Evening Star Newspaper, April 7, 1929, Page 29

Part 2—14 Pages BRITAIN'S MAY ELECTION OF WORLD IMPORTAN CE Defeat of Tories Would Mean Possibility of Adjustment of U. S. Naval Issue. ARELY has any British general election had more importance both at home and abroad than 30. On the result of this test the relations of Great Britain not only with Europe but with the United States a Labor victory is likely to bring about the evacuation of Germany, new rec- ognition for Russis and a marked modi- ‘which has dominated continental affairs for nearly five years. In the matter of America a defeat for the Tories would of the naval issue, which, as recent events have showed, cannot be adjusted by a Tory cabinet dominated by admi- It would be hard to exaggerate the extent of the Tory failure in the five years since Stanley Baldwin defeated tion of 1924. On the crest of a carefully manufactured “Red peril” the Tories carried more than-400 of the six 'hun- Commons, while Labor was cut down to 150 and the Liberals to a scant 40. For practical purposes there was not even the victors. And yet, aside from the Locarno pact, which was a consequence of Mac- struction of Sir Austen Chamberlain, the Tory record is one of utter failure at moments almost touching national coal question, Baldwin, who began by bestowing a subsidy on the coal oper- ators, ended by permitting himself to general'strike inevitable. And that gen- eral strike, while it was an immediate catastrophe for Labor, proved a lasting Thanks to the advice and activity of & small group of extremists, like Win- ston Churchill, the Tory cabinet took to permit and even assist Labor toward & strike which would cripple its funds and destroy its credit with the country. mently successful,-but in the end the mass of the British people perceived that the strike was not only a supreme could have been easily avoided by Tory leadership. England’s Devastated Regions. failed not merely to solve the coal prob- lem, but, what is more serious still, to find any real amelioration for the ‘Winter the figures rose sharply to nearly 1,500,000, the highest point since 1920. ‘Whole regions were smitten with misery, vernment doles and private charity. itain began, 10 years after the war, to disciose devastated areas as impressive Following the coal strike, and his adopted a purely negative attitude. The government business to pull through or go to the wall. And despite all the gains that ‘have béen made in certain directions in automobile building, the great key in. dustries—coal, iron, textile and rai ve been and remain in a con- and involve national suffering. Complete as has been the failure in domestic policy, the blundering of the been even more astounding. In dealing with the United States-one mistake has followed another. The mishandling of termination of the admiralty, backed by Churchill, to retain real naval supremacy and if possible to avoid even parity, brought Anglo-American rela- tions to the least satisfactory point since the Civil War. licy of universal affront was cer- inly the Anglo-French conditional agreement over naval program. This ceptance by PFrance of all the theses advanced at Geneva by the British and rejected by the United States. France, BY FRANK H. SIMONDS, that which is now fixed for May may hinge. In the matter of Europe fication of the Anglo-French association at least make possible an adjustment rality influences. ‘Ramsay MacDonald in the .panic elec- dred and odd seats of the House of an opposition to hamper the plans of Donald’s labors rather than a new con- disaster. Due to the mishandling of the be driven into a course which made a misfortune for British industry. the line that it would be clever strategy For the, moment the strategy was emi- national disaster, but a disaster which And after five years the Tories have larger problem of unemployment. Last thousands were condemned to.iive on as those in Flanders or l’lcardy.s'm‘vln stood aside and left it to industry and what are called new industries, such as ::m::un must awaken national Baldwin cabinet in foreign affairs has the Geneva conference, due to the de- the appearance of assenting to nominal ‘The high-water mark of this foreign agreement was founded «upon the ac- like ourselves, had hitherto insisted upon total tonnage as the measurement of secondary craft, the British upon measurement and limitation by cate- gory. Now, the French accepted the British, idea of so many big cruisers and %0 many smaller. And in return the British dropped their opposition to con- scggt arntes, to the training of the ‘whole male population, by agreeing with the Prench to exclude trained reserves from the calculations of armed strength. Antagonism Spread. ‘This clever bit of maneuver was would agree o any form of bargain| with the Liberals. On the cont it is at least possible that, given a situa-| tion in which the Liberals did hold the balance of power, that party would split in the middle, part going to Labor, part | to the Torles. ( Their Best Hope. { ‘The best the Tories:hope for is a! small majority; the least they expect! to lose is about 100 seats, bringing their | representation down .to a little morc | than 315. It is still true that the great- | est weakness for Labor lies inthe wide- | spread fear of the unm of far- reaching Socialistic _e: its were | McDonald to take office. In his previ- ous regime the Labor leader had no; majority and was thus unable to pro-! pose any affirmative legislation. Cer. tainly, with any majority now, he woul be bound to undertake the nationaliza- tion alike of coal mines and railways. On the other hand, the disgust and weariness of Britain with its present masters is beyond exagge: . failure of the old Liberal party to keep Britain out' of war or to prepare it for a war that to many seems to have been inevitable, the equally complete fallure of the Tories to rescue Britain from the consequences of a victorious war—these | stand clear in the minds of a rising| generation and of an electorate lately swollen by the addition of millions of | young women to the rolls. Moreover, : one cannot fail to perceive the enor- mous disaster for the so-called upper classes, from which were drawn the leaders in both Tory and Liberal par- | ties, incident to the slaughter of the | most promising youth on the battlefields | of France. Death and taxation have produced a revolution in Britain more sweeping than is yet well appreciated in the a i world. The death of hundreds of thou- sands of the youth, the very pick of the young manhood, which filled the volun- teer armies in time for the butcheries of the Somme and Paschendaele; the taxation which is compelling the break- ing up of the old estates; the impover- ishment and even the destruction of the county families—these in a way have been more devastating than the guillo- tine inthe French Revolution. And the new generation which is coming on in Britain looks with impa- tience at governments and parties dom. inated by men past middle age and co; trolled by ideas and traditions which to the younger generation seem to have been responsible alike for the participa- tion of England in the European calam- ity and the inability of Britain to equal from the general disaster. Tories Turn Liberals. H As a consequence many of the sons | of the older Tories. and even more of “the heirs of the Liberal tradition, have changed sides. Even Stanley Baldwin's son has gone over to Labor. The enor- mous impassivity of vast masses of the n;mm people, tge %ub%mmve distrust of programs and elaborate proposals certainly remain. If there is a great movement toward Labor, there is just as patently a marked movement within the Labor party away from the mere extreme men and ideas. ted as it is, the British democ- racy is, after all, the sanest and the most experienced in the world. It is equally incapable of seeking its reme- dies in Moscow and in Rome. There is nm’up:eml:‘;mdhfismwhmh precludes violent change. e country goes Labor this 1t will be i hand, 1o one can mistake the fact that Bull, big and little, in every cir- cumstance of life is disgusted and even indignant with his present masters and looks ‘eagerly for any possible alterna- tive. (Copyright. 1929.) — U. S. Has Sent Five Envoys to Holy See Ever since “Vatican City,” Europe's newest state, was born as a result of the ‘conciliation pact between the Holy See and the kingdom of Italy, there has been speculation concerning resumption of diplomatic relations between the United States and the Vatican. It may be a surprise to ‘'many Ameri- cans to learn that between 1848 and Jacob L. Martin, first American Min~- enthusiastically cheered whenever in , served as Minister troops seized envoys iment. the most even the partial recovery of France | not- was | its he Rules Uncle Sam’s Mail Walter F. Brown Accomplished in Both Business and Polities—Will Add to Administration Surprises BY ANNE HARD. T was the heydey of the Harding ad- | ministration. In the somewhat | stuffy and thoroughly torrid at- mosphere of a typical Washington Summer night dinner I found my- self next to a card which read simply I hadn't the slightest idea who “Mr. Brown” was. With the soup I began, therefore, in the regular Washington dinner table way, to angle for some con- cealed interest in the ‘unknown “Mr. Brown” by dangling the usual conversa- tional hooks. By the salad I found myself, my own interest hooked instead, upon a discus- sion of the intricacies and the merits of steam cooking and steam cookers. Politics had not been mentioned. Per- sonalities had not been mentioned. The merits of the dear old home town had not been alluded to. Golf and horses were as if they had never been. It was then, for a first conversation, quite unique. As steam cookers had never been an enthusiasm of mine, it was with a cer- tain feeling of wonder at the way my own interest had been caught and held that I inquired, after dinner, who this Mr. Brown was. My hostess stared at me in amaze- ment. “Why, that,” she said, with .the to-know-him-argues - yourself - un- known" look, “that is Walter Brown of Ohio!” And then, after a breath, “To- ledo.” I felt properly abashed, but still curi- ous. Some one else took pity. A man this time. “An expert,” he murmured. “Going to reorganize the Government.” After steam cookers I suppose the thing I POSTMASTER GENERAL BROWN. least wanted to be well acquainted with was an expert. I would cheerfully have forgotten all about either. Eight Years Follow. Yet the memory of both persisted. Eight years have followed that night, eight years packed with conversations during which it has been my privilege or my duty to listen to the remarks of the politicians of many States and many countries upon topics of “public inter- est” or the remarks of dashing figures painted in high lights against the screen of current history. Yet, of them all, not half a dozen re- main in my memory, while the effect of the personality of that—to me—un- known Mr. Brown, with the perfectly futile topic upon which we happened to embark, has persisted, so that I remem- ber the hot Summier night, the stuffy dining room, the Air too heavy to lift the curtains and Mr. Brown’s very ‘voice describing the process of stringing a e an. ‘There must have been something etrating, unusual, about the personality of Mr. Brown to thus, with subtle unob- trusiveness, have left an engraving upon such slipping waters as my memory. Which is why, quite frankly, I open this brief biography with a confession. Now, Mr. Brown is “Gen. Brown"— such being the title to which Washing- ton softens the unwieldy politeness of “Mr. Postmaster General.” The “expert” had been, in Washing- ton’s observation of him, submerged by the politician. He had come, eight years 2go, under Harding, to help in the abortive process of government, reorgan- ization and had disappeared back again ! into Ohio. He had come a second time out of Ohio in 1927 to be Assistant Sec- | retary of Commerce under Mr. Hoover, He had remained to leave the Commerece | Building for the headquarters of the ua- last Summer. Thers I had a personal chance to! hear constantly, “Where's Brown?” and “Ask Walter Brown!" and “What does Walter Brown think about it?” and to begin to know more about the reason why it was so often said in the Hoover camp that Brown was one of ‘the keenest politcians in-the coun- A { 1t had been by Brown's wish and at | Brown's persistent urging that Mr. Hoo- ver agreed to enter the Ohio primaries against the late Senator Willis. It was by Brown’s skill in organization more than by any other single factor that the Ohio results were so favorable to the Hoover pre-tonvention candidacy. Appointment to Be Expected. His choice as Postmaster General came as no surprise to any one. By long tradition that office is the political appointment of the cabinet. But there are a lot of surprises in the thing, just the same, in the personality and the record of Mr. Brown, and still more surprises lie ahead in the adminis- iration of Gen. Brown. You look at him at his desk, piled with papers at which he will have to work until 11 or 12 o'clock at night. In his outer office, steadied by a tactful and genial secreary, is a line waiting H;e the rush hour of a suburban ticket office, He regards you from behind his hex- agonally shaped spectacles with thin gold edges. Only a man with a taste for the unusual and an interest in de- (Continued on Fifth Page.) How Russia Gets Its News Four Hundred Thonsand. “Rabkors” Comb All Parts of Nation for Soviet Press, BY S. DINGOL. HARLES A. DANA'S old-time definition of news as that which is unusual, and his classic ex- ample of a man biting a dog is still the best appraisal of news, in the opinion of most American editors. In Soviet Russia, however, news stand- ards are different. There'a man may |- bite a dog in public and yet remain ob- scure in the mnewspapers. However, should a physician in his private office attend a well dressed patient out of his turn while a workingman is waiting in his reception room the “Rabkor” will be quick to learn of the fact, public atten- tion will be called to the counter- revolutionary tendencies of the medicine man and the newspapers will play up story. The “Rabkor” is a reporter at large. He is one of an army of 400,000 men and women who daily keep the Russian the army and navy for the offi press. In the _editorlal of one Moscow | ‘members in office. He is a news. rej secret service man in one. Are Friends of Workers. pected by the workingmen and the superintendents; in b&mummu a sleuth. and informer, Nev o less, , illiterate peasants come ;'fi complaints and he airs their THE “RABKOR" IS A NEW INSTITUTION IN RUSSIA, A CHILD OF THE REVOLUTION. lic mind was not altogether the one the Communist leaders. It almost, ed the faith of the in"the . The corruption, agement; to_be un- ene- Already many Communist leaders de- ne & ceed].nr however, the most significant. fact of the convention was that nearly all the editors asked the Communist the Summer of last year, while i i that. 1 o oo 1 20 of came - o % the deportation of the Russian ‘trade delegation from England. I had been present at meeting in Trafalgar ] 0 i g g i : 2 every American newspaper. But to fing ] such a story the reader first must wade | through the “capitalist terror” all over where he will read the story of the | murder in less than 50 lines Agency Is Discriminating. Foreign news is covered for the Rus- sian press by a government felegraphic agency, known as TAS (Telegraphic Agency of the Soviets). Like the Asso- ciated Press, it has correspondents in every important capital, but in the selection of news it is rather discrimi- nating. The TAS will waste neither time nor money in reporting a murder unless it is of a political nature. It will not report divorce cases, personality stories nor any human interest story unless it has a direct bearing on the condition of the working class. At times the news is distorted, if not by the tele~ graphic agency, then by the papers in- Moscow. Very .often Ral s ‘a “letter’ Eze gi%z‘ ] | tries. And it is because of this that they tiénal committee in the Barr Building | ‘Walter | _|pomr who is desirous of gaining the Changes Since War BY GASTON NERVAL. Authorits on Latin American Affalrs. INCE the beginning of organized | s human society there has been at one stage or another: a pre- | dominant nation, one who has stood out paramount and unex- celled in power. And in the course of centuries the scenes and character of that supremacy have varied. At first it was purely a military one, when na- tions were solely engaged in warfare and ‘emq:x:dh. I:I '.Iu;en umesl t‘h]e strongest. most warl people al- ways ruled. Later that military pre- dominance was transformed into an in- tellectual one and the most cultured and civilized nation held supreme. To day, when finance and the laws of com- merce govern the affairs of men, this supremacy must be, without a doubt, of an economic nature, and belonging to the most resourceful, industrial and commercial people in the world. As a result of this sociological phe- nomenon, today we find the United States and Great Britain, the two wealthiest nations, disputing the su- premacy of the world. They are the most resourceful and industrial coun- | look to-other fields for the investment of their capital and expansion of their commerce. And as the earth cannot { have two masters, two financial dicta- tors, the competition for world su- premacy becomes stronger day by day. Not only in the naval program, in the construction of additional cruisers or in the control of oil and rubber re- serves lies that Angio-American ri- Iry which, during the last several , has been so eloquently demon- strated. - With ‘the same zealousness with which they dispute t!;e naval supremacy or the possession of greater oll concessions in the world, Americans and English are today disputing over something more vital, and that is the | control of the Latin American market. In Future Commerce. m’rh;luwu‘?l Al:‘;nu?m mlrkeltunque;: nably play an important part the future commercial relations of the world. It comprehends 20 countries of vast natural resources and of inexhaus- tible wealth, and practically all of them are just beginning to develop their in- dustries. They are countries which have been until now hardly exploited, who are begirining to enjoy the im. mense wealth with which they were endowed by nature, and whose needs increase with the passing of time. They possess everything that could be de- sired to constitute an ideal market. They have money, raw materials and the means with which to guarantee all | investments, and welcome capital as well as the products manufactured in Europe and North America. Now a center for the investment of capital, now as a_ purchasing market. Latin America offers an incomparable per- spective. This has been well realized for some- time by the two greatest commercial nations. At one time they had quite origin. turies by i led and_colonized for cent still I culture is more with the Old World than it America. This is an factor to be considered in tions, for it affords a considerable ad- vantage in the control of those markets. This advantage, this favorable disposi- tion toward Europe, has constituted | the main obstacle to the American ex- patronage of Latin American consumers. Superior Merchant Marine, Purthermore, he has been compelled to struggle against an inadequate mari- time service. Europe, and particularly Great Britain, possesses a merchant marine superior to that maintained by the United States in its communica- tion ‘with. Latin America. | to state that the English and Italian steamers offer third-class accommoda- tions to immigrants, which is. quite | an advantage to those lacking means, | and which does not exist on American vessels. This has materially aided the llmml‘rnhn of 2 considerable number of English-speaking people, not to mention the Italians, French and Span- iards, who, once permanently settled in Latin America, constitute the:true basis of competition against the Unit- ed States commerce. In connec- tion, it must be borne in mind that the strict immigration laws of this ‘coun- they continue south and end by settling in the . Latin American countries, where the Euro- Another obstacle quite detrimental to the interests of United States busi- ness men in Latin America is mis- It suffices (T U. S. RAPIDLY TAKING LEAD IN.LATIN AMERICAN TRADE Significant in View of Sharp Competition and Handi- caps Favoring England. the constructiorf of the Panama Canal; the difference in conditions brought about by the World War; the contin- uous investment of American capital in the Southern continent; the steady de- velopment of jculture, mines and other industries in the Latin American countries; their increase in power and their ever-growing dema: for foreign manufactured products. Before the World War, it was an everyday thing to hear of the eco~ nemic supremacy of Great Britain in Latin America. Especially the greater markets, such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile,- Peru, were wholly controlled by the. British commerce. The United States was then considered secondary in importance. The exportations of this country to Argentina, Chile, Bra- zil, Peru, Bolivia, Uruguay amounted to less than one-third of those of Great Britain and Germany. By means of their enormous investments and exten- sive banking and sales organizations, Great Britain and Germany complete- ly controlled those markets. Besides the British were in possession of the cable system, and the American ex- porters were Gependent upon the Eng- lish and German steamers for the transportation oi their products to South America. American Interests Gain. Things have undergone quite & change. There are American banking | institutions, Americart cables and in- numerable trade representatives of this country in Latin America. The in- vestments of United States capital have been increasing considerably, so that today they amount to about four ai one-half or five billion dollars. The service of the American Mer- chant Marine nas also improved. For every 1000 tons of American cargo ships calling at the ports of Brazil, for instance, in 1913, there were more than 43,000 tons in 1926. And in that same period the British and German ton- nage entering Brazilian ports decreased 22 per cent. From the aggregate total of the importations of the Latin Amer- ican republics in 1927 the correspond- ing figures of the United States and Great Britain show an eloquent change if they are compared with those of 1913. In 1913 the total importation of the 20 Latin republics amounted to $1,597,200,000, while in 1927 it amounted to $2,311,700,000, an increase of 65 per cent. Of total the United States furnished $336,748,000, or 24 per cent, in 1913, ranking second to the British Empire, which sold approximately $348,~ 099,000, or 25 per cent. In 1927 the standings of the United States and Great Britain were quite reversed, for while the former furnished 37 per cent. the latter decreased to 16 per cent of the total sales to Latin America. With respect to the Latin American exportations, the United States likewise took the lead. In‘'1913 this country imported 29.8 per cent and Great Brit- ain 20.7 per cent of the total exporta~ tions. In 1927 the proportion of the United States incréased to 35.1 per cent, while that of Great Britain de- creased 17 per cent. Thus. in 1927 the United States not only sold a great- er amount of commodities to Latin America than Great Britain, Germany and Prance put together, but likewise purchased more Latin American prod- uets than the three nations combined. Prior to the World War the United States controlléd half of the total im- proportion increased in favor of the United States from 52 per cent to 58 per cent, and in the West Indies from 55 to 62 per cent. The United States is at the Dpresent time purc! more than half of the total exportations of Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Hon- duras, .and her total expenditures on Latin American products amount to $1.100,000.000 per annum. 2 ‘These are very eloquent figures. And they serve to prove the passing of John Bull's economic hegemony. in Latin America. - Still more eloguent are those showing the sales of these two countries to the main Latin American markets In 1912 Great Britain sent to Ar- gentina 5 In 1912 the United Argentina ... n 1926 Great 7. 323,783,845 snito 11.823.390 23.640.710 o < ... 28,145,000 12,657.830 2.899.000 18,770,208 o n_1912 the United States ‘sent to Brazil .. Gre In 1926 Greas Britain sent to Peris. In 1926 the United States sent to Peru 7,088,502 ‘The above table is an evident proof of the enormous decrease suffered by Great Britain’s commerce in Latin are m.cflnfimnfl are highly appreci- Tatk conception which the latter have of their | used