The Wanganui Chronicle. SATURDAY. NOVEMBER 15, 1930. AMERICA AND THE LEAGUE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 424, 15 November 1930, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle. SATURDAY. NOVEMBER 15, 1930. AMERICA AND THE LEAGUE

"THE pronouncement by President Hoover that “\\c believe 1 our contribution can best be made in these emergencies V. hen the nations fail to keep their undertakings of pacific settlement of disputes, by our good offices and helpfulness, free front any advance, commitment or entanglement, concerning the character of our nation,” is described by the Dominion as having in it “a smug suggestion of superiority that invites comment." The Wellington journal then proceeds to detail the repudiation of President Wilson's League policy, on which ticket the Republicans succeeded in gaining office, following up with a catalogue of America’s workings with the League, but still refraining from joining it.

The Dominion’s detailing of the facts is correct, but the facts fail to sustain the uncomplimentary charge of “smug superiority" because all the facts arc not taken into-considera-tion. No nation can be divorced from its previous histoiy. and consequently, in attempting to assess or to judge the mental attitude of the United States, its history must be taken into account, that is, assuming a proper and just assessment is to be made.

The history of the United States, which is another way of saving the experience of the American people, lias tan"! I them that their ends are served best by remaining free I'm.. "European entanglements.” During the War of Independence, Eranee and Holland and other enemies of Britain, did their best to keep the war alive. Rut when the war concluded these war-period creditor countries looked for a speedy payment of interest and principal. But peace brought an empty treasury. Loans were needed and commercial treaties were essential, while at the same time the individual States showed an ignoble contempt for national obligations. The thirteen States carried on a tariff . war against each other and the country which had vanquished Britain's might was reduced to penury. Barter became a common expedient. British hands held the shipping on which the raw material exporting South depended, and which the Noith resented. Such conditions invited foreign approaehments of the individual States, and had these been successful, then the Union wotdd have foundered.

Even after the Union had been brought into being. France conceived that her interest lay in a distracted League and the French party in the States brought forward the name ot. Benjamin Franklin for the Presidency, whose advanced age made him incoinpetant for the post: the idea of the promoters being that a weak President would ruin the Union.

The War of Independence and the subsequent conduct of European nations therefore started the United States off on its career with a. justified bias against European associations. Subsequently came waves of immigrants, from Germany, from Ireland. from Poland, and from Russia, fleeing from the tyranny of the older countries. These kept alive the isolationist idea. The American Civil War was fought under some fear of British intervention on behalf of the Southern Slave States. The economic factor also favoured the isolationist idea, lor right up to the war period American business was engaged in developing the internal market. With an historic bias at birth, fed by subsequent events, and aided by geographical isolation and economic self concentration until within the last decade, is it to be expected that the American people, so new to power, and so inexperienced in the use of imperial power, should hesitate to commit themselves to obligations which they but distantly apprehend'!

Britain has been a factor on the world stage lor centuries; she is accustomed to the possession of power and the exercise of power. America is an international novice. When it is recollected that experienced Great Britain thought long and seriiously before accepting the jurisdiction of the World Court at the Hague, it is hardly surprising that the inexperienced United States should still hesitate to enter the League of Nations. William Ewart Gladstone, in November, 1879, speaking on the principles of foreign policy, said, “My fourth principle is—■ Hit you should avoid needless and entangling engagements . . . . It comes to this, that you are increasing your engagements without increasing your strength; you really reduce the Empire and do not increase it. You render it less capable of performing its duties; you render it an inheritance less precious to hand on to future generations.” President Hoover stands where Gladstone stood fifty years ago, but in view of the differences in the history and circumstances of the two countries it is not surprising that the British viewpoint has become more international than Ims America’s. Instead, therefore, of being evidence of smug superiority, President Hoover’s remarks are more a confession of lack of confidence to tread the wider stage of the world. But. that confidence is fast coming.