Evening Star Newspaper, December 2, 1928, Page 45

il | Edito rial Page EDITORIAL SECTION he Sundwy St Part 2—12 Pages WASHINGTON, D. €, SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER HOOVER TO LEARN ALL LATIN AMERICAN ISSUES All Have Bearing Relations Wit on Future Cordial h the United States. BY GASTON NERVAL, Authority on Latin American Affairs. HE great problems which for many years have impaired the relations of North and South | American States will no longer remain ignored, for Herbert Hoover will, during his visit in Latin America, become acquainted with them, thereby facilitating their not far dis- tant solution. In each of the countries he will visit the distinguished “Ambas- sador of Good Will” will come in con- tact with new problems heretofore un- known to him that today are of vital importance to those countries and which may very well have a great bear- ing in the friendly relations of those countries with the United States. There are two principal problems which today hinder the good relations | of the Central American republics with | Uncle Sam. The first is economic and | the other political. In so far as the | political issue is concerned, it consists in the long-debated controversy of the | interventions of the United States in the internal affairs of those republies. ‘That policy of armed intervention which the Washington Government has been conducting for many years, to re- establish order or to protect the lives and property of its nationals residing in those countries, has been sowing distrust and diffidence in the minds of those people, which some day might result in serious consequences. New Feeling Prevails. A new feeling against the United States hegemony seems to prevail in Central America, coupled with a reac- tionary movement against that which i they believe to be “Yankee imperialism.” It is a matter of history that the United States has on several occasions inter- fered in the affairs' of the Caribbean countries, either by armed forces or through diplomatic channels. Marines have been landed repeatedly on the shores of Nicaragua, Cuba, Santo Do- mingo and Haiti, and even today there are United States forces in some of those countries for the purpose of maintaining peace and order. These imterventions were conducted in sev- eral instances to protect the lives and property of its citizens; in others to re- establish peace which had been jeop- ardized by revolutionary movements of the natives, and still in others to avoid ,the danger of a possible interference by any of the European powers against their independence, as was the case with Venezuela in the year 1895. Every step taken by the Washington Govern- ment in this respect has been criti- cized and looked upon by the enemies of Pan-Americanism as a further proof of the pecuniary and imperialistic de- signs of the United States in Central America. And even though the United States has so far shown its good will and honesty of purpose in such under- takings, however, that propaganda has aiready harvested its fruit and today evil designs are attributed to the land- ing of Marines on the shores of Span- Lshb?mmc};. hm is the most serious problem whicl country is facing in Central America. As long as the ex- mt ort xthe jnis'.:oe o‘l:hilnj'.u:tlm of these usations of impes inst the + United States remains unex;gl;med. the :;oblem will continue to hinder and pair the relations of these countries. Economic Problem. ‘The economic problem which just as vitally affects the relations of the Amer- ican States, has been the result of the attitude taken by certain North Amer- ican corporations which are engaged in business in several of the Central Amer- ican republics. These same corporations | besides pursuing commercial aims, are contantly seeking certain privileges which might benefit their own private interests, and to that end interfere, either slyly or openly, in the internal affairs of those countries to such an extent that they jeopardize their politi- cal and economic independence. There have been instances where corporations availing themselves of their great wealth, have succeeded and actually caused the appointment of Presidents; have fomented and financed revolutions and established governments to suit their desires, with the result that they have corrupted the political morals of those nations under whose laws they speculate. Not o0 very long ago a dispute of two North~American fruit companies nearly gave rise to an armed conflict between two Central American republics: neith- er_ has it been very long that because of Costa Rica’s cry of “Costa Rica for Costa Ricans,” an energetic campaign was conducted against the political in- terference and absorbing policies of these commercial enterprises. Great public demonstrations and mass meet- ings were held against a certain power- ful American corporation and the con- fiscation of its property was contem- plated if such corporation would con- tinue to discriminate against native capital in the pursuance of its business, or if it should persist in its designs to use its influence in the internal affairs of the nation. Undoubtedly similar demonstrations will be made against such foreign corporations in the other Central American republics, for they are beginning to show a new and power- ful nationalistic concern. This will be the other vital problem of which Mr. Hoover, during his visit in Central America, unquestionably will hear about. Relations With Cuba. During his visit in Cuba, the President- elect also will learn that these same economic and political problems are affecting the relations of the United States with that small but prosperous republic. The political one dates back some 25 years when an agreement was entered into between the United States and that republic shortly after its libera- tion from,the Spanish crown, thanks to the efforts of the natives and the op- portune and material aid of Uncle Sam. This agreement is known as the “Platt Amendment.” for it was United States Senator Platt who drafted it, and it contains a series of articles which the Cubans_interpret as an encroachment upon their sovereignty. One of the articies of this agreement provides that the Cuban government shall not enter into or sign international treaties with- out the previous consent of the United States. Angther stipulates that the United States reserves the right to in- tervene in the affairs of the Cuban re- public when deemed advisable to pre- serve order or to protect the republic against foreign agression. It also re- serves the right to intervene for the purpose of protecting the lives and property of its nationals residing in the neighboring island. A strong public opinion in Cuba, specially within the last few years, has asserted itself with a view of urging its government to bring that those guarantees which were asked by the United States Government 25 years ago have no force or standing at the present time. Day by day this opinion has been gaining such popular- ity that saveral months ago when Sena- tor Shipstead, proposed to conduct an investigation of the internal affairs of Cuba, the press and the people so re- sented this meddling that they success- fully urged President Machado to take up the matter officially with the White House requesting the nullification of this amendment. It may be very well said that the greatest political ideal of Cuba_ at. the present time is to secure the abolition of the “Platt Amendment.” Island’s Economic Problem. However, a far more important prob- lem facing Cuba is the economic one, for its consequences are real and more immediately felt. This problem has been the result of the constant increase of the customs tariff in the United States. North America is Cuba's principal buyer. The great majority of the Cuban products, especially its main two indus- tries, sugar and tobacco, upon which depend its very economical life, are ex- ported to the United States. It is claimed that because the Washington Government faithfully follows its pro- tectionistic policy of high tariffs the exorbitant duties to which the Cuban commodities are subjected must natur- ally have disastrous effects in the economic_prosperity of the neighbor island. The protests of Cuhbg against the high tariffs imposed by the United States upon its tobacco and cane sugar | in order to protect Americafi producers of tobacco and beet sugar are very energetic and general in scope. As a result of these protests the view is voiced that because of the United States | high tariffs on Cuban commodities simi- lar rerisals should be taken against North American products, which un- doubtedly would be highly prejudicial to both countries, for Cuba imports many millions of dollars’ worth of Uncle Sam products and sells to him at the same time practically all its tobacco and sugar. Thus the problem seriously affects the commercial relations of these two peoples, and no way of so- lution seems to be at hand. Venezuela and Colombia. Let us see now what other problems Mr. Hoover will encounter on his visit farther to the south. In Venezuela and Colombia the peren- nial controversy is over petroleum. In both countries the vast oil fields which are being operated by American cor- porations are the subject of constant discussions with the representatives of the White House. However, there-seems to exist quite a difference in the atti- tudes of these two republics toward the United States. In the former, for in- stance, the dictatorial regime which has been in power for the past 20 years is more reserved in its assertions and im- pedes that such discussions might reach alarming proportions, for it has great interest in maimtaining the best of rela~ tions with the Washington Govern- ment. On the other hand, in Colombia the oil controversy between the govern- ment and the American corporations has been made the subject of passionate and heated disputes by the nation at large, in which the public opinion has forced the government to lead a cam- paign against foreign interests. This is a repetition, in a smaller scale, of what transpired in Mexico, where the nationalization of the oil reserves and the confiscation of the property of for- eign corporations were decreed in the event that they should refuse to abide by the oil laws in effect or adopt a rebellious attitude. Because of the fabulous investments made by American corporations in the operation of oil fields in Colombia and Venezuela that tendency for the nationalization of the natural resources which is rapidly grow- ing throughout Central America greatly endangers the relations of the United States with those republics. Tacna-Arica Controversy. Upon his arrival in Peru, the Presi- dent-elect will again hear of the fa- mous Tacna and Arica controversy, which has been the principal and eter- nal problem facing the three republics involved, and which today also po- litically affects the relations of the United States, for it was no other than Uncle Sam who was called upon to act as arbiter in the dispute in question. Both Chile and Peru look forward to the United States with eagerness, for it is the latter country who in the end will amicably settle this long pending territorial controversy. In 1923 Peru and Chile signed a pro- tocol on arbitration, whereby they com- promised to accept the decision of the President of the United’States on_this dispute as final. When President Cool- idge ordered that a plebiscite be carried out, which attitude was upheld by Chile, the manifestations of praise and appre- ciation toward the United States were indeed extraordinary in Chile, while in Peru this same attitude was being greatly criticized. Shortly after, when the United States representative, Gen. Lassiter, pro- nounced the carrying out of the plebis- cite as impracticable, due mainly to mal-practice on the part of Chilean elements, the feeling in Peru toward Uncle Sam was most friendly, while Chile, on the other hand, was vigorously protesting against this decision. This is a further proof of the passionate sentiments which exist in both coun- tries respecting this great controversy, which originated from the war of 1879. The recent renewal of relations and the mutual indications of friendship between these two republics, in reality amounts to no more than mere dip- lomatic courtesies. ‘What Bolivia Desires. And, should Mr. Hoover visit Bolivia, the “portless,” which is the other party involved in the Tacna and Arica con- troversy. he will have the opportunity to hear the great acclamation of a na- tion who will unanimously bring to his attention the fact that it also partic- ipated in the war of 1879 and that in that war it lost all its ports and most of its resources; that it has no access to the sea, and that it is the one which really needs the territory of Tacna and Arica, because of geographical. political and economic reasons. Should this vital problem be brought up again for settle~ ment, it must be borne in mind that in its solution depends the international prestige of the United States. However, it will be in the Argentine Republic where the Presiden‘-elect will find the greatest number of problems deserving of the closest study. For Buenos Aires, it may be said, is the po- litical center of South America and it will be there where Mr. Hoover will more _extensively learn of the views of before the United States the questior: of repealing the so-called “Platt Amend- ment,” which that republic interprets @s an international tutelage. Hold Guarantees Not Needed. The Cubans allege that they aiready have demonstrated beyond a doubt to he fully capable of governing themselves contend without foreign aid, and thus | ] the Latin Americans respecting the policies of the United States in the con- tinent. It will be there that the subject of interventions; the interpretations of the Monroe Doctrine; the far-reaching ei- fects of the Kellogg pact, and in gen- eral all international proplems affect- ing the relations of the American tates will be discussed at lepgths “ BY SENATOR GEORGE H. MOSES, President Pro Tempore, United States Senate. OULDER DAM—When? How high? At what cost? For flood control? For irrigation? For power? supply? Whoever can answer these questions can tell something about the second session of the Seventieth Congress, of next March—because the Boulder Dam bill stantis in a preferred position on the calendar of the Senate and be- cause it is backed and opposed by groups of Senators who are both able and determined. It may be taken for granted that neither Boulder Dam nor the naval construction bill nor the multilateral treaty nor farm relief will be permitted to stand in the way of the regular sup- ply bills. These, now reduced in num- ber and favored under a change in the rules of the Senate—with which the Vica President has nothing to do— should take but little time. So the| question continues—how far will Boul- der Dam obstruct everything else? Jt cannot be that the opponents of the measure, who conducted the ill- concealed filibuster at the last session, will now recede—they have just been re-elected and, I would take it, feel that they have a fresh mandate to con- tinue their opposition. The indomitable proponent of the bill. Senator Hiram Johnson, also has just been re-elected, and by a fabulous ma- jority. He, too, has a fresh mandate— without question, as he views it. I seem to recall some axiom of my school days to the effect that when an irresistible force meets an immovable object, the by-product is likely to be interesting. That is my initial forecast for the next session on Congress, and it is based upon the position of the Boulder Dam legislation. Oppose Extra Session. Meantime the subcommittees are working on the regular appropriation bills, and almost every Senator and Representative is hoping that an extra session of the Seventy-first Congress may be averted. This is possible be- cause, except for farm relief and gen- eral water power legislation, all of the enumerated measures have been acted upon by the House. And farm relief now should not consume much time anywhere. Both President Coolidge and Mr. Hoover have declared against the so- called equalization fee, which has been the bone of contention in the frame- work of farm relief as thus far pro- posed. Accordingly it will be impossi- ble to secure this feature prior to 1933, if ever, and I can see no reason why the advocates of farm relief—which means all of us—should not get to- gether and agree upon a measure and pass it. The House rules are con= ducive to speed in such a matter, and the Senate, regardless of its rules, can outdistance the House whenever it chooses to_show its celerity. Hence, Boulder Dam. If its friends Where? | For domestic water | which will come to an end on the 4th | shall decide that national security and ! BY COUNT CARLO SFORZA, HEN I was in Paris as Am- “’ bassador, about six years of tendencies between the two Presidents—M. Millerand, Presi- In home policy M. Millerand was ac- cused of barring the current which was the Right for his foreign policy, never lacked the confidence of the Left, in of republican institutions. By previous personal experience when ties which surround any possible action by the President of the Republic. He ed, but his prime minister, Clemenceau, had been a jailer to him. The prison Poincare himself is wont to say when in some intimate circle of friends that masterpiece of Italian literature, “Le Mie Prigioni” (“My Prisons”), by Pel- difficulties of the situation of the French President—whose power, as than that of the American President— by the ruthless violence of his tempera- menceau was perhaps one of the un- willing authors of Poincare's election posed to Poincare, and asked when he arrived at Versailles to vote, whom he ing by that M. Pams, the millionaire candidate, Poincare’s adversary. How Poincare Governs. M. Poincare governs, if not by love, the second time since the end of his seven years as President of the Repub- rallied to him. Unlike Clemenceau, Poincare has no court-martial or even a high court of justice. Yet Poincare’s authority con- conspicuous in so many ways—and who liked to be conspicuous—contrary even apparent emanation of personality; he has no magnetism. He comes from could be duller or more “respectable” in the world, were it not for the exist- Thus it is all the stranger that few statesmen have been so deeply dis- biographers wrote on the very first page of his study: “One feels the mys- Former Italian Minister of Forelgn Affairs and Ambassador to France. ago, it was an open secret that there was a difference dent of the Republic, and M. Poincare, president of the council of ministers. driving France toward the Left. M. Poincare, although approved by spite of his deep and warm loyalty not only to the form but to the very spirit prime minister under the Millerand presidency, Poincare knew the difficul- had been President himself during the war; he had tried to have errors avoid- was a golden cage—the exquisite Palais de Elysee—but still a cage. if he ever writes his personal reminis- cences he will borrow the title from a lico, the Italian patriot. Probably Clemenceau added to the everybody knows, much more closely re- sembles that of the King of England ment. One might even remember that Cle- to the presidency of the Republic in 1913, simply because, being strongly op- would vote for, answered: “Je vote pour le plus stupide,” mean- While prime minister Clemenceau governed always by fear. at least with the consent of the gov- erned. He is now prime minister for lic, and even the Socialists, although ostensibly in opposition, have in part censorship at his disposal; he .cannot send his political opponents before a tinues and remains unchallenged. Contrary to Clemenceau, who was to Briand and to Caillaux—to speak only of Frenchmen—Poincare has no those serious and dull French upper middle classes, than which nothing ence of what remains of the Victorian type of British middle classes. cussed, so differently interpreted, as Poincare has been. One of his best tery of the man.” In reality, there !5 no enigwa in i f | | | SENATOR GEORGE H. MOSES. international peace pacts are more im- mediately desirable than a cheap water supply for Southern California, and that farm relief for every one is better than flood relief for a few—then the Boulder Dam bill will be laid aside and the session can finish work in orderly fashion. Some Debate Expected. But we shall not be able to complete the program without some debate. The pacifist lobby which always infests ‘Washington—and I should like to know the origin and maintenance of that lobby—will do all in its power to defeat the naval construction bill. And those of us irreconcilables of 1919 who are left will want to make sure that the naval bill goes ahead of the treaty, and that the treaty is safeguarded so that we do.not barter away the right of self-defense or the Monroe Doctrine. The advocates of the McNary-Haugen bill in its original form will want to do Raymond Poincare Wins Way by Sheer Force of a M a little gloating. But all this can be done and we still shall be able to pass the indicated program by March 4 if Boulder Dam can be disposed of. Even this, however, will not necessa- rily obviate an extra session of the Seventy-first Congress—though it may not be called at once. The farm relief measure, which can be passed at the approaching short session, will deal pri- marily, perhaps altogether, with the problem of the exportable surplus, and will provide for some sort of gradual support, of the farmers' co-operatives along the line of the activities of the Alberta wheat pool, if an effete East- erner may be permitted to hazard a guess on a subject which the West re- gards as its own. This, it will be observed. has no traf- fic with the tariff, although the central war cry.of those who battled for farm relief last Winter was: “Make the tariff effective.” This slogan fell upon Tesponsive ears—but the response was POINCARE REMAINS ALOOF; NO ONE SHARES HIS INNER SECRETS. (Drawn by 8. J. Woolf.) Poincare. He is a great lawyer, a Lor- raine lawyer; Lorraine being a frontier province, he has had from his very nursery days constant thoughts of Ger- many—which does not in the least mean hatred of Germany, as the French “nationalists” have. Poincare the Lor- rainer knows better:; he knows well that Germany is there, and that some real peace ought to be found. When he became president of the council of ministers and minister for foreign affairs in 1922 he gave the im- pression that he was holding the brief for the treaty of Versailles before the world. He was so uncompromising that more than once at the time I heard this word uttered—from British lips: “Shylock.” In reality, he has been constantly in- clined (if we except the period of the occupation of the Ruhr, for which I'll point out an interpretation of my own | a little further on); he has always been ready, like all Lorrainers, to make peace with the Germans the moment Ger- many discharges her obligations. Like all Lorrainers, I said. Often during certain small dinner parties in Paris, when I was ambassador there, I spent long evenings talking in some quiet corner with Maurice Barres, then at the apex of literary glory and haled | in fashionable aristocratic circles as the prophet of anti-German patriotism. How often did I feel that Barres—deep- ly skeptical as he was (he really only believed above all in the beauty and music of words)—was, not in his mind; but in_ his instinct, imbued with such a touchingly naive “patriotism” that— conceiving patriotism as the necessity ¢ of hating some neighbor—he was, above all, anti-English. He felt, more than he spoke, as if Joan of Arc had been burned about the time of the Dreyfus affair. His Political Life. If there is a touch of paradoxical contradiction—not any enigma—in Poincare’s political life, I see it in his home policy. M. Poincare, for all his conservative poise, is a sincere demo- cratic republican. One might even go as far as to say that, intellectually speak- ing, he has something of the radical. When he may do so freely and without danger he never loses an opportunity to display his feelings; he does’so, for | instance, any time there is danger, or an appearance of danger, of an excess of Catholic influence in the life of France. In spite of that—I have al- ready pointed to this contradiction—he is generally supported by majorities elected on a ticket opposed to his own} while he is almost always abused in the press and in the chamber by his [F! political, or—to be more exact—by his intellectual co-religionists. M. Poincare has an old Republican's deep respect for the constitution; he has the lawyer’s inbred respect for law. Success has not made him a leader for whom men hold a deep affection. What is rarer and in a way beautiful is the fact that he has no longing for such feelings nor for the warmth that may come out of them. It is his very temperament that obliges him to work in solitude. I watched his way with great curiosity when in his previous cabinet he was at 1928. ~y What of the Next Congress? Boulder Dam Sure to Dominate Course of Legislation in Second Session Ending Next March not exactly what the originators of the slogan had expected. “Make the tariff effective” indeed, thunderously echoed the textile mills of New England. the cement mills of all the States, the brass founders and locksmiths of the indus- trial East, the shingle mills of the Northwest. Less reasonably, perhaps, but just as sincerely, every interest in- volved in an existing tariff schedule took up the cry. A tariff bill is a curiously interlocked measure, in which no single item may be altered without impairing the equi- librium of the whole structure. When- ever we begin to “make the tariff effec- tive” for the farmer, we shall have to “make the tariff effective” for every- body else, too. This means a general tariff revision, which cannot possibly be undertaken at a short session of Con- gress. The existing tariff bill took more than a year for its drafting and pas- sage. The Underwood bill required more than six months. If the next | tariff bill should require as much time |'as that, it would mean that we would ! not be able to pass it until the mid- Summer or the Autumn of 1930—and that we should then plunge into a con- | gressional campaign with a new and untested tariff bill as a major issue. Hopes for Future. Not. for me, thank you, if I can help it. I want no more campaigns like those of 1890 and 1922. It should not be difficult to impress this point of view | upon the majority leaders in the Con- | gress now in existence and, through them, upon the new President. There- fore, 1 look upon an extra session of | the Seventy-first Congress as inevitable. | If this should prove to be the prevail- ing opinion, what effect will it have { upon the program which confronts Con- gress_this Winter? It should have none at all. Nevertheless, it will probably |lead to a much more prolonged debate on each controverted measure than if its advocates realized that it is now or | never—or, at any rate, now or fully two years hence—for their pet projects. Personally, I now hope that wiser coun- sels might prevail and that we can go on—as we surely can—with the essen- tials of legislation and dispose of them so that we can confront tariff revision next Summer untrammeled by a lot of other major legislation. That I have spoken only of the Sen- ate in this discussion of the forthcom- ing Winter's work of Congress is not because of my well known regard for the Senate as a legislative body, in spite of what any one may say of its rules, which, I may add parenthetically, I probably know as well as the next man. I speak only of the Senate because, as I sought to point out earlier, there is only one subject of major consequence in the Winter's program—aside from appropriation bills—in which House ac- tion is required. That is farm relief, which must be attacked again. How- ever, neither the House nor the Senate is likely to spend much time in debating this subject once the agrarian leaders come to an agreement, as they doubtless will And it is in the Senate, too, that we find Boulder Dam. Premier of Determination nd Made Up—Leaves Nothing to Instinct the foreign office. He had some able collaborators, but none worked quickly enough for him. He accepted data and documentations from them, but all the logical construction of a note or a mem- orandum was worked out and decided upon by him; most frequently even all the wording was his own. Incapable of using the labor of others as a substi- tute for his own labor, he is like a sculptor who wants to be a quarryman also. Time for Everything. With an astounding capacity for work, he finds time for everything. A few months ago, tired of waiting for certain trifling sums that the French administration owed me for a small property at sunny Sainte-Maxime, near Toulon, I wrote to him. After 20 days I received his answer—and the check. But nothing had been done in a dicta- i torial way, to please a so-called impor- tant foreigner. . . . No, he had gone through the channels of the adminis- tration, he had discovered where the delay had occurred and he had seen to it that everybody involved in the case was paid, not only the “important for- eigner.” ‘This omniscience of his is the secret both of his lasting successes and of his psychological failures—because, by his methods, leaving nothing to imagina- tion, to improvisation, to instinct, M. Poincare runs the risk sometimes of becoming the prisoner of his own men- tal processes. He wins his way with his colleagues in the cabinet—men having the moral size and the mental impor- tance of a Briand and of a Herriot—by the sheer force of a mind made up. ‘This might savor of a kind of mental limitation. Nothing, in my opinion, would be more erroneous. And there {lies, so I always felt, the tragedy of M. Poincare’s soul—of a soul whose inner secrets he discloses to none, not out of pride, but out of a sort of mental pudic- ity, a trait which is not infrequently found in the noblest French minds, Repeats His Phrases. Once he has constructed a formula exactly expressing his thoughts about something essential, like the German reparations or the French occupation of the Rhineland or the French debt to the United States, he repeats his phrases with unrelenting regularity in speech after speech, week after week. So ex- treme appears his mental rigidity that he gives the impression of a complete inability to admit of a controversial discussion. ‘Thus Poincare gives such an irritat- ing impression of mapping out affairs in a strict order of his own, leaving no margin for give and take, that one often sighs, “Such a great ruler this man would be—if only the human race were a collection of mechanical toys.” .. . In reality, the more I have thought about him, the more I have ended by considering this ironical bou- tade as a supreme injustice. I came to this conclusion after a careful study of Poincare’s mind during what some have considered his main political error—the occupation of the u hr. On the arrival to power in Italy of a grour of men for whom I felt a deep intellectual distrust, I at once resigned my office of Italian bassador to France and maintained my resignation in spite of telegrams sent to me by the new chief of the Italian government, asking me to withdraw it. Sorry as I was to give up a work which T had hoped would further the peace of our peoples, there was one rea- son which brought me a feeling of secret. relief. My frequent conversa- tions with M. Poincare had left me (Continued on Third Page.) 'S Reviews of Books PARIS EXPERIMENT FATE IN HANDS OF TWO STATES Doomed to Fail Unless Rumania and Jugoslavia Achieve Orderly Existence. BY FRANK H. STMONDS. HE dramatic change which has come with unexpected sudden- ness in Rumania must be reck- oned one of the most signifi- cant. of events in southeastern Europe since the World War. The rise to power of a peasant leader, who rep- resents a province acquired by Ruma- nia as a consequence of the peace treaties, discloses a revolution which is at once social ond political. Pre-war Rumania was comparatively an insignificant state both in popula- tion and in area. Power rested in the hands of a relatively small group of land-owning families. Political parties were actually of small importance, elec- tions were no more than solemn farces and such changes as took place through occasional transfer of power were more apparent than real. Anything like par- liamentary government in the Western | European sense was non-existent. More- over, Rumania was a backward country in the true Balkan sense, save as it had been able to escape the more violent and bloody phases of Balkanic _life which were disclosed in Serbia and Bul- | garia. Transformed by War. ‘The war suddenly transformed Ru- mania. By the various peace treaties it acquired Bessarabia from Russia and Transylvania and the Banat from Aus- tria-Hungary. The post-war Rumania was not only much larger than the pre- war state, but the newly acquired ter- ritories and populations were larger than those of the old nation. What was more to the point, too, the terri- tories acquired from the Hapsburgs were politically and economically far and away in advance of those of the pre-war state. Again, the Bolshevist revolution going forward in territories adjoining Ru- mania threatened to spill over the Dniester and engulf Rumania. To pre- vent this, the single possible remedy was to break up the vast estates of the small group of landholders, to imitate. the procedure of the Bolshevists them- selves and keep the Rumanian peasants from going Bolshevist by making them capitalists. ‘Thus to retain political power the old governing group, which for at least two generations had found its leader in a Bratiano, assented to an economic rev- olution. But while the concessions to the peasants for the moment avoided a Bolshevist danger, there remained the only less considerable menace coming from the newly acquired Hapsburg provinces. Although the Rumanians of Transylvania and the Banat had been subjected to political persecution they had enjoyed a comparatively effi- cient administration. The Hungarian regime, which was oppressive, was not corrupt, the people, who were politically impotent, were nevertheless economi- cally prosperous. Acquire Racial Liberty. ‘The same phenomenon ohserved in Jugoslavia was revealed in Rumania, following the remaking of the map, The Transylvanian Rumanians, like the Croats and the Slovanians, acquired racial liberty, they escaped from all tyranny seeking to destroy their lan- guage, their culture and their racial in- dividuality, but they were at once brought into collision with new ob- stacles. Bucharest, like Belgrade, un- dertook to retain the political power it had been accustomed to exercise. But the Croats and the Transylva- nians, while desiring to be racially free, were also determined to be politically influential and were naturally aroused against any effort to substitute the methods of the Balkans for those of Western Europe in administration. They were not for long satisfied with mere association with their race brethren, they inevitably demanded their rights to share in the administra- tion of the new country. The consequerce has been a long- drawn-out struggle alike in Jugoslavia and Rumania. In the former country it culminated in the assassination of Raditch, the Croat leader in the Bel- grade Parliament; in Rumania it led after frequent cries to the appearance of a Maniu cabinet, which was accepted by the regency as the single escape from actual conflict, for the peasant opposi- tion was prepared to resort to vio- lence if necessary. Thus while no solu- tion for the Jugoslav crisis has yet been discoverable, it seems possible that the Rumanian trouble may find ad- justment. All Depends on Election. All depends upon the forthcoming election. If the Maniu cabinet succeeds in carrying the election and obtaining a working majority in the Rumanian Parliament, then it will be in a position to carry out a genuine political revolu- tion. Western European political meth- ods and machinery will supplant the old system, which was designed to permit a small aristocracy, under cover of apparently parliamentary machinery, to_retain political control. Pending such a revolution it is clear that Rumania must remain not only a backward but a dangerous element in Eastern Eurcpe. While it is true that Rumania contains a majority of Rumanians, it also is cursed with the minority problem which afflicts Poland and Czechoslovakia. On the west it is menaced by the Hungarian purpose to recover the Banat and Transylvania, on the east it is threatened by the Russian resolution to recover Bessa- rabia, on the south it faces an immu- table Bulgarian will to regain the Dobrudja. In this situation only a strong and genuinely united people could hope to survive the dangers coming from without. A really united Rumanian majority is the first condition of con- tinuing national existence. But no such national unity was possible while there existed a fatal schism between the Ru- manians of the old kingdom and of the new provinces. And no such unity was attainable while power rested in the hands of a small group of rich and re- actionary landowners. Physically Rumanta unmistakably possesses all the necessary elements to become a really considerable European state.” It is as large as Italy and capa- ble of sustaining a population at least as great as that crowded into the Ital- ian peninsula. Save on the Hungarian side, it has well defined natural fron- tiers and constitutes a compact and closely knit political unit. Its 17,000.- 000 of inhabitants are increasing rapid- ly and will certainly pass the 30,000,- 000 mark during the present century. But preliminary to the development of a real nation there must arrive a revolution, which will permit the peo. ple to share in the administration of their country. The long, slow process by which western European countries arrived at territorial unity and political maturity has been replaced in the east by a sudden and tremendous change, which has bestowed considerable areas and large numbers upon peoples with- out any real experience in self-govern- ment. ~And inevitably it has brought with it the struggle between the mas- ters of the old state and the masses who would control the new. ©Of the three succession states, Ru- mania, Jugoslavia and Czechoslsovakia, only the last hgs been fortunate enoush to find real leadership. In Masyrk and Benes, the Czechoslovaks have from the start possessed a great president and an equally great foreign minister. Moreover, Czechgslovakia contains oniy territories_which were in a real sense Western European. Prague must be considered in the light of Brussels or Bern, not in terms of Bucharest or Belgrade. But in the larger sense the future of the Europe which was created by the various peace treaties depends upon the evolution of the three succession states and of Poland. The destruction of the Hapsburg monarchy was the largest single consequence of the World War. Fifty millions of people were free from alien and hateful tyranny. But, therc remains the great problem as to what the Slavs and Latins of these four new states are to do with their liberty. All have had great, if inevitable, difficulties. Poland has, at | least temporarily, abolished its imme- | diate dangers by the Pilsudski dictator- ship. Czechoslovakia alone has been able to adopt at once western methods |and_establish real political democracy. | In Rumania and in Jugoslavia the evo- lution remains to be achieved. Danger of Civil War. Unmfstakably if the Maniu experi- nient fails, the danger of civil war in Rumania will be continuing. And civil war in Rumania would be an instant danger to the stability of the whole Eastern European edifice, because it would be bound to have repercussions in Hungary, Bulgaria and Soviet Rus- sia. Conceivably the old Bratianu ma- chine will be able to regain control. It has all the experience and most of the trained politicians at its call. But such a victory could hardly fail to prove a disaster which could easily be not merely national but European. We are rapidly approaching the time when the artificial supports to the peace settlement of 1919 must disap- pear. Fifteen years after the fall of Napoleon the revolution of 1830 drove the Bourbons from France, and the Belgian rising destroyed the union of Belgium with Holland, which was an essential circumstance in the settlement of the Congress of Vienna. By that time Italy was already beginning to struggle for liberty and unity. Thus within a decade and a half of Waterloo the revision of the settlements of 1815 was actually in progress; the portions which could not stand the test of time were beginning to disappear. Automatically a similar change must arrive in the Europe created in 1919. Whether Poland, Jugoslavia, Rumanie and Czechoslovakia can endure or are doomed to disappear depends primarily on the ability of the peoples of 'those countries to create viable political and social machinery. Poland and Czecho- slovakia have, in a different fashion, to be sure, given clear proof of an ef- fective will to live. Rumania and Jugo- slavia have as yet failed to solve the problem. A surviving ol in each country has sought to maintain its power at the expense of real na- tional fusion and development. And in each case the result has been con- tinuing and dangerous paralysis. Solution Must Be Slow. 'To expect a rapid solution of the Rumanian _problem is both unfair and illogical. But, on the other hand, it is perfectly clear that the future in all the east of Europe depends upon the evolution of the several succession states. In these four states are 75,000,- 000 people. Collectively they contain, outside of Russia, the area within which Europe can still hope to_develop economically and industrially. But real economic development must wait upon political adjustment. Whether Europe as a whole continues peaceful and pros- perous may easily turn upon whether the succession states are able to live and develop or prove unable to attain national organization and political order. ‘Thus nothing in cotemporary Euro- pean circumstances can be more inter- esting or more important than the pres- ent Rumanian crisis, because it puts to the test the whole principle upon which the new Europe was fashioned, the principle of self-determination, which certainly involves not merely the right but the capacity of peoples to comtrol their own political life. If Rumania and Jugoslavia are unable to achieve orderly and efficient national existence, then the great experiment of the Paris settlement of 1919 is foredoomed to fail- ure and Eastern Europe is destined to revert to the old chaos. accentuated by the fact that Balkanization has pro- f’eedetd to the very heart of the con- nent. (Copyright, 1928.) e Italian Rice Workers - Are Paid With Product A customary preliminary to harvest time, which begins in early September in Italy’s rice-growing center sur- rounding the city of Alessandria, in the Piedmont, is that the farmers and peas- ants arrange for wages and other labor matters. This year the respective syn- dicates of workers and growers reached an agreement based on “compensation by nature” or emolument in kind. No money to the worker; he shall be paid with rice. Thus peasant lads from 14 to 15 years of age receive seventeen and a half pounds of rice a day, those from 15 to 16 earn twenty-three pounds a day and boys from 16 to 17 years get thirty- five pounds. Girls from 15 to 16 earn twenty pounds of rice for the eight- hour day, while the women’s stipend is twenty-six and a half pounds. Should a laborer insist on cold cash, the grower will be troubled with the necessity of utilizing his arithmetic. For he must take the nupber of pounds the worker is entitled to and multiply it by the current market price, which 1s now 3 cents a pound. Elevator Loses Caste Among London Society, Elevators are going out of fashion in London since half of smart soclety have become physical-jerk maniacs. The doctors’ latest dictum is that run- ning up and down stairs is one of the finest exercises in the world for the man or woman who gets little chance to take any other kind of “jerks.” Only one person uses the elevator now= adays for every 10 that used it a year or two ago. Nearly every visitor to the hotels, Americans particularly, seem to prefer the stairs. An elevator man's Jjob is rapidly becoming one of the lone- liest in the world. Restaurants, big stores and owners of many-storied man- sions are noticing the same thing and at the same time are ruefully regard- ing the stair carpets that are rapidly getting threadbare under the new regime, and carpets cost a lot more than electricity in X?;don. x