AMERICA'S ISOLATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21116, 25 February 1932, Page 8

AMERICA'S ISOLATION.

CRITICISM FROM WITHIN. THE WORK AT GENEVA. * s WE MUST PLAY OUR PART." [FROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] NEW YORK. Feb. 3. The "stupidity of isolation," as inItanced by the delay of the United States !n entering the League of Nations as a responsible member, was under heavy lire from /Professor Murray Butler, Mr. George W- Wickersham, and two former members Of the Cabinet, Messrs. Newton D. Baker &nd John J. Davis, at the meeting of the League of Nations' Association. Dr. Murray Butler, who directed the attack in one of the most striking pronouncements of his career, deplored the fact that practically nothing was being done by the American people by way of contribution to world reconstruction. They were content, he Said, "to dawdle idly in the presence of foolish and meaningless talk at Washington, rather than rouse themselves to act to compel their Government to conform to instructed, unselfish and high-minded public opinion." The League of Nations, the World Court and the Bank for International Settlements were, the professor said, institutions which, still in the making, were "the expression and embodiment of forwardfacing men's convictions and ideals. Geneva, The Hague and Basle embody the hope of the world. They are the centres at which the highest type of human effort will focus itself for the purpose of realising prosperity, security and happiness. Blame for Economic War. "The United States must play its part, must recognise that in these days no nation can be an end in itself, but that each plays its part like a* brick in a wall, like a stone in a monument, like a link in a chain, like a citizen in a State, as a irember in that commonwealth of free and independent nations which is just now being born." Responsibility for the economic war that is going on now was laid by Dr. Butler on the United States for its high tariff policy and the wish to build up and maintain u permanent surplus of exports. How could Europe pay debts owed to the United States over such barriers T American policy in this respect provoked like policies in Europe, and the situation was growing steadily worse. "The mere announcement on June 20 last that some change for the better in the international policy of the United States was proposed so cheered and so heartened the American people and so restored their confidence that in a few short hours billions of dollars were added to the value of securities held for investment by every sort and kind of person throughout this land. Prosperity began to return. Dejection and Depression. "When, a few days later, it was declared that nothing important was to follow, those billions of dollars of increased value quickly disappeared. Depression, and dejection displaced the beginnings of a new confidence, and the last state of those prices of investment securities was worse than the first. Surely the intirijate /relation Between international policy and national prosperity was amply demonstrated." 'The trouble is," said Dr. Butler, "that there is only one way in which adequately to look after our own interests, and that-/ is to join the whole world in looking after all of us, for the day has long since gone by when any nation, however populous and however powerful has, or can have an independent economic and financial lifts of its own." Dr. Butler called for a final readjustment of war debts and reparations, which he termed stumbling blocks on the way to recovery. The system of international war debts had failed dismally, as it was doomed to fail itrom the beginning.