduct of business in a
nation at war is ever a losing
proposition-except to the prof
iteerS-and yet United States
commercial interests in Shang.
hal clamor for more shells, more
guns, more soldiers, more shoot
ing and more War-and more
destruction!
Let us reverse this picture to
get a better understanding Of
what we face. If the United
States were invaded by a great
foreign power and war ragged
UP and down the land, would we
pay the British bankers and
business men because some of
the investments they had in the
United States might be de-
stroyed by Shellfire or by
bombs?
business is a competitive
~ thing. Competition inhe-
rently means risk, taking a
chance. The man who starts a
little corner grocery store takes
his chance in the economic world
of making a success or a failure
of his effort. No banker lends a
dime on a proposition which he
thinks is likely to turn out
failure. There is, just the same,
inherent risk IN the establish
ment of any business, the lend
ing Of any money.
Many United States CONNER
cial properties were damaged in
Hongkong by the 160-mile-an-
hour typhoon which wrecked
that Far Eastern city a week or
so ago. Under the same twisted
logic cited by the United States
commercial interests in Shang-
hal, the United States Govern
ment should see to it that some
body paid those United States
business men in Hongkong for
their losses.
War is just as unexpected,
just as much threat to invest
ments as is a typhoon, a gale,
a devastating fire, or depression.
If a business man decides to
invest in property in a foreign
nation and ignores the fact that
he must take the chance that
some time war may come along
and destroy his investment, he's
a fool. If, in addition, he also
expects his Government to risk
the lives Of every man in his
entire nation to go to war to
preserve his private investment
from which he and not they de-
rive the most financial benefit,
then he is not only foolish, but
a supremely selfish citizen.
\ \
WHY should I coolly believe
w that no matter where I go