King Country Chronicle. Thursday, December 11, 1930. AMERICA’S TROUBLES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIV, Issue 3241, 11 December 1930, Page 4

King Country Chronicle. Thursday, December 11, 1930. AMERICA’S TROUBLES.

The figures published by the Department of Commerce of the United States concerning the import and export figures of the country must cause some concern, not only to its politicians, but industrialists and workers of all kyids. That the international policy of the United States is largely responsible for the general world depression leaves little room for doubt, but now the country which set out to dominate the commerce of the world by a selfish and uneconomic policy has been enmeshed in the net which she set for other countries. It is stated that the overseas trade of the United States has dropped by £400,000,000 for the first ten months of 1930 as compared with the same period for 1929, and the unemployment problem is even more acute than in Great Britain. Yet the country is surfeited with gold wrung from other countries during and after the period of the war. In these days of modern commerce, however, the basic wealth of any country is not measured by gold, but by free intercourse of trade. The United States,

however, has not realised this fact until too late. Her people built huge factories working on the massed production principle, believing that by such methods she would be able to send her exports to every quarter of the globe. She might have been able to carry out this plan up to a point if the further step of placing a prohibitive tariff on all imports had not been taken. A one-way trade, whether it be imports or exports, cannot in • the end be beneficial to any country, for in time it can only lead to the impoverishment of the one that takes the goods and has not the opportunity of sending others in return. Before the war Great Britain occupied the premier place in the world’s commerce, but her methods were altogether different to those of the

United States. Britain sent enormous quantities of manufactured goods to all parts of the world, but placed no restrictions on importation from other countries. Britain had an opendoor policy, and such faith in her own manufactures that she felt herself competent to deal with importations from other countries without imposing heavy Customs tariffs. The result of this was that she gained the goodwill as well as the trade of many countries and was enabled to obtain her raw materials on the very best basis. Her policy was to trade with other countries on a reciprocity basis, and this proved to be most satisfactory with the countries she dealt with. The policy of the United States has been to sell as much as

possible and take nothing in return, and this has had disastrous effects on her overseas trade, which are likely to become worse. For a time other countries were carried away by the versatility and cheapness of American goods, but the majority are now realising how these are affecting their own industries, and adopting retaliatory measures. It seems almost certain that Great Britain will take up some form of protection in the near future, and as this may embody some form of Empire reciprocity, there will be a tremendous loss of trade between the United States and the Commonwealth of Empire. Since the prohibitive tariffs were brought into operation in the United States the imports to Canada have'dropped by nearly one-half. This lead to the industrialists of the United States establishing branches in Canada, although their own factories in the States could not dispose of their outputs. The exports from the United States to New Zealand and Australia have also decreased by nearly onehalf for the first ten months of 1930. The United States is neither a happy or a prosperos country. She has wealth from the point of view of gold, but this is not prosperity. When the war-distressed countries had to rely on the United States for certain goods the country was certainly prosperous, but now the European countries are rehabilitating their industries and can grow their own foodstuffs they are becoming independent of the United States. There is money enough in the States to build and equip double the factories already established, but what use would these be unless markets can be found for the output, and such are not available to-day. The position is that the United States, through its unfeeling policy towards other countries, has cornered about 40 per cent, of the world’s gold. Part of these huge hoardings have been loaned and part placed in industries which have already reached stagnation point. The balance is “sterilised,” and from this the country is deriving no' benefit, while the rest of the world is suffering through a general shortage of gold for keeping the wheels of commerce in circulation. Great Britain has her problems. Bad as they are, however, it can be said that she is working on sounder lines than the United States, which alongside her financial troubles has those of unemployment, administration graft, the suppression of crime and bootlegging, and a discordant political situation.