Evening Star Newspaper, January 17, 1926, Page 49

EDITORIAL PAGE NATIONAL PROBLEMS SPECIAL FEATUPES aF Bacisi Part 2—20 Pages LUCE SEES URGENT NEED | OF LEGISLATIVE REFORM Parliamentary Authority Says Congress, Unfit to W Should Leave Work to Expert because of the failure to enact laws. When it comes down to individual in- stances, we who serve in lawmaking vonsider making changes | oqieq are far more frequently blamed = system of representative | g, ‘our sins of omission than for our government, in the opinion of | ging of commission. { Representative Robert Tuce,| “wpt may be, then, that the basic | achusetts, whohas | .iug0 for the present disfavor in CON- | which representative assemblles are 1d is really to be found in their in- | bility to cope with present-day con- ditions. & e e | “The machinery of representative ime, Mr. I S e e e E N |government was developed In days tive b ¢ Government (both Na- | G300 o very stmple. It has be- ite) has been held in such [ oo~ very complex. Particularly | e 3 #| within the last century its intricacies g lonjios tative BOVEID-|p, v hocome tremendous. Time was st noeliue o ’\":""’?;lwhen the chosen representatives of Frnented T rboding | fonal familiarity with ~_ practically T the Tranare. e s convinced that | SYery duestion - confronting _them. Do LT ther tham the . prin. | The people themselves had kuowledge | iples of our Government need to be|Of the issues that arose and were DAl T quite capable of forming some degree e e ipal with Congress, | °f_Intelligent opinion, or at any rate 25 he sees it, Is that it is overwhelmed | that was the case with those of the St work 1t ix uniitted to perform, be. | Poplo Who were intrusted with the ause the machinery for choosing Rep. | P&llot = " | osentatives Is not adapted to chenged |, ThiS i all changed,” Mr. Luce Teodern. carplex comditions. This is|finds. “Today no member of a leg-P o e of State Tegloiatures. The|islative body can possibly have tech- . > fs convineed, 18 to re.|nical familiarity with a tithe of its the State Legisia. | Problems and the mass of the people Tres of the work of writing adminis. | Simply make no attempt to under- ‘rative law, whicl should be left to ex. | Stand them. The result is that with e regard to the greater part of these problems such a thing as & body of informed public opinion s wholly out | of the question. Now and then there comes along a question like prohibi- tlon, where it is possible to ascertain the will of the people and to enact repeal or modify a law In accordance | therewith. These clear-cut lIssues,| however, are now very rare. | Tt Is Not Democracy. 1l “The consequence is,” he explains, | “that most of our laws today result| from the individual judgments of our representatives. That s, of course,| pure representative government, but it is not democracy. To the extent, however, that it fails, that faflure 8| not because it is not democracy, for | democracy would do the work worse | P veintre; s \blies,” | Yt, but because the machinery for | “Leglslative Leglsla- | Choosing representatives is not adapt- | it «tu. | €d to the changed conditions. i agues In Congress | “This implies no critictsm uthoritative and | Luce is careful to point o 't the alities of our legislators nt of character, in ¥ and patriotism 1t i 2 el ¢ question of whether we { dictatorship is highly signifi- Shadl long continue to ask our .leg. | ant, Mr. Luce believes, and even more | islz#lve bodies to achleve what fs fast | 0 1S the cry in this country for single | bed dming impossible. teadership. Sl ~ (Cites Case of Greece. lands and the Near East, mt:;&r:;:'}, The resort of Greece to a dictator-|ing the attempt, have returned to ab- Ip adds one more to the serfous|solutism, for that was the natuml1 casion for doubt as to the future of | course in view of their traditions ard | representative government,” he savs.|their raclal characteristics. Thus far | “The toppling of thrones that came |in the history of representative Inatiti. vith the World War seemed for the | tions the Germanic peoples have met noment to have ended one-man rule. | the need for governmental changes by Many thought we had not only made | reshaping thelr forms of government “he world for democracy, but|to meet new needs. There are indica. stablished it difinitely as the uni-| tions that in this they will seain oo ersal f of government. ceed without reaction. 3 1 The most inte d Turkey turn to dic-| now in progress, has replaced one with| Germany, where ther. Irance hangs on the edge of | usual form of parliament the new revolution, With parllamentary insti-| constitution sets up another bods tutions at the lowest point of disfavor. | made up of representatives chosen. no | Russia is 2 republic only in name. The |on the geographical basis, but on wu | olection of Von Hindenburg in Ger-|industrial, cotamercial g es. | 1lepub heen char: zress as the foremost hority on parliamenta 1story. There prob: has never bees 1w and s Speaks With Authorlty. Mr. Luce epeaks with authority on ot. ife served as a member Court of Mas: ears, from 1599 to s coun chusetts 1008%; of utenant ! the | rules and procedure of itutional convention, 1917-1919, | now serving his fourth term as | of the Houss, being chalr- | man of the committee on the Library. For more than 40 years he has made an intensive study of the whole subject of law making. With unique comblnation of original thought, long research and more than & quarter of a ntury of practical experfence, he has compiled four volumes— “Legislative Mr. hen t ting experiment Mr. Luce finds in alongside of the Spain, tators EDITORIAL SECTION he Sunday St WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 17, 1926. Difficult to See How United States | Could Enter Into Pact to Cut Army BY G. GOULD LINCOLN. NCLE SAM'S participation in the pro- posed conference for the limitation of armaments, €0 far as land armaments are concerned, must, under present conditions, be largely academic. In- deed, this has been made evident by President Coolidge himself in his messages to Congress on the subject of limitation of armaments. The United States has reduced its land forces until today there are approximately 118,000 enlisted men and 12,000 officers in the Army. When it is taken into consideration that the United States has & population of about 112,000,000 persons, that it has a vast extent of territory and that it is the wealthiest nation under the sun, it not only does not appear that this force 1s excessive, but also that it should not be further reduced. It ts possible that the United States, at the conference now called by the League of Na- tlons and for which & preliminary conference is to be held roon in Geneva, may be asked to limit its land forces, so that in the future they shall not be increased beyond a certain maximum. It may be fairly expected, however, that if any attempt is made to fix such a max- fmum under a ratio plan such as gvas adopted at the Washington conference in’1922 for the capital ships of navies, the limit set for the American Army would be considerably greater than the Army of today X K k ¥ The tendency in the United States since the close of the World War has been to reduce more and more the size of the Army. Recent history and the evident purpose of Congress to keep the Army as small as possible would lead to the belief that it would be scarcely necessary for any international conferance to attempt to Jimit the lamd armaments of this country. After the war, with the lessons of that con- fifet still n rind. Congress enacted the so- called national defense The purpose of the act was to set up a rkeleton Army upon which the national defense might bufld in time of emergency. It gave to tho country in leg. islative form its first really constructive plan for national defense. When this country en tered the World War it had had no defense plan. There was delay and confusion incident to belng unprepared, even so far as adequate plans were concerned. In the first six months of our participation in the war thers were mobflized 933,563 enlisted men and 58,400 of- flcers, and at the time of the armistice this country had a %otal of 485,454 enlisted men and 188,434 officers. It will be remembered, however, that all this mobllization and training of men and officers was golng in this country while no foe was on American soil and that It was almost 14 months after this country entered the war that Ameri n troops were used in large numbers against the en- emy in Europe. The national defense act authorizes a max- jmum strength of 280,000 enlisted men and the requisite number of officers for such a force. But not since the passage of that act has Congress appropriated anything lke the amount of money needed to feed, clothe and pay such a force. The Army in 1921 numbered on {RADICAL FARM AID MEASURES JAM CALENDARS OF CONGRE ‘[Billions in Federal Funds Asked in Bills and Resolu- tions for Price-Fixing, Marketing, Warehous- 218,000 men, and it was decreased in 1922 to 182,000 men and at present numbers about 118,000. As a matter of fact, the enlisted strength of the Regular Army is smaller now than it was in 1917, when we entered the World War. At that time the Army had been recruited up largely because of the threatening trouble with Mexico. So, too, the officer per- wonnel of the Army has been reduced, first to 13,000 and then to 12,000, The Regular Army of the United States has at least two functions. One is to ald in the national defense against a. foreign enemy and the other I8 to defend the Government of the United States and uphold the Constitution if danger threatens from within. At preselt the Army numbers little more than one man to each 1,000 population, in & country whoss size 1s enormous. The Army necessarily is scattered over this large area and also in the various possessions of this country, including the Philippines, Hawail and Alaska. It is sald on reliable authority that it would not be pos- sible to mobilize a thousand men of the Regu lar Army In the Natlonal Capital itself under five or six hours, no matter what the emer- gency might be. The same thing s true of many of the great citles of the country. To cut the Army etfll further, it is contended, would be the height of unwisdom, regarding the matter merely as a domestic question and without regard to the requirements for national defense against a forelgn enemy. Roughly speaking, thers are 100,000 officers and men of the Regular Army in continental United States. Some 15,000 are located in Hawall, less than 9,000 in the Panama Canal Zone and some 11,000 or 12,000 in the Philip- pines. The forces in the Philippines are largely native troops, the Philappine Scouts. Men who have made & study of the situation con- tend that for adequate defense of the great canal which means so much to the United States in the event of war, the number of troops maintained there 15 entirely insufficient Hawali, regarded as the main base In the Pa ‘ffic Ocean, they say, should have war-strength division. A third function of the Regular Army of the United States {s to ald in the training of the organized reserves, the Natlonal Guard, the citizens' military training camps, the students at colleges where they have military training. This duty requires a very considerable num. ber of officers and men at all times. *x x k ok A comparison of the land armies of the United States with those of other great na. tions of the world i3 of much Interest in view of the coming conference. Not only s the numerical strength of the American Artoy n comparison to that of the armies of Gre Britain, Jupan, France and Italy, but Americ: expends far less per capita for its Army than Great Britain and France, notwithstanding the vast wealth of this Natlon. The appropria- tions for the armies of these five natioms in 1024 were s follows: The British Empire, $366.661,408; Japan, $98,500,000; the United States, §257,274.768; France, $178,309,138; Italy, $117,333,091. The population of the mother countries in each instance s as follows: Great Britain, 44,200,000, Japan, 59,300,000; United least one s States, 112,000,000; France, 89,660,000, and Italy, 40,000,000. The numerical strength of the active armies of these nations is estimated as follows: Great Britain, exclusive of India and other possessions, with a few exceptions, 152,626; Japan, 210,000; the United States, 180,000; France, 685,459; Italy, 220,898. These are the fleures for the active armies. Thers are also the organized reserves, which in the United States include the National Guard, re serve officers, etc. * K ¥ K [n this country there is voluntary service, as well as {n Great Britain. But tn the other countries military service {s compulsory, and the trained men, therefore, run into the mil- lions as the years go by. America’s part at the proposed conference on land armaments, therefore, can only be at best sympathetic. It is not belleved that uhder the most favorable circumstances the other great nations of the world would agree to iimit thefr land armaments to a degree that the United States has already attained. However, if there 1s to be 2 maximum lmit, a ratio rangement among the powers, the United States will perforce have to take into consider- ation the actual needs which may arise in thg future, both with regard to the domestic, or police, duty for the National Government and for any possible aggression from without. The military system of a nation, which is de veloped either on the basts of voluntary enlist- ment or compulsory military service, has a considerable bearing on the expenses attached to the maintenance of & standing army. The largest single item in the military expendi- tures of the United States, for example, s the pay of the personnel. If the minimum base pay of the lowest grade in the armies of tho United States, Great Britain, France, Ttaly and Japan—the nations embraced in the naval lim- atlon treaty negotiated at the Washington conference—it is found the American and the British soldier receives much higher pay than an in the armies of the other three coun where military service i3 compulsory. £ ik In making a comparison of the milita budgets of the varlous natlons this discrepan in the pay of the personnel, due to the differ- ent systems, must be taken into account. The base minimum pay per day of the sol- diers of the five countrles to which reference has been made is as follows: Unit.d States, $.70; Great Britain, $.60; Japan, $.063; Italy, $.017, and France, $.012. The pay per day of the Amerlcan soldier would be sufficlent to pay 53 French soldlers for a day, 41 Italian soldlers, or 11 Japanese soldiers. Furthermore, it costs more to feed the ed States soldfer than it does to feed the woldiers of the other countries. Annual sub. sistence for a soldler of these countries fs estimated as follow: nited Stat Great Britain, $94. Japan, $8 $53.44, and France, $50.15. The military budgets for these nations, if the men were pald and fed off the same scale as the American soldler, would be vastly in- creased, as may be readily understood from these figures. France would lead them all, including the United States, with a budsget of $392,530,721. 5 S LAYS RUBBER PRICE SITUATION TO LACK OF FORESIG Redfield, Former Secretary of Commerce, Says Op- portunity to Prevent Conditions Knocked HT IN U. S. many Is expected by many to be but a step toward the return of the em- pire. England finds herself with power more than ever nearly concen- trated in one man, the prime min- ister, And most significant of all, the cry for eingle leadership was never so loud in ti United States. “In short, epresentutive stablished iod wrehs the red and romwell put an e Lo ‘prating’ of its meml 1as probably been no time. eminds us, “when the legislative branch was held in such low esteem as it 18 today. Dissatisfaction Everywhere. It 18 paipable that everywhere men are not satisfied with the results of having their laws framed by chosen representatives working under the conditions that prevail. Many reasons are advanced for.this dissatlsfaction. Only a few of them go to the essence. One of them und in the belief that laws. That is an tion, for the fact is that while there innumerable rifics of the legislation tuken as v ; Jial t nobody e any 2 ss of legi: i Luce emphi- nadequats explar thoughtful man t go through the enactmnents of a session of Congress or a e Legislature wnd point out any single law which e is sure ought not to have been passed, and he will have difficulty in specifying. Or take the spread of governmental activity, which in the ast generation has doubled the tax rats, and he will be u rare man who will urge retracing of steps in any specified di; “If the platforms of pol ates be examined, if the s be apalyz a of nev wnd #f the ordinary discussions of men e noted, it will be found that the at burden of complaint is not be- ;ause of the enactment of laws, but Recent Eruption of Mount Vesuvius Was Prophesied Several Months Ago Mount Vesuvi prelud was prophesied several month Dr. A. Malladr -oleanologlst, according to Dr. Henry . Washington of the Geophysical Laboratry of the Carnegle Institution. “1 was in Rome last Summer when & report of a Vesuvius eruption ex- cited the city,” said Dr. Washington. “I wired to Dr. Malladra, who sald that it was only a rumor, as such re- ports frequently are, but invited me to oome down to Naples and go out for a look at the mountain anyhow. “He showed me a place on the side of the volcano where In his opinfon the next outbreak was due to come; reported activity of be only and from what T can tell from reports | led me the new lava to have broken out at t have re: dows seem his epot.” Vesuvius is no stranger to Dr. Washington. He has visited it every vear or two for a long perlod.ta.;xd took part tn a special study of its last great eruption, which took-place in 1806. *Though this eruption 48 not to be and profes- | which will frame those laws that are of a technical nature. | These, to be sure, must also be adopted | by the usual parliament, but with the | preliminary work all done by a body | of men with speclalized training. It| ‘may be that in practice the actual re- | ults will be more acceptible to the tior Mr. Luce surmises. Crying Need of Today. our country th - he insis Is to take out of State legislatures and the Con- s the work of enacting administra- sional basis, rying need policies. For one, I continue in the ! belief that a representative assembly | furnishes the best means ever devised | for determining the will of the peo-| plo in the matter of policy. Fallure | begins when such an assembly starts | the work of creating the machinery. | “In this respect England is work- | ing out the most promising solution. Within the last 30 or 40 years it has | developed a system under which many | of the detalls of administrative legis- | ‘latmn are framed by experts in the .‘gnvernment departments concerned. | These take the shape of what are known as ‘provisional ord .’ Some of them have the force of law when issued and thereafter, unless annulled by Parliament within a specified time, while others take effect when approved by Parlinment. | In practice this approval has been | almost perfunctory, a matter of course, but Parliament always has the | veto power at its command. This &ys- | tem has relieved Parliament of a ma- | terial part of its work, apparently with no detriment of importance. It may be that something of the sort must be adopted here if the confidence | of the people in law-making bodies 1s to be restored. “"The great difficulty with these bod. | | ies today is that they are overwhelmed with work, and for a great part of this | | work they are by reason of their make- | The processes of representative gov- ernment, therefore,” Mr. Luce con- | cludes, “more than its principles, are | what need reform.” | surplus farm produce and seil ing and Surplus Products Sale. . BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. Capltol Hill is deluged with propo- eitlons and panaceas for so-called farm rellef. Bills and resolutions calling recklessly for billlons of dol- lurs of Federal funds for agricultural ald ha been introduced in both House and te. Farm leaders from all ov country mbled in Washin; lust week in conven- tions and conference with the there | tive laws—In other words, the rules |administration, themselves astonished Luce and regulations for giving effect to at the magnitude and maze of schemes that have been put forth. The legislative medicine which con- gresslonal doctors are prescribing for agricultural distress, like low prices and surplus crops, runs the gamut from conservative co-operation to na- tional soclalism. There are schemes for Government price-fixing of wheat, cotton, corn, rye, flax, oats, barley, rice, sugar and wool. Other projects would compel Uncle Sam to buy up t abroad at dumping prices, the United States Treasury pocketing any inci- dental loss. Certain proposais pro- vide for purchase and maintenance of Government warehouses. World Farm Parley Asked. Every conceivable varlety of Gov- ernment ald, subsidy and support has been evolved in one form or another. One proposal calls upon President Coolidge to assemble an International agricultural conference as the surest method of working out the salvation of American farmers in particular, and those of the world in general. If any considerable portion of the different cures put forth for relief were to be carried out, the United States would be plunged into the farm- ing business on a gigantic scale. The country would find {tself in agriculture almost as _deeply and directly as to- aper editoriuls Le observed, | up and their methods quite unfitted. | day it finds itsélf in the business of carrying the mails or maintaining na- tional defense. Many of the schemes are of the wild-cat type. Most of them, as Aaron Sapiro told the Na- tional Co-operative Marketing Asso- clatlon convention, gre ‘“heavily 8. A Dill to abolish the United States Tariff Commission, and another to abolish the Federal Trade Commis- sion, both proposals being conceived in the interests of agricuiture. | 4 A | tive Sinc | rth Dukota, called the al Prices Stabilization Act sroposes pri shelled corn, raw cotton and raw wool and a Government commission to fix minimum prices of controlled crops during the next four years. The bill would stabilize prices for the crop of 1924, which is partially still on the market. No. 1 Northern wheat Is pegged at $Z a bushel at Chicago; cot- ton, at 80 cents a pound, at New Or- leans, and unwashed wool, at 66 cents @ pound, at Boston. The same bill would revive the United States Grain Corporation to buy controlled crops at Government- fixed prices and then sell em in America at an advance and to foreign consumers at any price deemed ad- visable. Tor these varlous purposes the bill asks an appropriation of $1,000,000,000. 1 $100,000,000 Fund Asked. 5. A bill, al€o sponsored by Repre- | sentative Sinclair, is entitled the “Farmers’ and Consumers' Financing Corporation Act.” $100,000,000 for putting the Govern- ment into the warehousing and sell- ing business, to make a short cut be- tween the producing and consuming groups. 6. A bill, also sponsored by Repre- sentative Binclalr, calling for the as- sembling by the President of an in- ternational conference on agriculture, with a view to considering interna- tlonal pools for handling of farm prod- uce. 7. _A bill introduced by Senator Cur- tis, Republican, of Kansas, to create an “Interstate Farm Marketing Asso- clatfon.” This scheme, known as the Yoakum plan, would empower 11 well known farm leaders, whose names are incorporated in the bill, to form a board authorized to expend $10,000,000 sponsored by Representa | This appropriates | in Vain Years Ago. BY WILLIAM (. REDFIELD. Former Secrotary of Commerce. The current discussion about the price of rubber in connection with the alleged tish monopoly of that ma- 1 has not been distinguished either dignity or candos seem to forgot 1 s serfousl seem to take ourselves. Much has been left unsaid in the discussion: that would have thrown light on the situation had it been spoken. An important element in the con- troversy from an American point of view 1s, or ought to be, the fine ex- ample of hindsight which it betrays. We are bemoaning that which it has long been in our power to prevent, but which we have lacked the foresight or the wisdom to treat effectively. Op- portunity has for years knocked at our doors but has knocked in vain. At any time during the past 10 years & briet act of Congress would have re- moved the legal bar that prevents the quite have a capital of $200,000,000 and the right to ixsue notes or bonds to the extent of $1,000.000.0b0, the latter sum to be used for buying up esporta- ble surpluses of crops whenever they occur. Critics of Government price- | fixing legislation declare that the Shipstead bill has more of the lan- guage and thought of the old Me- Nary-Haugen bill than any present- ed at this session of Congress. Export Board Sought. 12. A bill, introduced by Senator McNary, Republican, of Oregon, set- ting up a ‘armers’ Export Corpora- tion,” under an appropriation of $50,- 000,000, with the right to issue $500,- 000,000 in bonds and notes and the privilege practically of fixing prices whenever the corporation finds there is going to be a surplus of any prod- uct. 18. A bill, sponsored by Represent- ative Dickinson, Republican, of Iowa, forming o “Federal Farm Advisory frelghted with unconstitutionality.” | The multiplicity and extreme nature in organizing State marketing asso-!Council,” mote marketing, elim- clations, or_ State units, to ald 1n | naan ereebition” aad mibimize Ily important erup- | | compared with the cataclysm of 79 A.D., which wiped out Pompeil | nd Herculaneum,” Dr. Washington stated, “it wus really very severe. One or two hundred feet of the sum- mit was blown off, and the crater was. considerably widened. After the eruption the new crater had a depth of about 1,200 feet, with very steep sides. “Since that time it has been slowly filling up again, and a small cone, 200 or 800 feet high, has been bullding. Last Fall the lava level was up to within 100 feet of the lowest point in the rim. *“Vesuvius, however, seldom sends lava flows over the rim of the crater; they usually break out on the sides| of the mountain, accompanied with | the eruption of vast clouds of smoke | and ashes. The production of lava | from Vesuvius 15 much smaller, pro-| | portionately, than that from Ltna. Etna, of course, is a greater moun- tain, being 12,000 feet high, as against the 4,000 feet of Vesuvius; and its lava {8 much more copious and also more fluld than that of the smaller of the various rellef projects explain why for the present President Cool- idge and Secretary Jardine refuse to commit the administration to any sweeping plan. Tt became plain dur- ing “Farm week” in Washington that American agriculture is many-minded on the subject of how its salvation is to be worked out. The sentiment of co-operative marketing leaders was distinctly against schemes looking to Government partnership in agricul- ture. Yet so sane and respected a farm leader as former Gov. Frank O. Lowden of Illinols, who address- ed the co-operatives, insisted that some “power’—by which he means Federal power—must be Invoked if America is to “survive the decay of its agriculture.” Principal Bills Listed. The following is a list of the prin- clpal farm rellef bills submitted to Congress during the past few weeks: 1. A bill prohibiting “future” sales of cotton and wheut, whereby *‘short” selling would be impossible and specu- lation on cotton exchanges and boards of trade practically eliminated. 2. A bill to extend the discounting of the Federal farm banks, ‘whereby individual farmers would be permitted to borrow directly, creating co-operative marketing agen- cles. 8. A bill introduced by Representa- tive Swank of Oklahoma providing $10.000.000 for the construction of Government warehouses in conjunc- tion with co-operative assoclations. Price-Fixing Measure. 9. A bill, sponsored by Represent- ative Christopherson of South Da- kota, setting up the “American Stabilizing Commission.” This com- mission would buy a large variety of staple farm products on delivery at terminal points at Government-fixed prices. Each year before the various crops are planted the commission | would announce the price it would pay for the surplus of such crops. For these purposes the Government would provide $500,000,000. 10. A bill, introduced by Senator (I\I\:Rlnley. Republican, of Illinois, called the “Nationul Farmers Co-op- erative Bureau Act.” Under it Fed- eral Reserve and Land banks would have power to make loans directly to co-operative marketing associa- tions against warehouse receipts. 11. A bill, sponsored by Senator Shipstead, Farmer-Labor, of Minne- sota, proposing the formation of the “United States Agricultural Export Corporation.” The corvoration m_/ > waste. Co-operative marketing lead- ers in Washington pointed out that the Dickinson bill authorizes the ad- visory council to assist in removing surplus farm produce from the do- mestic_market, and declared that it {8 McNary-Haugen surplus export legislation in “polite language.” Tt | was attacked as a project which would arrange the domestic price by dump- ing the surplus abroad and collecting the losses from the American growers by means of a so-called equalization fee or tax. 14. A bill, introduced by Represent- ative Haugen, Republican, of Iowa, which is known as the Department of Agriculture bill, providing for setting up a division of co-operative market- ing in the department. This i3 the project sponsored by Secretary Jar- dine and indorsed by President Cool- idge. It aims at giving every possible | Government assistance to existing co- operative marketiug agencles without /in any way seeking to regulate or contrpl them. It is sald to be the only '“farm relief’ measure now be- fore Congress with any assured pros- pect of passage. It attempts for the first time to put Government aid be- hind distribution of farm produce as such aid now is put bebind produc- tion. _ ACwpyright. 1900K . . @evelopment of an adequats rubber supply from the Philippines by limit- Ing the areas that may be bought or leased to such as are too small for rubber plantations. { At any jime within the past 10 the government of the Dutch idies has been res to s who wished ions, already done. With these two doors standing open before us it is the mer- est futllity to complain of others for courses, which, while uncomfortable, are, nevertheless, such as we might have avoided by ordinary foresight. Americans Get Share. Agaln, why {s the fact omitted from the discussions that some far-sighted Americans took advantage years ago of the friendly attitude of the Dutch authorities and so acted thereon that vast areas of rubber trees are and ars East jurisdiction? Why is the fact ignored that in British Malaya itself Ameri- cans are in control of plantations through which they are beneficiarles in thelr proportion of the alleged Brit- {1sh monopoly? Why is it not made | clear that the Duteh insule thori- ties on being asked to join in the price restrictions which are found so objectionable refused to do so and have always maintained that inde- pendent attitude. One of the quiet humors of the whole situation is the speaking silence of those American concerns who were wise in time, and it 1s no excessive stretch of the imagination to presume that much, if not most, of the outcry arises from those others of whom it may have been written: ey th w . T B ey S R P Every one interested knew a few years ago that the rubber growers of Malaya were at the point of ruin. There was then no how! from Ameri- cans when they were purchasing ot prices that were so inordinately low that it required but the merest com- ,mon sense to know that such a condi- tlolla oouh}h:ot continue. evident t prices must advance sharply or that disaster faced the in- dustry—asfd which of these would have been better for the American buyers? Americans were, indesd, asked why, with the Etevenson plan staring them in the face, they did not ’buy largely when rubber was cheap, and the answer was given by the head of g l:l.rgem;mi‘flmn company that such purc] s could nof financed here. P inie Thinks Protests Boyish. Under such circumstances it fs boy- ish to speak of conditions creafing ‘great, malignant currents of inter national {ll-will,” when it s patent to every one that American interests took over large areas in Sumatra and Malaya and have been enlarging 4nd developing them ever since, and are now drawing supplies of rubber from It was long ITALY SEEKS Mussolini’s Goal Is in Anatolia and Colonial BY FRANK H. SITMONDS. F all Buropean countries at the present hour, it s clear that none, not even Russia, presents & picture o bewil dering, €0 incomprehensible to the average American, as Italy. The Britain of Baldwin and Chamber- laln, the France of Briand, even tho | Germany of Luther and Stresemann, raises 1o such problems in compre. hension as does the Italy of Mussolini. | And precisely as Italian domestic poli- | ties baffle, so do Itallan forelgn poli- cles at one time confuse and, If the | truth 1s to be told, irritate the Ameri- | can observer, For this ifritation the reasons are not hard to find. All things constd ered, it s clear that France, Britain and, generally speaking, all the large and’ small victor nations of the war, as well as the succession states cre accepting and maintaining the condi- rope. Even Germany, through pact of Locarno, has given evidence } ot a recognition of the need and the | economically and politically crippling suspicion of belligerent purpose. Italy “Rocking the Boat.” Italy, on the other hand, to Ameri- can as to British and French eyes, appearance of willfully “rocking the boat.” From Rome thers continue to come the expressions of opinions which seem, on the whole, not only strangely out of harmony with pres- ent world oplnfon, but indicate that Italy, o far from accepting the sta- tus quo, gives constant proof of o national determination to acquire for herself a place in the world which it {8 dificult to belleve can be won without war. It is true that Mussolini has ex- plained his words about a restoration of the Roman Empire as having fig- urative rather than material signifi cance, as being spiritual rather than | chauvinistic, but the constantly re- curring {ncidents in Italy’s relations with varfous adfacent nationalities | unmistakably do tend to create and continue a feeling of apprehension. Underlying ell else, of course, fs cal imposstbility for the av- inglishman to un- cism or Mussolini. derstand either f It is true that there are those {n both | countries who have an open or covert admiration for an intelligent dicta- ‘lol'ahlp which spares a country from all the manifold wearinesses and in- lan!lludeu of parliamentary and con- | gressional government at the present moment. Yet on the whole the Mus solinl methods awaken grave doubts even In the minds of thoss who ap- plaud the Mussolini results. Definite Meaning to Italians. It 1s fairly apparent, however, even {to those who by instinct and nature most condemn the Mussolini episode, | that it means something {n the min of millions of Italians. That it has the unanimous or even the overwhelm- ing support of the Italian millions | may be open to question. On the other hand, that it has great support is undeniable; that it means some- | thing to millions beyond a mere tri- {umph of an adventurer, that It ex- | presses something significant In the | Itallan nature, that it expresses some- | thing potent In the present Italian | mind, this Is clear. What s it, after all, that Italy at the present hour represents? What 1s ¢ that so much of Italian feeling | and imagination seem centered upon? { In reality the question s of prima: becanse it is clea of the next f the histor mor a modern Ita This is due not only to the obviou resolve of the Itallans to have and | to bold the position of a first-class | power, but also to the circumstances | ! which have made those lands and | meas which have pecullar interest for { | Italy precisely the places where the | great racial, national and economic forces of Europe must meet and even collide in the next half century. Explains True Conditions. The story of the unification of Italy is already old, although Italy has In | the Trentino. It fs more than 50| years since the French garrison was withdrawn from Roms and the | Eternal City became once moro the |capital of the whole peninsu i I have recently heen the comments of | friend of mine who sought to explain something of the true inwardness of | cotemporary Itallan conditions. He | | safa: | ““The first great error made by for- elgners in thinking of Italy is in be- | Ueving that modern Italy was made |on the hour in which geographical {unity was attained. From tho fall | of Rome in the fifth century to the occupation of the city by Itallan | troops in 1870, there had been no Italy, no natfonal unity, nothing to ! compare with the common history | which has bound Marseilie to Part | for example, for four centuries and o half. And even after 1870 Italy was still what a Frenchman—was it Lamartino®—described it as being, namely, a geographical expression. That was what Cavour and Garibaldi, the heroes of that perfod, made it. “Between 1870 and the World War Italy achieved the second stage in ated by the victory, tand in common | agreement on the broad principle of | | advantage for herself of escaping the | has had and continues to have the | EXPANSION TO HOLD PLACE AS POWER to Replace Turks Build Up Great Empire. of think of Italy as France or Britain, as a very oid coun try inhabited by people who hav shared in & common history for many many centures. Certainly in art, lit erature, sclence, the Itallan contribu tion has been verv grear, but politi cally Ttaly has never existed in mod ern’times. Remember, too, if we fight soclallsm today, it is precisely for the same reason our grandfathers quar roled with the church; not becauss of | religlon, for we are and remain Cath | olie, but because the church in Itals two generations ago was anti | national. | Now, without secking to submit this | estimate to a quantitative analysts tc | Getermine how far it represents a per | sonal and how far & general bellef, it |1 at least clear that if it is but par tially accurate, one must etill expect something significant and disturbing from the Italy emerge fr Invariabl would of tlons of peace now prevaillng in Eu- | I the | through the stage Position Intolerable. It is clear, too, that most Italtans { regard the present position of Italy in the world as Int | great power, giver ! She 18 too strategica of the Mediterrancarn, east she taces the of Africa and Asi most strik national affairs n two generatior What, then, Italy, driven alike national sentiment national 1 ¥ The question 1= d cause the Italian { not by one obvious pos: | several. But quite us « | all pathways there lie certain patent | barriers. The lands which Jtaly would | take are nowhers vacant; the ro: | ehe would follow are not alone barred ! but are also indicated s the lines of | expanston of other ambitious peonies | To begin with, Italy may decide to | contest with France the position oceu | pled France in terranean and on ! Africa. Corsica, Tunis, Moroceo. not to ment h belong to F alard. lerable her population. in the center nd toward the t of Kurope and as well where the elopments in Inter v come in the nex! the ne united sai offe nent 1 colonizat! Moreov W | Algiers and Bizerta remai | the Italian outlet to the ¢ is blocked. Italy, then, w' lation increasing more ray that of France, might French dominance here. Yet inevi tably the challenge would extend to Britain, for Birtain at Gibraltar, Su and Maita similarly controls Italian sea lanes. Italian Domination Unlikely. Italians resent this French and Brit | ish position in the western Mediterra e fecling between France | a v s s 1 kindly and fre ‘qu@n(]\' bitter i » extremn But tc fight ¥y , to atte to_conqu: Tunis or Algeria, this would be to run frightful risks elsewhers, and it would fnvolve ultimate struggle witk the Arabs and Berbers of north Africe if the French garrisons and colonists were driven out. Above all, just as Germany would find Britain at back of France if now or hereafter she sought to come west across the Rhine, Italy would find Britain at the back of the French if she sought to revolutionize the situation in the west- ern Mediterranean. Italian domina- tion of the Mediterranean would be as dangerous for Britain as German ap h the v eed as Italian power was erected on the rulus of French—is unlikely. It is unlikels because of the reasons I have cited it 18 the more unlikely because of the dangers which would flow from such & policy elsewhere, particularly be cause of the Slav allies France would instantly acquire. To seek to retake Nice from France would risk the loss of Trieste, If not to the Jugoslave, then to the Germans. Near Eastern Policy. The s{cond line of Italian policy is long have been under direct Ameri. | Feality only fust achieved her true | plainly t3 seek the dominant position can control wholly free from British | Unity by the conquest of Trieste and | in the Near East—to become the con trolling influence all the way from Vienna to Constantinople and at the same in the Aegean and on the coasts of ! or to seek to build up a real I lonial empi But first of all not comie stria w Germany _ would one momen threaten Triests on the Adriatic unc destroy Italian influence in the Da nubian area. Once Austria wers joined to Ger- many the Reich would touch fro tiers with Hungary. It would beable by throwing its support to the Hun garlan demand for a restoration of the old Magyar millennial empirs, ta south. Minsure the support of garians. Its territ surround Czechoslo then again take up the loniki and to_Trieste, to tne reeuor tion of the Mittel war for u moment cri Italy must then, to bar the way to German expansion southward, draw into her orbit the two Slav states of Jugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. She must in reality become power in some new alliance which the basio her real unification. She had become | shall have as its central object the geographically united; she now became administratively united. There was created a national machine operating in the geographical units which on| ithe map was Italy. But there was i still no national fusion, nothing to | | compare with the sense which a thou- | ! sand vears of unity had given France | or England. If the first period was | | that of Cavour, the second was that { of Glolittl. Beginning of National Unity. | “The World War and its conse- quences brought with it the first real beginnings of national unity. ‘That is the phase we are in, a phase | through which France and Britain | passed a long time ago, through which | America passed certainly by the end |of the Civil War. Why was soclal- | ism, which in France and in Germany | carried with it no threat to national defense of the status quo. If she is to bar German advance along the Danube she must have French sup. port. That, after all, is the logic and the solid reason why Italy signed tie Locarno agreement Explains Treaty of Rapallo Also 1t is the reason, too, why Italy mu the treaty of Rapallo with the Juso slavs. Nothing in all Mussolinl's policy has been more surprising to the Western nations than his deliberats avoidance of break and a quarrel with the Jugoslavs and his ultimate agreement with them in the treaty of Rapallo and the later agreement of Rome. Italy must recognize cer- tain aspirations of the southern Slave or reckon on their permanent hos« tility—reckon on thelr being ulti- mately drawn into the German orbit It is a bitter thing to have to re them. Every one knows also that it is| unity, a peril for Italy? Simply be. | ounce Dalmatia—bitterer than tc purely our own fault that the Philip- | pines are not now furnishing us rub- ber in abundance, By all means let us save rubber where we can and let oa lmzebnu a: reclaimed material pos- sible, but before we cry' out others st us examine. ourssives s see how far we may have been negli- Shoriht. N0 .. . .. .. A cause in Italy, where national unity | was still unachleved, it became anti- ; ! national. “Today my country is going through | the phase which is essential to all peoples—it i achieving a spiritual and thus a true national unity. That is the service and the explanation of fascism and of Mussolini. Do not, ¥| box of You. make the common error have to renounce > Nice, to acquire Dal ha to surrender action, abandon her pansion elsewhere. I¢ one conceive, however, that Italy can reach a basis of assoclation with France—agree to support France on the Rhine in return for French su; Continusd op Nineteenth Page) e—but to regain ia, Ttaly would her freedom of hope of real ex