Trotsky Foresees America's Destiny

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 18

Trotsky Foresees America's Destiny

The United States will emerge^ from the present crisis more the master of world capital than ever, believes Mr. Leon Trotsky, exiled Russian revolutionary leader, but he foresees no happy' world for the master to command (says an Associated Press dispatch from Istanbul to American newspapers). From his place of exile on Prinkipy Island, whence he watches world movements, Mr. Trotsky gave the Associated Press his forecast for America. "You ask my opinion of the 'dollar' crisis," ho said in French. "Considered technically this crisis will soon be over. From the broader aspect the question needs a serious examination beyond the scope of an interview. "Briefly, I can say that since 1917 I often affirmed that world capital would develop into the increasing hegemony of the United States, especially under the hegemony of the dollar over the British sterling. Amorican capitalism's .four years' crisis and especially the bank crises of 1931 and 1933, though important in themselves, do not. check American capital's increasing hegemony, but rather are part of that increase. "America's excessive and precipitate growth gave the country's economic structure a mixed character —inheritances from the backwoods state, with the mingling of human strength's greatest conquests. The banking system especially evinces this contradiction. "American capital became a world factor nevertheless, and it still leans on a scattered system of provincial banks, recalling the epoch of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.' When thp organism

weakens from lack of nourishment, all its faults and sickness come to the surface. "When America's economic orgauisin weakened under the world crisis influence, the obsolete character of its banking system was sharply revealed. The result of the two bank crises will undoubtedly be a grandiose centralisation of the banking system ultimately, ■ merely reinforcing United States financial hegemony. "On the contrary, France, for instance, with the franc reduced oneflftli, will more than ever learn the difficulty of preserving its provincial system from the torrents of world economy. 1 do not wish to intimate that a calm and regular development is assured the United States after surmounting the actual dollar crisis, the second bank crisis, and even the whole present industrial crisis. No. If it 13 difficult to depend on 2000 unstable little banks it is no less difficult to depend on several thousand unstable political and economic organisations of Europe, South America, and Asia. "American hegemony's future inevitable growth will signify nothing but this —the penetration of all our planet's contradictions and diseases into American capital foundations. "It is sufficient to cite two facts: First, Japanese banditry's attack on China, which inaugurates a whole series of Far Eastern wars; second, Hitler's arrival of power which promises a year's civil war and inevitable international shocks. "But thJg perspective is beyond tha limits of your question."