AMERICAN TRENDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23221, 19 June 1937, Page 17

AMERICAN TRENDS

MANY RECENT CHANGES ROOSEVELT ADMINISTRATION ADMIRATION FOR BRITAIN Recent changes in the United States, including social legislation of the Roosevelt regime and a growing appreciation of the importance of sound international relations, were reviewed by Mr J. Henry Lang, a _ New Zealander who has been living in the United States for 15 years, in an address to members of the Auckland Rotary Club. , , “New Zealand, in social legislation, Is far ahead of America,” Mr Lang said. In the United States there was no unemployment insurance until this year| nor had there been any schema of old-age pensions until the introduction of the Security Act. The reaction of business in America to the large social programme that the Roosevelt Administration was carrying out seemed similar to the reaction of New Zealand business to the present Government’s programme. SUPPORT FOR PRESIDENT “Big business is not too happy to have to carry the extra tax, but the President has the backing of the great mass of the people,” he continued. When Mr Roosevelt took office in 19AJ America was perilously near a panic, the situation generally being most critical. To-day things were entirely different, with unemployment reduced by 30 per cent., high prices for grain, increased wages, and business moving upward. How much was permanent gain, however, and how much was due to the Government’s vast expenditure, was a moot point on which experts differed. „ . Business men generally expressed the opinion that things would be satisfactory if there was not too much interference by the Government. In this respect business leaders of the United States and New Zealand seemed to be thinking alike. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS America was showing increased recognition of the importance of good international relations, he said, and there were many indications that the President was alive to this. He was for peace, though not for peace at any price. America was definitely opposed to the autocratic dictatorships such as those existing in Germany and Italy, and was in sympathy with Britain and other democratic countries. Although the Monroe Doctrine was the cardinal doctrine of America’s foreign policy, there was almost > complete agreement with British ideals and policy among the Anglo-Saxon section of America’s population, and there was a growing realisation of the need for greater co-operation and understanding between _ the two great Englishspeaking nations.