Evening Star Newspaper, August 7, 1927, Page 29

EDITORIAL PAGE NATIONAL PROBLEMS SPECIAL FEATUR BY H. G. WELLS. | LOATHE nationalism, and ripening experi- ence has corroded my imperialism (of 1599- 1900) profoundly, and perhaps incurably, but that does not prevent my being in- tently, affectionately and profoundly British. But by being English T do not mean pretending mystical and impossible cmotions at the first | grunts of the mational anthem or the chance | sight of that curious political compromise of the | last century, the Union Jack, which has swal- lowed up the real English flag of St. George and | still, against all reason, retains the cross of St. Patrick in its entanglement. Nor by being English do I mean repudiating the high republicanism of my English Milton, my English Cromwell and my equally gli George Washington in favor of more recent fashions. Nor again would I mix up the English idea with a trained aversion from foreign good§ and ingenious attempts to choke the trade of other countries in favor of our home products. Indeed, 1 feel a little ashamed of myself when a polite and kindly foreign post office hands me out my letters stamped with blatant exhorta- tions to “Buy British Goods. - same, | | | * % T maintain a) that 1 great ition of can- Yet, all the am scion, however unworthy, of a ve and heir to an unapproachable tra did spegch and generous act. My people, the | Engiish, have created mighty lived waliantly for freedom and fair plav through many sturdy generations and fertilized the whole | world with their adventurous dead. I hold most firmly that we English—who make up perhaps one-third of the United States’ population and an cighth of that of the Bri}ich empire—are a people necessary to mankind ; that there are certain calls and occasions when either “God's Englishman”—as our Milton had it—must play his part or the occasion fail. 1t is our boast that we say what we think without fear or favor and that we are not easily driven in flocks or cowed by difficulties or de- feated—even by defeat. And, believing these things. I hold it as my right and duty as a com- mon Englishman to watch the steps of my own people wherever they are found, in Britain or America, and to speak as plainly as I can when they seem to be falling away from the quality that has won us our place in history and the respect of mankind. 1 had rather assert my right to repudiate the shooting at Amritsar and | cry “Stop!” to the justice of I\la«achu?cni. when it grows harsh and unfair to such friend- Jess men as Sacco and Vanzetti, than reap all the material success that life can offer me. In that way I can a little discharge the obligation 1 am put under when 1 am counted among Eng- lishmen. race, nations. ® % % X Never have we been a theatrical people; we | have never pretended to be a race of supermen | and our drama, fiction and common speech | abound, in seli-derision. The British common soldier breaks into literature in the persons of Falstaff and Bardolph and Pymand. The for- eigner has always been given fair play and a welcome among us—up to 1917 at least. Our dearest boast was the prestige of “the word of | qualm. e S of the Slav. | mankind | through to a working realit ES WASHINGTON, an Englishman” and it is our claim that we would rather be trusted than exaited among the people of the earth. Whatever the diplomatic situation may have been, the great mass of the English folk in the New World, as in the Old, believed that they | ! were fighting aggressive monarchistic militarism | in the great war and preparing the way for a peace without uniforms. They hated Germany | more for her goose step than for the threat of her fleet. The sced of that rather wilted but still living plant, the League of Nations, was | sown by the practical liberalism of the English ; mind on both sides of the Atlantic and could never have existed but for the faith of the English in reasonable dealing. The faith of our people launched that experiment and to them alone can the world look for the mental courage to face its disappointments and accumulate and organize the resolution needed for the next thrust and experiment in the same direction. * ok ok Xk Liberalism of thought and restrained stead- fastness in act have been the collaboration of the English people in human affairs during the last two centuries. None of us claim any pre- EDITORIAL he Sunday Star SECTION D. C, SUNDAY sufficiently abundant to have carried that settlement through; and that it was the organization of that will that was wanting and failed. et el e The will to end war was caught and baffled in a net of political and diplomatic evil habits. And particularly it was the will to end war in the United States and the British empire, which should naturally have been the back- bone will of peace or- ganization, that was incffective and that was diffused and dis- persed and defeated. The failure of the will for peace in Amer- ica to make itself ef- posterous superioritics over other peoples; and most of us can admit inferiorities without a The French, for example, are certainly | more direct and clear-headed than we are and the Germans more thorough. We lack the ani- mation of the Levantine and the mental richness We have a curiously atmospheric quality in | our thought; we are not rapid with our problems and we are apt to muddle about with perplexities and betray a lack of haste and see-all, which exasperates observers. At the present time, and indeed since 1917, we have been making a bad showing. It is time we woke up to what we are not doing. A time may come when we shall discover that the world has not waited for the English, * ok x % For 10 years the English-speaking, thinking people of the United States and of the British empire, for I cannot separate them in these matters, have on the whole been disposed toward some settlement of the world’s affairs that would insure permanent peace. I do not believe that there would have been even a League of Nations without the initiative of the English on both sides of the Atlantic, and | I believe that the welcome and acquiescence of the other nations of the world in that project | was due to their belief “in the word of the Eng lishmen,” to their belief that the great section of | we English constitute and control | would see the vast promises of President Wilson | They (hought! that there was that much moral force in the world and that the English-speaking massesI embodied it and meant it. ! I believe enough in the quality of my own | people to be persuaded they were right. 1 believe that on November 11, 1918, the world was within sight of a broad permanent settle- ment of its political affairs that would have ended war, that the war to end war had been fought and won; that the will to end war was DAWES PLAN APPARENTLY MEETS| PROBLEM OF COLLECTING DEBTS| Subsequent Payments by Germany Balance of Trade, However—Forecast of f Will Depend on| | | its elements. | politicians, even more striking than the Amer BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. HE general and even official protest of the British over the fective has been dis- cussed very thorough- Iy and the ts hist disposition of President Wilson to make world | broad are . the | peace the monopoly of the Democratic party and the consequent estrangement of the Repith- lican majority. His obsession by the idea of the sovereignty of “nationality” and his incapacity to think out what he meant by a nationality, his diplomatic incompetence and intellectual and moral seclusion have been set out plainly in a huge literature of criticism, and so have the disgusts, resentments and fitfulness of the Amer- ican people as it realized that its will for peace was thwarted and sought to shift the blame from its own political institutions. I will not enlarge upon that tangled story here. * ok k% But the record of the failure of the British will for peace is a history that has not been so plainly told. It is worth while getting down to It is a story of frustration b ican parallel. Now, as always, there is a manifest majority of voters in Great Britain on the leit public affairs; the spirit of the British peoples is now, as it has been generally for a century, liberal, compromising, tolerant 1 anxious for a fair deal between nation and class and class, | and yet at the present time the British govern- ment is not simply aloof, like the American, from world direction, it is the leading force mak- ing for social reaction, mationalism, armament and war everywhere in the world today. It is delaying the operation of world labor legislation at Geneva; it has pursued a narrowly nationalist tariff policy and blocked the economic conference; it has played a retrograde role in the disarmament farce; it is elaborating a me- chanical army; it has ruptured the effort of its predecessors to achieve a working understand- side in . WELLS, | have contrived to impose themselves upon the MORNING, AUGUSI ing with Russia and | has done much to check and disorganize the first hopeful at- | tempt to create some- thing better than a brigand government in | China. * ok ok K | Tt the friendly | and helpful associate | of the Fascist tyranny in Italy, a temporary success of Nationalist violence that sustains | and encourages the| most militant and ag- gressive elements in French, German, Span- ish, Polish and Hun- garian affairs. It is doing its best to break the political representa- tion of the British trade unions; it hasarrested all educational progress, and in the Cave pro- posals for the recon- struction of the House of Lords it has frankly displayed its deterr ion to so change the British con- stitution as to saddle the empire for good with a junker control. a permanent ascendancy of | uniform-wearing and stifly conservative | classes. That was too much even for its own party supporters, and its proposals are in a state of withdrawal and concession, but the original scheme was a fair warning of the real spirit guiding the British government at the present time. The present British government is, in fact, doing its best to revive the role of the defeated Hohenzollern imperialism, and if it can hold the empire in its present course, it will certainly stcer the British people toward a struggle and a fate that may repeat the German experience. And this it is able to do in spite of the national temperament and the high tra- ditions of the English, because of the capacity shortsightedness of the politicians who is the and main masses of lieral thought. * ok k% That is the most momentous fact in world | affairs at the present time. The paralysis of | English liberalism carries with it the paralysis Society News it finds a crew of active and ingenious second- | ernment would release educational progress, rate and third-rate men engaged in petty feuds and divided into two bitterly contentious camps, | without a shadow of principle to distinguish them. It is extraordinary how hard it is to separate Liberal from Labor party men except by the fact that they are separated. Of many | of these people, I who live fairly close to it ail | do not know the party associations from day to day. Of so-and-so or so-and-so I ask, “Has he gone over or has he come back? question of postal address. There seem rather more lawyers in the Liberal party and many more glorified trade union officials in the Labor party, but a man like Comdr. Kenworthy, for example, can go from one party to the other or back again with as little change of nature as a performing sea lion hopping to and fro through a hoop. L S than virtuous, and pathetically anxious to assurg the world that there is no danger from “Social- ism in our time.” They are Liberals in red ties who have to cater for the earnestness of the young supporter. Sir John Simon and Sir Herbert Samuel, dodge and posture about with a manifest efiort to look like the sort of commanding, attractive and in- spiring personalities the English are supposed to trust and adore—those two are the most promi- nent of a whole host of commonplace careerists of no personal significance at all—and Mr. Lloyd George tries an infinitude of perplexing poses to catch the unifying spirit as it flits uncertainly through the ether. Mr. Lloyd George might very well catch the unifying spirit if only the unifying spirit could be sure that it had caught him. But there is no outstanding figure at all to hold and reassure both factions. There might be in Philip Snowden, were he physically a stronger man. * * kK That is the situation. One by-election follows another. Each time the government vote shrinks to a smaller proportion of the total; sometimes a Liberal scrapes him, sometimes a Labor man, | and sometimes the Conservative keeps his seat with close upon two-thirds of the poll against mosities of these wrangling factions rise to a of progress throughout the world. The clemental necessity before that moiety | of the English people which forms the nucleus | of the British empire, if it is to go on playing | its proper part in the shaping of human destiny, | is to get rid of Mr, Baldwin's government and all its works as speedily as possible. It has to | do this for its own sake and for the sake of the world's future. It has to shake itself clear of this imperialist militarism which is alien to its nature. It is an obligation. But when the English people turns to the Liberal and Labor politicians who should be translating its manifest will into achieved fact, after all, is the sum and substance of the British conclusion. ‘““The Ameri- can press has failed to present the British case fairly. Hence the Ameri- into the struggle because we were 8o, our mercha leave the existing government in power, a possi- bility fraught with disaster to the whole world, as that either of these opposition gangs will | scramble to a greater total than the Tories. Now to the grcat mass of English people these party feuds and bickerings between Liberal and Labor are a matter of entire insignificance. Nobody believes that the Labor party has the courage or capacity to carry through any exten- sive socializing operations, and nobody believes tha} a Liberal government would carry out a policy very different from that of a Labor gov- ernment. But either a Liberal or a Labor gov- —it is a ! subtle little question of quality and so much a | In power the Labor politicians have shown | themselves mere snobs, socially ignorant rather | On the Liberal side, wary, alert figures, like | him. But in a general election the mutual ani- | | malice that prefers a government victory to the | | success of the kindred competitors. It is just as likely that the next election will | check armament, relicve the world from the fear of adventures against Russia and China sustained | more or less furtively by Britain, break the ugly | association with Mussolini, show a living regard | for free speech and private freedom and reassure | the forces of peace and civilization in France, | Germany, Poland and Hungary. ¥ ok k% | Either should do. The general desire is for one or the other and the question which t politicians pose is which? Both the Liberal and the Labor party tricksters have, in turn, cheated | the country out of proportional representation, | which would have relieved much of this present difficulty. It is too late to go into that issue now. The primary concern of intelligent Englishmen | now is to get rid of this Baldwin-Junker minis- | try, which is as unpalatable to intelligent finan- | cial and business men, with some understanding | of the necessary cosmopolitanism of modern ) cconomic life, as it is to the main mass of | Liberal-minded Labor. How is this to be done? It seems to me that the occasion would be | best met by the formation of a scries of new | local political organizations, beside and inde- | pendent of the local officials of the Liberal and Labor parti What is needed is the organiza- tion of a block of voters who will vote primarily against the government and only seconda for either Liberal or Labor. The sensible thir seems to be to vote in each constituency for whichever of those two political partics secured the largest vote against the Conservative at the | preceding contest, irrespective of all their blither- | ing against each other. One would vote Liberal | here or one would vote Labor there in order not to waste one’s vote. In that way the govern- ment could be reduced to a minority and probably a small minority in the House of Commons and whatever else happened there would be an arrest of the threatened “Hohenzollernization” of British policy and the British empire. L I do not know what supplies of non-partisan political energy are available in Great Britain at the present time. Certain papers, the Express group and Mr. Garvin's Sunday Observer, for example, seem to care about as much for party loyalty as I do, and are probably, at bottom, quite of my mind about stopping the reactionary drift. They are conducted by men of imagination with a size of the greatness of our people; others are mere party organs, in which not merely the leading articles but the arrangements and display of news are calculated to favor one or other of the contending parties. But even among the readers of these biased { papere there must be a growing multitude impa- tient with the extraordinary way in which Great Britain at present belies itself and endangers the outlook of mankind. It needs but a crystallizing | touch to give that impatience a form and a direc- | tion. We want a “Wake-Up-England” movement in Great Britain, and not only in Great Britain but for all the English throughout the earth. We want a2 mood and form of politics that will save our destinies from our politicians while there are still great things to be saved. (Copyright, 1927, by the New York Times Co. Transiation rights reserved.) | | fAMERICANS FLOCK TO FOREIGN nt marine or our own ' SHORES AS TRAVEL FEES VANISH K{mw]edge Gained in World War and Better Steam- weak and defenseless at sea that all parties to the conflict believed that they could disregard our rights and shores against an open enemy is very | far from being the chief or the most valid reason why the United States | ship Faci ies Given as Causes of Increased Exodus From United States. American press comment upon th val conference gives should have a fleet. We cannot be| e naval c : invaded, as the British point out. In| risk our resentment. Had the United States possessed can people do not understand. 1f they understood, then they would Future Settlements Is Impossible. BY GFORGE E. ROBERTS Viee President Natinal Cus Bank of The Dawes plan seems ta be rawering the expectations of its re, in so far as the collection of funds in Germany is concerned. But 1t is generally agreed that in the long run payments can be made only on » favorable trade balance. This has| mot vet been definitely established. | Since September, 1926, every monti | has shown an excess of imports, the | pizregate being over 2,000,000,000 | yeichsmarks. These ave customs | Fiures, which on the authority of the Licich statistical office said to «verestimate imports by 5 per cent | Fnd underestimate exports by 11,1 poi cent. Application of these cor- ) ciions would modify all of the above | v:ures, but the e balance 8 r_lcr‘[ Neptember remains very substantial. | hese export flgures do not includ: | deliveries in kind, which amount to phbout one-half the total of reparation pryments, . | It is nevitable that increasing | prosperity in Germany will causc | e imports, but it is necessary that | fn the lonz run such increase shall Ie accompanied by larzer exports, not only 1o co rent purchases but ts provide reparation payments prd other indehtedness The azent eral's report s b nents taonths ends w reduction evchange hol of the Reichshank < an institution is concerned, for Y« agreed that in the long run trans. fors can be made only by means of a tavorable trade balanc It is of Interest in this connection that the Gold Discount Bank of Ger 1 any. a subsidiary of the within the month h: volving credit of $30.000,000 with a group of banks in this country The agent general in his re Jhasizes the experimental « *tics of the plan when he plan aimed to reesiablish Germuny 8s a poing concern and to provide a yair trial under conditions of security end mutual confidence, of th of Germany to pa nf the creditor powers to receive repa rations. Experience, and experience rone, would prove what was practi- cabl That “trial” is proceeding and as the pavments increase on the grad yated scale and approach the “stand mrd” rate at which th to con tinue, with perhaps slight and variable pAditions, interest in the situation nat urally increases 7t is evident that the authors of the gian apprebiend that there night be «ifficulty about the transfers, particu $~rlv in the earl’ vears of the opera tions, and wanted to assure it a fair trial. It, therefore, encouraged ar- ¥angements for payments in commodi- tiea or services and provided that in recent ¢ pay most Ly gold and foreign | American Petroleum Institute. |is sampling sea the event of the foreign situation he- i temporarily unfavorable to trans. f collections should he allowed to ccumulate in the Reichsbank or might be employed in the German money market. until such accumula- tions had reached the sum of 5,000,000 - | 000 reichsmarks. Thereafter, ta for reparations should ba reduced to such an extent as only to cover cur- nt transfers and maintain the fund at this sum. In view of these provisions. it is hardly in order 10 say of the plan, as is being said in some comments, that it is in danger of “breaking down.” Whatever the outcome, the plan will have functioned just as it was design- ed to do, in determining to what e. tent reparation payments are practica- hle and the means by which they may be accomplished. (Copyrizht, 197 . Expert on Petroleum Studies Sea Bottom A long look ahead in the oil indus- s being taken by Dr. Parker D, Trask, research associate of the Back- yed by a grant from the John D. Rockefeller fund of the institute, he bottom muds and sands in order to throw new light on the question of the origin of pe- troleum. Dr. Trask's attention was turned to the sea bottom hy the fact, long known to geologists, that the sup- posed source of beds of most of the ipresent-day oil flelds are marine in »rigin. Though these weve laid down many millions of ve ago, the; musi have had at least the raw n terials of oil scattered through them then, which was later concentrated in { the pools now being drained. amples of sea hottom mud and nds were taken from shoal waters in two regions, off the coasts of south- ern California and of North Carolina and their oil-producing capacity de- {termined by distillation, by burning out everything combustible and by other chemical and physical methods. “All types of sediment, from clay to teand, upon distillation produced ofl,” Dr. Trask reports. *“The yield was low and in general varied in amount with the degree of fineness of the sediments, ranging from a maximum of 2.7 gallons per ton in a clay-silt to almost nothing in a sand. This maxi- mum_ yield of 2.7 gallons per ton is but 5 or 10 per cent the amount ob- tained from the better grades of oil shale, which run from 30 to 50 or even more gallons per ton.” The work so far carried on is re- garded merely as a preliminary recon- najssance, to he followed by more ex- haustive research hoth in the fleld and in the l.lborllol‘y.t levies | | | peculiar point to the fashion in which the British press has dealt with the same subject. But while the | English charge with complete una- nimity that the American press has totally ‘misrepresented the British | case ‘and indulged in propaganda of | the most misleading and mischievous | cort, what one must conclude from reading the British newspapers and | magazines is that they have not mis- represented so much as ignored the American case At the bottom of all British com-| ment lies the manifest assumption that the American demand for equal- ity s in itself not only lacking in any real justification, but represents either a deliberate pursuit of prestige abroad or of domestic political ends at home. While there is general disagreement as to the manner in which the British zovernment should deal with the problem raised at Geneva, those who | would conciliate and those who would oppose the American thesis agree in | spirit that there is no solid warrant for the American course. 0ld Phrases Crop Out. 1t is amusing to find the old phrases which were familiar in the pre-war days of Anglo-German discussion of a naval holiday cropping up now. Yet nothing is more frequent in British comment than the assertion that the navy is for the Unit d States a lux. | v, while it is for Britain a neces-| ysity. All British discussion starts from the declaration that the United | States wants a_navy, patently, but| { needs it not at all | Thus in the British press the real | debate lies over the wisdom or folly | Jof meeting the American demand purely as a question of British policy. Commentators like Lord Lee, Viscount Grey and J. L. Garvin see ciearly and urge earnestly that the real issue is not between rival navies, but between | {people whose friendly relations are of | {utmost importance to hoth. Grey. | Garvin and Lee would humor Ameri can feelings to preserve American | friendship. i But for all Britain there is the same, | | almost incredulous, amazement that | the Uhited States should desire a navy | t all. Second only to this is the he-| | wilderment over the fact that the American people as a whole fail to see instantly and utterly the justice of | the British contentions. Bhe charge of propaganda arises, not from any careful examination of the American press, but from the fact that the American press has not accepted the ritish thesis. The disclosure, (oo, that American opinion has been deeply stirred at whst it conceives to be| British maneuvering and device is | final evidence that it has been deluded | by its own press dispatches, Hold U. 8. Doesn't Need Navy. | “The United States does not need a navy. Since it wants it, this| extraordinary desire must either dis. close an imperialistic and prestige- seeking spirit, or does actyally consti- tute a challenge to Britdin.” Here, i He. agree. But if by any chance, facing the facts, they did not agree, then the whole affaic must take on a sinister aspe g Of course, the main circumstance in the whole issue is never by any chance presented to the British pub- If there is any real warrant for the American demand for naval equal- ty, it rests on the obvious fact that twice in our history great European convulsions have involved us in for- | eign wars. Both in the Napoleon: and the World wars we were dragged The Something Is Himself BY BRUCE ROM a distant city some one sent me a newspaper clipping which told of the death of a humble man. He had spent his life in an ob- scure job, nothing much to be proud of, you would say. But of one thing he was very prdud. He boasted about it all his life, and the city newspapers report- ed it when he died. He was one of the men who helped install steam heat in the White House. Perhaps you will smile when you read that. If so, here is a chance for a broad grin. The greatest figure in the financial world of his time was Baron Rothschild. Most of the govern- ments of Europe were his debt- ors more or less, and with his powerful brothers. he once pre- vented war by agreeing that they would lend money to neither side. Many people were proud to be in his confidence or service, but none more so (and here is where you laugh) than the chi- ropodist who took care of the baron's feet. As he worked away at his menial task he would talk to himself after this fashion: “Thou now hast in thy hands the foot of the man who holds the whole world in his hands thou art a man of consequence. If thou cuttest a little too sharp- ly into the sole, he will be an- noyed and cut the greatest kings worse than ever.” With such reflections this simple soul ministered to his pride in his work. | admit that this steamfitter and this chiropodist are very (Cop either in 1812 or 1914 the fleet which it now seeks, the equality with the Eritish naval strength which it de- mands, we should have been in a| position not alone to protect our own rights but to defend the rights of all neutrals in the world. We should not | then have been called upon to submit to the long series of invasions of our unquestioned rights on the part of| the allies which led indirectly to the ultimate German action which made us a belligerent. The question of protecting either all agree is there the any hostile armada. But it is leave the Bri in all save cruiser stre; strength com tion of liner: able them t conspicuous the German: law. BARTO humble characters to be exhibit- ed in this way. Yot | make no apology. lected them because the; humble, because by their pride (smile at it if you will) they clothed their work, and them- selves, with dignity, which makes them fit companions for the best The seeds of genius were in them; they were brothers to Michelangelo and Caruso and Lincoln and St. Paul. For humble and unknown as they were, they looked on the work of their hands as God look- ed at creation when He called it “good.” Thi had the first element of divinity—an upstand- ing pride in the job. By that ome pride America has attained business leadership; for every American who is worth his salt believes that where he lives is God's country, and that his particular business is the best and most important in the world. When this piece is printed | shall tear it out and send it to a certain man who has been very unfortunate. Other men seem to have luck in finding good concerns to work for, but not he. One of the companies that em- ployed him was made up of who never give a Another was 8o big that he was lost in it, while a third was just a littl concern that any one could would never amount to much. The enthusiasm of Rothschild's chiropodist and our lowly steam- fitter would be an enigma to him. Something s the matter with every job he ever held, marine was national law, reprisal, neutral nearly three be glad that mains that against our the There’ is n | such when nation: hility served terference. ist Britain cruiser tonna It is unfai indirect: met petuate their much deeper States. ade is over; i states which to the sea a a new war, neutral, then [ o belligerents negligible from a naval and military | naval supremacy. be freedom of the seas in any sen: formed Englishmen once the United States has an equal- ity in battleships and cruisers, not only is British sed supremacy a thing of the past, but Britain can never win another war save as it is assured of fiscal year just closed this figure was the sympathetic attitude of the United is unthinkable, Canada would be defenseless, and with Can- ada would go the empire itself. Nor smallest possibility that army could take root on our soil hecause our fleet was inade- quate to the task of keeping off a new | a fact that it we confine our naval strength to battleships and | itish complete superiority combat elements, their ngth and the additional ning from the transforma- 's into cruisers would en- o dominate all the trade routes of the world, as they have |done for centuries, as they did with success in 1914, In the World War the British, like s, tore up international They based their action on the fact that the German use of the sub- a violation of all inter- » and their course was a But the reprisal abolished rights, and we were for vears neutral. One may the British did what they did, one may be glad that the United States ultimately Anglo-French came in on the side, but the fact re. we were dragged in will and because both of regarded us as too | point of view to count. Freedom of Seas Scoffed. 0 such thing as freedom | of the seas, and there has been no| thing since the rise of British ‘There could only s were capable of pro- tecting their rights, and that capa- to forbid any illegal in- That situation would ex- it the United States and Great possessed equal fleets, in ge as well as battleships. r and inexact to charge the British with secret and skillfull hods of seeking to pe; control. The thing goes than that. All well i perceive that The day of the old-fashioned block- t cannot be restored. To blockade Germany now, for example, it is necessary to blockade all neutral at one time have access nd fo Germany by land. But if the United States, neutral in should insist upon its right to ship goods to Holland, Den- mark or Italy, assuming these to be all the real value of the British fleet would be lost in advance. ‘While Great Britain possesses a vast fleet of small cruisers based upon tinued on Third Page.) a war with the British empire, which | BY WILLIAM A. MILLEM Now that vacation is king, the State Department has timed the pulse of the | American public going abroad and | found that it is stronger than ever. | hile the American Legion conven- | tion in Paris will obviously swell the | | exodus to an abnormal figure, it is | already far beyond that for any other vear, fiscal or calendar. Students of this trend attribute this not only to the greater circle of geographic knowl- edge drawn as the result of the World War, but to the encouragement given travel by the facilities of the steam- ship lines and the country’s prosper- ity. The walver of visas and of fees and the reduction of fees are credited with spurring travel, also, to certain countries. The fiscal vear 1926-7, which ended | just a few weeks ago, chalked up 151, 261 passports and 8,501 service pa ports. The service passport, an inno- vation introduced last October in the State Department's simplification plan, is issued abroad only to native Ameri- cans who have had previous pass- ports. All passports are now issued for two years. The old arrangement was to issue a passport for one year with two six-month extensions ailow- able. The law makes it mandatory to charge all immigrants $10 fees, ‘The stream of Americans going | abroad has been flowing with ever-in- | creasing force since the dam of war- | time activity was blown away by the | armistice. For the calendar 53 persons went abroad. The war ears bring a break until 1919, when 97,952 left the shores of the United States for a foreign land. In 1920, 160,488 departed. The year following, 137,685 embarked for a tour abroad, while in 1922, 137,551 set sail. Travel Becomes Heavy. During the fiscal year 1922.3 124,844 turned their on the Statue of Liberty or the Golden Gate or other American landmarks for fields. In 1923-4 139,106 set out to see the sights of other lands. In 1924-5—and here the stream of out- bound visitors assumes flood Ppropor- tions—168,395 left the United States on pleasure bent. In 19256 174,537 were granted passports to sojourn beneath a foreign flag, and for the td [ t t t i overshadowed by 181,261, plus those who obtained service passports, May is the banner month for these tourists. Eighty-five per cent of them go to Europe. When a Govern- ment_employe is sent abroad to a ! specific country on a special duty a | no-fee passport is issued. { Gradually more and more Ameri- cans are taking their own automo- biles with them abroad. Spain and Germany are gaining increasing at- tention as the destination of Ameri- can tourists, and France, once the premier favorite, is finding this year that it cannot ring Ms cash register to deposit the dol of American t 1i t t Brazil, $2.50; China, $ Cuba requires neither passport nor visa, Czechoslovakia charges $10, the free city of Dan: ig requires neither passport nor vi true | where tou | $Lis the 1 ar 1913, | passport burg tax is $2 and Monaco requires 60 cents; the Netherlands desires $10, but there transit during a visit of less than eight days; Norway charges $10, but Paraguay nor visa; 1510; Portugal charzes $3.50 and $5.50, depending on the nature of the trip: Rumania charges $10, but Urugu: foreign { while Venezuela's tax is § 15, of State to conclude agreements on failed to bear fruit. (Continued on Third Page.) visitors with the same erstwhile reg- ularity that it. was wont to do. These countries have entered infn an agreement whereby visas have been walved: Honduras, Liberia Liechtenstein, Nicaragua, Siam, P ama, Switzerland and Belgium. The: nations have waived the fees: Al- bania. Costa Rica, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Guatemala. Ice. land, Japan, Mexico, Persia, Salva- dor and Sweden. A reduction of fees from the quondam popular fizure of $10 has been made by Ausiria, ich charges $2 for a regular and 5 cents for a person passing through the country; Bulgaria, which charges Spain, which charges 10 pesetas, or $1.50; Jugoslavia, which taxes the traveler 50 cents, $1 or $2, depending on the nature of the wisa, and Chile, $4. Hounduras does not require a passport. Fees of Other Nation: Argentina charges §3, Bolivia, $1.50; Colombia, $7; . and this is also r in the Dominican _Republic, Fcuador charges $2 and Egypt $10, France requires $10 and a transit fee for tourists passing through the coun- try of $1; Great Britain charg $10 nd Greece levies a like sum, ept sts travel in groups, when : Haiti does not require a Hungary charges $10, as does Italy and Lithuania; the Luxem- is no visa required for requires meither passport Peru levies $5 and Poland 0, lemands neithe mor v passport Reductions have been entered into hrough agreements negotiated with he various countries under power of he act of February 25, 1925. Theso agreements are made with countries hat extend similar privileges to citl- zens of the United States, but do not er brace immigrants. President Cool- dge, by an executive order issued May 1925, authorized the Secretary his subject by an exchange of notes. How successful this has been can be zauged from the number of countries hat have either waived visas or visa ‘ees or lowerzd the fees. Correspondence between the United Kingdom and the United States bear- ng on the subject of reduction of passport fees, has recently been .pub- ished at London. This attempt to cut he $10 fee with Great Britain has Great Britain akes the position that the immigrant s0_enjoy _any benefit in re-