Evening star., 1939-12-17

A sentimental old fellow is Uncle Sam.
Like Benjamin Franklins spinster, he
Is grateful for small favors foreign
nation has merely to pay him its debts
to evoke his lasting friendship. Yet,
even if the foreigner defaults TITO Sam
retains his amicable attitude.
In Latin America, particularly, is this
the case. Uncle Sam not merely responds
to the slightest friendly overture. Wear
ing his heart on his sleeve this caballero
OF the North seeks out the senoritas of
the South. paying impartial court to
oil.
His is soothing serenade. Some
times 1t charms. More often it goes
unanswered, as in Argentina and
Mexico. His songs are not all in Spanish.
He sings in Portuguese, too, his golden
tunes. In gracious response to ST.
100000 Export-Import Bank loan last
spring, the Brazilian government tossed
him rosy promise to resume early pay
ment on the defaulted debts,-or so,
at least, it was reported to us. But
the rose has withered, and the old de-
faulted debts are still in the same
condition.
Under the courting caballero policy.
Washington has this year received more
visiting dignitaries than in any COM
parable period since the World War.
From Cuba and Nicaragua, from Haiti
and Brazil, high dignitaries have come
to thank us in advance for government
credits.
Monument to q Borrower.
Some one has described the period of
reckless foreign loans of the 192Os as
"frenzied finance" The present period
may be characterized as friendly finance
The loans Washington is making are
not large in our eyes. But to the bor-
rowers in these hard times they are
considerable According to press reports
they are planning a monument in
Nicaragua to President Somoza for his
success in borrowing 100000 in Wash
ington.
Our Latin American overtures are
not limited to mercenary methods. We
are striving in scores of ways official
and unoficial, to make the Americas
one happy family of nations We call
and attend pan-American conferences
committees and meetings We set up
interdepartmental groups in Washing
ton to rack their brains for ways to
confer benefits on the countries to our
South-beneflts in agriculture, mining,
trade, education, etc. We lend them our
experts; We exchange professors and
students with them; we seek new
N.Y.
Army bombers visit them on good will
flights; we send them our best in broad
casting efforts entirely free of charge;
we subsidize shipping and airplane lines
to knit them closer to ourselves and to
each other; we foster pan-American
highway; We advertise their tourist at
fractions to our people,
Where Else?
Where else can you find a nation
voluntarily propagandizing among its
own people in favor of its neighbors?
Yet that is precisely what we are doing
officially and unof1cially For whole
winter season the Department of Inter-
ior broadcast weekly in this country a
series called THE Brave New World "
better known and understood here.
The campaign to cultivate the United
States of America for our Latin neigh
bors is proceeding on a much broader
front than most people would imagine
A recent survey by the National Com
mittee of the United States Of America
on International Intellectual Co-opera.
ton required 159 typewriter pages to
describe inter- American cultural activi-
spaced list of organizations alone fills six
double-colunn pages. In addition te
the Pan-American Union and United
States Government organizations, in
tellectual relations with Latin Americs
are being cultivated here by long list
Of unoficial groups, universities, libraries
and business enterprises.
If "the Lord helps those who helr
themselves" our good neighbors to tn
south Of the Rio Grande in the years II
come should be in position to benefi
from the educational work we are doini
here for them. In view of all we hav'
been reading about foreign propaganda
in the United States, 1t is worth reflect
Ing that the Latin Americans are il
the unique position of having us do i
for them gratis.
Slow With Reciprocity.
Despite such widespread efforts, tn
Good Neighbor policy seems slow il
producing the reciprocity we desire. Il
various respects our investors, our busi
nessmen, our tourist industry, and ou
broadcast business suffer from injuri
Gus Latin American policies.
In the matter of composing unpai
loans held by our investors, virtually n
progress has been made. Many Latil
American bonds are still selling at de
fault prices. A few days ago in Ne'
York a block of Mexican government
railway bonds exchanged hands at
quotation of ~; that is, $3.50 per 100
face value. Spectators are hesitant t
buy such bonds because 1t costs more
keep them in . safety deposit box tta