Evening star., 1940-06-30
Aggressive Course
Urged for U. S.
By ODen L. Scott.

SASe'A' 1AdS fitoOiS Will uCllO W ullNG
this country away from Europe and into
isolation within this hemisphere, wheth-
er or not Germany suggests basis for
later trade
Isolated in great degree from Europe,
the United States can do two things:
Cd Tt can stagnate, as Germany uses
the labor of conquered British and
Belgian and Dutch workers, as we'll as
the labor of Germans released from arm
ament production, to capture markets
once filled by American industry, or ca
1t can take over leadership in a broad
program of industrial expansion within
this hemisphere that would be planned
and carried out by Americans.
All signs here suggest that this Gov
ernment Is preparing for a gradual ven-
ture into leadership that will involve a
clash with Germany for control of the
trade and the development of Latin
America. Hitler cannot build the en-
pire he envisages without the raw mate
rials that South America can supply
He must have the oil and metals and
flbers and foodstuffs needed to supply the
lI1duoGly dIid tiddt Vi bllt pSU-
pie he will dominate Yet the United
States cannot escape the fate of declin-
ing nation unless it is able to find outlets
for its surplus capital and its surplus
energies in the development of territory
outside the Nation itself.
1t is in Latin America that the inter
ests of an expanding United States and
the interests of greatly expanded Ger
many will clash.
To meet the impact of that first clash,
this Government is proposing to create
a trading corporation that will acquire
the surpluses of Latin American nations
and to market or to hold those surpluses
under monopoly control. The purpose of
this operation Is to prevent Germany
from using her barter methods and her
extremely favorable prices-on a barter
basis - from penetrating economically
into the nations of this hemisphere.
Economic penetration by Germany al
ways is accompanied by political pene-
tration. Political penetration would give
her the opportunity gradually to out
flank the United States in military and
lldEdI way, JLSL dS ollt lldS OuLlldIlkeu
every nation she has run up against in
Europe. This is the sort of grand-scale
operation that would interest Hitler
after his world d-shaking successes nearer
home.
If President Roosevelt's plan is put
into effect, Adolf Hitler, setting out in
search of wheat and cotton and oil and
L.
supply the industries of his 400 900 900
direct and indirect subjects, would be
forced to approach the inter American
monopoly He would have to meet the
terms laid down by the management of
this monopoly or go away empty handed
He would be denied chance to deal with
nations singly.
Such is the idea. But there are many
difficulties, even if the other nations of
this hemisphere agree to go along with
the United States in this venture. One
of the difficulties concerns production,
another concerns prices and third con-
Germs enforcement.
Really, what President Roosevelt is
proposing is a gigantic farm board to
handle stabilization not only of Ameri-
can wheat and cotton, but the wheat and
cotton and oil and copper and other
products of an entire hemisphere. The
farm board experiment of 1929 to 1882
cracked up on the rock of production
control. Without rigid control over pro-
duction-of the type used by the rubber
and tin and tea onopolies-there is
nothing to prevent Latin American
nations from dumping unlimited guam
titles Of raw materials into the lap of
the trading corporation. This in turn,
would soon tax the patience of the
United States taxpayer
The second problem is that of price.
1t is natural to expert that the Latin
Americans, who are past masters at
milking Uncle Sam, will want to squeeze
every dollar possible out of the surpluses
they sell. They will be aided in this
operation by Hitler himself.
Here will enter the third problem.
There is going to be nothing very
threatening to prevent sovereign ma
ton of this hemisphere from selling one
batch of goods to an American
trading corporation and another batch
of goods to Hitler's traders. who will be
offering prices that will seem irresistible.
Thus on anything other than a very
ort-time basis, the trading corporation
idea is highly impractical.
That idea, however, will serve one very
important purpose. 1t will enable the
United States to discover which nations
play ball with this country and which
are not ready.
X
If this country really is to have an
outlet for its energies in this hemisphere
it must promote a broad program of
development, not merely try to maintain
a status quo. A broad program of devel-
opment will involve large-scale use of
capital to create roads and railroads. to
open new areas to colonization, to create
industries, to raise the standards of liv-
ing of the Latin American peoples In
other words, the development must be
comparable to that carried out over the
last $50 years inside the United States
and in other developing areas of the
world.
To insure the safety that capital will
require if it is to venture into Latin
America, there must be more stability of
government in that area and more posi-
tive friendship with the United States
than there has heen in tho met