Not Major Question

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7241, 22 August 1933, Page 7

Not Major Question

AMERICAN ATTITUDE TO WAR

DEBT Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Aug. 21. “There is not the same importance attached to the question of Allied debts in America as is the case in England,” said Mr T. C. List, in an interview to-day following his return to New Zealand. “In Great Britain the question is regarded as paramount and. as having a bearing on every other question. In America it occupies only a minor place in the minds of the people. They have so many other and more jircssing things on hand that they barely give it attention.” Some rearrangement or readjustment of the British debt would need to be made before long, and this fact was generally recognised in the States, where the British attitude was quite appreciated in contradietinction to that of Prance, which was never more unpopular in the States than at present. With regard to national recovery mcasures, Mr List said that President Roosevelt had succeeded in getting all sections, including Capitalistic and Bepublican interests, right behind him, and there was a general determination to fairly try out new measures—unprecedented and Socialistic as they were in so many respects. Already two million people had been returned to work, and it was confidently felt in Washington that by the end of the year another seven millions would be engaged. Each industry was being asked to agree to a working code, not only in respect of wages and working conditions, but also in respect of business practice, in order to eliminate the waste and losses incidental to unrestricted and insane competition. The arrangements in connection with employment followed the same lines as our Arbitration and Conciliation agreements, and labour was given a standing which it had never previously enjoyed. Mr List added that President Roosevelt had around him a very democratic and energetic Cabinet and Council of advisers, who were busy cutting across every principle and shibboleth previously held inviolable by the country, and who were clearing quite a new track, leading whither no one know, not even themselves. The remarkable fact remained that practically the whole country was behind them, the feeling hpiug that, whatever occurs, no new condition could be worse than that experienced during the past few years, when a third of the country’s working population was without employment and rendered destitute and dosperate. The country believed that Boosevelt was destined, like Lincoln, in a time of crisis to lead the nation into the “Promised Land.”