ECONOMIC CRISIS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22835, 20 March 1936, Page 4

ECONOMIC CRISIS

PROBLEMS OF UNITED STATES POLICY OF ISOLATION GRADUALLY BEING ALTERED What the speaker described ns “ a thumbnail . sketch of American conditions ” was given at the Dunedin Rotary Club’s luncheon yesterday by the Rev. Dr Ernest Guthrie, a native of Dun-

edin now occupying the positions of general director of the Chicago Congregational Union and president of the Movement for World' Christianity. “ My first proposition,” said Dr Guth-

rie, “ would be that America is in the midst of a great economic crisis for which she is less prepared than any other part of the Anglo-Saxon world, including the British realm. We still have 10,000,000 people unemployed, we have 2,000,000 still on relief, and between 6,000,000 and 8,000,000 between the ages of 16 and 25 who have no constructive employment. We have a certain degree of recovery, but the position remains so grave as to raise the question whether the capitalistic society, at least in the' United States, is not seriously sick.” / To meet this, Dr Guthrie continued, the New Deal had been put forward to produce a balanced national economy, but this . had been shut out by the Supreme Court under the Constitution, and more recently the Agricultural Act had been dealt a severe blow. The principal distinction between President Roosevelt ' and President Hoover as leaders was. that Hoover had been concerned mainly with the industrial and commercial sections of the national life, but Roosevelt had included the agricultural section ns well. An attempt had been made to justify the Agricultural Act under the general welfare clause of the Constitution, and the blow which had been dealt to the Act had given rise to a tremendous scorn that an Act of such a nature and so essential to the new economy could be thus eliminated by a group of justices whose social views were not adequate to the situation. Thd upshot of it all was that there would have to be an amendment of the Constitution. President Roosevelt would not propose it until the elections were over because he knew the deep hostility , which it would arouse. Millions who had never read the Constitution now stood behind it as a shelter against bewildering Innovations and the tides of unrest that were running strongly through the national life. One of the reasons why the United States was unprepared for the crisis was the old individualistic philosophy upon which American industry and commerce had been built up. Another was the written constitution. If there was any. place in which the British system was better than the American it was in this. The constitution had been written for a small agricultural community and not to meet such a situation as the country faced to-day. A third reason was that the American people had very little capacity to think fundamentally on their own problems. > A rheumatism had got into the social mind and had made it .impossible for the people as a whole to deal with the situation in which they found themselves.

The Secretary of Agriculture (Mr H. A. 'Wallace) had consistently maintained, however, that America must either abolish the tariff and open itself to world trade in order to keep the national economy balanced or eet to work to establish a planned economy by which the balance could be maintained within the nation itself. There was a growing feeling among the thinking people of the United States that the whole question of the protective tariff must be searched to the foundation. Some said that the protective tariff was a dole given to the rich man for a reward and that this was a much larger thing than had been given to the unemployed in recent years. The real issue that would be fought out would be how to draw the line wisely between the public business carried on by the nation as a whole and the domain that was to be left free to private enterprise.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS In its international relations, Dr Guthrie stated, the United States was moving out of its traditional policy of isolation, but it was carrying immense hindering weights upon its back. The strength of the tie that bound the United States to other Anglo-Saxon countries had been made manifest in a striking fashion through the death of King George. The peoples of these countries had been mingled together as they had listened to the King’s Message at Christmas. There had been tears in the eyes of many Americans as they had felt the old bonds of kinship while the King and the father of his people spoke to the dominions. When the King died friends of the speaker travelling in the Rockies had sent him a telegram expressing their sympathy in his sorrow, which, they stated, they profoundly shared. It had been said of the new King that, had he run for President after his visit to the United States, he would have been elected.

The United States had an immense "alien” population, amounting to 75 per cent, in Chicago, but the AngloSaxon element was in a position of influence and authority. The bond of race would, pull the United States further than was, perhaps, now realised out of its traditional isolation. After discussing the recent neutrality legislation, Dr Guthrie- pointed out that America had now officially given up the traditional doctrine of the freedom of the seas and had said that it would not protect its citizens who traded with belligerents in war. The President, moreover, had been given powers which would enable American influence to be cast on the right side of a situation.

One of the forces that was pushing America out of her isolation was that the people were becoming aware of the whole world. There seemed at present to bo a dreadful ignorance geographically of the rest of the world, and lie had had difficulty in establishing the difference' between New Zealand and Australia in the minds of some people. America, despite its vast resources, was more dependent than she appeared to bo on the total production of the world. A thing that would probably draw America right out of its isolation the possibility of a conflict with, say, Japan. There had frequently been’occasions when one nation had had to stand for the whole world as Great Britain had done in the dispute between Italy and Abyssinia. If Japan went further in her encroachments in China it might be Russia’s turn to act for the whole world. A letter which lie had received from a competent observer in China stated that there was a general opinion that before many months it would lie impossible to avoid a great national conflict between Japan and China. If Japan struck at South America or other parts of the Pacific it might be that the United States would be involved for herself and for the whole world. He was not attempting to say that Japan, Italy and Germany must not be provided with the

opportunity for the expansion of their peoples under one of the unused articles of the covenant of the League of Nations. The United States had been preoccupied with the tremendous job of developing its own life, whereas in the British Empire everyone had been trained in world relationships. EDUCATION AND RELIGION In the course of a brief reference to ‘education Dr Guthrie indicated tiiat he believed the products of the American system to he worthy of the highest respect. The criticism had been expressed that American education was too practical but the problems of New Zealand and America were, he believed, largely the same. Turning to religion, Dr Guthrie stated that lie was working with others in the direction of the unification of the churches, making religion and the Church not simply a private affair, lint a great public concern. The Christian Church knew that it had a great public business in the world to-day. It might be that the Christian Church and other churches in the same general group might he the only effective force standing against the Fascist totalitarian State and Bolshevism, which said, “You are ours in body, mind and spirit and are no'longer free.” In Germany the Church had been the only body able to resist the power of the totalitarian State. Those forces might yet enter Anglo-Saxon countries, and religious leadership might have to put itself on record as to where it would stand if the issue came.