THE H.B. TRIBUNE THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1932 A SIGNIFICANT CONVERSION

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 221, 1 September 1932, Page 6

THE H.B. TRIBUNE THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1932 A SIGNIFICANT CONVERSION

Some three or four weeks ago we had from Washington a cable message telling us of the astonishment with which the American public had received a broadcast address from Senator Borah definitely advocating cancellation of the debts owing by the wartime European Allied nations to the United States Government. At the time some comment was made here on this message, but mostly in the way of warning against attaching over-much importance to it. However, American newspaper files now to hand suggest that there may be in it a good deal more of significance than had been thought, for it would seem that the Idaho Senator was getting a fairly full measure of influential support, both journalistic and popular. As for the Senator himself the fuller reports of his speech show that he spoke with even more emphasis than the cable indicated, telling the people that there would be a time when it would be distinctly in their own interest to reconsider the question and definitely predicting ultimate total remission In doing this he quite frankly admitted that he was completely reversing the stand he had taken up at an earlier date, when he championed the President’s declaration in

favour of the resolute collection of the debts. But this, of course, only lends added force to the new conviction that has come upon him in the interval.

It is especially noteworthy to find that, as one report puts it, he “poured scorn” upon the timid stipulation of the State Department that reparations and wardebts should have no place in the deliberations of the coming World Economic Conference. This, he said, would be like “confining attention to trifling symptoms rather than dealing with the main and deep-seated cause of the disease from which the whole world is suffering.” It is to be noted, too, that Senator Borah’s so thorough conversion comes entirely from materialistic considerations, his appeal to the people—for such was in essence the nature of his address—being based entirely upon a balance of drawbacks and advantages. The very decided conclusion he had reached was that immediate business revival was more important to the United States than future war-debt payments. As the Boston “Monitor” rather rudely phrases it, “it is not to help Europe, but to help America to end a depression that is estimated to have cost her 150,000 million dollars that Senator Borah advocates readjustment of the debts.” It may be added that this journal, which has for long been striving, in this connection, to bring the American people to a recognition of their moral obligations, goes on to say: “One might wish for a greater consideration for the welfare of other countries, yet the ‘enlightened self-interest’ which Mr. Borah teaches works for the welfare of all.” Even now it will not do to run away with any false idea that what Senator Borah has to say will meet with any early and decisively widespread acceptance. He has, too, been particularly careful to say that he is speaking for himself alone and not in his capacity as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. But on this point the New York “Times,” another of America’s most influential journals, says: “All this matters little. When a voice of reason gains utterance and a wide hearing, as his did on this occasion—awakening echoes instantly in London and at Ottawa—the thing to do is to fix attention more upon what is said than upon the consistency, or otherwise, of the public man that has said it.” Unlike the “Monitor,” however, the “Times” sticks rigidly, and probably with the better chance of success, to the argument of self-interest: “All the Senator advocates is to sacrifice a little that we may gain much. This is the true ground on which to call for a revision of our war-debts policy. Prove that it is not to the interest of the United States to insist on their collection, and you have gone far to silence the man who shouts that they must be paid to the uttermost farthing.” It is not to be overlooked, either, that European disarmament enters as a condition precedent into Senator Borah’s pronouncements, but even this is seemingly with somewhat less stress than heretofore. In all this we may at least be justified in seeing steadily, if not rapidly, at work “the little leaven that leaveneth the whole lump.”