MR AL. SMITH

Evening Star, Issue 21079, 16 April 1932, Page 13

MR AL. SMITH

DEBT CANCELLATION PROPOSAL AMERICAN PRESS COMMENT Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. NEW YORK, April 14. Mr A 1 Smith’s debt proposal resulted in considerable reaction in the Press. A leader in the 1 New York Sun ’ says: “ The Imperial Conference at Ottawa is likely to grant Australia and Canada the rich privilege of selling England most of the wheat needed, and, as matters stand, the American grower will be undersold in the British markets.”

The ' New York Times,’ without accepting the proposal outright, comments: ‘‘ It may prove to have an ultimate value, but of great immediate value is the blunt assertion that we have been dealing with the question in a way that is bad for ourselves, as well as for the rest of the world.” The ‘ New York Herald-Tribune ’ characterises the proposal as " exceedingly difficult to defend from any economic angle.” However, it commends Mr Smith’s courage in discussing the issue candidly, and suggests " that it might be an ingenious political device to make cancellation palatable for American voters.”

[Mr A 1 Smith, in addressing a group of distinguished Democratic leaders at the annual Jefferson Day dinner, proposed a modified debt cancellation scheme. “ Let us say to the nations of Europe who owe us money, ‘We will forget about it for twenty years, and. not only will we do that, but we will write on as paid each year 25 per cent, of the gross value of American products which you buy from us,’ This, in effect, means that if a nation purchases 100,000,000 dollars’ worth of our cotton we will forget about 25,000,000 of its indebtedness, and the same for wheat, fruit, and tobacco, or any of our manufactured products.”]