GETTING TOGETHER.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 May 1933, Page 6

GETTING TOGETHER.

On every hand the prospects for the economic conference which is to open in London next month are improving. It is not so much that definite agreements have been reached between the various Powers, but that an atmosphere of goodwill and of mutual assistance in a time of world-wide peril is being generated. Great Britain, the United States, France, Canada, and Italy are all finding in personal discussions between administrative leaders some common grounds for

action and co-operation. The most hopeful sign that the conversations are likely to produce definite results may be found in the request of the President of the United States that Congress invest him with power to lower tariffs if by such action trade with other countries can be stimulated. The request is an indication that the United States —or at least its Administration—has come to the conclusion that a policy of high protection may defeat itself. In no other country could such a fiscal policy have had a greater chance of success than in the United States. Ample raw material, a home market of over 120,000,000 people, and holding the largest supply of gold in the world. Yet the fiscal policy has broken down there as in other countries less self-sufficient in commodities or markets. If the United States is willing to reverse its policy it is assured of the support of Great Britain, and if the two great English-speaking countries determine upon co-operation in commercial affairs the. recovery of world economics can be' said to have begun. From the progress already made it looks as'though that recovery may not come with any dramatic change, but by the permeation of the new spirit of international cooperation. Recovery will be evolutionary rather than revolutionary, therefore be the less likely to be subject to violent fluctuations.