NO LONGER POSSIBLE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 986, 31 May 1930, Page 29

NO LONGER POSSIBLE

AMERICA’S ISOLATION POLICY “POLITICAL FRONTIERS” Isolation of America from the rest of the world, either politically or economically, is impossible, in the opinion of Owen 1). Young, chairman of the Reparations Experts’ Commission. At. the 62nd anniversary of tlxe University of California, Mr. Young delivered his first extended address on international affairs since the drafting of the Young Plan. He declared that “we must go beyond political frontiers’’ to obtain tbe advantages of economic equilibrium and in the interests of world peace. Discussing the economic and political forces which bore upon the readjustment of the World War debt, Mr. Young declared that the settlement was the “best that could be male.” Strictly speaking, he said, it was “neither an economic settlement nor a political one; it was a compromise between the two.” The new plan, he continued, placed Ciermany in a free position. He had great confidence in her ability to pay, but that only time could tell whether or not the burden were too great. The Bank of International Settlements was the most striking feature of the new plan. It would be a great step in keeping economic machinery, and especially finance, free from political domination. This necessity had been clearly demonstrated by experiences during the last ten years. “Isolation of America, either, economic or political, is impossible,” he said. “The material development of countries will necessarily be to us a matter of great concern, both from an idealistic and practical point of view. It all peoples everywhere could be lifted in productive capacity and conjsuming power to a point equal to our own, envy and hatred would be alleviated: capital would be better em-

ployed; markets %ould be enlarged, unemployment would diminish, and a much more peaceful world would be insured. “Let no man think that the living standards of America can be permanently maintained at a measurably higher level than those of the other civilised countries. Either we shall lift theirs to ours or they will drag ours down to theirs. Tariffs and other petty political barriers, temporarily justifiable, will in the long run only accentuate the trouble.

“Our experience at home during the last generation should teach us that segregation into different groups for the selfish purpose of benefiting one at the expense of the other is a failure. It was not so many years ago that our industrial leaders in the United States thought that a low wage scale was necessary o enable capital to earn a profit. Now we have learned that a high wage scale may be consistent not only with low production costs, but also with the greatest security to and return on capital investment. “In a word, we are learning in America that the highest welfare of all rather than of any class is a wise objective, even for the group previously privileged.

“It is too late, in our own interest, to think in terms of selfish isolation. To secure the advantages of economic

equilibrium we must go beyond political frontiers. We may sign great declarations of peace, but we shall concurrently find, if we follow a narrow economic policy, an increasing resistance in countries less well off than ourselves to that disarmament which is the insurance of the peace we seek.”