AMERICA’S MISTAKE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 289, 3 November 1934, Page 7

AMERICA’S MISTAKE

ARTIFICIAL TRADE BARRIERS

A FRANK ADMISSION,

NEW YORK, Nov. 1

Admitting, that the United. States had set a vicious example of high tariffs. Mi—'Cordell Hull (Secretary of State) to-night declared: “We have now repented.” . . “Extreme nationalism, if persisted in, is destined soon to wreck orir entire structure of western civilisation, lie said in an address read to the Foreign Trade Association by Mr Francis B. Sayre, Assistant Secretary of State, Mr Hull is resting at Pinehurst recovering from bronchial trouble. “In entering upon negotiations for trade agreements authorised by the Act of June 12 this year we willingly and frankly admit that we, erred in the past and that we have now repented,” said Mr Hull. “Just as we set a vicious example by erecting trade barriers of high tariffs, which induced others to follow us, so now we are asking other nations to join us in an attempt to undo the damage our collective action has worked. We wish to break down all artificial and excessive impediments put in the way of world commerce not only in our own interest but for the benefit of all others as w r ell, since only by restoring the trade of the whole world can individual countries hope to remain economically healthy for long.” President Roosevelt in a telegram to Mr James A. Farrell, chairman of the National Foreign Trade Council, said: “We are seeking to rehabilitate international commerce in a way that will benefit not a single nation but all nations; not a group of nations, but the whole world. The causes of the decline in the level of world trade are various, but among the most serious are unnecessary and artificial barriers which hamper a healthy interchange of commodities.”