Evening Star Newspaper, June 13, 1926, Page 49

" EDITORIAL PAG NATIONAL PROBLEMS SPECIAL FEATURES Part 2—12 Pages SE ES RUIN TO FARMERS N PRICE-FIXING PLAN Senator Fess Declares McNary-Haugen Project, Now Before Senate, Is Merely “Political Bunk.”. BY SIMEON P. FESS. Senator from Ohio. (A _summary prepared by Senator Fesa of & speech he delivered last week in the Senate.) by which relief can In 22 here are methods genuine economic be given to the farmer. the past few Congresses measures have been enacted Jooking toward farm reliefs But this Dawes-McNary-Haugen plan will bring ruin instead. The theory is that the farmer shall pay an assessment which shall be devoted to bidding up domes- tie prices of corn, hogs, wheat, cattle and cotton to some fixed level above world ex and dumping the “sur- plus™ d at a lo All these comme < over the domestic nnual exports 0,000,000 the farmer will gain major part of his product is home and a minor part abroad. Re- gardless of the pleasant-sounding theory, it is disastrously unworkable for the following reasons: Glven Power to Tax. First—Under the bills proposed the farmers are to select a board, which the President is compelled to accept, which will he endowed with $200,000,- 000 or $300.000.000 working capital by e Federal Governm. ard totally unrestrained powers to contract with co-operatives—flour millers, meat packer: and expor at prices which thi at its own discretion, is to determine and sell abroad at any loss they deter- mine, the loss to be made good by a tax they alone asse The place where this tax, or “equalization fee,” .comes from is uncertain. It purports to be levied on the farmer, but, as it is to be collected from the “processor,” it will probably be passed on to the consumer. Such unlimited powers have never heen delegated in all his- tory toany industry, and, if constitu- tional, “is_ a precedent which will sooner or later be claimed by coal, steel and a host of other industries. It is in my view entirely unconstitu- tional, and for this reason the whole scheme will prove only a political bilk of the farmers, Second. Tt means a bureaucracy on unparalleled scale buying and selling commodities. Our exports of the products enumerated are $1,500,000,- 000 per annum. It is proposed that the export of this surplus at a loss shall be contracted out by this Gov- ernment agency to thousands of mill- packers and exporters who are ¢ and sell the raw material or tured products abroad. More- over, to bid up the hold-up prices on the domestic market some buying and selling must be done for domestic ac- count because the products are sea- sonal and price8 must be held up on | domestic supplies pending exports. The total volume of buying and sell- ing will far exceed $1,500,000,000. - It is the most gigantic entry of the Government into business ever con- templated in peace—or even in war. It will be accompanied by tyranny over tne farmer by fraud, politics and corruption. Government Price-Fixing. Third. This is price-fixing because this Government agency must deter- mine what price it will uphold on the domestic market and what price it will sell at abroad. The law says it must buy and sell at a falr and ities have a su ! demand, the 2 amounting to because The idea is that | Biven corn and the | Prices than the American swine grow- Sold at | er and dairvman—the loss in selling {man in Canada or reasonable price. This is price-fixing itself. Fourth. It is a complete guarantee of profits to every miller, packer and dealer without any regulation or re- straint, because any one of these packers, millers or dealers who have a contract to export can fix any profits he likes on domestic dealings and then heave any left-overs onto the Government loss account. Even with- out a contract every one of these agencies which has a surplus in hand can force the Government agencies to buy and export it. Otherwise if he dumps in the domestic market he will break the domestic price. Fifth. It will ruin American ani mal industry because it is proposed to sell feed abroad at less price: at home. Any swine grower or Denmark will be mill feed at le: 10 him to_be paid by a on_the American farmer or consume! This means that the “equalization fee” on hogs will need be increased in order to make good larger and larger def- icits. Would Increase Production. Sixth. The trouble with the agri- cultural industry today is overproduc- tion, and this scheme will only st:mulate more production of wheat and cotton and corn, hog and cattle to be dumped in increased qualtities on foreign markets and thereby break the world prices to lower levels. is said that this will necessitate an increase in the equalization tax on the farmer in order to pay the in- creasing losses up to a point where he will restrain his production. But what gain does he get by deliberately going into a scheme by which he is to be impoverished to a point where he will quit producing. Seventh. The ultimate political power in the country rests in the consumer. There are six of him to every farmer of any one of these product Do you think that the ur- ban population will not join with the farmers who grow other commodities and ultimately do the price fixin: The farmer who puts the sale of his product in a political agency is com- mitting suicide. Advantage to Foreigners. Eighth. This is a proposition to sell food at much higher price level to our own people than to foreigners. Thus can they better compete with us in markets of the world for our manufacturers, of our foreign markets for manufac- unemployment, into busines sion and a shrinking of our home market for the farmer. His losses on the home market will be greater than all the “equalization fee” on his exports. Ninth. Our farmers do need help. They mneed real help, not rainbow These measures are not supported the strongest farm organization in our country—the Grange. It is not sup- ported by the practical farmers, who are represented by the great co-opera- tive marketing assogiations. It is po- Iitical bunk. Tt is a “lift-yourself-by- your-boot-strap” theory of economics. depres- farmer, but first we must get rid of rainbow chasing. There are practical means of aiding the farmer in the marketing of his products. Such a proposal is before Congress and should be acted upon. POLITICS IN CREATION OF PARKS * OF U. S. DEPRECATED BY EXPERT Too Much Haste in Selecting Areas Called Danger- ous—Previous Cautious Policy of Nation Cited. BY ROBERT STERLING YARD, Secretary National Parks Association. This Nation is accustomed to select with very great care and deliberation the pictures to be hung in our Na- tional Gallery of Scenic Masterpieces in ordergthat there shall be few to re- gret in later vears as unworthy of this famous collection. 1t needed 15 vears to make Rocky Mountain National Park. and 33 vears before everybody was satisfled with the inclusions in the Grand Canyon National Park. Two or three vears ago Congress created Brsce Canyon, a Rorgeous Utah valley, a national park condi- tional upon the Government acquiring certain lands. These lands have not been acquired, and Bryce (‘anyon re- mains the national monument it was before the natiol park bill was passed. Probably it will remain so for many years. Perhaps it will never become a national park. So with the Shenandoah, Great Smokies and Mammoth Cave areas which Congress conditionally created national parks in May. Until the conditions named in the acts have been fulfilled, they are not national parks. Shouting time for their local promoters may not come for several years. Must Get Good Title. The promoters of Shenandoah first must search titles of hundreds of pri- vata properties aggregating 400 square miles, then buy the properties, and finally present them in one consoli- dated area to the Government; and to do this they must first raise a great deal more money than they now have subscribed. ‘Conditions ~confronting the other proposed parks are similar. Few national parks have required less than four or five years to select and define and for the people of the country to approve. Even now, the expert National Park Service. after elght years of study, Is asking Con- gress to recognize the boundaries of national parks created in the very avs before much was known of the wilderness included. Building the National Parks System is serious busi- ness requiring years of experience and study. That is why one of these proposed eastern national park bills places the National Parks System in critical danger. Cites High Speed Action The Mammoth Gave National Park bill was introduced on April 15 and was signed on May 25, less than six weeks after; without the approval of the Secretary of the Interior and the director of the National Park Service! ,_In fact, neither had even seen Mammoth' Cave. Secretary Work wroté to the public lands committee of both houses offering to send the and report. They made no reply, but reported the bill favorably, and Con- gress rushed it through three days later. i This way is destruction. I foreses that national parks hereafter will be pawns in the semi-annual struggle of political parties for the control of Congress. The precedent is made right_here. It has been the pride of the National Park Service, and of the many million admirers of national s throughout the country, that stem, hoth in respect to selection of parks and their administration, had remained wholly out of politics, but this is true no longer. Public Not Informed. The people have had no chance even to look this proposed national park over, much less to speak. ‘What does any one know of the fit- ness of this picture to hang in our national, picture gallery? Its fame rests on the tradition“of a century ago when the West was undiscovered | and our Eastern mountains unex- plored. Then it stood in the fromt rank of American spectacles; does. it stand there toda No one knows. Questions like that cannot be deter. mined in six weeks. The Interior De. partment has never even seen it. Is a cave a park? The Government custom is to preserve distinguished caves as national monuments, not na. tional parks. We need a new uprising and a new slogan: No politics in iy our national (Covyright. 1926.) Thomas Moore Ho;lored As Patriot and Poet County Wexford Historical Society in Ireland has just erected a tablet on the house in which lived the mother of Thomas Moore, the national poet, and the mayor and corporation of the city assoclated themselves with the tribute. /Moore’s mother was Anas- tasla Codd, and her husband, John Moore, came from Kerry. “Opinions on Moore, have differed, and will continue to differ to the end,” said Rev. T. Byrne. “‘Some hailed the poet as a national idol, while others denounced himr as a _cockney. In the poet's life were incidents which did not appeal to the Irish patriot. He spent most of his time in England, and was the idol of its aristocratic circles. But under his gay and frivol- ous nature he had the heart of an Irish patriot. He was an intimate friend of Robert Emmet, and wrote Yational Park Service to examine it -for the republican organ, ihe | Pregs.” L It § he Sunday "ASHINGTON, BY SIR PHILIP G EMPERANCE propaganda in England 18 working openly and secretly in favor of total prohibition. The restrictions for the sale of liquor iy in force as a legacy of the war meas- that the temperance advocates— s, as their enemies call them—are not without power in the land. 1 believe they are zaining in power and that the day is not far distant when this country will be asked to decide between a “wet” and “dry” policy for the nation. There is no doubt to my mind that the woman's vote, especially in the great manu- facturing cities, would be given heavi favor of prohibition. It is they who suffer in their lives and souls from the curse of drink, which is still a frightful cause of poverty and misery in our social life, though to . mothing like the same extent as in former periods of history. Many great emple convineed that tota ain would increase profits by ratsing the cers of labor are secretly prohibition in Great Brit- th output and their efficiency of the men, They and their financi; friends believe that it wonld lead to new British prosperity by adding much to the purchasing power of the wage earning ¢ B stimulating the de- mand for all el es of manufactured goods. ~They believe that it would encourage thrift, industry and focial discipline, as a proof. of, which they quote what they believe to be the unanimous opinion of employers in the United States. s > B o B Certainly, when I was last in America that opinion was expressed very forcibly by every employer of labor with whom I spoke, and I spoke with many One and all reported that prohibition had changed the whole spirit of industry. Men came to work on Monday morn- ing without that “tired feeling.” There were not so many absentees. Their output and gen- eral efliciency were on a much higher level. D. €, SUNDAY MORNING, EDITORIAL SECTION Star JUNE 13, 1926. Prohibition Work OQut? suaded or coerced or betrayed into any mew measures of temperance reform we should do well 10 look more closely into the resultsl of that great American experiment of total pro- hibition. \ Lately they have been looking into it them- selves with anxieus and perturbed eyes, with the general result that an immense body of public opinion seems to have swung over in favor of repealing or modifying the * X laws. In private‘conversation with average Amer- icans one hears the frank admission that pro- hibition, however good for the Nation as a whole, has resulted in a wholesale violation of the law by the most intelligent classes, a mass of corruption, bribery and crime, which is weukening respect for all law, and an epidemic of secret and excessive drinking which threat- ens to wreck the health and morals of the younger generation in all the great cities. It is impossible to keep out “the booze.” There is a conspiracy of judges, police and public to let it in. 55 o e < T saw for myself from United States fo the other, there is no lack of it for any who can afford to pay. It flows at private dinner parties, and bhecause forbid den by law, assumes an importance which would be regarded as disgusting in British homes. Women, as well as men, drink as though it is their only chance of mental ele- vation. I went to a party in one of the best houses of a great city in the West, and every woman there, including beautiful young girls, became hopelessly intoxicated before the evening wus out. College boys carry flasks in their hip pockets and give drinking parties to girl friends. The most peisonous brands of aicohol are palmed off by the “bootlezgers,” causing blind- ness, insanity or crimes of passion. Or, if they can't get drink, they get drugs, which are worse, The mothers of well-to-do families—boys and one end of the with the greatest eese, and still more because the working classes themselves bitterly resent having this temperance enforced upon them. * k ok * ‘There can be no doubt about this. In every political assembly in the United States for the last six years organized labor has declared itself opposed to prohibition. Thosé who proclaim its benefits to the workmen are not the work- men themselves, but their masters. While the laborers are denied any form of alcoholic stimulant, it flows freely in,the man- ager’s office, the superintendent’s private room, the manufacturers’ club, the directors’ smoking room. It is a ‘“rich man's law,” keenly re- sented as gross hypocrisy and as the most un- just form of class distinction by those who cannot afford to pay the bootlegger or bribe the police. Organized labor in America is afraid also that those who imposed prohibition upon him against his will may indulge in other forms of social tyranny. They may prohibit his ‘bacey. They may strike at his Mberty in many wavs to keep him virtuous and “efficient,” so in- creasing his employers’ profits. * X K K That, after all, lies at the root of the whole matter, in England as well as America. This prohibition of alcohol—harmless, or at least not dangerous when taken in moderation, and certainly a source of pleasure—is an attack upon liberty. If a man is to be coerced into temperance he may be enslaved spiritually and morally in a thousand other ways, against his conscience and his inclinations. His daughters may be arrested, as in Italy and Greece, for wearing short skirts. His wife may be prevented from going to the “movies.” He may be forbidden to sit up after 10 o at night, because it makes him less efficient. The state of things in “dry” America is a tragic warning to prohibitionists in Great Britain. Its grotesque result has been to de- stroy temperance among the most educated classes of society and to make secret drinking With the drying up | tured goods we shall be plunged into | There are methods of relieving the | prohibition for England. drinking, is not one of the glo ition. * kx k ok as a noble ins! But hefore we Those seem strong arguments in favor of There is a good deal of truth in them, and our corner public house, with its encouragement of quick and private es of our land and state to be defended with passionate love allow ourselves to be per. is sheer hypoeri; hearts that the ri girls in good soclety—ar horrible evil which has invaded their homes. The passionate advocatex of the dry laws, while admitting all these evils in the well-to-do classes, defend their case by saving, * the law against the rich while safeguarding the temperance of the working classes.” . because they know in their h can always evade the law terror-stricken at this the force That the most favored form of entertainment as a protest on behalf of liberty. In England we should do well to rely upon influence of places of refreshment and the high standard of good manners and decemw habits among all classes of our people to keep down the drink bill and empty the gin palace. outdoor exercise, pleasant (Copyright, 1026.) BY ISATAH BOWMAN, Famous Geographer and Technical Adviser at Paris Peace Conference Abd-ELKrim's dramatic surrender and the imminent conquest of the last of the Rifflan tribes may be the end of the chapter, but at most only a single chapter in the long chronicle of Mohammedan and Christian rela- tions. Of a piece with the Moroccan problem are the Syrian and Egyptian prohlems—in this respect, that all are bristling with religious difficulties. There are many other difficulties, too, but the religious aspects are of most poignant interest to the Moham- medans, who see Turkey rejecting the strict tenets of the founders, and shame, and newly transferred millions of the faithful living under Christian flags. It was only a few vears ago that certain prophets of disaster saw the crescent banner advancing to the un- doing of Western civilization. The horseman was so appallingly success- {ful an instrument of empire in the {days of Jenghis Khan and Tamerlane | that we may as well be impresesd with those historic examples of conquest and ask ourselves if they could not be repeated in our day. Religion Is Growing. There is no doubt that Mohamme- danism is growing with great speed. Nor can we overlook the potential col- lective power of 270,000,000 co-rel ists. What is important, howe to see the rigorous conditions under which these millions live, how serious {are the barriers of desert and sea about them, how scattered their re- sources, how divergent their religious sympathies, how eccentric their pur- 2 how perennial thelr quarrels. o desertic is most of the Moham- medan world that it can support only the thinnest densities of popula- tion. India and Egypt can give end- less trouble, but it is local trouble. They may seek to end the hated for- elgn rule, but this is far different from saying that they can take their re- sources with them in a campaign against a forelgn country. A popula- | tion dependent upon agriculture is irooted to the soil. Even a nomadic grazing soclety can menace only the settled border of its domain, however restless and menacing it may be. When it seeks to unite for attack the desert heat, drought, distance and empty space unite against it. As soon as the desert dweller is put upon the defensive the desert becomes his strongest ally. They fight for him. Pershing in Mexico spent six hundred millions of treasure—the cost of the Panama Canal—and took no fortified place, fought no pitched battle, cap- tured no large city: he fought heat and aridity and sand. Past Methods No Peril. No, the old days of possible con- quest from the desert are past and they will not menace us again if we keep our modern industrial supremacy and continue our control of the sea. There is not enough technical skill in the whole Mohammedan world to build or operate a single battleship or air- plane squadron. Short railwaysare here and there outside Turkey in the Mos- lem domain, but they are fixed, not flexible like a fleet. Moreover, the railroad is a mere point on the coast. Mobilization of the desert resources is impossible, and even if it were possible the instruments are lacking to make such mobilized resources effective. All these things clearly suggest a definite policy on the part of Christian powers—leave the Mohammedan world alone so far as possible and where power must be exercised let it be for a limited objective, for marginal con- trol. England has conspicuously fol- lowed such a policy, whether inten. tional r accidentally. Outlets and corridors and islands and straits near or in the Mohammedan world have been her objective. The alternative Is costly military.ex- the | caliphate a subject of bitter rivalry | | French franc with ever PERIL OF MOHAMMEDAN WAR ON CHRISTIAN RACES MINIMIZED Natural Resources and Inventive Genius of West Held Adequate, If Maintained on Present Basis. peditions. France is now paying a huge bill for more deep-seated war in Morocco and Syria; England hesitates at Mosul, and the members of Parlia- ment keep the government on the griddle about it. British éxpeditions into the Anglo-Egyptian Suddn have rolled up a pretty bill in years past. If the policy of marginal control is embarrassing at times, it has at least a contrasting advantage—the desert dweller is bound by his environment to the sofl on which he lives and the menace of his invasions is no longer a subject of practical international politics. (Copyright. 1926.) FEDERAL HIGHWAY AID FOUGHT OVER WIDE VARIANCE IN RATIOS Some States Receive Back More Than Paid in Taxes to United States While Than 2 Per Cent for Road Programs. BY HARDEN (COLFAX. Paying a dollar to reach into a grabbag at a charity bazaar and drawing forth a penny bauble may give one a feeling of virtuous exal- tation, but the sentiment threatens to turn slightiy sour, however worthy the cause, if the next donor gets a $3 prize for his effort. Understanding such situations. it is comparatively y then to grasp something of what has been agitating the Senate this week in the debate over the bill to authorize appropria- tions of $165,000,000 for Federal aid for highways in the next two vears. The measure had passed the House FRANCE DECLARED HELPLESS UNDER PYRAMID OF DEBTS Flight of Capit;i, Accentuating F;il of Franc and Combined With Heavy Taxes, Creates Situation Apparently Hopeless of Solution. BY PAUL SCOTT MOWRER. Financial and business circles throughout Europe and in America are watching the fluctuations of the increasing interest and wondering why the French government does not take measures calculated to end the finan- cial crisis. The trouble is that the more one studies the situation, the more com- plicated it appears, and finding a solution is easier said than done. The essential difficulty is that France is overwhelmed with interior debts, not to mention foreign debts. This piling up of debts naturally began during the war® which, with all men mobilized and 10 departments invaded, could only be financed by loans. Further loans were necessary during the two years of adjustment after the war. Finally, still other enormous loans were floated for the purpose of re- constructing devastated regions. At last the country’s interfor credit be- came so exhausted that it was possi- ble to borrow money only for short terms at high rates of interest. Resorted to Inflation. Now, for about a year, even short- term loans have been unproductive of new money. Hence the government has been compelled to resort to infla- tion. The national debt now is well over 300,000,000,000 francs. Interest payments on this sum are so large that they consume about 65 per cent of the national revenue. In order to pay this interest and at the same time cover the country’s or- dinary running expenses, taxes have been voted at the highest possible rate. There is an impression abroad that the French people are insufficient- ly taxed. The contrary is really the case. They-are overtaxed. They are taxed so heavily that there is revolt everywhere against tax paying. Many people, if they paid in full the taxes due, would be ruined. Therefore, they resort to every device to dodge the tax collectors. Despite the widespread tax dodging, however, a sum equiva- lent to 20 per cent of the national revenue is being collected, and no dis- interested economist with whom the writer has talked believes it possible to increase taxes, or even to collect the existing taxes fully. Unjustly high taxes, combined with the fall of the franc, due to inflation, has provoked a flight of capital to other countries where the currency is more stable. In order to prevent the flight of capital and tax-dodging the government has resorted to petty re- strictions of every sort, the results of which are nferely fresh evasions. A Cycle of Circumstances. The flight of capital has accentuated the fall of the franc. The fall of the franc has caused a rapid increase in prices at home, with the result that even a theoretical balancing of the budget is continually disorganized. Then come more taxes, then more evasions, then new increases in the of the franc has attracted interna- tional speculators, whose operations increase the etil. Financial _instability has brought political instability and political in- stability increases financial instability. Thus runs the vicious circle. What is to be don The budget now is nearly, if not quite, balanced. But no surplus is available for debt amortization, and none for the repayment of foreign loans. Moreover, about 50 billions of francs in short-term loans keep peri- odically falling due, and while some are renewed others are not, and the only way to reimburse them is to print the bank notes. This floating debt might_be consolidated by a for- elgn loan, but there is no money to pay the interest on further loans. Furthermore, American and English bankers refuse to make further loans until the debt agreements have been ratified and certain other conditions tulfilled. Government's Solution. The government's solution seems to be to check the rise in interior prices by artificial price-fixing and import and export restrictiol by sudden in- terventions on the exchange markets, by optimistic statements calculated to restore confidence and cause renewal of short-term bond subscriptions and the repatriation of flown capital. Few observers believe such a pro- gram can be effective. Indeed, so vast are the country’s debts, so heavy the existing taxes and so urgent the bud- getary and treasury needs that it is difficult to say what really would be effective. (Copyright. 1926.) — 2,000 Minnows to Aid Anti-Malaria Fight Two thousand minnows from the United States Bureau of Fisheries are en route for Buenos Aires aboard the Argentinian battleship Moreno, to help stamp out malaria in the South American republics. Top minnows are voracious feeders on the larvae of the mosquito carriers of the germ causing malarial fever. These larvae breed.only in stagnant water, and being air breathers stay al- most entirely on the surface. Pools too large to have the air supply cut off by a film of oil have in many parts of this country been stocked with top minnows, which have proved efficacious aids in keeping down the numbers of the anopheles mosquito. The minnows now riding in state on the battleship have been sent from the Bureau of Fisheries at the re. quest of the International Health Board to be used for breeding pur- poses and distributed throughout the malarial regions of Argentina to help In the campaign. of that organization cost, of Jiviog, Meanwhile, fluctuntion . to-rid-the -Americes of-malatle, Others Are Given Less’ before it went to the Senate and is virtually certain to be signed by the President. But the argument is likely to have a bearing on the general policy of Federal aid for State projects. ‘The fact is that several States— five to be exact—received more money from Uncle Sam as Federal aid in its various forms in the last fiscal vear than they paid the central Gov- ernment {n Federal taxes. Two of them, New Mexico and Nevada, re- celved more than $3 for every dollar they paid in. On the other hand, four States got back in this way less than 2 cents on the dollar of Federal taxes pald and one of these, New York. less than 1 cent. Figures Rouse Opposition. With these figures before them, it is difficult to persuade the members of Congress from States which pay much and receive proportionately lit tle that there is any great virtue in | the 50-50 scheme of Federal aid. Mem- bers from States which receive liberal returns argue that taxes pald from States which roll up huge totals do not represent the earnings of pro- ductive wealth of these States alone, but in part are earnings elsewhere which are pmid from these States be cause within their borders are the home offices of the controlling cor- porations. A mine in New Mexico or Nevada produces the wealth but the Federal tax is paid by the owning corporation or stockholder in New | York, for instance. Also, in some States, Uncle Sam still has title to vast areas of the land. President Coolidge has set his face against extensions of Federal aid into new fields, and he has been rather strongly supported. Yet various pro- posals still are before committees of Congress which would bring new ap- propriations from the national Treas- ury to help along more or less worthy plans within the individual States when matched dollar for dollar by State or local appropriations. Proponents of Federal aid, as a sys- tem, urge that it has proved an in- centive to stimulate State and local action toward better things, which otherwise might not have ben under- taken by some of the States until many years had passed. Opponents of the system claim that every time a State joins any such plan it sacrifices something of its sovereignty to the central Government by being forced to make its plans to conform to fixed rules and regulations. It is difficult to calculate the per- centage of Federal aid payments to taxes paid Uncle Sam as a single figure over a course of years, for the two sums differ from year to year. The Federal appropriation for road construction within the States has | been $75,000,000 a year for severgl years now, and some of this is spent for administration, yet $95,749,000 was spent in the last fiscal year because of completion of numerous projects long under construction Uncle Sam does not pay until the job is done; he takes no chances. Other Sums Paid Out. In the same fiscal yvear there wa’a paid from the National Treasury to States on the 50-50' basis, $6,862,000 for co-operative agricultural work; $6,198,- 000 for vocational education, $519,000 for vocational rehabilitation and $929,- 000 ‘under the maternity and infancy act. All States participate in the first ! been from one end of - Society News EUROPE’S DISLIKE OF U. S TRACED TO “PREACHING” Nations There Declared “Fed Up” on Adyvice, Criticism and Moralizing, Without Real Assistance. BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. INCE my return from Europe a great many people have asked both direc and by letter what are t uses of the pres- ent unmistakable and well- nigh unanimous European dislike and worse of the United States. Is it purely and simply the result of jeal ousy, the not wholly unnatural con sequence of the comparative condi- tions of the United States and all European countries? Is it resentment over the debt question? Does it arise from European dislike of our own policies and principles, because theirs are in matters of international rela tions something totally different? On the whole it is not explain the European feeling toward the United States by reference 1o any single circumstance. Undoubtedly our prosperity has its part in sentiment. but not I grudges us prosperity; rather because | we seem to the | despite our prosperity European pursuing a grasping and selfish policy. As to the debts, our course is execrated from one end of Europe to the other, not merely or mainly because we insist upon pay- ment, but because ¢ il stence seems strangely out of keeping with our past and even present professions of will- ingness to help Europe. Nor does the difference of standar really count much, for from the Eur pean point of view we are fortunate people who are able to exist and pros per without regard to our interna- tional policies hecause we are to a great extent a world by ourselves. To Europe all our notions of wi peace and international conduct are to be explained by our geographical position. he people in the tropics are abl of expenditure for clothing because of the climate. What more natural than that the native of Borneo, for ex- ample, should reprobate the inhabit- ants of Canada or Sweden for money wasted in furs and woolens? That is about what Europe thinks s {of our peace conception. Tired of Our Advice. is to go to the bottom of the spean feeling, which is so general to be almost unanimous, one must recognize at the outset that the chief cause lies not in what we | possess or what we do, but in what Europe is tired and bored and bitter over the eternal flow of advice, admonition, exhortation and denunclation which it steadily re- cefves at American hands and par- tlcularly from official quarters. The obvious tendency in many quarters to attach a moral value to a purely material issue, to scold and denounce every nation which comes to grief because circumstances which are totally re moved from any American under. standing, to group the whole con- tinent of Europe under one umbrella and then shower upon it denuncia- tions for militarism, imperialism, extravagance and bad morals gener ally, this process, which has been going on for a long time, but tends rather to increase than diminish in volume, has, to put the thing quite colloquially, “gotten Europe’s goat.” From the European point of view a large part of the mess which fol- lowed the war is due to President Wilson's share in the peace treaties. Never for a moment does FEurope disassociate the President and the country. It holds us responsible for Mr. Wilson, and it holds him and us | responsible for the worst of the trouble which has followed. 1 have Zurope to the and, without politely, some- other in recent year: exception, sometime: times bluntly, now by men of no public importance, now by men in the most responsible places, I have been told that the American deser- tion after the Paris peace conferen explains a great deal of rope’s present misery. Offer to Help Irritates. Again, nothing more irritates and enrages the European than the con- stant statement that the United States is ready to help Europe. This is to the Transatlantic mind adding insult to injur: ‘We have refused to join in any association of nations which might insure securi a common guarantee to nation wantonly attacked. the conceptio Europe had originally. This is what Europe hoped of us first of all. that we would promise to join in the de- fense of any nation assailed without provocation. Such a guarantee, France in particular held, would vent attack, because our Vv strength would in itself act as a deterrent to any intending aggressor. That was what broke the French heart, because the promise of our guarantee alone led Clement resign all claim to a milita pation of the Rhine barrier. From the European point of view we “talked big" but utterly refused to make good our words. true that this American retirement re- mains at the bottom of every kury pean mind as the foundation of dis trust and dislike. As to the debt question, all Europe feels the same about it, but not sim ply on the issue of payment. \We an- nounced the principle that our debtors should pay, not in full, but in pro- portion to capacity, Outwardly at least we did this very grudgingly. Now what did it mean? ' It meant patently that we decided not to try and collect what was beyond the ca- pacity of our debtors to pay. From their point of view we simply sald “We will take all we think you have.” But we continued to insist for a long time that they had more than they said. Not Considered Forgiveness. Having decided only to take all that we thought they could pay, we at once celebrated our generosity—we spoke of forgiving the debtor large three projects, some refuse the two others. A grand total of $110,259,420 out in the last fiscal year as Fed‘:':fi ald may not be so imposing when compared with taxes of $2,662,923,000 received by the national Treasury in the same period, but it is in the dis- lll;iibutlon thlt’;hscen:u!e of argument ses, as eviden by the S y Senate In addition to the five States which last year received back more than 100 per cent of the Federal taxes they paid, three others received more than 50 per cent: five between 25 and '49 per cent; thirteen between 11 and 23 per cent; eight between 5 and 9 per cent, and ten between 2 and 5 per cent, besides the four which recdived back Jess than 2 pec.centy i 4 sums, But in the European mind we only forgave what the debtor did not have and could not pay. Even there we did not. stop. In the case of Italy we entered into long denunciations of the form of government Italy is try- ing. As to the French, having in- sisted upon a settlement from them at a time when the whole financial struc- ture of the country is in danger, we indulge in endless denunciations of French militarism. Because . Italy owes us money we indicate that we think she should dismiss Mussolini. Because France owes us money we announce that she should abandon Morocco. Americans constantly refer to the Dawes plan as a contribution to Furope. But to the allled mind we simply. intervened. without. assuming possible to | to get along with a minimum | f much | of conditions and | £ the league which | And it is also | any responsibility and® reduced (e man reparations to a figure which was about equal to what we m nt to get | from our European debtors. And we since made settlements which in amount to taking' the entire um which Germany will pay. All ny chance of col- lecting If you find that w tion that still to grin and b fon and tion. Agalr and again you hear in Europe the same expression, “We have lost our | freedom ® 1 litrle deeper vou will at irks most is the re ob, Most of the expressed opinions on of the water concerning affairs seem over ther ly. If there were no money question at issue between us, Kurope would just laugh and dismiss the various congressional deliverances as “more Americana.” It is not mainly because we are rich and Europe is poor that Europeans hate us, but it is far more because, being rich where Europe is poor, we take advantage of our power—or seem to Europeans to do so—to humiliate, offend, insuit | them, A book like that of Col. House does {an enormous amount to exacerbate | the European feelings, because in Lon- | don, Paris or Rome it seems that the war, which was z matter of life or death to Britain, France and Italy, was to Col. House, a repres i American, President Wilgon" | partner,” only a chance to gain pres. | tige by setuing it up. for political exploitation, although | millions were suffering and hundreds It was a field lof thousands dying. At the moment when Britain was on the verge of a general strike, when she was facing every sort of economic and fiscal evil, notwithstanding that she has made a debt settlement long before any other nation and alone has en paying large sums regularly, enator Borah launched his campal {on behalf of war claims. When many French boys were dying to maintain | French rights in Morocco, other sena rs made speeches ' denouncing ce, which unhappily, as every enchman _knew, would only en- courage the Rifflans to _resist |more ~ stubbornly. Italy having |had a revolution and her dic !tator having ordered the national | finances and balanced the budget, sends a rAmister here to mnegotiate for a debt sittlement. His appearance is a signal %r an outbreak of con- gressional d#nunciation of Mussolini, | which must strengthen the hands of | the opposition and give the impression that the United States is anti-Fascisti. ! See Politics in U. S. Course. l As to our present views and utter- ances on the subject of disarmament, Europe quite frankly sees in our offi- clal action at Geneva a deliberate effort to acquire campaign material | for the next presidential election. So far from welcoming our participation, Europe pretty generally resents it be- | cause it seems nothing more or less than an effort to exploit European recessities for domestic political ad- | vantage. When all is said and done {we will do nothing practical to help | disarmament. We will not join the |league and add at least our moral | weight to Article X. We advise all | hands to reduce armaments and culti- | vate friendly relations, but we also in- | dicate that any nation which takes our advice and disarms must not look | to us for moral or material aid, if it be 1:umr‘l\'ml later. We maintain a navy equal to that of the only other first-class naval | power, despite the three thousand | miles of sea between us and any Euro- | pean danger and four thousand miles between us and any Asiatic menace. real or imaginary. We maintain an {army vastly larger than the forces of either of our land neighbors. Our ex- penditure for war preparation, aside from pensions. has mounted enor- | mously since 1914. But with a su- preme fleet and an army larger than | that of any immediate neighbor, we | tell the French and the Italians, who | have been frequently invaded and still | have marks of the latest devastating | invasion, that their measures of self- defense are evidences of inherent and congenital wicRedness. Eurcpe does not care how big an army or navy we maintain, but it does | most awfully resent our insistence | that, because we only need a small army, all our dangers, so far as we ha ny, being obviously Eurapean or Asiatic—that is, beyond the seas— nations whose dangers are nearby and to be met only by land forces shall reduce these according to our concep- tion, not theirs, Views in British Press. You hardly see a British magazine or newspaper in recent years which does not have some reference to the American States which have repudi- ated the loans which they made in England. This is the British answer to all our arguments that debts are acred and that our insistence on be- ing paid is in reality a_defense of in ternational morality. It is no use to point out that our State is something apart from the Nation and the Na jovernment has no responsi rather fortunate arrange the typical British rejoinder One might multiply the examples | indefinitely, but what | have indicated will perhaps support the point which I am trying to make, namely, that fundamentally it is not our prosperity. our debt policy or our different inter. national conceptions which explain the universal European dislike of us at the present moment. On the contrary, 1 believe the root of the thing lies in the fact that Europe is “fed up" and tired to death of our preaching, our prescribing, our indicting. Americans must remember that every workingman in England believes his present plight is due to the Ameri can insistence upon the debt payment, that every IFrenchman belleves thar the collapse of the franc is the result of American desertion and hostility, and that every German is coming to Delieve that the burden of reparations is due solely to America, since all that the German pays finds its way ulti- mately to us, or will when the debt set- tlements begin to function regularly. And this belief welghs against our endless assertion that we are ready to help, accompanied by our refusal to render any help of the sort Kurope asks. Doubts Debts Will Be Paid. A to ihe debt settlements them selves, Iurope believes that our pub- lic men know, as it knows our finan- cial experts know, that they never can or will be carried out. It sees in (Continued on Fourth Page.) [