Evening Star Newspaper, August 2, 1925, Page 37

Il EDITORIAL PAGE NATIONAL PROBLEMS SPECIAL EEATURES . Part 2—16 Pages he Sunday FRANCE MEANS TO PAY WAR DEBT TO AMERICA ot Willing to Make Payment and Hopes to Scale Amount, But Now Realizes Necessit) BY SHE ARIS. left ¥rench at the France’s war point the willingness DON S. CLIN In last week's article l‘ discussion debt to America of considering | intention to y We had gone over the grounds of unwillingness to ly r a And very as the I the other would not 1 by an { of ng wi oura ing there may le, the ica is On hand nes to be. n wuch ench see it. preciude intention to debt T “*dead horse, likely 1siderable the matter of its French of will arily tion to pay. nd either whatever inten ¥ hake: llingness to pa think the professi when the time & numbei 1ck a sincere nch government to pay nerican government e, tire fabric of ation of would be a_disaster could not afford—: perhaps, than was t Not only would mercial ait 14 da ade. ut sible for her 1l over ing port the Fran everywt inst the da fear lieve certain to come when Germany will launch a war of revenge, and in- | telligent Frenchmen know it would be suicidal to cut off the hope of finan- America. 1 think their professions of in- their debt to America 1 support from fore tention to pay may be accepted at ast a lot of ial volu behind such tal not to predicate their attitude | & ce upon the outputtings T We have politi- e type v to of noisy sincere—if and that intention r of of whic greater disaster, he war it utterly France nage to her hopes.of it would make it to borrow d in the event of anc of another wa e like a pall. Fren their It is true there has been in talk about iation, but there was only an in- of public opin- k. at d e ese political tends to but it intend: every pos: ning payments. en a lot of begi: Iy b o 1ccount, mean. Nothing to Be Audited. When a man goes to his bank and giving e for cash or vthing to audit as be- k and the bor s to the amount of the And I never negotiates hand in excha there isn't ar the bar cept possit notes held by the bank a loan rdly France w the purchases it can Trez were made cific: the wa statement which the as to money What sort of a reception would a bor- he went to his that n becat sely le to believe that nch governmen h such -r get if with a suggestion should be scaled do sed the money It is not re this is what has in minc tk thot cem i Dl It more as to w n nment has lqui- sented by holds F: s receipt in connection iled evers d with brin France Ame; ch presente s still ¢ Government dig up some such bills, likely they will \merican Debt to accept them troops were in government was bills for every service, and the ment paid cash over late_day end of the nal charge They m: he forth add Loans to Lesser Allies. claim ought to be given credit for the sums | | lesser Another French she loaned to the which she has not These loans a 908,500, not c est has not heen there never has among European rate of interest war lc It Amer nd Great rccept the French scale their claims portionately it 1w substantial France's debt accept any That pi axplored and reached. This latest et {s merely w reviv tentions in the now f: note, which were so nloded that even the been iting been uin d But such an four nete contended th: of the British bol wa for the at Britain to other allies. stated explicitly N allies were to spend was only upon Bri the United States lend it. tha Nothing could be farther from the beginning the truth. At the very U'nited States Treasury proposition that loans would be made | Frenchmen. i to each of the allies in proportion pay on he total of Fra United States Treas be possible that ) g0 back made with money borrowed from the Ameri- At the time the loans rreasury officia take respon ases, contenting ves with requiring only a general | Funding When France prompt _t conceivable Amer the counte: now \lljes ns should bear. Britain would contention reduction in Americ offsettin »position has been thoroughly irrevocable decision to e doll There has late- talk in Paris about the necessity of “auditing” the Ameri- whatever hi rai: it pur| s to Yike it by a sugge Ame rican there is the sug- bills a considerable sum from the American be but it is hardly be able to get the Commission ay th o war, 1s ble ount all told to $2,7 interest. puted an agreement as st F ma ench claim to an off. al of amo: effect London Fcono- mist conceded their fallz £ at owing in America purpose make 1o In fact, the Balfour note of t th ates insisted that, though the other the h security was prepared to what I intention people and their their debt to the In the Frenchmen know that the en international would break down following a repudi international debts. She is look- re for assurance of sup- judged upon the debt get it scaled that an the totat of 1 its requirements, without regard | political considerations and with regard to the credit of the bor-| rowing nations. So s getting advances from the American Treas- ury was concerned, the credit of the weakest of the allles was just as good as that of the strongest. Helped Keep Prices Down. It is true that some confusion was caused by the necessity of co-ordinat- |ing purchases, in order to prevent |the allies from bidding against each | {other for American goods, and thus| running prices up, but this was ad-| justed by what was known as the| “dollar reimbursement” plan, and| wh the books were closed the| United States Treasury held the de-| mand notes of each government fin| the exact amount of the credits that had been established in behalf of that government. No ally had given guar- antee.for a dollar of the borrowings of another ally. 2 There was just one exception to this rule, which requires to be ex- plained. Before the United States entered the war Great Britain had |gone surety for certain supplies re- quired by Russia, as Russian credit at time was not good with| | American commercial interests. After €OM- | the collapse of Russia Great Britain | be-|found herself obligated to make pay-| the [ ;ents on these contracts, and she| borrowed the money from the United | the I States Treasury to meet them. Thel first lamount involved was relatively insig- nificant, and Great Britain in large part recouped herself by utilizipg the Russian supplies. This minor item is all the basis there ever was to the oft repeated and still repeated as- sertion that the stronger allles used their credit to borrow money from the American Government for use of the weaker allies. Had to Have Dollar Credits. It is clear, therefore, that this; latest French offset claim is not like- | Iy to get serious consideration at Washington. Asa matter of fact, the| e e SWP [loans made by Great Britain and France to the other allies were mere- carrying out a general agreement that each of the nations at war against Germany would provide the | credits for the supplies they were| called upon to furnish associates in| the war, and if Great Britain and France had made no loans at all to the lesser allies they still would have | had to borrow from the American| Treasury, for there was no other way | they could have gotten the necessary | credits for the supplies they had to have from the United States. | In this connection it is worthy of | note that there was just one countr: which did not take advantage of thi: arrangement for the mutual supplying | of credit, and that country was the| United States. The American Govern- ment made loans to 19 different gov- ernments which had declared war against Germany, to a total of more than $10,000,000,000, but did not ask| reciprocal loans of a single dollar from any one of these countries. While American taxpayers and Liberty bond buyers were providing the money | which enabled their Government to | lend these $10,000,000,000 to the al-| | to to out of the y the France to pay does eaches the we v to en amount debt to “dead ingness to be accom- The inevitably support: n of nce, con- no secret But it y—and I very on credit This ch France itself. ruin the and | T y ! money er war. hangs There- full face Americans | home, and | | not want | vaporings 0 lar before may lies, they were at the same time pro viding the money which enabled the American Government to pay spot cash for all its requirements in allied | countries. When it is known that | these. dollar disbursements, in ex- change for foreign “currencies alone, amounted to $452,000,000 in the case of Great Britain and $1,026,000,000 in the case of France, it is rather difficult to see where the United States tried to take any financlal advantages of its assoclates in the war. A Question of Taxations. Another offset claim which is made France—the jdea having been. first dvanced by former Finance Minister | Clementel—is that the United States collected large sums in taxes by of the expenditures made by France | within its borders, and that the total | of these taxes should be deducted from the 'rench debt. That argument is so fallacious that it would seem to car its own refutation, but that it is given credence in France is a fair index 1" | to the bewilderment of thinking wh an inter-|;micts the French people. It is on “"“‘“‘ I{par with the contention that there | that 21 should be offsets because the bulk of (audit’| the money France borrowed in the bt | United States was spent th for | American goods at high pri or! course it is true that the mone: spent there for American gc high prices, just as prices were high all over the world, and that the spend- | fhg of it enabled the American Gov ernment to collect additional taxes and the American people to buy additional | Liberty bonds. How else could the | American Government have loaned the allies $10,000,000,000?7 Had been American gold, instead of Amer- fean goods, the allies were in fact bor- rowing, the loans could have amount- | ed is note of credit, ower, ex- sed as to et b; poses _for | be used banker his loans ise he had | rican France therefor, Army to were not able to American e French present been sort of no more gold in could not have amounted to any thing like such a sum. Hopes to Scale Debt. It ears bring six to merely to show that while I believe France intends ultimately to pay its| debt to America, it -doesn't intend to | y the full amount of the debt if by and| any possible means America can be persuaded to scale the total down. Perhaps we should not judge France too harshly on this account. There is an American slang saving that yon that she allies to collect Inter hecause | United States Commissioner of Reclamation. gates of the Zionist movement about | | to meet in Vienna invites attention to {2 most interesting experiment in na tional Large sections of the Holy Land, the | goal of Zionist effort, are undergoing |a remarkable transformation, which | has led to the rise of numérous agri- cultural sltes which were formerly swamps or sandy wastes. most of which have come from Ame: {ica through the Palestine Foundation { Fund, but even larger funds will have | I to be expended for works of reclama- ! tion and colonization aim Is to be a neglect and abuses. been cut down, the rains have carried | | the rich soil of its hillsides into the swampy | choked. | wretched livelihood by primitive meth | ods of cultivation, but enough for him will not satisfy the | Jew nomic and cultural standards. | plished to make traveling through the open country it| affording continual contrast and sur-. prise. cession of Arab villages, groups of windowless mud huts with- the outside to not more than |out bush or shade to soften the glar- $3.000,000,000. Then there would have | ing sunlight and heat of midsummer. America to | There Govern. | 1end: As & matter of practical finance, | Shepherds wandering over the hills, = leading their little bands of sheep or | goats, women carrying goatskin bags | fo I mention these French offset claims | O years. | planted on the Plain of the Sea, in the | Valley of Jezreel and elsewhere, form |a striking contrast to the primitive { Arab villages, where the humans and j their beas | same roof. WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, AUGUST tae <y 1925. United States Is Trying to Escape Clutches of British Rubber Monopoly BY G. GOULD LINCOLN. HAT price rubber e The question is becoming increas- ingly important to the American manufacturer and to the American consuming public. The price of rub- ber has mounted since November, 1 when the restriction of production in the Brtish col- onies of the Middle East became effective, until recently it has pa a dollar @ pound and at one time touched §1.20. During the World war, when, the demand for rubber was great, prices went skyrocketing, and the dollar mark was passed. But ini the period of depression which came in 1920 and there- after prices fell as low as 11.5 cents per pound. Now there is no war, but the prices are higher than ever, and the American manufacturer and the American consumer are stirring uneasily. There is every reason théy should. America consumes about 75 per cent of the world’s pro- duction of rubber. All of the rubber used here is imported, and by far the greater portion of it from the British colonies. Almost a British Monopoly. t, the British have what amounts prac- Iy to a monopoly in the crude rubber busi- Just at present they are taking advantage this monopoly to screw out of the con- sumers of rubber in this and other countries dollar possible. When rubber was at a low ebb, due to large production and comparatively small demand use business generally had fallen off, the British colonial government devised a plan to bring back the price of rubber and, as they put it, to save the industry from destruction. This plan was an export tax, designed to re- strict production to not more than 60 per cent of the production of 1920. This piece of colonal legislation is known as the Stevenson act. It has been tremendously effective. It could have been effective only in a case where a monopoly existed. The American manufacturers of rubber goods not long since presented to the State Depart- ment a request that the British colonial gov- ernment increase the quota allowed the Brit- ish rubber planters for export during the quar- ter beginning yesterday. And acting under in- structions of the State Department, the Ameri- can Ambassador to Great Britain. Alanson B. Houghton, presented the request to the foreign secretary,” Mr. Chamberlain. He in turn re- ferred it to the colonial office, where it was given consideration. Grants 10 Per Cent Increase. Yesterday the cabled word was received in this country that the British colonfal office had decided to permit the export of 75 per cent of the rubber production of 1920 in Ceylon and the Straits Settlements, at a minimum duty. This is an increase of 10 per cent over the ex- ports allowed during the last quarter. It will ease the situation, but it is not as great a con- cession as was hoped for by the American manufacturer The protest by the American manufacturers was a step designed to meet the immediate situation and to ameliorate conditions for the manufacturer of rubber goods and the con- sumers thereof. Americans have seen the prices of automobile tires mount steadily in the last vear, without really understanding just what it was all about. But now they are beginning seriously to want to know. The contention of the British has been that the rubber plantations must be saved from bankruptey: that when the restrictive legisla- tion went into effect the price of rubber was I THOUSAND YEARS OF CONTRAST - IS SEEN TODAY IN PALESTINE Reclamation of the Holy Land Placing Comforts of ‘Meodern Civilization Alongside Primitive Con- ditions in Which Arabs Live. BY DR. ELW0OD MEAD, Needles: The international congress of dele. 2o up. and physical reclamation. and town settlements on tivation on The work has required large fund: of rural | adorned if the Zionist|ago. complished. uffering from ages of Its forests have | Palestine is valleys and many of its waadys” or brooks have become sand- The native Arab ekes out a | what is good who returns with modern eco- rent polar Enough has already been accom- of absorbing interest, The old Palestine Is a suc- which are are a few cactus fences. water for household purposes from nt wells, furnish a picture of life s the Arab has lived it for a thousand Jewish _settlements The already North Pole. of burden live under the It is the 20th century and can’t blame a fellow for trving, and France probably feels justified in tr; ing every device. The polnt Is that Americans should be on their guard against French propaganda in the matter of offset claims. It is as right as it is necessary that Americans should hear the French arguments and get the French viewpoint, but it is not right that they should reach conclusions based upon ex parte state- ments. The sensible thing for Amer- icans to do is to hear the French] arguments and then find out what the American answer is before making up their minds. If the French have any,arguments that we cannot ef- fectively answer, then, by all means, The Bal-|let us give them the benefit of such rge part|arguments in effecting a settlement of the debt problem. ince being in France I am a great dezl less inclined to criticize the Freach for their attitude toward the debt than I was when I left home. 1 find here Americans who are not only willing to accept all the French argu- ments but who are eager to provide the French with arguments they had not thought of on their own account. They are more pro-French than the French themselves and more anti- American than - the most rabid . of In_the hope of ingrati- (Contigued on Third Page.) to what and nce pro- a very will not claim. the con Balfour tive enabling ns to the | e United money, it that down the !Pmssiaus Wage War has undertaken against obscene books and pictures." It has been decided that the sale of peri- odicals that publish offensive writings or pictures will be prohibited-{rr pub- lic places for three months for the first offense and six months for eath subsequent offense. The effect of the, cambaign is problematical. Two years ago the Berlin City Council had a different |brought an evil book to a central office eould receive for it a readable | volume of hofer Field a great bonfire of worth- less or harmful literature attracted several thousand spectators and con- sumed 40,000 volumes. Two months later things were as before. feared in Germany that behind the new campaign may be an attempt to sttack radical and democratic publi- cations for the benefit of the con- servatives. country -are employed _ of coal in Pennsylvgoia, _ On Lewd Literature Prussia’s miristry of the interior a new campaign after . him, still Parry, scheme. Any one who | ¢ted East. worth. And on Tempel- agers. 1t is school. B Half of the explosives used in this | the 10th century to say, where the Arabs are fortunate enough to have the Jews | | as their close neighbors, the former| learn a great deal and their standards | While the regeneration of rural life now going on will only provide homes | for a limited number of people, what has already been done shows that the fertility of the valleys has not been | destroyed; that, when irrigated, they can produce nearly evervthing most desired by civilized peopie, and that with the deveiopment of skill in cul- the part of the Jewish people these valley: dense population, with a high average of human comfort, and create scenes beauty the Holy (Copyright. BY VILHJALMUR STEF A Under the publicity spell of the cur- expeditions seems now more or less interested in Arctic fiying. As to purpose, two kinds of fiving are being discussed—(1) to explore and (2) to cross the Arctic, so as to estab- lish new, shorter and perhaps easier flying routes for mail and passengers between such centers of population as London and Tokio. New York and Cal- cutta or Winnipeg and Tomsk, for the shortest and (some say) the best air routes -between these and many other places run east and west. It is not possible to settle to please everybody the question of who first proposed these two kinds of flying, but the first plan for Arctic explora- _tion by airplane to be widely and seri- vusly = discussed was advanced by Peary shortly after he returned in 1909 from his pioneer visit to the Short Route to Cathay. In the days of the Elizabethan voy-| agers no one thought much of study- ing the Arctic. route to Cathay. small heed to he passed up the river now named which he hoped might prove a gateway to China. He was searching for a route to the Orient. 'when, a few years later, he visited 'Spitzbergen and discovered Hudson Bay. So it was with Barentz, Franklin and the rest. matter what else they found. they were considered to have .falled be- cause they discovered mew territo- ries instead of new roads to the cov- But now their failure by sea is about to be turned into suc- cess by air, for the slogan of ‘‘New Roads to Cathay’” summarizes all the purposes of those who now fly across the Arctic. of thought and action are the spiritual descendants of the Elizabethan voy- But those who want .to fly into the Arctic to discover something or establish a -record and then fly out again_ belong in thought After the colessal failure of Sir John Franklin, who lost his own life and that of every man who was ‘with. him..the commercial pi the safer and more -effectiy in.the mining | gave--up the - hope of: & k- = = mtthflxheln?q-usl.vjmmm ~a e, (CoRyTAERS, 10860, 4 SIRada below the costjof production. The American manufacturers now insist that the price has been brought far above the cost of production —which it has—and that a continuance of the restrictive measures only operates to exact millions upon millions of dollars from the American manufacturers and consumers, ,part of which goes into the pockets of the British producers and part into the coffers of Great Britain. Such legislation they regard as un- friendly, and responsible for exactions far be- yond a fair return on the investment of money. Boiled down, Uncle Sam is compelled to pay exorbitantly for a product that has become vitally necessary in the modern industry and life of the country, simply because the British have what amounts to a monopoly of the pro- duction, and the United States has no rubber production. The proper answer is for Uncle Sam to pro- duce rubber of his own, either in territory be- longing to the United States or in countries of fitting climate nearer the United States than the Middle East. It may be that if the United States can demonstrate to the British that it can go ahead with such production, that threat will be sufficlent to bring about a better state of affairs. But on the other hand, there is every reason why this country should establish, if possible, sources of supply of rubber which are distinctly American. Rubber is a great essentlal when it comes to national defense. In time of emergency, too, the American in- dustries which are dependent upon rubber should not be shut off from the source of sup- ply_and compelled to shut down. Two departments of the United States Gov- ernment, acting under authority of law, today are studving the problem, seeking to determine how Uncle Sam can have a source of supply of rubber of his own, or in some of the Latin American countries. They are the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Com- merce. The production of commercal rubber, however, is not a matter of overnight. It re. quires from 4 to 6 years for a rubber tree to begin to yield, and its maximum yield does not come until it is from 10 to 12 years old. Rubber From Other Plants. The Department of Agriculture is proceeding along two lines in its investigations. First, it is attempting to learn where and how in American territory, North and Central, it may be possible for the successful plantation and growth of the Para rubber tree (Hevea brasilien- s), which is the rubber tree now used for commercial production of rubber in the great plantations of the Middle East—Ceylon, India and Burma, Malaya, North Borneo, French Indo-China and Netherlands India. Second, it is seeking to learn what other plants contain ing rubber, of which there are not a few—may be used for the commercial production of rubber and whether these plants may be grown in parts of the United States, in the Canal Zone or other territory belonging to the United States. The Philippine Islands, where some rubber plantations already exist, may become a great source of supply, it is believed. In- deed, a study of the Philippine Islands im this connection has already been made by the. De- partment of Commerce and a report is soom to_be published. In a measure the situation with regard to the production and consumption of sugar in the Napoleonic era is analagous to the rubber situation of today. In those days, more than a hundred years ago, cane sugar was the great source of supply, and cane sugar was confined in large pari to the West Indies just the rubber production now largel Iving side by side. Secretary, Pl < N. C., October 5-10. movement, it Is, nificant until after 1900. will support a like those which Land 2,000 years 1925.) UTURE ARCTIC EXPLORATION BY AIRPLANE OR DIRIGIBLE NSSON. was 75 years ago. everybody somebody else. poses. latter school. dirigible. plorers themselves are Nansen’s and my own. M lived by hunting. They wanted a short Henry Hudson gave Manhattan Island as occasionally for No establish practical ways to the Oriént. fiving the t to These ploneers cated the airp! I troubles, or B This doew St mean. it to a later ‘route| is avatlable. e BY HOWARD S. BRAUCHER, nd and Reereation Asso- on of America. A quarter century's growth of pub- lic play will be celebrated when dele- gates from all parts of the United States and from Canada assemble for the Recreation Congress at Asheville, Just 26 years ago Joseph Lee e tablished one of the first modern play- grounds in the City of Boston. that was not the beginning of the play nevertheless, that the movement did not become sig- Theodore Roosevelt, himself always a vigorous exponent of the outdoor play gospel, not only gave a good ex- ample to the American people In his own active play life, but also boosted the young recreation movement by perforce, to sail east and west. That Since then explor- ers have gone north to see what they could find or else bring back (truthful) records of having gone farther than Many combined pur- Those fiyers who now plan not to cross the Arctie, but to dash in and out again, are followers of this Divided as to Method. As to the manner of flying there are also twe schools—those who favor the airplane and those who favor the In opinion the Arctic ex- cording to their experience. are living now members of only two expeditions that have spent long pe- riods in the Arctic far from :land— lived on a ship frozen fast among. the floes and drifting with them. men camped on the drifting ice and This gave Nansen's party and ours a chance to study Arctic sea ice and weather . which others have not had. At any rate, Nansen favors dirigibles and has an- nounced an.expedition-in 1927 which will, not dash into the Arctic nor even across it, byt will cruise lefsurely over and back, crossing in many di- rectlons, hovering and. circling where it likes ‘and coming back to the base anything needed. Going on the same experience, my book published in 1922 explains, just as Nansen now does, how this can and will-be done and why it is so emt nently well worth doing—to dispel the bogy of the terrible Arctic and to commercial air- It will mark an epoch in the thinking of the world ‘when we realize that we can go north to China, that the: Chinese can come zams way to-us and that the air route m New York to Pe- king is much shorter in that direction than if we flew by way of Seattle. Of those explorers who have advo- ine Amundsen has been converted to the dirigible by his S0 say the dis- Arctic. It means only that the bother and risk seem hardly justified when dirigible comes from the East Indies. Sugar was be- coming a staple, an essential in the life of the world, just us. rubber is today. During the Napoleonic wars France and much of ‘Europe were shut off from the supply of cane sugar, and Napoelon encouraged the growth of the sugar beet. The beet became the solution of the \cane sugar monopoly. 1f the Department of Agriculture, through its experiments, can find a plant from which rubber can be.readfly produced, and develop a method of production which can be substituted for the Para rubber tree outside of the Middle East, or to find found in American territory, perhaps the rub- ber monopoly will be smashed as effectively as was that of cane sugar. In Danger From Pests. Still another reason exists for this attempt on the Department of Agriculture to find suit- able areas for the growth of the Para rubber tree outside of the Middle East, or to find other rubber-bearing plants. History has shown the disasters which pests—plant diseases or in- sects—have wrought on agricultural crops. Should a pest descend upon the rubber plan- tations of the Middle East the great source of supply might be tremendously curtailed or even wiped out. The Department of Agriculture has sent an expedition to the Amazon valley to obtain defi- nite data for comparing the conditions of pro- duction and methods of extraction applied to the wild rubber trees with those of the East Indian plantations. The Amazon valley is the original habitat of the Para rubber tree. Experi- ments are being conducted by the department in the dry regions of Texas, Arizona and Cali- fornia, where several other plants containing rubber or related substances of value in rub- ber manufacture are found. The department also 1s looking into the possibility of rubber plantations in Florida, where there are large areas of unused land. In Haiti, too, where rub- ber-producing trees were planted 20 years ago and are being used for shade in a cocoa plantation, investigations are under way to de- termine the possibilities of commercial produc- tion of rubber. The American rubber manufacturers are making plans to protect themselves from the British monopoly. Some of them are negotiating for a large tract of land in Liberia. It is hoped that they will have a million acres planted there, or in Brazil, or the Philippines, within a comparatively short time. The Brazilian gov- ernment is making liberal inducements to rub- ber interests to start plantations there. Rubber From the Philippines. Already more than 100,000 trees are being tap- ped for rubber on Basilian Island, in the Philip- pines, and a high-grade of rubber is being produced. Thousands of square miles capable of growing rubber trees are available on these islands. Rubber trees in great numbers today are growing wild on the Island of Mindanao. Indeed, the Philippine Islands may prove the solution in large part of the rubber problem, so far as the United States is concerned. The Rubber Association of America, at a meeting in June, in Akron, Ohio, decided to open negotiations with the Dutch government in an effort to increase Dutch rubber produc tion and planting in the Dutch East Indles, in order to gain relief from the Brtish monopoly. It has been learned, however, that British in terests have bought up a large proportion of the production of the Dutch plantations, which would prevent much immediate relief from this_source. 2 (Continued on Third Pag AMERICAN PEOPLE LEARNING HOW TO UTILIZE PLAYTIME| Movement to Promote Adequate Facilities for Out- door Recreation Has Made Marvelous Strides in Last Quarter of a Century. | becoming honorary president of the tion of America when it was founded {in Washington in 1906. Roosevelt maintatned that office until his death. Only 41 citles boasted organized play- grounds in 1906. recreation facilitles under leadership, 300 of them with vear-round programs. Cities in the country invested more than $20,000,000 in organized recrea- tion last year. What was originally a movement for children’s Summer playgrounds, starting humbly in 1885 in a sand gar- ‘While true ably into a broad leisure-time program, including activities for all seasons and for people of all ages. Citles that 25 or 30 years ago were immersed in selfish industrialism now' look with pride upon their athletic fields, swim- ming pools, community centers, parks, bathing beaches and other facilities and on their programs of recreation conducted by able leaders. The “plus” city of today is a com- munity made truly livable by whole- Commerce publication in Chicago t a vote on the “seven Wond?ma"‘onf ggt metropolis, the returns showed that the parks, playgrounds, = bathing beaches and forest preserves of the clty were the most popular ‘won. ders.” TIts recreation facilities and play leadership are one of the best advertising assets Chicago possesses. and are dear to the hearts of its cltl- More than 5,000 ore than 8,000 separate pla: ters, of which 635 wera new in 1524 4,865 tennis_courts, 131 public golf courses, 33,051 teams of amateur ath- letes, 15,871 leaders of recreation, 2,522 base ball fields and other im. divided oo.| Pressive figures show the way in There | ,ublic recreation. The sanction and aid of the Federal and State governments are shown in the opening of parks and forests for recreational purposes and in the pres- ent movement to increase the Na- tion’s outdoor playgrounds. Upon this whole vigorous recreation movement President Coolidge placed his own hearty sanction when he said: “T want to see all Americans have a reason- able amount of leisure. Then I ‘want to see' them educated to use such lelsure for their own enjoyment and | betterment and the strengthening of the quality of their citizenship.” And in these words he gave the su- preme justification for the recreation movement as it has arisen and flour- ished in the last 25 vears, namely, that wholesome play promotes good citizenship by’ developing strong, vigorous bodles, bullding character and releasing creative energies, nsen’s men Our Sees Age of Science. Prof. A. M. Low, famous sciéntist, asserts that in all probability the man of the future will not have to shave and will most likely be bald. But that ;u not all. orecasts are the following: Women will wear trousers. Incubators on the hire system will solve the difficulty of rearing children. Prettiness in women will be a drug on the market and national birth control will free women for education. Foods will come from communal kitchens in tubes. Com- plete triumph of radio communication in every department in life. Prof. w is ‘very sure of it all. And he now much can- ne in the v { | den in Boston. has expanded remark- | | Polish corridor, | some recreation. When & Chamber of | Which American cities are fostering |any one of these divergencies of na- Among Prof. Low's genial | ANNIVERSARY OF WAR SEES EUROPE NEAR PEACE Past Twelve Months Found Powers Set- tling Down to Maintenance of Neces- sary Amicable Relations. _BY FRANK ‘H. SIMONDS. HIS week marks the period of what must hereafter re- main one of the great anni- versaries of human history. Between August 1 and the night of August § there were exchanged those declarations of war which ushered in the world catastrophy. But if it is inevitable that the future will look at the dates for their warlike signifi- cance, it 18 no less patent that for those who live through this time the one thing which the recurrence of the dates must suggest is the compari- son of eonditions at the beginning and at the end of another annual period; they will inquire, in a word, how far another vear has enabled them to escape from the evil consequences of the struggle. When, moreover, one reviews the current year, contrasting it with those which have preceded, the first and the undeniable circumstance to be noted must be that this latest vear has been on every side the best and the most promising since the outbreak of the supreme struggle. It began on the high note of the London conference wherein Europe met to settle the economic phases of peace. It ends at the moment when, while the allled troops are retiring from the Ruhr, France and Germany are carrving on conversations which at least hold out the promise of some adjustment of political differences which are centuries old, an adjustment which may have something of the resonableness of the Dawes plan. Past Year Tranquil. In fact, what one may say of the past 12 months, the time which lies between the tenth and eleventh anni versaries of the outbreak of the World War, is that we have lived through | what may be described as the first vear which was not filled with crises and marked by very farreaching verils. If it is too much to say that we have yet regained the tranquillity of prewar years, it is no less clear that nothing in post-war history com- pares with the last vear. Moreover, in almost every country domestic polit ical issues have pushed foreign and international relations out of the forefront of discussion and interest. Perhaps it would not be an exag- geration to say that at last we are beginning again to get used to peace, Just as for the years of the war and the crowded and fateful years which immediately followed the peace con- ference in Paris we bhecame accus- tomed to war. At last we have learned to take boishevism calmly, in so far as it may be regarded as an imminent peril to the whole fabric of our national existences, and we have become accustomed to the idea of a peaceful Germany and even a peaceful Europe. More than all, vaguely but not less certainly, the past vear has seen de- velop the conaclousness that Europe, if not the world, is on the edge of a new period. Having lived for a time as long as the existence of the Napoleonic empire, for a time equal to that which separates the crown- ing of Napoleon to Waterloo, in an era of equal tumult and upheaval, with actual wars or prospective wars, battles, sleges and sudden death, the | normal circumstances of existence, at last we enter a period when no great war {mpends and when the nations |, most concerned in the last are no longer threatening new conflicts. but Playground and Recreation Associa.| Se€king to lquidate old hostilities. No Prospect of War. For the first time in 11 years it is now possible to forecast with some Today there are 711 | measure of certitude that there is no | which report playgrounds and other | Prospect of any collision between great powers discoverable upon the horizon. It is true that Europe faces a dozen problems, any one of which may in the long run precipitate a new war. The liquidation of the last conflict has done nothing to lessen the possibility of new conflicts, since it has not and could not abolish such issues as those arising out of the the titles to Bes. sarabia, to Macedonia, to the Upper Tyrol and to Upper Silesia. We still have with us the old Balkans and the new and similar dangers growing out of the liberation of other races along all the eastern marches from Finland to_Thrace. But uncomfortable and ultimately disturbing as these questions may be- colne, they carry no threat to general peace in any immediate future. Eu- rope has, it may be conjectured with a degree of safety. a full generation of peace before it. a span equal to that which separates Waterioo from Novara. Manifestly, if no way can be found to reconcile Polish and Ger- man views as to the Polish corridor and Upper Silesia, Polish and Lithu- anian aspirations in Vilna, Russian and Rumanian rivalries in Bessarabia, the dispute between Hungary and the succession states as to the old lands of the crown of St. Stephen now in- cluded with Rumanian, Jugoslav and Czechoslovak frontiers, to accom- modate Rumanian and Bulgarian claims in the Dobrudja, Serblan and Bulgarian claims in Macedonia or Greek and Bulgarian claims in Thrace, tional conception may lead to war— will, indeed, probably insure armed conflict. Peace Area Widens. The outstandimg feature of the past year has not been any dimunition of fundamental causes of conflict. What has happened has been the sudden and enormous widening of the area of temporary peace. There has been the general appreciation that for the present, for any time within one or two decades at the minimum, conflict is fmpossible for any people in Eu- rope; that it would involve not advan- tage but ruin: that vietory on the battlefield could not arrest or even mitigate the economic ruin- which would' be the portion of victor and vanquished alike. ‘There, it seems to me, is the great significance of the recent year and the interesting detail at the present anni- versary. We have all, Americans and Europeans alike, been almost con- sciously sitting by the bedside of the European patient and wondering over his survival. Could he recover? This has been the universal question, and the “answer has not been ‘obvious in the days of the war itself, or those of bolshevist explosion, of Turkish in- vasion, of Ruhr crisis. The patient, it I may press the figure, has been not 'a little delirious, plainly violent, and withal his exhaustion has been alarming. Almost imperceptibly, however, in recent months the improvement has is 80 very funny » , ¥ 113( point in post-war E\lrm and the begun and come on apace. And I make no question that history will ug that, even if we really exaggerated the true dangers, nevertheless the Londoni Conference marked the turn- Dawes plan, by its moral, if not its medicinal, effect, was the remedy which turned the trick. You have only to g0 back two years. to the time when the Ruhr occup: tion was in full blast and Germa Ipuslva resistance was at one momen | pushing Germany headlong to bank- ruptcy and to the edge of domestic anarchy while demonstrating _ to France that force could not collect reparations, to see how afar we have traveled to reach a point where reparations are paid without debate, as a matter of course, on each appoint ed date, when the last of the French troops is on the point of quitting the Ruhr and Briand and Stresemann are quarreling amicably like lawyers and not violently like pugilists over tha terms of a French-German voluntary adjustment. What has happened in this span is difficult to estimate fn exact values and yet impossible to exaggerate in importance. The Frenchman and the German have both been driven by the inexorable logic of events to perceive that for both a voluntary arrange ment is the only possible solution Nefther can realize its whole desire and nelther can live its own life with any comfort or conduct its own bus ness with any success unless there be an adjustment. The potash producers of both countries, whose competition was ruining both German and French trade, set an amazingly interesting example when last year they quietly made a bargain which introduced co operation, which in abolishing cut throat competition restored profit. The iron and coal trades of the two nations have just made a similar, if provi sional, bargain to cover the field, which is most important for both nations Agreement on Rhine. The situation as between France land Germany has been ever since the World War one in which efther one must destroy the other, which was impossible; each must ruin the other, which was not only likely, but becoming inevitable, or there must be an agreement, not a reconcilis tion; not a friendly understanding. but a modus vivendi, a basis of living as between two neighbors destined to hate each other perhaps for et nity, but doomed to be neighbors, ne ertheless. And that is previsel fact which has received surprisingl general recognition on both sides of the Rhine in the past vear. No European peace or tranquillit was possible while French securits was in the French mind so slight [that France had to rely upon the resources of force and the policies of coercion to guarantee it. Nor was there any better prospect while France did follow this course, and the German resentment and passion stead- ily mounted toward an inevitable ex plosion. Nor was there any con ceivable appeasement while the Brit ish nation stoutly refused to under- ake any responsibilities upon the Suropean continent. If the world had been dealing with great and powerful nations in the {full possession of their strength. as they were 11 vears ago, no possible peaceful solution could have been found for the European tangles which were the inheritance of the war Moreover, while fear and passion survived from the struggle, the con ousness of weakness was inade quate to compel rational restraint Not until the past year, not until after the London conference, was there any real conviction, either in France or Germany, that, even if a solution of difficuities was impossible, there was an adjustment more tolera- ble than the miseries and misfortunes of a new war. New European Conference. Today, T think it is safe to fore cast, we are on the eve of a new European conference, with France, Germany and Britain playing the main roles: a conference which, with out abolishing a single cause of even tual conflict, will pretty certainly postpone any new trial of strength for a generation. After having marched in the first five post-war vears straight to the edge of a new and perhaps a final convulsion, Europe has not only shrunk back {from the edge of the abyss, but quite | patiently and consciously turned its back thereon. = { Bver since the close of hostilities | too, it has been manifest that a littie [ peace would mean a long peace; that every nation had so many grave and bsorbing problems of its own to con ider, so many difficulties to face and surmount, that the mere chance to resume domestic activity would al most automatically reduce foreign and international questions to relative in significance. Just to feel that thex uld live with a measure of security | from outside menace would be tuna {sure signal for almost complete ab sorption in domestic and parochial problems. And the last vear in pro viding the opportunity has produced this result. At this moment there is not a coun try among the great powers of Eu rope whose domestic. problems da not have greater significance than the for eign. France with the double strain of a financial crisis and a colonial war, Great Britain with an economic condi tion which is easily the most serious in its history, Germany with all the task of beginning business again and reorganizing a national establishment. the richest part of which has long been under foreign occupation—all three have compelling reasons for get ting done with foreign vexations, for / ining tranquillity even at the e of certain sacrifices. Tranquillity in Sight. And at a price which is not too ex cessive; these three nations are at last beginning to believe that tranquillity is attainable. It is the advent of sanity in Burope within the past 12 months which is the most unmistak able and fmpressive single circum stance, the ultimate escape from what one might describe as the fever-delir- fum of the European patient, an in evitable consequence of the war dis ease, which best explains the remark- able contrast between present condi- tions and those even a year ago, when the London conference was opening and Europe still looked upon it with doubt and suspicion. In the past year, then, the great powers, whose decision involves Europe, have decided that peace was possible; hitherto the French, with their conviction of a Germany pre- paring a new blow and the Germans with their bellef that France was determined to stay on the Rhine, in the Ruhr, and to prevent German recovery, have regarded peace as un- attainable. Once the decision has been made and the conviction of the peoples of both countries established, (Continued on Third Page.,)