Evening Star Newspaper, October 24, 1926, Page 49

EDITORIAL PAGE ' NATIONAL PROBLEMS SPECIAL FEATURES Part 2—16 Pages SAYS FILIPINO CENTERS HOPE IN INDEPENDENCE Vicente G. Bunuan, Commenting on Col. Thompson’s Emphasis on Economic Possibilities, Pleads for Liberty. BY VICENTE Dtrector, BUNUAN, HE economic resoure Philippines K Carmi farewell of the were stressed by Thompson in his message to the Fill pinos, and the American press, In commenting upon it. has empha. #ized our great possibilitics for rubber production with a view to relieving the American situation, i At the outset it shonld he stated that the Filipinos are desirons of help- Ing America solve her rubber problem. The restriction in our 1a nd laws is ap: leable to all. Filipinos included. for t was designed to protect our couns from concentration of huge tracts of land in the hands of a few, knowing full well that that country is happhest and most peaceful which has its na tional wealth evenly distributed. This Policy reflects the conservation era of America’s history, and was implanted in the Philippines hy Congress itself | when it passed the Philippine orzant act ®f 1902, which contained provi<ions even more restrictive than those in the present law. In o far as the Philij- Dines are concerned. it is distinctly American both in eoncept and appli cation nd. natu Iy and expectedly, was heartily embraced by the Filipinos. Big Holdings Harmful. With reason, they accepted this policy. The disastrous effects of im mense land holdings in the Philippines during the Spanish regime, causing the American Government itself to send William Howard Taft to Rome in 1907 to negotiate with the Pope fo the purchase by the Philippine gov ernment of the vast friar lands that they might he sold in small parcels to the tenants: the sufferings of peoples under the old feudal system. the ghast Iy conditions now existing in the rub. her areas of the Congo and Amazon forests and the present conflicts in Mexico are too farreaching not to rve us a valuable lesson. We can visualize what might happen in the Philippines by the present gituation in Mexico as described by President Calles in his article in the October issue of Foreign Affairs if we gave way to the pressure being brought upon us to open our national wealth to unlimited investments. Quotes President Calles. Tn this article President Calles says, in part “If one bears fn mind that Mexicans possess less than one-third of the total wealth of the country, one can easily understand avhv so frequently in the resolution of Mexican prohlems, which, of course, have always had a marked economic’ character, we have friction or difficulties ither With foreign gov- ernments defending the interests of their countrymen who consider them- gelves affected by our constitutional Jaws. or with Mexican landowners con trolling endless tracts of land. And if ome congiders. furthermore. that of the third part of the national wealth owned by Mexicans, 60 per cent, at least, has heen and still is In the hands of Catholic priests or religions insti- tutions or orders of the Catholic Church, one can understand why we always have rebellions. Yet the restrictions in our land la are such that development of our rub- ber lands of moderate size holdings s possible. An individual or a_corpor tion may. under the present law, pur- chase 2300 acres and lease an equal amount for a period of 25 vears, sub. ject to renewal for two additional years. This provision is neither too restrictive as to-make impossible the growing of rubber of not too ambitious proportions, nor too liberal to conver us into vietims of exploftation. what may be termed a middle ground. Tn this connection the report ofthe | committee authorized by Congress to investigate rubber growing In the Thilippines, entitled *Possibilities for Para Rubber Production in the Phil- tppine Islands.” says: “The present land laws, designed to retain a dif- fused ‘and ownership, do not lend themselves to large capital corpora tions in rubber lands. moderate size plantations are possible with foreign capital and. moreover, the small native planter might bhe: come a producer of important future supplies.” Holds Present Law Good. Dr. James W. Strong. vice president and general manager of the American Rubber Co. of Mindanao, whe has been in the rubher business in the archipelago for the last 21 vears, in an article in the June, 1926, issue of the American Chamber of Commerce Journal of the Philippines, says “There i& no reason why America can- not grow her own ruhber in the Phil ippine Islands under present condi tions. * * ¢ The pry A law per mits the huying of 2 es and the leasing of an equal amount. Thisarea is a good economic unit. Were it per- missible to hold larger areas, they would certainly be split up into simi- lar sizes for advantageous ment w That large-scale production is even possible under the present law may he seen from the following sugges. tion from Filipino leaders. who are making every effort to ald America Why not start it off in that It is | Nevertheless | manage- | |limitation of the present lamd laws {and. in this way. grow rubber in quan- | tities sufficient for the needs of the | United States. Contract could he en- | tered into hetween the financing com- pany and the small corporations by | which rubher is to he delivered to the former at the market price. or at price specified in the contract. Wheth- er or not American capital enters the Philippines. the Filipinos are ex- { perimenting in rubher production and | Will produce zreat quantities in the next 25 vears. An arrangement of similar nature has been going on in connection with our sugar industry, the success of which testifies o the fact that the anp!lvmlun of our present land legisla- | tion is not hampering the economic | growth of our country. Millions of dollars have been invested in the | sugar centers by corporations that do !not_own the lands. but have c tracts with the farmers. who, by vir- | tue of such contracts, turn over the sugar cane raised by them to the | centrats. Change Held Unfair. The hint is made, almost with the gesture of a threat. that if the F Dinos do not open their lands to what | practically would be unlimited Inv | ments. Congress should take a jand modify the present land laws of e Philippines. To do so would he | destructive of the rights of the FI pino people granted by Congress—a curtailment of autonomy. Section 9 of the Jones law. the present organic act of the Phillppines, says: “That all_property and rights which may |have been acquired in the Philippine | Islands by the United States under the treaty of peace with Spain, | signed December 10, 1898 * * are | hereby placed under the control of the government of sald islands to be administered or disposed of for the benefit thereof, and the Philippine Lecgislature shall have the power *to legislate with respect to all such mat- ters as it may deem advisable: but acts of the Philippine Legislature with reference to land of the public domain, timber and mining, hereafter enacted, shall not have the force of law until approved by the President.” It will be noted from the foregoing provision that Congress itself, through the Jones act, has vested initiative in legislation in’ the Philippine Legisla- ture with respect to main, and that, while Congress. by exercising supreme legislative author- ity, can initiate legislation {n this con- nection, It cannot do so without cur- tailing the autonomy which itselt was granted the Filipino people through the Jones law. The intention of Con- gress as expressed in thix section of the Jones act is made the more clear by the proviso that all such legisla- | tion must first be approved by the President of the United States hefore taking effect. The Philippine Legisla- Government, to check. For Congress, therefore, to initiate legislation with reference to our public lands, instead of letting our Legisiature 1o act as it deems best, would be an unjustified curtailment <1 Of our right to initiate legislation in | this connection. Pressure Not Proposed. | This view seems to be the stand of | the present administration if the testi- mony of Secretary Hoover of the De. partment of Commerce before the House committee on_interstate and foreign commerce, which held hear- | ings on_the rubber situation of the | United States during the last session, < taken as a_criterfon. January 10, 1926, Seceretary Hoover told the committee: “ * % * Qur Government agencles do not wish to bring pressure upon the Philippine government as to thelr policies (public land policies), and that therefore, ad- | vantagegous as it might be to them to |induce a large planting (rubber) in- dustry, T do not belleve that any of us | would want to attempt to impose | any method of so doing It is here agaln refterated that only the granting of Independence will | finally solve the economic problems of | the Philippines. as clearly expressed in |a resolution adopted by the Philippine | Legislature, which was presented to Col. Thompson upon his departure from Manila: “We believe that the chief reason why the full material de- | velopment of the country has not heen | accomplished is that we have heen de- nied the powers necessa our economic policies. convinced that independence alone wiil Rive us these powers. Delay in grant- ing_independence vents us from {adopting a policy which would facili- | tate the coming of capital from abroad | and constrains us to oppose an amend: ment_of our land laws which would | permit vast organizations of capital securing unlimited areas of our public {lands. We likewise are opposed to any economic policy which would allow | selfish exploitation of our natural re. sources."” | Such is the stand of the Filipinos on the rubber question: Sincere desire to I help the United States in the solution of her rubber problem wlithout, at the same time, portion of their national | the hands of absentee landlords, for i | the the public do- | ture to legislate and the United States | through the President, On Monday,| to shape | We are firmly | turning over the greater wealth into | fn solving her ruisher problem: Financ- | let it be repated, lest it be forgotten. Ing by American pital of corpora- | not even the Filipinos themselves have | tions ‘to purchase lands within the | this privilege, | . Roosevel: Calls for Klan Inquiry; i Has No Place in America, He Declares | BY THEODORE ROOS o | Former Assistant Secretars of the Navy In Indiana during the p: vears the Ku Klux Klan has an active participant in politie: Klan s bhased on intolerance and therefore shouli find no place in the United States. There are. of course. good men who are connected with 11 That dees not, however. change the circumstances. Recause good men are connected with a bad movement it dpes not alter the fact that the movement is bad. Advocates of the Klan urge that Catholics and Jews at times vote on religious lines. This is no excuse for the Protestants doing lkew Two wrongs never make a Those who act politically on sectarian lines have missed the real principles of Americanism Organizations which keep their be. lefs, memberships and activities se- | ret should find ro place in American politics. At this time there are srave accusations being made as to the Klan's activities in politics in Indiana, There is but one course open to the Republican party and all decent citi- zens. That is to institute at once a drastic investigation The charges in Indiana should he prohed in such fachion ae to lay bare whatever improper cenduct may exist. ‘This is not all. The investigation must | | be handled o that the average citizen ! is convinced of the sincerity and thor oughness of the whole proceeding. 1f lany prove gullty, steps should he taken immediately to bring the guilty ones to justice, regardless of whom they may be. This is double few heen The important in this case, for not only must we punish in dividual misdeinz. but. in addition, we must serve notice that we, as Amer cans. will not toierate any improper |influence on our public servants or | public acts by any secret organiza- tion, no matter what it doctrines may | be. Our ideal of government is based on the theory -f open discussionof | public questions. Our Ideal in a pub- | lic servant is one who acts openly as his conscience dictates, and not| under the orders of any group, secret | or othetwise. g B i Dense forests once grew on the Sahara desert and a race of people who subsisted by hunting and tilling the soil lived there. says the Dearborn Independent, quoting a Chicago pro- fessor. 1t is estimated that there are more than 20,000,000 blind persons in the world, says the Dearborn Independent. ! hindrances to good health, fine ph: EDITORIAL SECTION he Sundy Stad WASHINGTON, D. C,, SUNDAY THE WORLD’S WINGS By 7. MORNING, OCTOBER Note—This is the first of a series of sirarticiex by’ ol Davis “meaarring the wings of the irorid” Syhscuuent qriicies to he pubiiched in the Ediiorin! Sttion’ of 7" Cundny Slar ' tnil he an ussolini on ‘he Wing " “Lame Durks azd Fugles,” “The ‘Ho Rird" Spreads I's Pinions™" " «7he'* Vel drer " and America’s Piace the Air.”, AKE one of the smallest coun- tries of the world—ont that appears on the earth's map as the smallest cloud in the heav- ens, no larger than a man's hand— a country whose highest military aspiration has been to be consid- ered a neutral by its belligerent neigh- hors: sink all of that little country's fighting ships—if it has any—blow up its forts, scrap its artillery, disband |its cavalry, put its infantry to grow- ing lettuce: then give that little coun- try four or five thousand fully equipped, armed and manned fight- ing airplanes and it can conquer the strongest nation on earth. And it can, if within reasonable striking dis- tance, within the next 24 or 48 hours, devastate and despoil any nation on | earth, France possibly excepted. | * ok K % The lessons of the Great War and experiments since have proved one thing very decisively: Of all the | instruments of war ever Invented, the | most useful in defense and most de- | Structive in attack—in proportion to |cost—is the airplane. To build and |equip one dreadnaught costs any- where from fifteen to forty million dollars. This vast hunk of iron { creeps menacingly ahout the seas, but i able to attack (if not driven back by | a superior force) a very few ports of i the enemy country, and even before these it is usually powerless In the face of the land batteries. At the shore line its usefulness | stops. while airplanes that cost $30.000 aplece may arise in the air and with a light load of deadly explo- sives fly over a city 500 or 1,000 miles away and work more destruction in an hour than a dreadnaught could ac- complish in a year: then return safely to its base within ten hours of its starting. Every unbiased, intelligent observer, whether civilian or military, recog i plzes the fact that, no matter what other military equipment the nations may have in the future in the way of armies and navies, their effec- tiveness either as an armed defense or I—Economy in Destruction Who Col. Lieut. 24, 1926. JEFFERSON DAVIS Col., 0. R. C. Legal Adviser for the United States and the. Congress on International Avi Davis Is OL. W. JEFFERSON DAVIS was first a journalist, then a lawyer and later an internationally known authority on aviation and aviation problems. = He is recognized as an authority on legal acronautics both in Europe and the United States. as liaison officer with the Director him into a practical and non-technical interest in his subject. has campaigned incessantly for America. During the war, he served of Military Aeronautics. After the wdr he was sent to Berlin by t the War Department as legal adviser to the military attache at the American Embassy in Berlin. In 1923, he was counsel for the War Department at the Congress on International Avia- tion at Prague, one of the most important international confer- ences on aviation ever held. Col. Davis supplemented his government service by intensive personal study and observation in America, Europe and the Orient. His first book, “Putting Laws Over Wing: attracted the immediate attention of lead- ing newspapers and magazines of the United States. He follow- ed this with articles in the Saturday Evening Post and other magazines, and with sev eral serics on aviation, distrib- uted by leading newspaper syn- dicates. o While Col. Davis first became known as a specialist,in aviation law, particularly in its international significance, his inquiry has led He adequate aerial preparedness in _“The World's Wings” is the fruition of Col. Davis' long and active participation in the formulation of the air code which will govern aviation, and of his penetrating study of the problem of American defense. _—_—mmmmm weapon of attack will depend very largely upon the air forces that ac- company them. We are always prone to imagine that the “next war” will be upon the same lines the last. Not o, says Marshal Foch. “That has never been the case and never will be. One of the great factors in the next war will obviously be afr- eraft.” ok ok K Which also explains why Germany can well afford to do without her large standing army of old, and with fever- ish energy,is devoting her combined efforts to aircraft research and ex- perimental work and developing “superpower” airplanes with which to lay waste Europe. Yet. in the face of these facts, America, whose mili- tary policy has always been purely defensive, and has the greatest terri- tory and wealth to defend, has stead- ily cut down her air force so that we are now virtually helpless in the air. During the last few years American pilots have hung up so Many records and won so many contests that a re- cital of them would sound like a cata- logue of events of an Olympic meet. Two Amerfcan airmen flew from New York to Rockwell Field, Calif., in one day without stopping. An American airplane at Dayton, Ohio, was kept lvnn(lnlmll_\' in the air for over 37 | hours. In a recent test flight a naval aviator has attained a speed of over 300 miles an hour and an American airplane squadron has for the first time encircled the globe. Comdr. Byrd has sucressfully negotiated the trip over the North Pole, demonstrating that an airplane can fly with- ease over the spot so perilously sought for centuries by intrepid explorers. All of these events have merited and re- ceived an enormous amount of pub- licity, which, unfortunately, has fed our complacency by the suggestion that America Is first in the alr. But long-distance flights and speed records and winning races do nothing but in- dicate what we could do if we had the equipment. g * K ok K Instead of being first in the air, when it comes to actual equipment of man and machines available for use, we are a very poor fourth and will, if the downgrade slump is not checked, soon be fifth or sixth. As a matter of fact, our Army now has scarcely 800 planes in service, and of these about 8 per cent are obsolete, and would not he avallable as Aghting planes. Gen. Patrick, in a report to the War Department, declared that, even on a peace-time footing, the Air Serv- ice—after delivery of 1926 fiscal year purchases—faced a deficlt of 67 planes. In contrast to this, France has 300 squadrons of military planes actually in service, with a re- serve, carefully stored and equipped for emergency, of several thousand other planes. England last year appropriated $100,000,000 for the air service; France, $84,000,000; Japan is perfecting a 7-year budget for civil aviation alone calling for yearly expenditures of $25,000,000. In one vear, France huilt 3,300 airplanes, while in the United States for all purposes—commercial and otherwise—less than 300 were built during the same period. We Americans are apt to think— or rather feel—that we can go out and get what we want in a time; we feel that we do not need money in our pockets hecause we have money in the bank, and can go out and get it when we want it. This feeling is justified in the matter of food or chewing gum or shoes, but It certainly subjects us to a shock (Continued on Sixteenth Page.) BY REX COLLIER. Europe, birthplace of the play- | ground, is looking to America for | guidance in a remarkable post-war { health erusade. now sweeping the | principal countries of the Old World. After a_period of decadence in public health interest, European na- tlons—especially Germany and Eng- land—are stepping forward with great strides toward a common goal of | physical fitness for their nationals, {both men dnd women. g ‘America, which learned about play- grounds from Furope, already hag made declded progress toward a similar objective, and. although she | vet has much to accomplish, i in a | position to point the way for trafling. | though ambitious, countries. |""Such “are the analyses made hy | competent observers returning to the | United States from studies of health land recreational conditions abroad. Germany Is Active. | Germany, particularly, has gone in {for Intensive hygiene for the sons and ghters of the Vaterland. accord to John Thlder, manager. of the | civic development department of the Chamber of Commerce of the United who has just returhed from a of social conditions in Europe. | Curhed in her tendencies toward a { more militant and specialized type of | physical training, Germany has inau- [ zurated an Impressive program of | public _recreation which reaches out | heyond the proscriptions of soldiering {10 embrace the allegedly “weaker {sex,” Mr. Thider found. | "The national neglect of the ‘“old | swimming hole,” once characteristic of the German people, now has given way before the wave of bathing popu- larity which has transformed the Rhine and other rivers into veritable inland watering places for an enlight- ened populace. Fields which of vore felt the omin ous tramp of drilling cadets now are filled with thousands of athletieally- inclined men. women and children. | thoroughly imbued with the national desire for bigzer and better things in the way of health and exercise. “Sunshine Cure” Sought. 1t is the “sunshine cure” that Ger- many is invoking as a primary factor in 1ifting high her standard of health. Freedom, even from unnecessary clothing. is the battle cry of her peo- ple. Freedom from disease, from nches, from mental cares and from all other dan | states, Laurvey sique and soundness of mind. Every youth is taught to get out into the open as much as possible and partake of the benefits of the great open| spaces, such as they are in German England. too, is-awakenink to th proved faet that public hygiene s an important part of a nation's edu- cation agenda, Mr. Thider docares.| Great Dritain is making rapid prog-| ress in playground work and is ta ing interest more and more in child health_education. Another authority who is impressed | with Europe’s hvglenic renaissance is Dr. James Frederick Rogers, chief of the division of physicalshygiene of the United States Bureau of Education. America Stole March. Woints out that while Europe | really paved the way for the public | playground system now in vogue | throughout the world, she fell behind | in developming her brain-child in all | it possihilties, and while she lagged in putting into widespread practice the ideas rightly hers, America arous- | ed herself and stole a march in the e world race for recreativnal develcp- went, EUROPE LOOKING TO AMEi{lCA FOR GUIDANCE IN HEALTH WORK Old World, Which Originated Playground, Is Re- newing Interest in Hygiene—Germany and England Particularly Active. The United States, to be sure, is nbt yet at the pinnacle of achievement with respect to playgrounds, but she nevertheless remains in the forefront of nations striving toward the ulti- mate in public recreation, Dr. Rogers believes. Before this country can make any radical moyes toward the great health goal which lies ahead the American public must come to a realization of the fact that health education re- quires money, and that public health s more important than a lot of other factors entering into the national prosperity and which have no dif- ficulty in obtaining appropriation. It is false economy which will re- (Continued on Third Page.) What Makes Recent Meeting Provokes ‘Various Groups and BY WILLIAM ULLMAN. Taking an inventory of progress in the flelds of traffic, traffic safety and traffic regulation since the Second Na- tional Conference on Street and High- way Safety last March the various committees created by that confer- ence met recently in Washington at the behest of Secretary of Commerce Hoover to review achievements, gain new stimulation and lay plans for the immediate future The meeting was but a few minutes | 01d wher. it attained the nature of an open forum wherein each committee was asked to state {ts position relative to what it had done and what re- mains®to be’done to assure passage a Man Great? BY BRUCE BARTON MAN had died, and the whole city mourned his going. At a club we were discussing him, re- minding ourselves of one char- acteristic and another that had endeared him to us. Finally a man whose name is famous spoke. “You know our friend hardly had a fair start,” he said quietly. “Nature did not mean to let him be a big man. She equipped him with very ordinary talents. ‘| can remember the first time I heard him speak. It was a very stumbling performance. Yet, in his later years, we re- garded him as one of the real orators of his generation. “His mind was neither very original nor very profound; but he managed to build a great institution, and the imprint of his influence is on ten thousand The speaker stopped, and we urged him to go on. “How then do you account for success?” we asked. “It is simple,” he replied. simply forgot himself. When spoke, his imperfections were lost in the glow of his enthu- sm. When he organized, the fire of his faith burned away all obstacles. He abandoned himself utterly to his task; and the task molded him into great- ness.” A few days afterward | spent some hours in the home of a very wealthy man. “Young men come and ask me to use my influence in their be- half to secure them this or that promotion,” he said. “And | am amazed, not by their requests, but by the attitude toward which prompts them. “I feel like saying to them: ‘The very fact that you spend your time and thought cam- paigning for another position proves that you are not worthy even of the position you now hold. " > hi He (Copsright Then he went on to speak about his own career, which started with the salary of an office boy and has carried him so far. “l never asked for an increase in salary,” he said; “I never asked for promotion or even thought about it. | had only one single thought—how to make that company as great and as influential as it possibly could be. | believed that by extending its influence we were extending human happiness; more than anything | wanted to see it ch people in every corner of the world. 'We made that vision come true; and those of us who achieved it discovered that the company to which we had given our lives, had given them back to us a hundred times richer than our own selfish thought and planning could possibly have made them.” It is Emerson who somewhere says that the average run of men fret and worry themselves into name graves, while here and there a great unselfish soul forgets immortality. Many hundred years before much wiser Man ha hit it” . A rather cryptic utterance; so contradictory sound that the majority of men pass it by un- heeding. But now and then there comes a’ man who, sensing its truth, harne: his life to it, forget- ting every selfish thought and purpo: Often he knows himself to be a little man; or, at best, only me| dium-sized. But the world, beholding the marvel of his influence, remem- bers him and calls him great. - 1096.) - TRAFFIC EXPERTS GAUGE WORK AT SESSION HERE WITH HOOVER| Discussion of Progress of Gathering Gains New Inspiration in Safety Task. in the several States of the uniform | ®affic code which Secretary Hoover and safety leaders generally believe the greatest potential panacea for the treffic ills that beset the Nation. Athough there were admittedly some dark spots in the general oui- look from a legislative and other points of view the consensus was that there is every reason for regard- ing the future with a great deal of sound and balanced optimism: Glant Task Is Realized. That the committees are not ap- proaching their various problem: with blind optimism. however, made » cameo-clear at the meeting of the committee as a whole and at the sectional gatherings. Commit tee members evidenced a full con- scionsness of the vast amount of ar- duous work that remains before the Hoover conference and hefore the organizations allied with it in carry- ing out its manifold reccommenda- tions. Census, as well as from other sources, show increases in automobile fatali- ties during the ' Summer months which more than offset the improv ment in the accldent record attained in the earlier part of the current year, the committees generally were confi dent that their efforts have not been in vain and that further educative work will be productive of highly gratifying results. A most_encouraging report was sub- mitted by the committe on edu tion in schools. This group backed up its report by an important decline in child fes and fatalities in many of the United States. School Safety Stressed. It was pointed out by this group that the schools of the Nation and the school children should be consid- | ered the logical mediums through | which a large amount of missionary | work must be done, working on the | theory that it is far easier to teach | a youngster the correct way to walk | than it is to break an adult of the| habit of walking injudiciously. In.| tensification of the work of safety | education in the schools was urged, and it was apparent from the atti- tude of those delegates present that this feature of the whole movement is finding distinct favor and valuable application almost’ everywhere. The presence of Secretar- Hoover at the morning conference was a dis- tinct aid to the delegates in sighting their goal, as well as in receiving re- newed inspiration from the man mos instrumental in the calling of the first and second general conferences on street and highway safety. He opened the meeting and set forth, succintly, the problems most vital in the work under consideration. It was evident that the mere fact of Secretary Hoov- er's being at the gathering, listen- ing to the discussions and asking questions as well as interjecting com- ment here and there, had *he effect of revitalizing the whole body of rep- resentatives present. May Study Accident Cause. An especially interesting statement was submitted to the meeting by the committee on causes of accidents, This group, cne of the most impor- tant of the entire eonference. made a specific reccomendation which, if carried out, will result in the begin- ning of an intensive scientific inquiry into the whole subject of accident (Continued on Third Page.) injur- sections air- | very short | While reports from the Bureau of | statistics showing | BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. ARIS: There Is notoriously nothing more difficult than to get any real idea of the con- ditlon of a country which is in the throes of inflation. The very nature of the disease is such that all the symptoms seem to deny the fact. The economic life. so far from indicating any slowing down of discloses an acceleration ‘Which is entirely like the fever in the buman frame. But this acceleration promotes the notion of prosperity, of success, of something which denies to the eye all that the expert may Thus the American who comes to Paris now Is struck instantly by the animation of the streets, by the roar of traffic, by the erowds in the hotels and the shops. It Is true that with few exceptions the crowds are made up of foreigners; you hear Knglish. American and German spoken in the streets almost more than French it- self. The brilllantly dressed people who fill the sidewalks, the restaurafits, the hotels, the stores are for the most part aliens. But the {llusion is nevertheless perfect. and the conclu- sion follows almost inevitably that these foreigners must be making huge contributions, to the domestic pros- perity of France. There are, too, other signs which seem to confirm the impression of prosperity. Britain -has millions un- employed, nearly two millions, with- out regard to the men and women di- rectly engaged in the coal strike. Germany has more than a million and three.quarters. Poland. (zechoslo- vakia. Maly—all these nations are af- flicted hy the curse of upemploy- ment in -varving degrees. ~ But in France the weekly figure for a coun- Itry of 40,000,000 inhabitants does not | reach 500. Moreover, to meet the lack lof domestic labor, more than two | millions of foreigners have been call- ed from outside and work steadily. L If the crops of the present year {have been a little disappointing, it is I not less sure that agriculture is pros- perous and that the peasants are en- | joving a standard of living and a state of wellbeing which is unprece- {dented. The simple life of the remote commune i yielding _strikingly ! the corruption of bobbed hair silk stockings. But far more nificant—the great factories. blast furnaces, the textile mills are working at a rate not equaled else- where in FEurope. Nevertheless, the fact stands forth unmistakably ~ that while France works the franc declines. Steadily, | with ups and downs, but with a ten {dency which over weeks and months does not vary, the French franc is | falling, and ‘the most sanguine of i trained ohservers can fix no time when this process is likely to end. Even more significant, day by day !the wealth of France escapes over | the frontiers, the flight from the { franc continues and increases, con | fidence does’ not return. Official bank- | ruptey, the actual emptiness of the treasury, has been a fact or a near i fact many times in recent months. 1 "In reality, if vou desire a figure to illustrate the ‘situation of France today, I can think of nothing more {exact than that of the squirrel in the | cage, who, treading his little wheel, turns and turns with great rapidity. ! moves with an enormous velocity— |and gets nowhere, remains always in- {'side the bars of his cage until. ex- | hausted by his effort, he lies down still inside the bars. * k x X Moreover, if you look a little below the surface, what do vou see? The prosperity of the surface is patently | misleading. If no one in France is today starving, literally millions have seen all the savings of a lifetime al- veady wiped out by the fall of the frane. The men and women who had i hefore the w accumulated a small | fortune, alw: invested in govern- {ment securities which insured their | 0ld age, have seen those economies i reduced to nothing. Ten thousand francs, which were in 1914 worth ahout $2,000, are now worth $275, [the end s mot vet. Inflation. which ! has substracted six-sevenths of the | value of the franc, has wiped out | literally billions of savings made by {the little peaple. The same process has brought all the teachers, professors, employes of the government, all the more or less intellectual class, which lived on small ! hut assured incomes and savings. to condi destitution. If the farmer and the isan have been able t9 keep the price of farm products and the wages of hand labor commensurate with the value of the franc, nothing like this {has been possible for the middle classes. Moreover, looking at the vast ap- arent activity of French industry, it is equally clear that there Is a fatal weakness inherent in the phe- nomenon. France is today selling | abroad below the cost of production: { she is dumping vast quantities of | iron, steel, textiles upon foreign mar- I kets at a low price, but the price | oes not enable her to purchase new raw maferial; it is the result of a steadily lowering standard of lving: it is in reality a true export of capi- tal. It is process progress of German inflation demon- strated, leads in the end to the im- poverishment of the exporting coun- try. It is sale below the cost of production. * ok ok K What, then, is the trouble? The customary American answer that the French will not tax themselves is far beside the mark, for France is today taxed as the United States has never heen. Nor is there any justice in ex plaining the situation by reference to military expenditures or colonial enterprises such as Morocco and Syria. These are at most mere drops in the bucket. The fact is that France today as a result of war and recon struction 18 hurdened by a debt he yond its capacity to carry. Sixty cents in every dollar which the government receives i3 at once consumed by debt charges and this without any refer- ence to the foreign debt, the American and British debts, which have as yvet remained unpafd. One hears again and again that the French have so far failed to balance their budget, to reduce thelr expenses to meet their income. But this is again a_ half truth, for again and again the budget has been put in theoretical balanee only to see this balance destroyed by a new fall of | the franc. Thus it is a fact that the people with money have loat confidence and the mass of the people have lost hope. Those who have riches which can be converted have hurried them across the frontier. Those who have only their little daily and.weekly earnings ' on which i= well nigh akin to which, as- the |- FRANCE, NEAR COLLAPSE, TRACES ILLS TO AMERICA Prosperity Is But on Surface as Wealth " Is Being Exported and Feeling of Forcign Bondage Is Rife. have steadily abandoned the idea of saving. What use to save money if three davs or three weeks hence ths mere fall of the franc will abolish your savings? How much better, then, to invest them in clothes, in furniture, to take them out in pleasure? Here, again, is a classic circumstance of in. flation—namely, that savings cease. * ok ok But at the same time this process of buying goods. instead of depositing in savings banks or investing in se. curities, gives a new fillip to business. It people instead of saving are buy- ing, then all the various branches of national business which are engaged in creating and marketing goods profit. You have an abnormal, an un- real, but nevertheless intense activity. 1t s just like the effect of fever in the human system; it is the squirrel in the wheel. < Always, however—and this is the fatal circumstance—the cost of living inounts and passes any possible expan- sion of wages. Conditions of living grow harder and harder. Lack of con- fidence increases and a sense of fear and appreheasion, of distrust and even panic expands. No one knows among the masses what is wrong: innumer- able false reasons are assigned and in- numerable quack remedies are adopt- ed, but the evil develops, the trouble continues and the situation worsens. And, by contrast, the appearance of false prosperity and of intense ac- tivity increases. Today one may say with perfect exactitude that France is on the verge of a collapse as complete as that of Germany following the Ruhr. It would require little or nothing to precipitate a panic the limits of which are not to be estimated now or by any one. There is a sense of being on the edge of a voleano which never leaves one in France now, if he is in contact with the realities of French life. The col- lapse may not come—but the possi- bility can no longer be blinked. * ok ¥ % And what shall one say of the state of mind of the French people? This at onte, that, ignorant like every other public of the intricacies of po- litical _economy and high finance, every Frenchman has found for him- self a simple explanation. and!' that simple explanation is that his misery. his misfortune. these are the result of the deliberate determination of his former allies, of the Rritish and the Americans, but mainly the latter, to profit by this misfortune, to acquire control of his assets, to force down the value of all his country to such a price that it can be bid in for a song and leave him the slave of the for- eigner for all time. T doubt if there is a single French- man alive who does not believe today that the explanation of French suffer- ing, the cause of French catastrophe, if it comes, is the deliberate purpose of the ['nited States to crush France. I have talked in recent d: Wwgth men and women of almost every millieu, | from finance to the smallest and hum- blest of jobs, with men and women of all sorts of political and social circum- stances, and in the end the question has always been the same: “Why is America destroying us? What is the explanation of the pitiless purpose of | the American people? Do they know what they are doing? Why do they wish to_destroy, or, at the least, to enslave France—and not France alone, but Europe?” * ok Rk Then there is the unvarying query, “Why has the United States, which was our ally during the war, hecome our enemy; why has it preferred to save Germany to saving France? Why }in the Dawes plan. which was made | by America, was (iermany given the | protection which is refused us in the deht settlement? Why does America | give Italy. which lost half a million | men in the war, twice as good terms as she will give us, who lost a million and a half France collectively, the French as a | people. helieve that all their misfor- | tune is due to the United States, and they will believe tomorrow., if the ulti- mate collapse comes, that it comes as a result of the deliberate purpose of the United States. 1 cannot tell you how many people have said to me in varying tones: “Why does the United Staies wish to destrov France, and what ultimate benefit will there be to the U'nited States to create an atmes- phere of hatred and resentment which will endure and intensify as successive European generations groan under the burden of the debt you would put upon us. or as the result® of the ruin you have forced upon us hecause we would not undertake a_debt hurden bevond our capacity and without safeguards such as you provided that the Ger. mans should have against us?" I have not met in France the small- est suggestion of discourtesy. 1 have | not encountered rowdyism or abuse or insult, T have been welcomed and en- tertained by French friends as always. Yet I cannot mistake the fact that, however courteous French men and women may be to an American, he does represent, for all. that nation which, for reasons utterly incompre- hensible, has determined upon the ruin of France and is responsible for it, L T T am going 10 discuss the question of the dehts in a later article, and therefore I refrain from d bitterness and resentment which this question has raised can be abolished by the signing of the accord or that the French will sign the present ac- cord without conditions in any other fashion than that which might compel | them to surrender Paris to an invader whose armies they could no Inoger resist. is the purest moonshine. There are, 1 believe, fow exceptions in a nation of forty millions who do not | belleve that the ruin of France has heen made In America. who assign | varying motives to the act, but agree | as to the act itgelf. “We gave the whole of one genera- tion on the battlefield to defend | France; it was sacrificed and is gone. Must we now bind the next two gen- erations to hopeless servitude to the ally of the war?" This is the general question that men and women ask, echoing the words of Clemenceau ad- dressed to President Coolidge. *‘Even the German enemy could not be mor deadly for us than the American ally this was a phrase one heard widel when it was a question of the pos- 1!(lY‘:Ill!\' of a Franco-German financial arrangement. Today, momentarily as most la | believe, Poincare has arrested n‘;:of?.u | of the franc and as a consequence the ! passion of the moment of the recent panic has disa red, has gone un- der ground. ut If the franc fal). again to new depths, the passion wil return, and the passion will be d rected (Continued on_Third Page,),