Evening Star Newspaper, December 27, 1925, Page 41

EDITORIAL PAGE NATIONAL PROBLEMS SPECIAL FEATURES Part 2—18 Pages U. S. PREPARES TO HALT EXTORTION ON IMPORTS| Weary of Being Gouged, as in Rubber Situation. by Monopolistic Control of Raw Materials. WASHINGT T is Sunday morning in the Tem- ple. My laundress, who has sac- ificed to me her ane morning of vest with a maternal devotion | content with reasonable returns, but | must sooner or later undertake ex- | tortlon. He sees the situation about BY WILL OW other P. KENNEDY. ns. notably the British. extort enormous and | /' Feiio o nsurious profits from the | “ippa control of rubber production in 5 United States on essential | \pe British Indies was organized | that recalls “the antique service raw materials of which they | nger tha Stevenson plan in 1922, That | of the ancient world,” and proves :"“ e K';:‘ tical monopoly ;‘"m“"l ‘;""; | area produces about per cent nfh(lh: I that, despite bolshevist organs, kind eo. si nitrates, auinine, | \orid’s rubber, and we consume about |4 .o . 2 X fodine. tin sisal. wood pulp and |7g per cent of the world’s rubber. .x‘,hl to mays stli e hence s Johe quicksilver—will be the subject of the time the plan was put into effect | hlouses returned to the remote study by 4 subcommittee of the House | o\ colonial legislation the claim was |bosom of her family. committee on mdm'n‘uw ;m’r‘l ‘I‘;;rl‘l‘t:l"v;y?nln vr;u its purpo e was ‘-?x?:g'yrf\:‘ AWeterhe roveriil iweck Gfivreatling commerce immediately upon the re-|fair price to the growers. o B s sumption of legislative duties after the | ers’ committee stated that such a fair | WVith theatrical folk and business men, Christmas holidads | price would be from 15 to 18 pence [T am alone. The church bells are T Governm pas suf- (30 to 36 cents) per pound. We were | ringing, and though I was born a Jew for svstem of | assured that this “fair” price was the | 4 Lo that the criminal Templars up” on essential raw materials | sole objective of the combination. Ix- | , ' 2 ve import determined 1o | haustive investizations of the Depart- | the they recaptured Jerusalem ut the means and methods | ment of Commarce into the industry jand the tomb of Christ in one of their nirol '|.r production ‘.:’nn{ ex i;nlnualfi;:eq 1:\;h.=|,\ ;’r‘.;‘(\\?:‘xh‘?‘x ?;‘.m‘:“ | s R anc pass whatever | price the capital estec s ot . 4 remedies may seem effec- | dustry would earn an annual average | N OF «kh’\‘rd\ ," “f"":| “”“.“‘"I" them. hesides adopting | profit of from 15 to 25 per cant. auit the work of wr ting this to sit in conservation and thrift measures to| The price has been advanced during | the Temple Church. But even as it ¥ibiit Gow i reguirerndnts this year in the following stages, as | is, the glorious music soars up to my tree-shadowed study and 1 rejoice Dl the shown by average New York spot quo- | RS tations that. although the crowd will be stand- fted ,onth ing tonight in long patient queues out Januars side the film palaces of the Strand :xx’:vr\‘v“ noble buildinzs still exist wherein an ever-dwindling minority can hear the spired words of the ancient Jews in the almost equally inspired Jaco- June hean English * nati pot has which fered vears under the which terret the ¢ i day portation legisiative tive t to or ends days specialists were to get for the Government supplies of needs as e. More zoes and d pulp Brazil and India e the wits St Creparlh. Month Juls August Sentember Qctoner November Decem e venched §1.21 perative war-time tin and nurs had em from st at S sS40 pro 1003 ambars wou The per price time pound at one ¥ from | dn 1 H over fi wh w mation re hold-ups ind extensive these of Rubber. tion is wholly an arti- evidenced by the normal world consump 1926 is estimated at whereas the poten a St Produe n o % ing | lities «du s these That ficial _creatior act that the tion of rubber about 580,000 tons. tial production if unrestricted would be probably §25.000 tons. We are broad and | therefore not in the midst of a genuine vision and | rubber famine, hut purely an artificial position 10 |one created by restriction on produc buccaneers | tion for the purpose of advancing desian to some | prices | Our imports for 1925 will be about $60,000.000 pounds and at normal growth our consumption will be 900 400.000 pounds in 19 At the price declared by the price-fixing body as fair” to them, our next vear's sup- ply would cost us about $324,000,000 but at the present prices of $1.10 per pound it will cost us about $990.000.- 000 or $666,000.000 in excess of the fair” price. These increased prices of rubber are a very real thing to every family in the United States. The price over and |above the so-called “fair price means an increased charge of probably $20 or $30 for each et of tires on a light automobile. and $50 to 70 for each set on a heavy car. If present prices are maintained against the excess sum of $830 000,000 o 0.000.000 which we shall pay i equal to more than twice the net earnings for dividends on all our electric power companies, or equal to 30 per cent more than the net earn ings for dividends of all mir railw: It would seem. therefore. to be wo some attention The dangers to our manufacturing industry that may come through a collapse in the price are so great that some of the smaller manufactures And though 1 day at all these weeks, I am glid that this day of should huve been given to the toiling masses through the medium of the Mosaic code, and while ving caref s myself ean rest no the time heen iive officer of Degartment of It has been extremely the people of the United man of his ing ! ° for repose merce e fortunate for St that a inlimate knowledze. wide foresight has been in a mect these internationgl and frusu their extent recreation, T think that they, no less than their so-called betters, stand to lose hy the abandonment of all ritual that of the dance hall and the night elub. 1 can forgive Wells much when 1 recall that in his “History of the World” he has done something, if far from evervthing, to put Isaiah and Amos In their place as the greatest factors in civilization. It is true Bos suet had long ago made all history turn round the Jewish. But that tition, whereas Wells' view provable. “We moderns must he open.” savs the villain—or, as his already belated disciples would style him, the hero— of my latest play. But on religion. who today is open? Only those whose minds are closed—be they ultra-ple tists or atheists. Both forms of ex tremists are hrainless. But the im memorial instinct of mankind would justify the former rather than the latter. Though democracy has proved itself as despicable aristocracy. there is still safety in numbers and tradition. “Orthedoxy” makes also for happiness save Be Held. in January the subcommittee House committee on foreizn commerce will start hearings with a view making recommendations to Congress. The subcommittee will consist of the six ranking Republicans and the three ranking Democrats on the committee. with Representative James S. Parker of New York as chairman. House Leader n o Q Tilson of Connecticut and Secretary Hoover will be the witnesses Harvey Firestone, Henry Ford, Wil lam J. O'Neil of Akron, Ohio, and others ‘most intimately quainted with the rubber price hold-up w be asked to advise with the commit ten Adminis by Secreta awakened mental action House Hearings to vy the ¥ of was super is fir us thon leaders. prompted Hoover's warnings, are the urgency of govern to meet emhargoes and price-fixinz. Speaker Longworth is one of those who have heen making personal siudies of the situation, and for this purpose visited the largest rubber plants in this country pivited: debate in ithe Honee —hen the resolution for investigation fathered by House Leader Tilson, was brought up showed a unanimous ve ceased production. as they fear agreement on both sides of the House | they could not stand the loss of sud (Democratic as well as Republican) |denly diminishi inventory values. that some such action should be taken. | The problem we have to confront The Democratic debaters contended | IS @ most pertinent one. What can that the study should be made by the | We do to defend ourselves against j“a\T .’Hl‘d m"vu'\;' committee because it | trade war being made upon us? nvolved a tariff question. They argued . that these hold-ups were retaliation. Sible The Republicans showed a firm de that the termination not to allow the tariff is f course, ) pened up. althoush some I do prominent Republicans think the tarif reprisals schedules 1d overhauled. Rep. S measures resentative Cordell Hull of Tennessee, Would ultimately afford relief if we former Democratic national campaign | had them organized, and all are manager, charged bad faith against Wholly defensive in nature Great Britain with regard to alleged 1. Our bankers can be discouraged American credits to the h is probably been less enviable than that of my father, who, in his old age. ieft his home and family “to die in Jeru salem.” * ok xibk 1t fortunate, nevertheless the ‘“orthodox” bear out the truth that Oscar Wilde has tributed to thought—to -wit, that each man Kkills the thing he loves. 1 remember in my school days a boy pouncifig on a contradiction in the Bible and at once disbelieving in the whole book. ‘But of course the Bible is not hool Because it is all bound together, a literature covering seven ecight centuries is mistaken for a single volume that only con- is ur Measures That Secretary Hoover measures that we can take. vary with each combination not” wish to favor trade Some of the -followir Are or and. with all my larzer | opportunities and means, my life has | EDITORIAL SECTION ON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, MY RELIGION: WHAT IT MEANS TO ME DECEMBER [ he Sunduy Star 27, 1925 ARTICLE IX BY ISRAEL ZANGWILL I would eut them off from no open-air | ISRAEL ZANGWILL. This only oxy and Christianity’s book it resembles for this mixture of ma myth was culled from ture of lIsrael b editc The Bible is ertainly than the Jews are a | people. There | friend. Sir James } the savage They leap to the eve is to point ont appendix called those savage f. an t. The nthol Acence i e litera il hoard more chosen™ for my o point out of this hook he real need that, despite the later the New Testament elements still in Christendom, and neier more brazenly than since “the war end war ended the peace of mankind It is now the common duty of all civi lized men of every creed to find “The Next Religion”—10 quote the title of my still prohibited play of 1912 There is very little difference amonz the higher creeds of today—even be tween such apparent opposites as Ro- | man Catholicism and Judaism. What keeps them apart is larzely the eco nomic factor. Jesus. in that punning mood to which Hebrew prophets were prone, told Peter he was founding his Church on a rock. The rock His church is really founded on Ire jmark in my “Italian Fan! a gold-reef. De-salarize the vou will soon unify them, an osen was no need aser elements exist | real sies™ creeds and * * x But, of course petrifies religion and though it | ences vetween money, though it the differ differ perpetuates religions, those is not its real source, | ences practic eliminated by everyman everywher chara arks e = ng To me he comic the privileze of his fiiendship tha of fully not a Tike's subsequer piece. that his Kind icceptance church-goingz wireles 1. to | not over.” “‘mixed utterly myself proof of gr misunderstood make “marrving o make it clear racial, | ntal dream | 4nism. are not 3ut they ins in reduced en ommon n; of ‘he founders supermen, and of my novels by being misunder man can influence ee this in the sudden rnard Shaw by the hecause of his e unflinch text um the first a sort 1 had 1 could hehind the wil 1t if he does of Syhil Thorn beciise he master on the e the are in it one = We of F n.”" and despite his pref seemed Christ he en o ‘e and rzen b in the netity, it Iy a SO Fhiherty odor will he that & little he that alone is no have heen equaily It takes two, vou see truth. and thought, by t of the fold.” I tried to that to me Judaism was I failed to “get the idea Jewry theu 1 had made a marr d m of union I disappr the fact heing ~though Atness a fc of. that the Englishwoman who honored me by Rut reasons of which the head is i and by hecoming my wife was essen it one with me * Pascal * x K the has norant the as savs, heart some inarticulate instinct | at | masses of Romans who, in the tim; (Author of “The Melting Pot,” “Children of the Ghetto,” etc.) Jewish masses the world over still be lieved {n me as a racial Jew, and fol lowed (as they still follow) me. I can not complain, since Jehovah himself was pictured by the plous as clad in praving shawl and phylacteries, and the same fate has overtaken Dr. Herzl, the founder of modern Zion ism, who often brought me his prob. lems to this very room two decades before Sir Herbert Samuel, Lord Rothschild, or Sir Alfred Mond—who in those days might have been so use. | ful—had discovered their passion for Palestine. Were Jewry in earnest in fulfilling its vaunted mission, it would rejoice this removal of the greatest stum block to the spread of its re I cannot too much admire thos of de bling ligior were not Tacitus and Juvenal, terred from Judaism even by a surgi cal operation in the pre-chloroform period. But in our d: if Judaism is ever to create the world of its millen. it must perform a surg operation on ftself and cut away all that clogs and hinders its vitalizing wetivity It mu recognize that Bry like poor Bryan himself dead, and that the Old Testament & far from finality as the New What “The Next Reliz he exactly T have tried to the spirit of Renan, who in a preface one of his plays urged that on drama, giving through its personages even opposite answers, can give the full reply to any real human question Simplicity in statement is possible only 1o journalists and politicians— themselves cunningly complex. Thu doubly, the theater may claim to re- place the dying church * o ox % should answer in to t have heen compelled to refer own hooks hecause, alone amor my contributors. unless my friend Conan Doyle's Fantasies are to he reckoned a contribution to the subject to have waited for editorial hare my heart re ligion. Apart from my play. with that sreat word in its title, 1 have dealt with the subject in my book of erse, “Blind Children.” and especially bulky book, “The Voice of Jeru My very first sonnet—puh. lished when 1 was 16 in an organ called Society, now extinct—like m of the papers I have been connected bhezan 1 my I =eem no prompting on very in my salem st with The Een Are Slamaur of deceit in eser all we vrse T tars that wesm with love 10 glow fuce black worids. The inward God Sicam dies. hearts <hut i And up flowers when sun 1 pub called later an seems And not lished in another extinct or; Progress, a poem that still me to sum up all that Shaw and Wells have said—and which had already \een anticipated by John Stuart Mill— 15 to God's lack of omnipotence. Since then I at least have become less om- niscient. At the end of my “Dream ers of the Ghetto” you may find poem called “Jehovah,” which still epresents my views, as well a passionate outburst which must have anticipated pragmatism. In a vast American anthology called “The World's eat Religious Poetry.’ he bulk of which appears have been writien recently in America \m represented hy three pieces. the tiny quatrain in my “Blind Page.) many vea o 1 but Chil- (Continued on Third manipulation of crude rubber from giving these combinations. support of 2. We should initiate a strong <vstematic campgign for veluntary saving in use in every one of th commodities where these combina- tions_hecome extortionate 3. We should stimulate the manu- facture and use of substitutes. 4. We should stimulate production in countries where the commodities in question are not likely to be suh- ject to such combinations 5. We might set up me gort properly controlled machinery f emergencies which would prevent our many hundred bhuvers from bidding three. jagainst ch other. Vast House Tribute to Britain Leader Tilson chs £300.000.000 annually is being Americans in tribute to Great because of that zovernment's control of rubber prices. Mr. Tilson put into the Congressional Record a statement showing that rubber brokers in Eng land are rolling in wealth extorted from Americans, that the British are Janzhing in their sleeves at us. This statement from the Overseas Dail Mail discusses “the rubber zamble, and describes “what the industry means to Great Britain.” He emphasized that about auarters of the world’s rubber i : bouzht by the United States. and the Secretary Hoover Concerned. sreater part of the profit on that rub. | her goes to British shareholders. though Dutch and native owners take zood slice. The British press article, s that paid by Britain CREDIT MAY MAK of Rate Tends BY GEORGE E. RORERTS. Former Diractor of the Mint and Vice Pres dent of the National City Bank. Secretary Hoover is deeply con- | cerned aver the implications of these combinat in the future of inter- b alle s | national commerce or zood will in after these confessions, says: “The big | the world. In a speech on this sub. ribute annually wrung from British [ ject delivered before the Chamber of 1axpavers for the interest and install- | is in 4 v 4 Taapavers for the interest and install- | Commerce In Frie, Pa., October 31 Ao )q on our American war debt is. | 1925, Secretary Hoover appealed to or the time being at any ra act: | the o] 2 o e fo fhe tne belug abanyirate extin he other nations to abandon these Homar aronmeriean bockets in_addi- | wars upon us and other consumine said. Tn the Tangunse of Mare 5on | nations. basing that appeal on the suagze of Marc t of orld as a wl tony, over the body of Caesar. ‘This| Jietiaiy:C0 h¢ World ‘as a whole. is ost unkindest cut of s (o e the m mkindest cut of all’ and Another alternative which has been what follows would seem. from the | British point of view, to preclude all | fjaces of the werms shooiq CLjumer na i poi | tions of the world should secure by i o hope for the future far thelmriant o cpure by In-| centration of funds in New York and United States is concerned, but paints ! rights which they would secure in 4| their employment in Wall Street. Thvosy Pleture for the benefit of the { qomestic monopoly: that prices should |, Hoever, there has been no lack of investor in rubber shares.” herezulated amder chreumsianees funds for stock exchange trading since that the consumer has an equal voice [he Federal Reserve System got Into et action. One of the higgest markets But I have '"; ever known has heen going now for tions of this sort more than a year, and the common o 2 xplanati as been cheap destructive of the one ho explanation for it ha et m,,m“‘\’,‘\_s “",”C‘”':in’r‘\‘i”“" money. Furthermore, it has been ev they are a recognition of the perma. | 9ent that in stock exchange circles & nent establishment of these policies in | ETAt amount of interest has centered the future international commerce,| UPoR the Federal Reserve discoy e Stead o 1o0: "% rate on commercial s from 31; to dispute instead of peaceful co-opera- | {* s O o Threw ; | quite off its equilibrium. | zround of what in the long run wm'\“,;‘1;}:"}?,'":;Lz;'\._"?;:fl'"hs‘:, nsked | produce good will and prosperity to | R s [the entire world, for no single nation | sy S0k oD, AT mecial | ean disassociate its properity from the | Joant should offset rates on stock prosperity and good will of all of them. | raarket Toans, and criticlsm is directed 4t the reserve banks on this account. Additional Credit Sound. was organized one of the common ex- pectations was that it would reduce the amount of banking funds em ploved in stock market operations. It was said that the reserves no longer would be employed in that manner, and that the reserve banks, their discount policies, would be able to exercise a considerable degree of control over speculation. Unquestion- ably one of the reasons for the di- vision of the country fnto 12 district: each district. was to prevent the con- Extensive Studies Made. Secretary view of extensive tion rubher east and of w the Amazon Hoover what was studies with a long-range coming. has had made of the planta industry in the middle d rubber production in Valley. and of possibilities for para rubber production in the Philippine Islands, In this it is stressed that the machinery for en- couraginz the planting of rubber by Filipinos :#lready exists and that the Government is already mitted to plan of colonizing certain regions, and thai rubber planting might fur- ther succe of this plan He also savs that while there are many difi culties in the way of harvesting wild rulber, this of supply will not be overlooked if the British “hold- up” continues | z In the meantime. while ways and | hewauialis emerempRBomythe| mexns are being developed to eombat | °haos of the war, and these govern-' It should be understood that the the rubber extortion. Secretary Hoover | mental measures are no longer justi-| Federal Reserve banks are an ad- has started a drive to reduce rubber | flable, since the producers of the world | ditional source of credit, superimposed waste with the co-operation of the |MAY look forward to more stable times. | upon our banking system as it was, National Rubber Association and the| We are also at the point where the!and that the local banks, who do prac- Ational | Automobile Chamber of | whole consuming world is being driven | tically all the business with the public, ommerce. Better utilization of rub- | toward destructive courses to protect | have great lending power within them- her is sought to free this country | itself from exploitation by these con- | selves. from the imposition of unreasonable ! trols. Therefore the time has come| The Federal Reserve banks are not prices for rubber imposed by the Fast |When a solution of this problem is | permitted to make loans upon the se- India rubber combine. { both urgent and more feasible. | curity of stocks or bonds, excepting ! I am convinced that the sound so-| United States Government obligations. {lution does not lie in any of the alter- | The intention of the law was to make natives I have outlined: they are all|the reserve banks an additional re. worse during the last | in the nature of last resorts. They | source, for the regular industrial and vears . sufficient illustration | recognize trade war. 1 helieve the commercial operations of the country, how the people of the United | solution does lie in the willingness of |and available for that purpose only. \tes are now suffering. being sub- | statesmen throughout the world to Experience shows, however, that Ject the full result of monopoly | recognize the consequences of govern- | money or credit cannot be kept in action and with no machinery of ade- | ment controllc i production and price,| water-tight compartments. For what- uite defense. I ize< @ in | and to meet the issue in the anly wayv ever purpnse they are released, they Terent in all nnrezulited monopolies fit <houla he met: that abanden find their way to s common reservolr, evesywhere that they never can be|m:nt f all such goyernmental action.” “as the rivers find their way to the sea. a liking for any ac for they are either b he problem should be met on the Emerging From Chaos. Rubber Situation. The rubber situation. which has srown decidedly When the Federal Reserve Svstem | through | with an independent reserve bank for | the stock market | E MONEY DEARER to Inflation. A member hank may not pass up to its reserve hanks any loans secured by stocks and bonds, but it can pass up paper having its origin in commercial transactions and lend the proceeds in the stock market. It may make a loan to a merchant or manufacturer and he may use the proceeds to pay a debt or make an investment in the line of his business, but the recipient Resources Drawn Upon. It is sometimes the ca ber banks lend freely in the call market, or on time with collateral se- curity, when the commercial demand is light, and later, when the com- mercial demand improves, find them- resorting to the reserve banks. In these cases the immediate purpose of rediscounting is to supply commercial demands, but the final result is that | reserve resources are drawn upon for outside uses. Speculation plays a useful part {business when properly conducted. | tending to stabilize values, but rapidly | rising prices, whether in stocks, grain, town lots or farm lands, tend to cause an undue expansion of credit and to | disturb all operations in the money market. The function of the reserve {banks is to stablize credit conditions |is made to keep the reserve bank rate {lower than current market rates an |incentive s offered to member banks (to lend their own funds at the high rate, and supply their commercial cus- | tomers by rediscounting, which, of course, tends to inflation, the same as though they rediscounted for specu- lative purposes. ‘That the expansion of Federal Re- serve credit during the past vear has been spread over the entire country is shown by the following table, which gives the total amount of credit out- standing for each reserve bank at the beginning of the year and on Decem- ber 9, 1925. = an $ 11925 87.001.000 311102000 B9/3R1000 Boston........ | New York Philadelphi Cleveland. - | Richmond Atlanta. . 108.225.000 168.284.000 1.053.000 44.545.000 68632000 74.726.000 142.017.000 | inneansiis.. - © Kansas City.. .. Dallas........ San Franciseo.. Total. . As & result {prospect is for dearer mone | purposes in 1926 than in 192; 26.013.000 46:254.000 45568000 103.491.000 for all | | | | EXPANSION OF FEDERAL RESERVE SENATE LOATH TO BREAK GRIP OF FILIBUSTERER ON THROAT Archaic One-M BY ARTHUR CAPPER, | Senator From Kansas. While there is a general asreement that in many respects the existing rules of Congress are archaic and in adequate, in evolving a program of revision that can muster the support mecessary for of a 150 rule A sary | i U the power. 1 may use the proceeds for speculation. | adoption. se is apparent. This is shown in the recent action se that mem-| ¢ he House of Representatives in abolishing a rule which, in the opinion majority | tributed to dilatory tactics. provided selves obliged to make a choice be- | tion, could call bills from committees tween reducing this class of 10ans of |and bring them to the consideration of the House. adopted it prevent committee legislative proposals. if, after a reasonable in | liberation. | the House refused or neglected to act upon a measure | committee could be discharged from control of the bill by a petition of members. ther argued at the time of adoption. would prevent a few men in key com- mittee position dictating the is0 far as possible, but if an attempt | tive program. In repealing this rule, the majority of the House members held that the was | They argued that by Invoking this rule a minority could, at any delay and perhaps defeat the program of legislation by calling from com- mittee bills of more or less conse- quence. ment _on both sides of this question, but the latter argument prevailed in |the abolition of the rule, and the action of the House—whether or not it proved to serve the purpese of facilitating the processes of legislation—is evi- dence of a determination on the part |of Congress | structure. like disposition the Senate, | feeling that a reasonable cloture is necessary for the dispatch of neces- public business. doubt that the country on the spectacle of a single, or at —_— least a small group of Senators, ham- ...$945.456.000 $1.412.202.000 | stringing of this expansion the | there is extreme difficulty | But the disposition to re- of the members, con- Thts rule by peti that 150 member When this rule was was argued that it would pigeonholding™ of That is to sav, time for de- a standing committee of it, referred to the This rule, it was fur Tagisla- Aid to Filibustering. an aid to “filibustering.” time, There is, of course, argu- to overhaul its rules is apparent in where there is a strong There is no is ‘“fed up” legislation by the “filibus. This puts the public’'s business | mercy of a one-man veto This veto is not inirequently | | proval. Resources Find Way Into Stock Market Despite Pre- While House Begins to Throw Off Shackles of Minor- cautions—Incentive to Banks to Lend at High ity, Upper Body Seems Unable to Rid Itself of an Veto Rule. more far reaching than that vested in the President. for the President can anly veto acts of Congress after their passage. The senatorial filibuster veto can and does prevent necessary legis lation from consideration and vote. Such an exercise of negative power is not contemplated in the powers vested in the Senate by the Constitu tion. Indeed, such power to ham- string legislation is entirely repugnant to our em of representative gov- ernment. Congress is the forum in which the country, through its repre sentatives, voices and puts into effect its will in respect to affairs affecting the public welfare and prosperity. A Relic of Antiquity. It is a gross perversion of this func tion that a single giember or even a small group of members should arro gate power literally to strangle legis Jation. Yet such is the practical effect of Senate rule 23—a relic of antiquity that is outworn and entirely dut of | harmony with the complex demands of | present day legislation. Thiz power to stifle legislation, as I have said, is not granted the Sen- ate by the Constitution. It isa power the Senate has assumed in framing its_rules. Such practices not only palsy legis- lation, but they are a menace to the principle of majority government. By their votes in the elections. the people indicate policies that meet their ap- This is a mandate to the agencies of government to put the popular decision into effect. If a small minority in one branch of the National Legislature may delay the considera- tion of business and halt the process of legislation, that diliatory power be- comes an agency for the defeat of the public will. As Lincoln said in his first Inaugural: “If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must— or the Government must cease.” In correcting this manifest abuse | it is not necessary to abridge a single power vested in Congress by the Con- stitution; nor Is it necessary to invade in any degree the just and proper rights of minorities. It was intended that public business should be openly transacted and that decisions should be arrived at after amplest discussion. It is by no means necessary to estah- lish “gag” rule to abolish that allows filibuster ambuscades. On the contrary, to knock out the fili- buster is to facilitate both discussion and decision. A proposal to free the Senator of this one-man veto is pend- inz. But its success is by no means assured. 14 (Copyright. 1825.) the rule | EUROPE FACES HARD FIGHT TO REGAIN LOST PRESTIGE Coming Year Indicates United Effort to Recover FEconomic Supremacy Now Held by America. i | | | | | | | BY FRANK H. AST week I discus length the ontst: ! stances of the vear which is | just closing. Now it remains | to consider what are the pros- | pects for the coming vear in interna- tional affairs. It is clear that we are |10 begin a new year with an almost | irreducible minimum of threatening questions. There 1s no major dispute, Sl B e {so far as great or small b:\lropmn\:::‘,’“"i,! 1o subovdingied bl the 000 states are concerned. which can be | LT O T C MR ECOT NE ara | compared with the Ruhr or any other |fjom i€, Recessities have hecome impe considerable post-war issue. s e the pallnc It is true that Mosul remains an|"“7P BEEOme SubSianY. o L e open problem, but Mosul, after all, |, That thIRZ Which is vaguelv cfled like Syria. like the Riffian contest in a | FeSPirit of Locarno, that atmosphere smaller measure, represents not the | Heh has arrived and has enabled 1h expression of European rivalries, but | 5 (NEET 8 R L e the digturbance among Asiatic and | OF SR Bl Anear African peoples which has resulted |05t inflammable of Europear from the destruction of the presiice [ mif5n Ynesiicase orBe abEolinelchm power and resources of the western Spooric of the angolnto com niflons Giig e World Was |o v 9 Inierest of confipemial o roadly speaking, it is, perhaps. this |7 Of% OF the Wer niEh edua’ mena.e problem which most heavily weighs | (4. 550 SO0 BHTUON O ce the out upon the minds of those who have to | Which have existed ever consider the foreign policies of the co- |PFQAK Of the Wonld war. =~ lonial interests of Furopean powers Sl but it belongs to the future, rather °\'_|ij fever l‘.mv' nothing was po: than ithe Hast New frontiers and new combi of economic and industrial u Two Definite Problem alyzed and disorganized As a consequence of the World War | European organization and post-war anarchy and disintegra-| SWept awav and no new tion, Furope has to face two definite | WAS possible hecause of roblems. It has to recover in Asia|Of war ons and nd, to a degree, in Affica the ground | duced pih lost durinz the war. There is a spirit | barter trade unrest. of revoli, of independence |in man stirring all the way from Hongkong to | 8anized Damascus in Asta, and from Cairo to | Titory in the world has Casablanca in Africa. The very foun- |0 undertake systematic dations of European domination in | Teorganization almost at Asia have been undermined. and the | hour spirit of resistance to foreign rule, | which in the Balkans and the east of | Europe disturbed European calm be. | fore the war, is now discoverable in China, India and in all of the Arab world In something of the same way that actual power and control is being allenged in Asia and North Africa Eurcpes economic and financial su premacy in the world are similarl inder_challenge. this time from Amer ica. The rise of the United States to tnormous wealth and unprecedented has heen in no small degree expense of Europe. Passing the state of a debtor nation to { a great creditor, we have laid financial ations to either hy means of war loans or ost-war loans, most if not all of the onsiderable European nations It may safely be said that had | Europe inued the wac had it continued the post-war strife for a few yoars longer its position would | have heen hopelessly compromised he affair of Chanak. in which a re cently defeated Turkey successfully defied ope. recovered s lost ter ritory and imposed its will upon divided and impotent gathering of statesmen at Lausanne, was final | cvidence of the extent to which European disunion had imperiled European influence and power beyond thut continent. Fight for Recovery. quite the same fashion. much of the sort of economic mad ness which culminated in the Ruhr might weil have put Europe beyond the possibility of economic recovery and left the United States the single great financial and economic unit in the modein sense. F with respect to Asia politically, and the United States economicaliy and financial Europe has now to engage in a long. difficult and sustained effort to recover what has been lost—and a1l in either field is well nigh save on the hasis of a A increasing commun pean action and thought. My English friends report that they regard as unlikel any proposal for economic co-operation of European states which will have serious nse- quenc for the United States That there should be such political combi. nation is, of course, quite out of the question. Yet it remains true that for all European countries, some. if not all. of our policies are excessivaly mpering. Small as are the early payments which we are asking of our continental debtors. we have, as a result of the negotiations of the cur rent vear, established a svstem by vhich, in’ increasing amounts, debt | payments are to flow to us from many <tates for many year Aside from France, donhtie: hefore the current vear is out make some deht adjustment, and Russia, from which nothing is to be expected. we have now carried out our policy of making Europe pay with ‘the consequent creation in Eu rope of a bitterness and resentment which is today onle partially re strained by reason of the necessity of | negotiating new loans At bottom, the resentment of the American course with respect to post-war ques. tions remains fairly constant in all iuropean countries Even in Ger many. where it is perhaps least po tent at the moment. there is certain to be a quick expansion when 1t is perceived that there Is a fatal con nection hetween reparations and debts. American Competition. Resenting our debt policy. resenting the legislation by which we exclude | Furopean emigrants, a course partic- ularly disagreeabie to Italy and Great Britain: resenting the insistence of our administration and Congress upon existing high tariffs, Europe finds it self driven to face American rompeti tion in unrivaled degree: compelled 1o I make applications for American loans 'and faced with a net American atti- tude which is resented from Ireland to the Urals. Instinctively. inevitably, to exist rope finds itself driven more and more to a measure of common action. | France, Britain, Germany, Italy, all| are passing through domestic crises 2 itk S st | Nich, Giring fhisepresenti yeari may | Sttacked e oo {supply grave circumstances. “With |2 WL, To tequese DOV a8 th France the problem is financial, with | 365" GO0 5V o e i1y Britaln economic, with Germany both | IShed: Germany is far more likely in |economic and financial, \\'ilh. Italy the next dwjfld'e to r!(‘on“lll\_l?? a con {political as well as economic. Nor is |Siderable army than Is Irance |the domestic condition of half a dozen ,2dopt any form of actual disarma other states less difficult. Poland is in | Ment. the midst of a currency crisis, Czecho- slovakia has unhappily relapsed into something close to parliamentary paraly | "But underlying all of the several | domestic crises in Europe is the single | |patent fact that solution cannot be | by merely national means. British re- covery depends very considerably upon | ¢ of the adjacent continen- | fio: I : e v el E | Germany some economic arrangement [l markele G e wDof | which. will dnsure the marketing in | portunity to obtain necessary capital, | Germany of Lomaine fron and certain France cannot surmount her present | teXtile manufac e e financial crisis_single handed, while | the Locarno pacts there i< no veal in her economie situation will not be | Portance attachims to the oceupation of the Ithineland. and the basis for (Continued on Third Paged 0. ed at some nding circum. |Germany. Poland must end her tariff |war with Germany to escape disaster Looking. then. to the coming vear nothing is more clearly indicated than |a drawing together of the several European nations economically. A whole series of economic conferences |between several nations. perhaps ris |ing to the level of some fairly general economic conference at Geneva. seems likely Political jssues are well nizh The « adjustment the survi hatreds condition 1 vears highly or economic ter bean tunable sclentific present Re suspic well o nd re; the industrial and ¢ ions me or the Situation Transformed. All this situation, however, has been measurabl¥ transformed in the past year. The dominant necessity of Some form of economic adjustment coupled with the relative elimination of political obstacles. has unmistaka bly cleared the way for # new neriod of European economic expansic <purred on by necessities insistent than ever: in history and at last witl restored and domestic socil leveled, the nations of entering upor period Europe is. In fact, out to regain from the United States much. if not all the lost economic ground. and in Asia and Africa seeks to recover lnst political ground In the strictly European litical field we may expect th many will enter the League tlons du: the coming vear that her y e there will ten give Geneva more of the appearan: of a center of Buropean eo-operation In reality. course, the important negotiations hetween countries will b conducted directly hetween capitals and i utter disregard of the leazue save as il may serve the i ment for the execution decisions already taken and the executor of treaties already made. While it is unlikely that Russia will take an early step to join the league. relation< between it and the Geneva hody ma presently have a less unfriendly ch: acter. A great deal of publicity alread: attends the prospect of an arms cor ference, but most. if not all. of the American and even the British ex pectation in that direction is, in my judgment, to say the least. prema ture. Kurope will not disarm more exactly. reduce armaments as a result of any agreement such seemed to have heen made at Washington conference. No Et pean state will permit any conference to deal with its defense or be in any degree the judge of the means neces sary for its security. Any arms c ference which takes place now or fo a long time to come will Ive self at once into a discussion. not disarmament, but of mutual defense its cotempor machiner barriers rope activity from that under vas : gr - at e 1d Ger of as st In more its the impossibie considera t Question of Security. of the whole continental ception of limitation of armame lies that of security as expressed the protocol. Nations like France and Poland. with relatively consider able armies, will only consent to re duce these armies as they are satls fied that the dangers against which they have to guard are decreased, or the nations interested in procuring a reduction armament will on guarantee their security Limitation of armaments ity proceeding at a consider in Europe. France, fof example. Is reducing her term of service with the colors from 18 months te 12 which will diminish her army by more than 100.000 in the current vear Rut France will not agree to any re duction suggested by any outside body or country. She will not sur render her sovereignty in this vital respect, save only as she obtair the promise of the support of foreizn livisions to replace these she has dis- banded in case of emergency Furope is not going to approacl peace by the pathway of disarma- ment. On the contrary, it is going to approach disarmament by the pathway of peace. Armies are dimin ishing in Europe because the pr pects of peace are hettering. and thix process is very far from havin reached its limit. But despite all th- helief to the contrary in this country the league has not recently expanded its moral or its material prestige and there is not the smallest chance that it will become in the new vear, or in any conceivable time, the super state which mizht regulate and re duce armies and armed forces gen erally. The French army is maintained against a presumptive German men ace and a present colonial problem It will be reduced as the German menace seems to be diminished or the nations of Europe undertake con tracts to supply troops if France i< Rack is in real which will ble pac: Better Relations Seen. Between France and Germany, however, in the current veir tnere 1~ likely to be a very considerable im provement of relations. Germany de sires to obtain an anticipation of the evacuation of German territory, which would not legally be complete until 19; France desires to obtain from | | the recove healthy until che has successfully negotiated a commerclal treaty with