AMERICA'S PROGRAMME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18577, 8 December 1923, Page 10

AMERICA'S PROGRAMME.

President Coolidge's message to Congress is chiefly remarkable for what it omits. Matters of foreign policy are given scant attention, nine-tenths of the President's address being devoted to domestic affairs, which ar plainly stated to be the country's main problem. This is in keeping with the programme enunciated by the Republican Party in the course of the elections last year. There was then a considered determination on its part to call a halt in foreign politics. These matters, as a result of consistent developments in America's constitutional practice, have become largely a presidential prerogative, and President Wilson dealt with them in no uncertain fashion. A popular reaction set in very definitely as soon as the war was over. Dissatisfaction with domestic conditions became rife and clamorous, and on this wave of protest the Republicans rode to power, gaining the presidency and a majority in both the Senate and the House. Mr. Harding's attitude to the League of Nations and to reparations was dictated by this view; and, save for the Washington Conference's covenant on armaments, the Pacific pact, and proposals to mediate in the Ruhr deadlock, there has been nothing since the Republicans' return to power to indicate any alert desire to participate in international affairs. Mr. C. E. Hughes' recent statement on the Monroe Doctrine betokened a hardening of this reluctance to look beyond the pale of home administration. A " rest from legislation/' to quote Mr. Harding's promise, and a fooussing of activity upon internal needs have become the Republican watchword. True to type and accepting the legacy of his predecessor, Mr. Coblidge devotes himself to administrative rather than legislative ideals, looks askance at the League of Nations, emphasises reservations in joining the International Court of Justice, and evinces interest in foreign relations only as they are primarily concerned with dollars. With a Congress strongly Republican, this programme is assured yet nothing is more certain than that the elections of 1924 will see foreign affairs again made a prominent issue.