AMERICA TO-DAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23135, 6 September 1938, Page 13

AMERICA TO-DAY

MANY PROBLEMS

ATTITUDE TO PEACE INFLUENCE OF NATIONALITIES ' DIFFICULTIES AND HOPES Problems confronting thinking Americans and the various groups into which those attempting to solve the problems, particularly with relation to international peace, were divided, were the subject of an eloquent address given by Dr. Ralph Harlow, of Smith College, Massachusetts, to the Auckland Rotary Club yesterday. The president, Mr. W. E. Lewisham, presided.

At the conclusion of the Great War, said tho speaker, there were many who looked forwaid to a new era of peace in which tho older countries would lead tho world. There were such people in America, but many who reflected on tho situation to-day found that under the veneer of so-called Christian civilisation were many problems requiring to be solved.

The Racial Problem One of tho great problems to be solved in America, said Dr. Harlow, was tho racial one. Large communities representing all the great nations of Euroßp were represented in the United States. The American in New York could see largo number of Germans, even doing the goose-step. There were there more Hungarians than in any Hungarian city and more Jews than in Jerusalem. With all those racial and religious influences foreign policy was rendered complex. "We are in the melting pot in America and are trying to form all these peoplo together into an American ideal," Dr. Harlow continued. "This question of foreign policy is one of the tremendous questions facing us. In 1914 wo went out to make the world safe for democracy, and, some said, to secure Morgan's loans. It is even said that we are 400 per cent more militaristic in training than in 1917." Differences Between Groups

IhosG who were trving to find a solution to these problems and who wished to save democracy were sharply divided, continued the speaker. There were two divisions of isolationists, the selfish who advocated a large navv hehind which they could snelt.er, and those who were idealists and considered that as America had done all she could to assist the world she should now keep out. A third group, which was very strong, favoured collective security. They hated war and felt America should join, especially with Britain, in collective securitv.

"The fourth group, to which I belong," Dr. Harlow added, "regards isolation as impossible. Because of international trade and lor other reasons no nation can isolate itself. All did not want war. but they were not agreed as to tho ways and means by which war should be prevented. One tiling ol which 1 am certain is that we are too bound up with tho rest of the world to cut ourselves off." Dr. Harlow considered the Cordell Hull treaty programme a step in the right direction. He had brought about treaties with 16 different countries and there followed a less selfish attitude in trade relations with other countries.