Evening Star Newspaper, November 2, 1930, Page 42

- PROSPERITY IS DECLARED . BOUND TO RETURN SOON Firestone Says Nation With Sleeves Rolled Up Is Unquestionably on Uphill Path. (Continued From First Page.) feeling of doubt was succeeded by one resembling Nation-wide fear, and the latter marked the bottom of our period of depression. I have in mind an acquaintance who is engaged in the wholesale hardware business in the Middle West. When the first “break” came he wired more than 50 factories, canceling all his unfilled orders, for everything ranging from bolts nuts to carving knives and garden cullivators. He told me that he “just felt there was some change coming. Naturally, with thousands of other busi- ness men feeling and acting the same way, & change did come. Factories which received scores or hundreds of cancellations from their consumers in turn cancelled orders for cotton, for textiles, for steel shapes, for chemicals, for leather, for belting. Recovery Period Comparatively Short. for their customers’ orders, and they will order from factories in larger quan- tities, weeks and months in advance. Meantime the heads of industry are performing their other necessary and vital function—the creation of new wants and markets. Necessity is still the mother of invention. The heads of industries are going through their fac- tories finding ways to reduce costs and to improve products. That means more “sales appeal” to more prospective buy- ers. Cheaper and better rugs, cheaper and better refrigerators, cheaper and better auto tires, cheaper and better things for 10,000 kinds are on the mar- ket, and are being bought. New and | attractive groducts are coming upon the | market. even plano companies have made the first radical change in manu- facturing methods in 107 years, and will be able to offer a reduction of 25 per cent in price as a result. A new de- velopment of “dry lcing” by use of solid carbon dioxide is effecting changes and From this feeling of fear it has taken | }mprnvemcnls in shipment of perishable 00ds. what seems a long time to recover. As | & matter of fact. the period of recovery | is bound to be short compared with the R;l:ods of prosperity fore and aft. That always been the case in the past. ‘The depression necessitated an ad-| Justment to a new order of things, and | adjustments are hard to make. It is' much easler for most people to dc the same thing in the same way day after day than it is for them to adjust them- selves to a new and better way of dojng | things. Furthermore, the confidence of the people in business had been badly shaken by the stock market break, and | this confidence had to be bullt up again | because confidence of the people is the basis of any widespread business pros- perity. During the heyday of our ‘yroo- perity in 1920 a great portion of the, public had taken to buying stocks, many of which later declined and wiped out money. people now they were determined to keep rather than spend. When people made chases they did so for what they ed at the The automobile owner of not many years ago thought himself lucky If he made a single trip without a tire puncture or blowout, and 3,500 miles was “big tire mileage” Now tires sell- ing for less travel 10 times that dis- tance. Such is the legitimate func- tion of business—to make products bet- ter and cheaper. Not necessarily lower in dollar cost, but higher in value to the buyer. And that is what is being done today all over America In practically every industry. Methods afe being appraised, revised, adjusted, changed, improved, revolutionized. On Eve of Era of Great Prosperity. ‘We are on the eve of a great period of prosperity, a higher standard of liv- ing throughout America, because the mental attitude of the people has changed. It is now one of confidence and determination. It is one of con- fidence because it is founded”on the theory that hard work and sound think- ing are the basls of prosperity. The people now realize that they can obtain time and for no more. Many of our large industries were| faced with large stocks on hand of which they could not dispose at a profit. | ‘This was due to the fact that produc- | tion had outstripped consumption and| to & sudden rgduction in buying. Hence | it was necessary to curtail the manu-; facture of products until the demand | had caught up with the su A The; lc:‘;n hfi\gmd“mfi: had m} be. o!:zdre:i” a payrolls or employes 0 be reduced. This enlarged a class of unemployed with no money with which 1‘3"3';.. not until industries were will- to reduce prices and cut their over- ready cu&ulei could be| sale dealers and to anticipate business instead of walt- prosperity not by means of a govern- mental regulation of the price the mer- chant shall get for his groceries or the farmer shall get for his wheat but by means of the work and the thought which they themselves put into their business. A great many people no longer have the notion that they can become rich quick by speculating on the stock exchange. The whole atmosphere of the busi- ness world has been changed and clari- fled. Throughout the Nation men and women are putting into their work the energy and thought that built this coun- try up from its rude beginning to its present foremost place among civilized nations. We must not, however, ex- 't the prosperity of 1928 and 1929 tely to return. It will not re- turn this fast because time is required for the building of stable, firm founda- tions. We shall not undertake new en- until we are sure of our bear- ‘We shall not establish new in- dustries until we are reasonably sure of a market for their products. The great majority of us will not speculate and gam| in the expectation of “cleaning | up.” We shall 'h our problems on & sure footing. This means that our business recovery will not be spectacular and sensational. It is, how- ever, without s doubt getting under ‘way, slowly, surely and soundly. We now have the mental attitude that hard work and sound thinking are the only ways by which prosperity can be obtained and retained. We have, overcome the self-satisfaction which led to the business depression. ‘The decade ahead will hence be one ot'!:!ut progress, great prosperity, great | satisfaction for our people, because it! will be founded on & sound basis. America is on the upgrade once more. Mussolini’s Latest South Tyrol Deal Does Not Altogether Suit Populace (Continued From Third Page. . ‘They appealed to President Wil- son and implored him as * succes- our great treasure and that we must prefer complete extinction to slavery. For Italy” they went on in their plea, “South Tyrol is merely a strip of ter- ritory, not very dissimilar from any other part of that sunny country. For us it is the only German land with the sun of the south shining on it, a pre- clous jewel of our German fatherland.” Wilson had committed himself to giv- ing South Tyrol to the Italians and he could not be swayed by this plea. Be- sides, he hoped that by satisfying the Italians along the Brenner frontier he could make them more amenable to & | South pacific settlement in the Fiume area, a question in which he was more direct- 1y interested. Wilson Refused Pleas. ‘The Southern Tyrolese, when t.hey‘ saw that Wilson paid no heed to them | .and that Italy would not relinquish her | hold on them, formed a “Heimatbund” work of the Kingdom of Italy. South ‘Tyrol, together with the other new | Italian territories, was placed under the | higher jurisdiction of the “Ufficio per | le Nuove Provincie,” at the head -of | which stood Francesco Salata, a ;n“l’;l 88 kind and as courteous as Credaro. Unfortunately, the two kind gentle- men ocould not be of much help. They had Rome ask a representative hpdy of South Tyroleans to delegate seven mem- | bers to a round table conference in the Ttallan capital, but this was all they could achieve. The German delegates had strict instructions from the home folk to ask for autonomy, not only for the entire province but als6 for the municipalities. Furthermore, they were instructed to press for the exemption of ‘Tyrolean youth from Italian military ~ service. The government found these wishes a reasonable basis for further discussion. ‘Trentino took fright. If South Tyrol became autonomous the Brenner Pass as the frontier of Italy would become a mere figment of imagination. They set to work to convince Prof. Cre- daro of the danger they were all in which contained representatives of all political parties. This was a sort of | union sacree, & lasi-minute measure to | save their mu!&. It elaborated a plan| in accordance With which Tyrol would | become an independent neutral state— a buffer state between Italy and the German-speaking countries—and the Tyrolean Provincial Assembly wes in- duced to instruct the provisional gov- | ermnment to work out the details of the plan. | South Tyrol was now under Italian occupation. The occupying forces termed themselves guests and behaved sccordingly. ‘The commander of the occupying forces, Gen. Pecora Gi- raldi, was reasonable; he assured the opulation that he would refrain from nterfering with their schools, and that their official language would remain German, with Italian added to it ‘The armistice agreement left the con- | trol of the civil administration in Italy's hands, and Rome was now making prep- erations to annex the region entirely. | The Austrian district governors, the highest local administrative officials were replaced by Italian commissioners Bouth Tyrol was tentatively bapti: Venezia Tridentina, and the railway stations were given Itallan names ‘There now seemed to be only one means of escape. Austria should refuse to sign the peace treaty that would de- prive her of South Tyrol Yet it was soon obvious that Austria could undertake no such step. The population of Vienna was being fed by the former enemy. The refusal to sign would have meant the renewal of the boycott. Railway trains would be stopppd and Austria would be forced to agree. The occupation of the entire country by the allied forces was not out of the question. On September 6, 1919, South Tyrol took final leave of Austria. Nitti Understood Problem. The gevernment of Signor Nitti, which was then in power, showed much understanding of the Tyrolean exrob- Jem. The prime minister recalled the military governor of province and appointed an eminent scholar of German literature. Prof. Credaro, in his place. This meant, for the Tyrolese, making death as painless 25 possible, and they were grateful for 50 much attention. The professor was kind hearted and courteous. Presently he had the German station names re- etored and whole heartedly approved cf the wish of the South Tyroleans for extensive autonomy in the frame- the occupled | Prof. Credaro was convinced. Then they set to work to convince Signor Salata, the supreme lord of all the gained territories, and he, too, was con- vinced. To make things worse for the South Tyroleans, Nitir's government was replaced by that of Giolittl. The new prime minister was genuinely in- terested in the problem of South Tyrol, but for him it was not an affair of heart and justice, as it had been for his predecessor. New governments came and political conditions became chaotic in Italy. The question of South Tyrol was dwarfed by the emergence of more burning questions. The democratic | government of Italy was at stake, and with its extinction at the hands of the Black Shirts all hope of an autonomous | South Tyrol died. Fascists Charge Revolt. Signor Mussolini, who in the Autumn of 1919 had written in the Popolo | Italia that Italy must pursue a dem- ocratic policy in the Upper Adige, changed his opinion. ‘The Upper Adige was now the battleground on which the force of Fascismo was to be tested The democratic governments had been | regligent in their duty by permitting the South-Tyrol to revolt against their new masters, the Fascists said. A | regime of the mailed fist was to show the conquered province its place in the sun. At the same time, the mailed fist had a chance to take some exercise on a nation deprived of its means of re- ysistance before applying the new meth- ods on the rest of Italy. Prof. Cre- daro was summarily dismissed on the pretext that he had failed to ngake the City Council of Bozen place the King's | picture on the wall of the aldermen’s Toom. The way was now open for a policy of unrestricted repression. A Fasclst chieftain, State Secretary Michelino Bi- anchi, summed up the new situation by saying: “There will be no autonomy.” | A reign of terror began in which the | “raglone di stato"—reasons of state— | justified all excesses of petty officials. | The Fascist militia obeyed only the laws which it set up itself. Those who were na non grata politically were 'n up, jailed, expelled from the country or merely deprived of their citizenship. Even Children Under Sway. Children were forced into the Fascist military organizations, the Balilla ‘and the avant-guardists. Fascist mayors were a) ted, although they had no knowledge Jof local conditions, The Where Is America Going? John Hays Hammond Says Statesmanship in Business Offers a Great Hope for the Future. BY J. P. GLASS. F one wishes to get a sane view of what is happening in the country economically and socially, one does well to consult ence of & man like John Hays the expeti- ‘Hammond, the distinguished mining engineer. Mr. Hammond-has witnessed the development of the so-called modern industrial revolution from the beginning. An unselfish worker for the very benefits the “revolution” has brought, he has enjoyed intimate associations in every quarter where the lev s of progress are manipulated. His profession, carrying him well over the globe, has made him a world observer. seventy-fifth year, his interest in the Now in his le movement of events is as active as ever, and his deduction of their meaning mellowly ripe, During a recent conversation, Mr. Hammond made the interesting observation that manage- ment of the great industries of today constitutes a new statesmanship, more closely related, in many particulars to the life of the people, than the statesmanship of the Governmen Leader More Than an Execu t itself. tive. An industrial leader, he said, is more than a business executive. As the head of a great cor- poration he must be an economist and sociologist. He 1s, 50 to speak, a premier of a principality of business, whose policies deal not merely with profits but with the welfare of the . that principality—that is to say, the the corporation as well as its stock! and little. “Exactly what,” I asked him, “does this mean with relation to the future trend of events?" “As I see it,” said Mr. Hammond, that the country has avallable at highly organized expert intelligence, of quick mobilization, which will deal with all problems that may arise with enlightened sym- pathy for the best human relationships. This means everything, of course, to stability and to progress. “Radicals may attack our system ment, because it puts no limits upon individual the strength of the system is that it makes all achievement respon- achievement. However, sible, in the end, to public opinion. New Conception of Riches. “Injustices may arise, but the logic of events eventually restores progress in the rigl “For instance, consider the change in the attitude of men of wealth toward wealth. “The tremendous development of the country in the latter half of the nineteenth century enabled certain men to accumulate undreamed-of riches. Having no precedent by which they their acquisitions logically to a democratic back- ground, they held fast to their fortunes, using them for social aggrandizement. Al wealth would have gained them admission, in time, to the nobility. Here, such a thing was not ‘Their vast possession brought them only criticism and often indeed obloquy. possible. citizens of employes of holders, big JOHN HAYS , “it means all times a susceptible _the levers of progre: ‘They envisioned a duty Who has enjoyed intimate assoc “In the next period of development, the holders of great fortunes percelved the justice of criti- clams aimed at selfish administration of wealth. using large portions of their money for the “This wise humane policy of the employer was made economically possible by recognition of the reciprocal obligation of the employee to promote compensating increased production, Business Man Avoided Hypocrisy. “I think i#t to the credit of the American business man that he adopted the innovations of the last uarter century, not so much in behest of St. Matthew's injunction ‘Freely ye have re- celved, freely give, as on the hypothesis that they were good business. He refused to place himself under suspicion of hypocrisy. however, he I am sure, is gratified that good has been ac- complished on other considerations than ‘good business.’ “Closely related to the humanitarian movement in industry have been our achievements in sci- entific management. Machinery has enabled us to give the worker wages and working con- ditions far better that the most radical agitators envisioned 25 years ago. “It is rather astounding, though highly grati- fying. Our business geniuses, our engineers and chemists set sonal. out to achieve successes quite per- But their various and varying activities ended by contributing a vast machinery of social service. That is what I mean when I refer to the controlling logic of events under our system of government. 1t Iqoks s if it made progress inevitable, even though at times it was halting. “It is most vital that scientific, large-scale production in industry, together with changed HAMMOND, tions wherever ‘e manipulated. “Today, conditions of human relationship, has created & new industrial leadership of a remarkable type. with few exceptions, individuals do not own and operate big businesses. Ownership and privilege in wisely benefit of the people. John D. Rockefeller and of govern- ginnings. They do not have made their success we have witnessed, in the ht direction. history. could relate dustry, pension systems, ployes, bonuses, broad, their It 18 true that formerly Andrew Carnegie set a fashion in philanthropy which since has gained the authority of a custom. Rise From Modest Beginnings. “Most of our rich men rise from modest be- sponsibility to the country whose institutions of organized philanthropy completely new to “Along with this giovement came attempts to better the conditions of labor which brought higher wages, shorter hours, welfare work in in- compensation, aroused criticism, and this criticlsm was largely responsible for reformations; but the important thing to consider is that industrial leadership was responsive to suggestion. “That is we examine 1s widely distributed and management is in the hands of experts, most of whom have risen from the ranks. They represent not one side, but all sides of industry. Keep Ahead of Public Opinion. one great reason why today, when the conduct of any great corpora- tion, we find its management ever evolving pol- lose sight of their re- possible, That is why United States, a volume icies that link it more and more closely to its employes, and they to it. It is an exemplification of the interdependence of capital and labor. its efforts to protect and promote the interests of the workers, even though the purpose be merely economic, management moves ahead, even of public opinion. The laws of the land are In not more effective guarantees of the welfare of stock ownership by em- insurance, etc. conditions existed that must be a “It is one the worker than is this enlightened attitude. “The head of a great corporation thus becomes & servant of the public. tend beyond the organization which is his par- ticular concern. His abilities—the abilities of the statesman as well as the business executive— ilable for the promotion of the com- mon interest. His responsibilities ex- reason for confidence in our future.” (Copyright, 1930.) Mah Jong Now Popular In Japanese Society - Mah jocng has started an invasion of Japan which has all the police of- ficlals of Tokio worried because there -are no regulations on the books which this game. | can be used to control Japanese law is very hard on all sorts of gambling, but because of the fact that the Chinese game is played in private homes and “clubs” the au- thorities find themselves up against a serious problem in public morals. Salaried workers of the middle class and their families are those who have taken up the fashion of pung and show, and many are the games which go on until the break of day. A member of the Japan Mah Jong Fed- eration denies that there is any great amount of gambling conn with the zame as it is played here, insist- ing that the get-togethers around the tiles are purely in a spirit of sport. There are now 300 mah jong clubs in Tokio where an average of 24,000 per- sons gather every day to play the game. Many pool halls have found that they can make more money by investing in mah jong sets than with their felt-covered tables and are switching to the f. er business. All this is the source of one more worry to the police, who are trying to keep out all foreign influences thought to be harmful to the country. N Canadian Trade Leaders Are Going to Shanghai Publishers, bankers, manufacturers and lumbermen are included in a list of Canadian business leaders who are to visit Shanghal early in November on a trade mission sponsored by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, ac- cording to the Canadian Assistant Trade Commissioner here. ‘About the same time a delegation of trade experts from Great Britain is due to be in China under auspices of the British Board of Trade. pose of the British mission is to study the Far Eastern market, and also to find out whether there are any finan-| cial or other measures Which could be recommended to Britain and which could be made practical politics in de- veloping “what is a huge and very 1 portant market if we could gain effec- tive access to it.” REGINALD SWEETLAND. Shanghai, China, September 2. pictures of Tyrol's national heroes were removed from the schools. In the ques- tion of language the Fascist regime gave greater liberty to the African of Tripoli than to the population of South Tyrol The Fascists maintain that under their vegime South Tyrol has been prospering. Signor Mussolini claims credit for two large hydro-electric power works in the Tyrolean Alps, for having contributed & " large amount to credit establishments of the province and for having spent millions on the roads, forests and river regulation. In a speech before the Itallan Senate some time ago he pointed with pride to the new buildings in Bozen for the state functionaries, soldiers’ barracks, gover- nor’s palace and school buildings. People's Lot Is Unhappy. The Italian Senate received the speech with enthusiastic_applause, but not so the Tyroleans. These are just the things they do not want. In all the buildings enumerated they see new means of Fascist oppression. That the new buildings are being constructed in the Italian Renaissance style and not in the characteristic style of Tyrol is en additional cause for complaint. The South Tyroleans were moder- ately satisfied with the pre-Fascist democratic governments of Italy. They were made as comfortable as they could be under the circumstances, and al- though the process was slow they hoped to be given ultimately a local autonomy. Tl Fascist regime has completely reversed the conciliatory policy of the Nittis and Glolittis. The South Tyroleans cannot give voice to their sentiments. But it is obvious that they are profoundly unhappy. They had been too deeply humiliated to re- cover 8o easily from the shock. Signor Mussolini will have to undo a great deal of harm before he can count on & mpre friendly attitude ‘ the South Tyrolese, e pur- | IN LATIN THE GOOD WILL ELEMENT. NE of the few men who thor- oughly understand pan-Amer- ican_affairs in this country, Dr. Leo 8. Rowe, director gen- eral of the Pan-American Union, pointed out the other day in one of his weekly lectures on inter- American problems, at Georgetown University, the outstanding conse- quences resulting from the tremendous increase of American investments in the Spanish-American republics during the last decade. Paramount among these was, in his wopinion, the improvement which that increase has brought about in the per- sonnel of the American concerns work- ing in the Latin countries. Their in- vestments having been augmented so considerably and their business activ- ities so much extended, these companies | have found it necessary to provide themselves with competent, honest and intelligent managers for their agencies. | They can no longer rely upon the serv- | ices of a few adventurers or fortune- seekers burdened with few scruples, as were too many of the managers of early days. Their large investments demand that these firms have an honest and well trained personnel, able not only to manage their interests properly, but also to hold the public confidence of the le in whose territory they are doing | This, as Dr. Rowe remarked, is the most important result brought about by | | the increase of American investments. Because these highly trained business | men will naturally be very much more careful to gain the good will of the natives and undoubtedly will be more uccessful at it than was the old-time go-getter,” who cared little or nothing | about the ways and means for increas- | ing his profits. The new type of com- mercial leader fully understands the | important role that public confidence lays. He realizes that the great prob- em of foreign investments in any coun- try is the winning of the people’s good will, and that in the particular case of inter-American relations this problem has not only economic but political significance as well. Aware of this, he will endeavor, therefore, not to meddle in the domestic affairs of the country in which the company 1s operating. He will promote the betterment of labor and living conditions in general for the | native workers. He will respect national laws and local authorities. And he will, | do, in & word, everything that may help | in'winning and keeping the sympathies of the native population. | Thus he will be accomplishing much, not only from the point of view of his company’s commercial interest, but | also from that higher standpoint of | better international relations between the peoples of Saxon and of Latin America. Unfortunately there still are, it seems, some old-timers left down on the other | side of the Rio Grande. A cable from Caracas reports today that certain | American oil concerns in Venezuela are | opposing the project of the Venezuelan government to establish a practical school to train native young -men in drilling ofl wells. This opposition has already provoked sharp criticism from the local press, and if continued, will, no doubt, injure the investors’ stand- | ‘mi among the Venezuelan people. | t 1s a pity that these oil directors |in Venezuela cannot attend one of Dr. | Rowe's lectures and leara the value of the good-will element. I suggest a correspondence course for them. Eschewing Politics. In a year which has so far seen army leaders take over the reins of govern- ments in four South American repub- lics, the latest attitude of the Colombian Army stands out entirely by itself. Ac- cord! to newspaper reports, in the week in which the Irigoyen administra- tion was overthrown in Argentina by & revolutionary junta, led by elements of the army and navy, officers of the Colomblan Army presénted a joint petition to Congress asking that they and their men be denied the voting privilege. They gave as their reason, the dispatches added, their unwilling- ness to have any part in dictating the policies of government. Later cable reports from Bogota an- By GASTON NERVAL. | American countries have differed from | present-day | manner was the cause of the first local | division stationed at Oruro. which soon nounce that the Colombian Congress uest. The Colom- AMERICA blan Army will no longer be a determin- ing factor in the domestic politics of the country. Thus the Colombians are giving a new example of democratic maturity. Early this year they had also surprised the observers of Latin American politics in general by hold! most impartial elections, which resulf in the peaceful and legal victory of the opposition candidate, Senor Olaya Herrera, now the chief executive of that southern country. The overwhelming majority by which popular sentiment elected Senor Olaya and the deferential manner in which the government party acknowledged defeat and helped him in establishing the new administration attracted wide attention in a continent where force and violence have been and still seem to be the most fashionable way to get control of power. Later developments in Bolivia, Peru, Argen- tina and Brazil have confirmed this, again and again. Although the militaristic movements in at least three of these four Latin the typical southern “pronunciamento,” in that they had their origin in liberal and democratic ideals, and were direct- ed against dictatorial and personalistic regimes, the intervention of the army in politics, as a principle, has always been condemned. From the point of view of political philosophy, the attitude of the Colombian Army in giving up the right of suffrage and eschewing politics is more appropriate than that of the | Argentine or the Peruvian Army in| undertaking the restoration of public | liberties in their respective countries by | the overthrow of unpopular regimes. Of course, Gen. Uriburu, President of the Argentine junta, and Gen. S8anchez- Cerro, head of the Peruvian junta, may have a different opinion on the subject. COMMON CHARACTERISTICS. Before the memory of the recent | revolutionary unrest in South America | is banished from the reader’s mind by | the unceasing, endless chain of world upheavals which carries it like a shuttle {rom one corner of the earth to another, it seems interesting to point out some peculiar characteristics that the mili- tary revolts in Bolivia, Peru and Argen- | tna had in common. 1 have explained some time ago in this same column the circumstances preceding these revolutions, their similar origin, like development, and the com- mon ideals they sought. I do not intend | to describe again this fundamental like- ness in spirit of the three movements, which undoubtedly will be the subject | of a score of books in Latin America, | but T merely want to point out certain | simflarities ~ and coincidences which might be of interest to the student of lities and history. The popular uprising began in La Paz, the Bolivian capital, when & stu- dent was shot and killed by government police agents in a public demonstration. A Peruvian student killed in the same unrest in Lima, the capital of Peru. And also the death of an Argentine student at the hands of the Buenos Alres police started the popular outbreak against the Irigoyen regime. ‘The military movement began in Bolivia with the rebellion of the army had the support of the whole army. and resulted In the success of the revolution. In a very similar way, th. Peruvian movement started with the “pronuncia- miento” of the Arequipa garrison, be- fore which the administration found itselt defenseless. In Argentina the movement was led by the Buenos Alres garrison and found as little difficulty in gaining the enthusiastic support of the Ppopulace. The cadets of the military schools of La Paz, Lima and Buenos Alres played & like predominating part in these pronunciamientos. Previous to the outbreak of the armed revolt, the President of Bolivia resigned “nominally” and appointed a provi- sional governmental junta in order to calm Qm opposition's attacks. When the Peruvian revolt started in Arequipa, President Leguia appointed a military junta, composed of selected members of his aides, and handed to it his resigna- tion. President Irigoyen of Argentina tried a similar maneuver, resigning in favor of his Yice President and close friend, un#firfin- In all three Fascists List 140,000 Ttalians Living Abroad Amid such remarkable generaliza- tions as, for example, “Today, despite and disarma- only enlightenment e, report on Fascist foreign policy which recently was dis- tributed in the Chamber contains some Interesting data on Fascists abroad. At present out of 9,000,000 Italians living abroad only 140,000 are inscribed in the local lictor organizations. The report says, however, that all these Blackshirts have now been brought under the im- mediate direction of local Italian con- suls. Also the government's emigra- tion problem is discussed and the latest accepted policy seems to insist for lim- ited and temporary emigration to the There is no emigration worth speaking of in Italy any longer. One of the main reasons for this is because the financial regulations to be complied with before a passport is issued are too severe for the average native who wants to leave home. —_— cases the people, led by the students, the Intellectual classes, and the army, repudiated these provisional authorities, and demanded a complete change of administration, which was soon carried out by force of arms. Finally, officers of high reputation are now in control of the governments in the three countries, Bolivia, Peru and Argentina. They have all declined to profit personally by the revolutionary triumph, they have all declared that thelr holding of power is merely tem- porary, and they have all promised to supervise free popular elections in order to return their countries nor- mal and legal political conditiofis. It now remains to be seen how much alike they will be in the fulfillment of these promises. DIVORCE OVER THERE. ‘To the doubting, who do not yet quite believe that the Latin Americans have emerged from their classic con- servatism social matters, and that thelr conception of marriage is still that which prevailed here in the 60's, it may be interesting to know that by a recent decision of the Peruvian gov- ernment junta Peru becomes the twelfth or thirteenth Latin American country to adopt divorce. Divorce had already been authorized in Peru, more than 10 years ago, un- der the Pardo regime, but one of the first, acts of the Leguia administration, which overthrew the former, was to abolish it, probably to gain the sym- pathies of the clergy. Now that the Leguia dictatorship has in turn been overthrown, the new military govern- ment in charge of the gountry has es- tablished the divorce law by official de- cree. Four other South American nations preceded Peru in the adoption of divorce laws, These have existed in Venezuela since 1903, in Uruguay since 1906, and also in Ecuador and Panama. In the Dominican Republic they were approved in 1899, in El Salvador in 1902 and in Guatemala in 1894, It seems too obvious to add that divorce is also permitted in Mexico and Cuba. These two countries have for some time constituted two of the most favored centers for divorce activities of the American people, who find there greater advantages and easler routes to freedom than in. most of the 48 States of the Union. Divorce hunters constitute one of the main items of the tourist traffic which flows yearly to these neighboring countries from the shores of Uncle Sam. In fact, & peaceful competition has tely between Mexican and :umuo:f to American divorce fans. It is reported now that the recently ap- proved Cuban divorce law offers especially facilities, and that this is expec to give Cuba a great ad- vantage in this year's tourist percent- ages. However, Mexico, where various state divorce laws are in force instead of one federal law similar to Cubais new one, has had to face, as an Ameri- can paper remarked, the embarrass- mel;lt of lhnvln( a decree bounce oack as K ‘The fear that after a divorce decree has granted by a Mexican court to an American citizen he may find himself, on returning to the States, l%lll! bound to more than one loyal , will tend from now on to bolster up Cuba’s position as the ideal hunting ground for American divorce hunters. (Copyright. 1930.) I[SURPLUS IS BLAMED FOR ECONOMIC STRESS Better Appetites, Step Upward in Scale of Living and Diversifed Produc- tion Held (Continued From First Page.) only in the shadowy borderland be- tween what the world produces and what the world consumes—the limits o(‘} which are constantly shifting. A slight | flllip to the world appetite, a period of | weather unfavorable to crops, the dis- covery of a process which calls for more raw materials, and it vanishes entirely. However large it might bulk on the economic, horizon, there is no standard by which surplus can be identified and measured. Experience provides no ar- bitrary rule by which we can deter- mine whether the production of a com- modity is too great or too small. There | is now, apparently, much more sugar in sight than the world needs. The cane growing sections have been ex- panding and the beet fields of Europe have been restored to thelr pre-war fertility. Raw sugar is selling in Am- | erican markets for a little less than | wheat. _The surplus, like the Ol Man | of the Sea, felentlessly rides the stoop- ing shouw®rs of the industry. Another Side to Picture. But there is another side to this dis- mal picture. According to statistics prepared for the Economic Committee of the League of Nations, which has approached sugar as a world problem, the per capita consumption in Ger- many is 56 pounds a year. In Italy it is only 20 pounds. It would be hazard- ous to assume that these figures repre- sent the limits of sugar consumption in those two countries. Consumption in the United States reaches 109 pounds and in Denmark 113. If Italy and many other countries were to increase their per capita consumption to half the amount consumed in the United States and Denmark, the surplus would du_;gr:-r over night. possible future awalts all sur- luses. A step upward in the scale of ving of & section of the world's popu- lation would test the productive ca: pacity of the industrial machine which many seem to regard as a monstrous thing that has created the profusion now standing in the way of economic progress, Much has been accomplished in the way of production, but it is little in the perspective of real world needs A too literal acceptance of the sur- plus as evidence that production has at last outrun consumption and that the point of satiety has been reached has probably given rise to the suggestion that more time should be given to leisure and less to the making of goods. The fact seems to be overlooked that this change has been going on eontin- uously for many decades. In the United States especially it is not necessary to go very faf back to find the farmer and craftsmen working from dawn to dark, to find children under 12 doing the routine tasks of industry, to find the| housewife tolling almost witheut pause. More Enjoying Luxuries. ‘There are more people at school, more engaged in the liberal arts, emece mo- toring on the highways or engrossed in sports or other diversions than ever be- fore. While some are asserting that mass production and the machine are enslaving labor and engulfing the world with things it does not want, oth- ers are asserting that one of the grave social problems confronting the Nation is how to make the most of the in- creasing leisure the people now enjoy. | tion, of demand and supply. Panacea. ‘The surplus is the herald of change and displacement, the danger signal that indicates that productior tended in the wrong direction, not that it 18 too efficlent. The coffee growers of Brazil, under shelter of the govern- ment valorization plan, ignored the ad- vice to diversify their crops and did not foresee that their own security would invite disaster in the form of a marked increase in coflee growing in other countries. The Cuban cane growers did not foresee that the beet sugar coun- tries would resume production. Rubber plantation owners enjoying excessive profits fatuously shut their eycs to the stimulating effect they would have on rubber growing elsewhere, In the Industrial fleld science and, invention are subjecting to almost con- tinuous repercussion the unstable bal- ance between production and consump- ‘The eco- nomic needs of tomorrow in terms of a given comusedity can only be ap- proximated. Experience alone is not aitogether a trustworthy guide. The needs of one generation are not an ac- curate measure of the requirements of the next. Science is eonstantly finding uses for new commodities and new uses for old, and their position in the economic scale is constantly changing. For this reason it is hazardous to measure the value of goods of any kind in terms of intrinsic worth, In long perspective they are not accumulations of wealth, but only the tools and materials with which business does its work of feeding, clothing and sheltering human kind and providing it with the comforts and conveniences that make for a more cheerful and satisfactory existence. Surplus Causes Varied. ‘The demend for clothing as a tection against the elements e; long before sheep's wool e & staple commodity, and its value les not in being wool, but in the extent to which it meets the primary need which can also be met with cotton, rayon, silk and other fibers in count- less combinations. There might be a surplus of wool because too much is produced. There also might be a sur- plus because, as happened in eighteenth | century England, demand swerves to | cotton, the despised ‘“callicoe” or an- other fiber. 3 | Against so shifting a bacl it is hazardous to measure the re- | quirements of the future solely by the | demands of the past or to give com- modities a definite role in the national or international economy. Most of them are being jostled for place by rival commodities clamoring for public favor, and science, delving into the dust heap for new commodities, extracting ni- trates from the air, producing lumber from sawdust and sugar cane refuse, leaching potash from the sands of the desert, making sugar from corn and textiles from wood, is adding to the turmoil. Obviously the value of com- modities is fer tao. - stant «Hrot snog them anythl MRe the scale of wealth. Nevertheless, economic effort has centered mainly upon production in | accordance with the dominant philoso- phy that the more we can produce the better off we are. In agriculture, for example, attention has been directod for the most part to increasing the yield. Sclence has busied itself with sofl fer- tilization and the control of destructive One need not go beyond the standard already set in the United States to reach the conclusion that industry has far to go in making available to count- less people not only the necessaries, but the comforts and conveniences of ex- istence. In this country productive- ness has reached such a point that a quarter of the population can go to school, devoting to study a considerable part of the time formerly needed in wresting a none too bountiful living from the soil. In Argentina the relation of the school population to the whole is 12 per cent, in Mexico 8 and in Brazil 4. In Brazil, a country profusely endowed with natural resources, 80 per cent of the population are living on only basic | necessaries. In Colombia and Vene- zuela, both of which have large assets in ofl, half the population cannot buy. The approach to European standards by these peoples would tax heavily the world’s industrial resources. And Eu- rope still has far to go to reach the level of America. Avoidance Best Remedy. It is, rather, evidence of the malad- justment of economic currents, result- ing in a temporary backwash. And the remedy 1s not quantitative—that is, arbi- trarily reducing the amount—but quali- tative—avolding the obstacles which led to the accumulation and restoring the balanced flow of goods in the chan- nels of trade. Production cannot for- cibly be divorced from consumption without doing violence to the economic household. Of almost any commodity of which it may be said that too much is being produced it may be said with equal force that too little is being con- sumed. \ There are, obviously, limits to the amounts of particular commodities the world can use within a given time, but these limits are constantly being en- croached upon and constantly pushed back. In the early years of the amaz- ing development of the automobile there was talk of a saturation point, which probably would have been reached had there not been changes in the conditions which determined where it was to be fixed. In the wake of the automobile an era of unprecedented | road-building set in. There are 500,000 miles of hard-sur- faced highways in the United States and as many more miles of partially improved highways, and the automo- bile saturation point, an elusive thing at best, has measurably receded. ‘Widened Use of Autos. . American automobile manufacturers | did not stop short with making auto- mobiles. Nor did they regard the prob- lems of their industry solely in terms of automobiles. They interested them- selves in the expanding use of automo- biles, in road-bullding and traffic reg- ulation. At the present rate of produc- | tlon there would have been an impos- | ing surplus of bathtubs and plumbing supplies had the smaller towns con-i tinued to rely upon the pumps as a| source of water supply. Long before business management had coupled power and the machine in the doing of huge industrial tasks, the surplus appeared intermittently on the economic horizon. When inven- tion devised & way of using water pow’r to full hats some 500 years ago| it .cast a disturbing shadow over an in- dustry .still in its swaddling clothes. There were too many fullers and there must have been an abundance of hats, for two centuries later the hatmakers of England asked the lords of trade to compel the American colonists to| buy all their headgear in England. And in this they were only following the example of the wool merchants, whose | export trade had fallen from 100,000 to 10,000 pleces. The English producers, spinners and weavers of wool at that time encoun- tered the growing competition of other countries. They were to face a more formidable competition when cotton began to invade their home market. The interloper was denounced by the illustrious Steele as “a tawdry, ple- :&Otwd,“ufibby, fnmd.’ lulw-prlc;g ng, -.-5; a foreigner birth; made the Lor T‘ where, by a parcel of heathens an ns that worship the devil and work“for half- penny & day.” Such was the rnful reception of what was to become one of England's) greatest industries. | insect pests, engineering is bringing | water to semi-arid lands, invention is devgloping new machines for tilling the ;mu and gathering the crops, manage- ment is now adapting mass production methods to farming—all aimed at mak- | ing more land yleld more bounteous | harvests. Use Is Test of Output., Governments, the world over are ex- erting their influence to the same end by attempting to support sagging com- modity values by one device or an- other. The charge is also made that in rationalization, or mass production, manufacturing has gone to similar ex- tremes—and has acquired a top-heavy economic structure, By way of remedy it is suggested that emphasis be shifted from pro- duction economics to engineering eco- nomics, which is another way of saying that comfnodities should be regarded not in the perspective of quantity but in the perspective of use. Undoubtedly the facility that has been aoquired in production has made more Yemote the possibility of a secarcity of any of the things upon whith the world has come to rely. Production is no longer a pool | to which the thirsty come to drink. ‘The manufacturer can no longer make goods with any assurance that those who might want them will in one way or another press forward to buy them. He is becoming in much less degree the master and in#greater degree the serve ant of the consuming public, and busi- ness generally faces the problem not of making goods which can be sold but of selling goods that can be made. The supremacy long enjoyed by cot- ton as the chief product of the South and the first of American exports probably fortified the idea that the measure of the return was determined by the size of the crop. So insatiable was the world appetite for cotton that the way of success seemed to lie only in ,the direction of greater yield. But this quantitative standing is no longer applicable. Cotton Relief Possible. While there is apparently a surplus of cotton, there is at the same time & scarcity. The Southern cotton fields are producing too much short staple cotton, which comes into competition with cotton from other producing areas, and too little long staple cotton, for which there is a lively demand by American mills. Obviously the difficulties confronting cotton cannot be solved by the quanti- tative adjustment of production alone. It would be as short-sighted merely to reduce the production of cotton as to increase it. The one would minimize the problem which the other would magnify, but neither would solve fit. | The obvieus course is to govern produe- tion by demand or use, to produce more of the cotton that is wanted and less of the cotton for which there is a limited demand. Diversification is way out, but if not directed to the same ends—the adjustment of produc- tion to demand or economic use—it might lead to the same pitfalls. This idea is not particularly new. For a lohg time industry has been giving increasing attention to distribu- tion. The needs and desires of the consumer are, in the aggregate, being sounded in market analyses. Manufac- turing is giving more and more atten- tion to that vague and vacillating com- posite we designate as the standard of living and to the making of things that will fit into this changing pattern of existence. But industry in general has far to go In this direction before it will attain that desirable balance which is at the bottom of prosperity. Mexican Woman Listed In Census at Age ‘of 126 Marla Feliciana, aged 126 years, was discovered by census takers last week in & suburb of Mexico City. She was born in 1804, and was christened in the town of Dolores by Father Miguel Hidalgo, who led the fight for independence against Spanish rule in 1810. Maria walks without & cane, is a good house~ keeper and reads without eyeg] much better than her great-gr srandson. 1