AMERICA V. THE REST

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 31, 7 February 1927, Page 9

AMERICA V. THE REST

SELF EXAMINATiCf

THE NATIONAL COXSCi^-T'J.

(From Our Own Corrssponiiont.) SAN FRANCISCO, 13 th January

There is evidence that an examination is being made by the American people of its general outlook toward the rest of the world. Particularly is this the ease in the light of what the rest of the world is thinking about America. The storm that lias raged in Congress over the United States Navy and the report of the Commissioner that inquired into the demand for autonomy in, the Philipinnes are bringing the matter to a head... . .

The foreign debts, the tariff, and the navy form the basis of a nation-wide discussion that is now going on, with a view of testing the country's conscience as to its duty toward* the rest of the world. For the intelligent American, aware that Ms country has reached the peak.of domestic wealth, when, one person in five of the population owns a motor-car, is coming to think that ho is more favoured than he should be. He wants to know all about the rest of the world; how, if it be possible, he may share up some of his great wealth that their lot may be made the brighter.

One of the foremost educators in the United States, if not the foremost, Professor Murray Butler, has gone the% length of asking his country to take the whole, of the debts owed to the United States into review, with the object of remitting part of them. Professor Butler is asking his readers to try and the feelings of the citizen of one of these debtor nations, fifty'years hence, wfien the Great "War has long been forgotten in America. But to this citizen, the Great War will be with Mm, just as if he, like his father before him, possibly his grandfather, were fighting in the tranches of the Somme, the Meuse, the Argonne, the Yser. For he will be forced to pay America each year a higher sum, in principal and interest, than his country is paying to-day. For the gentlemen who have arranged the funding of the foreign debts to America have fixed, it so that the generations unborn, shall have a greater liability than the present one, for the return to Uncle Sam of the money borrowed from him. The twentieth century will have long since passed away before these debts, at their present arrangement, will have been paid back. The intelligent American, is , quite receptive to the idea that Professor Butler has propounded, for a revision of these unfortunate debts. STORM OVER THE WAVY. A spirited storm is raging concerning the navy. President Coolidge believes it is strong enough, at its present rating, for all the national demands likely to be made on it, and that the country should make a gesture of peace to the rest of the world. His view, though widely popular, has been beaten down in Congress by men who acclaim that ■the navy has fallen far below the ratio fixed by the "Washington Disarmament Conference, and is at the mercy of any foe on the high seas. He has been forced to compromise with men like Senator Johnson, cf California, and the financial barons of "Wall street, who preach the doctrine that America's increasing capital, invested in the Philippines, Hawaii, Mexico, Nicaragua, the West Indes, the Orient, make it imperative that the navy's efficiency should grow in proportion to the capital invested abroad. "Wall street consults Washington before it grants a loan to a foreign country, and believes that Washington should consult Wall street before reducing the standard of protection the navy affords to the industries maintained by such financial accommodation.

The tariff and the immigration law are alike regarded as an unfriendly gesture towards nations with a lower economic standard than the United States. Millions of people in Europe, struggling under conditions which they cannot correct, still look to America as a land of promise, of reward for industry without capital. They are prepared to work harder for a competence than Americans need to work. But they may not enter. Not content alone with keeping these poor workers out, America keeps the product of his labour out. If he works at home ho cannot sell his products in Amcriea, where there is so much money, and so many free spenders. To him America is not regarded as an idealist, wishing to make benevolence tho rule of nations in their attitude to each other.

Into these matters, the intelligent American, his economic obstacles long since overcome, is now delving with studious care. Ho is probing his national conscience. And, if he exhibits the persistency in his study which ho displays in his race for creature comfort, the nest quarter of a, century may see him earn the gratitude of countries less favourably; placed than his.