The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 31, 1925, Page 7

“The idea becomes power when it pene- trates the masses.” -—Karl Marx. lican party in America was the result of the improvement in the eco- nomic situation which took placer last summer and autumn. This vic- tory in turn cause a further Improve- ment in the economic situation. An American journalist who belongs to the democratic, that is to the defeated party, wrote: “Our generation knows no other president in whom the finan- cial circles had such great confidence as they have in Coolidge.” The capitalist world is assured of a government which will be its blind tool. In order to gain an idea as to the industrial situation in America, we will quote the most important statis- tical figures. About 2 million shares of 555 industrial and commercial con- cerns change hands every day on the stock exchange. These are the high- est figures since 1896. The clearing- house figures in October reached 46 miiliard. doilars. This again is the highest sum since March 1920 We see along the whole line a reduction in the number of bankruptcies and an in creaged trade turn-over. The steel in- dustry, which on the Ist of July was working forty-six per cent under its normal capacity, has reduced his difference to fourteen per cent. The . By KARL RADEK HE election victory ot tne repub- price of steel is rising. seen fn the high price of corn, which in turn is due to the bad harvest in Canada and in Russia. The price of wheat has reached 1.62 dollars. The question has even been discussed in some newspapers, whether we are here confronted with a temporary overcoming of economic depression or with the commencement of a great industrial boom. A great quantity of the capital ac eumulated in America is not only seek- ing for new markets for the products of American industry, but also tor markets for the direct export of capi- tai. In the year 1923 London tssued securities to the value of 2 million gold roubles; thirty-eight per cent English, forty-one per cent colonial and twenty-one per cent foreign. Dur- i ’ exported capital to the value of 1200 million gold roubles. In the first ten months of 1924 London issued secur- ities to the vaine of 1400 million gold roubles; of these, 300 millton went abroad. During the same period New York issued securities to the value of 6 mililard roubles, of which more than 2 million went abroad. In the search for markets for the export of capital American finance capital has already left English capital behind. American Capital in Europe Another very import fact fs that this exported capital is not only tn the hands of a few bankers or finan- ciers, but that the loans find sub- scribers among the ranks of the petty and middle bourgeoisie. The Aus- trian loan, amounting to 50 milifon gold roubles, found 9,000 subscribers, the Japanese loan, amounting to 300 million gold roubles, 44,000 sub- scribers. The low rate of discount of the American banks has overcome the “fear of the unknown” existing among the middle and petty bour- geoisie; the latter are Investing lar- ger sums of money abroad every year. It is interesting to cast even a fleet High Price of Corn a Factor The cause for this revival is to be ing the year 1923 the United States | of Mr. Coolidge aside. The presi SPECIAL MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT THE DAILY WORKER, January 31, 1925, The World Situation at the Opening of the New Year ing glance at-the places to where American capital is being exported. During the first ten months of 1924 the United States lent (reckoned in gold roubles): 80 millions to Argen- tina, 300 millions to Japan, 60 mil- lions to Switzerland, 80 millions to Holland, to Czecho-Slovakia about 20 millions, to Hungary 18 millions, to Norway 50 millions, to Belgtum 60 mil!- lions, to Canada 280 millions, to Ger~ many 220 millions, to France 260 mti lions,—besides a whole number of taunicipal and private loans. It is not surprising, therefore, that Coolfdge, after his re-election, declared:“We can- not hope that we shall always remain an island of the blest whtcn will live apart from the rest of humanity. If we were unable to avoid partictpation in the war, with the causes of which we had nothing to do (!) how could we think of avoiding responsibility for other world questions which are to be solved in the atmosphere of peace ana goodwill?” England Exports Goods If-the question of capital export at present occupies the forefront -posi- tion in America, in England it is the question of the export of goods which is engaging the greatest attention. The statistician, Edgar Crammond, calculates in his recent work that, as 2 result of the war, the national tn- come of England has become consider- ably reduced and that from 1914 to the present day—if we take into consider- ation the reduced purcliusing power of money—it has fallen from 24 to 21 milliards (reckoned in roubles). The present national income is about equal to that of 1907. It is upon this reduced national income that there lies the heavy burden of the enor- mously increased national debts, with the result, that the budget has to be increased fourfold. In’ consequence of this England, who in the year 1907 was able to devote about twenty-four per cent of her national income for the extension of the influence of her capt- ‘ SECOND SECTION This magazine supple ment will appear every Saturday in The Daily Worker. China and to open the Russian mar- kets. And as the consolidation of the capitalist order in the whole world is equally necessary for the export of capital as for the export of goods, the whole of the year 1924 was charac- terized by the co-operation of England and America, Competition Between Both Countries The relative weakness of England in the sphere of capital-export, her close relations with the European mar- kets, is rousing great uneasiness among the English capitalists with re- gard to the difficulties which English capitalism will encounter in the event of the strengthening of German indus- try. Hence a number of” vital ques- tions regarding the reconstruction of capitalism assume another form to the United States than to England. These differences show the varying degree of interest which England and America have in the colonial questions. The Anglo-American co-operation, in spite of all the compliments of the English EVERY IMPERIALISM HAS ITS OWN PUPPET We will leave the “peace and good- uenit of America, who was returned to power with the aid of a party which in the year 1920 defeated Wilson un- der the slogan of isolation from the rest of the world, expresses in these words the fact that American capital has already penetrated tnto all coun- tries of the world to such an extent, that today it has become one of the most important factors in world poll- tics, The American newspapers are fuli of articles dealing with the trade of America with the whole worid, with the question of the export of capital und with all the conflicting questions of world politics. This is a complete change of front which only becomes intelligible when one has studied the attitude of America to world questions in the period from 1919 to 1922. The United States, after having protected her industries by enormously high tariff walls, is now Competing to an ever greater extent with all the other countries of the world, and for this purpose is employing her enormous accumulated capital, the export of which constituted nothing else than the powerful weapon of long term credits, which America had very un- willingly granted hitherto, tal at home and abroad, is now only, able to employ about ten per cent for this purpose. As English capital is not in a post tion to compete with America as re- gards the export of capital for the purpose of capturing markets, and as it does not possess such a big home market as America as would permit it to reduce the cost of productton, }and in addition is suffering from the industrializing of its own colonies, English capitalism is faced with far more serious difficulites than ts Amert- can capitalism. The above mentioned Mr. Crammond calculates that the share of England in the trode of the world increased in the ~period from 1912 to 1922 from 13.8 to 17.3 per cent. This increase in the share of England in the world’s trade (in the first place at the cost of Germany) does not, however, correspond to the inerease in the total sum of English trade. In 1922 it was 25 per cent lower than in 1912. The necessity for creating the pre-conditions for normal trade war the driving force which caused Eng- land to participate in the attempts to solve the reparation question. It is his also which is causing England to strive to restore a firm regime at all costs in her colonies, to “pacify” (By Moore in Moscow Pravda.) The U. S. Has Coolidge; England Its Baldwin; Germany Its Stresemann, statesmen to the United States, has not led to the disappearance of the profound antagonisms between these two powers. One must, however, for the time being reckon that the efforts —arising from the greater strength of American capital and from the deep crisis of English capitalism—to cre- ate tavorable conditions in shattered Europe, in the colonies and in the semi-colonial countries for the absorp- tion of goods and for the investment of capital, will not only lead for the time being to the solidarity of these powers against the Soviet Union, as well as agaiust the colonial and semi- colonial peoples, but also to the at- tempt to create favorable. pre-condi tions as quickly as possible for the penetraiion of English and American capital into these countries, American imperialism is striving to conquer the world; English {mperial- ism is striving to maintain its con- quests. A collision between these two will take place in the future. Today, however, they both require at all costs an extension of the world market. These efforts of the two imperialist powers constitute the most charac teristic feature of the international situation at the opening of the new year,