Evening Star Newspaper, July 5, 1931, Page 17

Editorial Page ] Part 2—8 Pages DEBT PLAN SEEN AS ENTRY OF U. S. IN AFFAIRS ABROAD Hoover Now Has Initiative in Aversion| of Collapse of Germany—Can Ask Navy Building Suspension. BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. is mnow plain that President Moover's proposal for a delay of reparation payments, made to avert a German collapse, has put the initiative into his hands in Euro- fpean aftairs. It will be for him to bring mbout an adjustment of French and German views, which are radically di- vergent. He can, for example, urge tpon the Germans the modification of their naval and treaty programs. On the other hand he can similarly appeal to the French to consent to larger sac- rifices. The indorsement by Congress of the President’s conditional offer will per- mit a practical suspension in some- thing like two-thirds of the German reparations payments during the cur- rent year. This will result from the consent of our debtors, who are also the creditors of Germany, to let Ger- many off in proportion as they are re- leased by us. Balance Up to French. As to the remaining third, the de- ision rests primarily with the French. Yhey receive $100,000,000 more than ‘they pay us, but that sum, as it stands, Je already earmarked to meet a portion of the interest charge upon the sums expended by them to Teconstruct their devastated area. They would then, in event of renouncing all payment, have to carry this burden themselves, where- as. for the British and Italians the whole process would be one of book- keeping. s sztugllly. then, while ‘I:r H(oov“es oposal envisages a sacrifice of some- Phine more than $200.000,000 for our- welves, it places, by implication at least, the burden of a similar sacrifice on the French amounting to not auite as much. Should the French refuse to agree to this sacrifice, then the relief to Ger- many would be cut in round figures from slightly more than $400,000,000 to mbout $300,000,00. Germany Can Help. 1f Germany would agree to stop her “pocket battleship” construction and abandon her political projects, it would be possible for France to save envugh in ‘military expenditure to cover no small part of her sacrifice in repara- tions payments. From the French point of view, this also would be almost as great a gain for European recon- struction as the American gesture dtself. 4 The trouble with the President's effort to deal with this situation is that the responsible governments of France and Germany find themselves in_the presence of a public sentiment ‘which makes any modification of policy diffi- cult. Under pressure from the Na- tionalistic right, the Bruening cabinet was compelled during the last political campaign to make public deciaration in favor of treaty revision, and the sentiment of the whole country, with- out regard to party, is so strong on this point that any concession to France might bring down the govern- ment itself. French Opinion Firm. On the other hand, public opinion in France is so fixed in the conviction that the sole means of insuring peace in Europe is to preserve the status quo of the treaties, and so suspicious of any German government that, short of some definite commitment on the freaty question by the present German cabinet countersigned by the Reichstag, it would be impossible for the Laval cabinet or any other to make conces- sions in the reparations line. The truth is that the French are not yery enthusiastic over the salvaging ©f Germany even at American expense, precisely as long as there is in their minds something like a eertainty that once Germany has been economically rescued she will become _politically menacing to France. The French see in the present American proposal no more than the attempt of a nation which holds an enormous amount of German paper to avoid & tremendous Joss by getting the creditor on its feet. T EDITORIAL SECTION Che Sunday Star, WASHINGTO SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 5, 1931 Special A rticles But France has little money in Ger- | many, and would rather see Germany | g0 down in ruin than recover and be- come again a peril to French security. France, then, is almost certain to| meet American proposals for a com- plete suspension of debts, for the post- ponement of all German payments, on the one hand, by demands from Ger- many for political assurances and from the United States of moral guar- antees. Will we underwrite the good behavior of the Germany we purpose to save? That is the gist of the French question at the moment and will be henceforth. ‘What is clear beyond all details is, however, that the action of President Hoover has now taken us back into the midst of the European situation to | a degree which finds no parallel except | in the adventures of Woodrow Wilson. | Suddenly, and as the result of one brief | statement, Mr. Hoover has sat down at the head of the international table and, as 2 mere matter of course, all| subsequent action will in advance be submitted to him. | U. S. Presence Inevitable. | If there is a question of an inter-| national conference to dea! with eco- | nomic issues, as is now discussed in foreign dispatches, then it is natural and inevitable that we should be repre- sented, in fact, that the chairman | should be an_American, named by the | President. The British, the Germans, the Italians have every resson to de sire to expand as far as possible the extent of our participation. If the| French and their allies are less en-| thusiastic, they will, nevertheless, unable openly to oppose our European | action. But, in point of fact, our| possible contribution at the moment | seems limited to two things, the fivan- | cial relief, which must flow from the | reduction of Germany's annual pay-| ment by $300,000,000 and the psycho- | logical change which may follow the | final perception by the German masses | of a disposition in the outside world | to save the Reich from ruin. And it| may well be that the psychological will | outweigh the monetary. On the other hand, it is far too| early to conclude that Germany has already been saved and that what 1e- | mains is no more than the arrange- | ment of details. This may turn out to be the case, but. on the other hand.| it may just as easily be that the aid has come too late and that the political | situation within Germany has so far| escaped control that when the Reichs- | tag reconvenes, the extremist parties | will throw the Bruening cabinet out and thereby insure the ultimate collapse. | Insist on Treaty Change. | Much, of course, will depend upon Prench action. But, after all, it is necessary to note that the German people are just as insistent upon the | revision of the territorial details of the peace treaties as they are on the reduction of reparations. The question of the Polish Corridor is quite as vital in the German mind as the “tribute money,” due the allies, In this situa- | tion, everything obviously sepends on | the extent to which the Bruening cabi- | net and the business and financial | clements in Germany can persuade, the majority of their fellow countr men to agree to a moratorium in poli- tics to match that in debt payments. | And here the influence of Washington | upon Berlin may be decisive. In any event, we are “in Euarope,| now.” We are in Europe for what may | perhaps be described as the duration of the present crisis, which can lest | for years and is only in part economic and financial. Our influence and our | action in political matters will now be | sought at least as eagerly as our ad- | vice and support in money questions. Hoover, following Wils has _once more shattered the tradition of iso- | lation and adopted a policy of associa- tion n European affairs, which may | have consequences as considerable as our entrance into the World War, it- self. (Copyright, 1931) German War Dogs and Horses to Have Monuments as Symbols of Gratitude ©opyright, 1931, by the New Foreign Bervice. BERLIN. — The German war dogs and war horses are now to have their memorials. Monuments symbolic of gratitude for their services are to be erected in Berlin. Gen. Fleld Marshal von Mackensen, famous cavalry leader of the old army, has taken the matter in hand in regard to the horses, while the German Society for the Protection of Animals and the Blind Aid Society have undertaken to do justice to the dogs. ; The monuments have been designed. fThat for the horse depicts a rather lean and worn-out equine, leeking like any one of the thousands of enfeebled beasts _which survived four years of war. ‘The memorial is to bear the in- scription: “From_the German People and Front Line Soldiers in Apprecia- tion of Their Horses' Services During she World War.” ‘The statue which is to honor the eanine heroes is that of a typical Ger- man shepherd dog with its long bushy tail and alert pointed ears. It is to be placed in the Berlin Zoological Gar- dens. While the horse is being as rapidly replaced by the motor in Berlin as anywhere else, the canine pepulace is increasing faster than the tax rates can be raised upon them. A dog li- cense already costs 60 marks a year in Berlin, notwithstanding which over 1200,000 of the pets are registered. * Dog raising and dog training have ¥dached a high point of development #n Germany, starting decades ago, but met a_considerable drawback a few vears before the war. At that time people who considered themselves ex- pert in analyzing the soul of & dog rame to the general conclusion that a dog was only & dog, after all, and had no soul. The next deduction was that de could not, therefore, be trained ‘widely to become a helpmate of man- kind. This included the decision that the dog could be of no actual assistance to the army or the police forces. Up to that time the dog had per- formed regular service in the German army, having been attached to the va- rious’ battalions of sharpshooters. In 1911 all dogs were discharged from service, but when war broke out they were immediately called back. A wide- spread plea for dogs was issued by the army, as a matter of fact, and from every corner of the Reich canines of every breed were put at the disposal of the military authorities. Many of them were already trained. The venture proved an enormous suc- cess. It was soon found out that the dog would not only hunt up wounded on the battlefield, but would also act as an absolutely dependable carrier of dispatches between the front lines and the rear reserves. A whole army corps of dogs was brought into service in .m and their ‘deeds have precaution of putting it into half-ton alabs accidents, York Sun|filled many a gallant chapter in war | annals. | After the armistice was concluded, | no less than 30,000 dogs were demobil- ized. Most of them were returned to their former owners, but a large num- | ber also was given to the Blind Aid | Society for use by soldiers blinded in | the war. Thus began on a large scale | a canine service to man wkich is one of the most touching and steadfast pos- sible for any animal to render. A doz- en times a day in the course of normal wandering through Berlin ore sees cases of this devotion—a dozen, a hundred, a_ thousand shaggy, patient creatures which must give their freedom that a blind man may have his. In the 13 years since the war most of the dogs who saw active service have either died or become too decrepit to work any longer. That the supply might be kept level with the demand and that the worn-out ones may have their decent old age, the Blind Aid So- ciety has leased at Schildow, a village close to Berlin, an area of about 5 square miles, where its dogs are to have their training ground. The society also is busy raising funds to establish an infirmary for those suffering from ill- ness or old age. Meanwhile a host of army and police dogs is constantly being trained at other camps in the neighborhood of Berlin. A large establishment of the sort is located at Gruenkeide, east of the capital. The Reichswehr has about 500 dogs at %flunt. and a similar num- ber is attached to the police. It has been found that no particular breed ‘will fulfill all the requirements demand- ed of a dog which is to be a soldier or policeman. Various breeds are, there- fore, trained and those which have been found best suited to the work are Ger- man shepherds, Airedale terriers and Dobermans. Pekingese, poodles and puny, gned pups of like degree are useless in e extreme. . Gold for Tourists, But in Half-Ton Slabs JOHANNESBURG, South Africa— Sooner or later the tourist who is really a tourist, and not merely a tripper, turns up in Johannesburg, the most interesting city in the Southern Hemi- sphere, and when he does he wants to learn all about the gold they dig up in such great quantities from the Wit~ watersrand Mines. ‘The mining com- panies are ready for him, and trips down to the depths of Village Deep, 7,000 feet below the surface, can always be arranged. They will even let you take away as much gold as you like—if you can carry it—but they take the 4o prevent ac Machine and Unemployment What Becomes of Workers Displaced by Labor-Saving Devices—More Jobs or Fewer? U.S. Seeks Facts LABOR-SAVING DEVICES HAVE REPLACED MANY MEN IN THE RAILROAD SHOPS. BY WILLIAM N. DOAK, United States Secretary of Labor. ISPLACEMENT of man power | by machine power is nothing new under the sun. For years, even for centuries, the ‘qu tion of what hand labor is to do when machine labor supplants it constantly has raised its interrogation mark. In one way the question has been answered, and in another way it | has not been answered. Certain it is that the displaced labor generally has found other employment, but never has any adequate study been made to de- termine definitely into what flelds of new employment the displaced man has assed. It is the intention of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Department of | places because of the introduction of | production, and because of other cir- | cumstances which have made it possi- ble for manufacturing and other busi- | ness concerns to reduce their forces. Until recently new inventions and the founding of new industrial activities necessitating the services of many | working people almost immediately have | taken care of those workers who for | one reason or another have been dis- placed. So long as the inventive genius | survives, and so long as the needs of the people enlarge, there probably al- ways will be work for the majority. Labor to enter into this new region of | study and to determine, if possible, just | man kind seemingly have been supplied, | frontiers of science. invention and in- what becomes of the workingmen and | things necessarily will becom:> static | dustrial change stretch out before us in the workingwomen who have lost their 'and there will be no new fields into | limitless expanse. If ever all the possible needs of hu- | which the workers may enter. But this | pen which, with the human race con- stituted as 1t is, probably never can happen, and it may just as well be dis- {carded as a thought plant which never can bear its 1l fruit. Three years ago, st a time when the country was at the height of its pros- perity, labor's dread of increasing dis- placement of men by mass production | machinery was reflected in some of the | issues of the labor press. At the same time, however, there was in part of the |same press an expression of belief that | while “the old frontiers of the land- Iliving age have been conquered, new * The world | has never known an era of change so | new machinery, of the adoption of mass | is to suppose that something may hap- | rapid and so filled with meaning for the i human race. That institution which does not keep its eyes open and its brain | alert today is doomed to death and to | decay.” | . In another labor paper significant paragraph: “All of thes each of us and to all of us collectively | that we should ‘watch our step’ and try to avoid the mistake of resisting | progress.” It seems to me there is a certainty that in_the general development of all | (Continued on Fourth Page) Godfathers of the Indians Officials Clean Out Conditions Prevailing Among America’s Natives Which Created Great National Scandal. . BY ANNE HARD. F YOU care to be dropped into a| scene composed of a Donegal Fair, | a ghost-ridden house, a blues sym- phony and an explosion in a sky- . rocket factory with miscellaneous other cqually harmonious elements, just set your foot down anywhere within the area which deals with the question of Indian affairs. I was one of those fools who rush in because I knew the present commis- sioner for those affairs, Charles J. Rhoads, and his assistant, J. Henry Scattergood, and I had known for & much longer time certain other gentle- men both in public and in private life who devote time and energy to this matter. ‘There were the painters and writers who find Lo picturesque, the social workers who find Lo problemesque, the statesmen on the Hill who find Lo con- stituesque, the oil and lumber men (I have some low as well as Lo friends) who find him exploitesque—and I thought that if any ordinary person could b2, T was qualified to talk on the subject of the Indian Twins. With all that present acquaintance and the memory of a childhood among porcupine-quilled baskets to color it up, I began an intensive study of such ma- terial as the famous “Merriam Report” —=850 closely worded pages, and I read them all—and the typed reports of field agents of the “old” and the “new” serv- ice and scores of other documents and prints, together with voluminous notes on interviews with diverse and sundry people who “know all about the sub- ject.” And at the end of it all I con- clude that, for us today, the first thing of importance is just that simple, single matter of the personalities of the two gentlemen who have the “Indian prob- lem” in hand. No More Complicated Job. For I am no longer the same kind of a fool I was when I rushed in. I know now that there does not exist a more complicated or difficult job in the whole mad, complicated business of our Na- tional Government than this one of be- ing Indian commissioner. ‘There is no prestige about it, no sit- ting high up at Washington dinner tables nor swanking among foreign vis- itors nor front-page quoting. e is only hard, grinding work, often thank- less work, with the solid chance that the front-page mention will be that of the attacker who knows how to turn & clever phrase. And even in the job. it~ self ghere is slight chance of, $hat. RHOADS IS THIN-BODIED AND PORT! of reward which the honest worker often finds his single premium. For to- day, at the end of exactly a century since that Indian Bureau was estab- lished, it seems to be the case that everything we have ever done was wrong, from exploiting the Indian for profit to coddling him into being either nelpless or consciously a grafter. Here, in 1928, you had an inherited bureaucracy—thousands of Government employes, many of whom had the usual comfortable bureaucratic psychology. ‘There among the Indians you had every social problem known—problems of dis- ease, ignorance. Here you had, in the Capitol, representatives of the various States through which 3,500,000 Indians are so distributed as to become a public problem. And each representative had his own prejudice. There you have as many differing kinds of Indians as differing subprob. lems, There you look abroad over & thousand differing needs. Here you find you must hurdle the Budget Bureau on every detail before you can ask Congress for any money for anything. And so on ad nauseam. Bureaucracy had certainly failed. Quakers Tackle Situation. So the President reached out across the traditional bureaucracy into private life and asked a private banker and a private business man to tackle the situation. He laid his hands upon two Quaker gentlemen of Philadelphia—Mr. Rhoads and Mr. Scaf The President handed over to them a machinery of 6,000 employes, not one of whose qualifications they personally ew, together with the Government's system of choosing from & “clvil service' list. They have to keep the machine running while cleaning if up. It is like turning a buggy into automobile without s the wheels. They had to learn the new-business while !nngfl in making-the business over. Yet they could not make it over till they first had learned it. lated they woul about some other which essential, GAU LY, Gl NT.FACED. SCATTERGOOD IS NIAL. Refused a planning committee to or- ganize the whole field, refused the codi- fication of tangled la: hich govern Indian relations, they tightened their belts and struck first at a few most glaring ills. In two years they have wiped out the horrors of Indian board- ing schools, reduced these schools in number, increased the food allowances for children in those schools from 11 cents a day—a starvation rate—to 37.8 cents a day—a minimum rate—and the yearly clothing allowance from $22 to $40. They have put over model power leases for Indian sites, reorganized the educational service and the employment service, widened the work of public health and agricultural instruction; they have got rid of many unworthy or in- competent field workers, instituted co- operation with other agencies of all sorts, added to their staffs such nation- ally known educators as Dr. Will Car- son Ryan, Miss Mary Stewart, Dr. Earl Bates and others, Policy Protects Property. Most important, they have worked out a policy. That policy is to protect Indian property rights, to make the In- dian self-supporting, to emancipate the Indian child as rapidly as possible from the boarding school, to diminish segre- gation of Indians. Perhaps, considering everything, this policy can be called only a hope. And the entire question of whether it can ever be anything more lies to- day as it must for some time to come, in the personal character of the man at the desk in the Indian Office in ‘Washington. ‘The Indian question has long been a national scandal. To cure it not only must the Indian commissioner be first~ rate in ability and unselfish in inten- tion, but he must be understood by those who are willing to help in carrying a national res ibility. Only so can he accomplish his end. . Charles Rhoads had not long taken his seat in the big, sunny office, whose doors always stand wide guarded by the usual hedge of taries, before those secretaries learned that he never would sign a letter which contained the capital It must al- ways be “We.” Henry Scattergood formed the plural. When Rhoads was apkied, dtis that to become commissioner he tried to wish the job on Scattergood, finally ccepting only on condition that Scat- tergood come along as assistant. It is also said that when the first | pay envelope was brought to his desk | he dumped the money out and insisted that Scattergood take half of it. On that basis only would be proceed. Yet you would not understand Mr. Rhoads if you thought that his deter- mination to have Mr. Scattergood with him was due to lack of self-confidence. Outwardly Unlike. As & boy he insisted on playing foot ball, though far underweight, when he was in college at Haverford. As a very young man, when ordered by his bank to face the terrible J. P. Morgan the elder, he went to New York and stood that X-ray eye in silence until the Mor- gan hand reached for the telephone and he_had accomplished his mission. Quiet, intense, Mr. Rhoads has cour- age. His fault is that he is too modest. He seems to regard himself as one of two Roman Duovirs on this job. It is understandable if you know Mr. Rhoads. Also if you'know Mr. Scattergood. For surely fate never before put to gether in a single job twé men so un- like in temperament and in physical make-up, while so similar in ideals and purpose. Such friendships exist; sel- dom such an association. The edges fit like two walnut shells. Rhoads is thin-bodied, gaunt-faced, very quiet in manner, inexpressive. You have to dig for him, but there is pure gold at the end of the spade. Scatter- good :1‘,0 good story, Rhoads takes it for granted that hu- man nature is good. Scattergood knows more about human beings than that. Rhoads is always the gentleman and gentle man. Scattergood can up close to the mfl;-neck and “get” him. Rhoads is the thoughtful. Scattergood is the mechanically m 'o;gtm. Scattergood is a t ma R ma- u.etlnl,‘ likes to take a "mllt‘h“}.u? fll: together again Wi 2 g‘r‘lflf\fl hands; makes his gflnt before a col committee snipping bits of paper and concretely so showing the average I;M can figmmc can encounter’ _opposition . Rhioads shrinks into himself, showing neither by word nor by ion that he_suffers.under mf X ‘Yet both are dominated in their lives contributing to the extent of their capacities to human welfare. Similarly, the backgrounds of their & . by a desire for righteousness and for |yn 1N EED FOR LATIN AMERICAN RELIEF FROM DEBTS SEEN Plan Similar to Moratorium for Germany Suggested—Commodity Price Drops BY GASTON NERVAL. | HILE the world at large is still looking for appropriate words to praise President Hoover's proposal for a one- year moratorium on Euro- pean debts, an 5 O S comes from Latin America to remind business lead- ers and economists that a situation almost equally critical as that prevail- ing in Germany exists today on the other side of the Rio Grande. Only a few days before the Presi- dent made public his sensational an- nouncement for delaying payments on all European war debts and repara- tions the Chilean minister of foreign affairs, moved by the growing financial depression which has gripped Latin America, sent out a circular ncte to the governments of all the Latin Amer- ican republics, inviting them to an international conference for economic relief. ‘This conference is supposed to deal with the critical economic prob- | lems at present ccnfronting nearly every one of the Latin nations, with the tariff arrangements which stand in the way of closer commercial inter- change, and with the difficulties some of the neighboring countries are con- fronting in trying to meet the pay. ments and obligations of their external debts. Culminates Difficulties. ‘The Latin American crisis is no secret to anybody who has been read- ing daily newspapers for the last three years. The action of the Chilean gov- ernment is only the culmination of the trying difficulties which the Latin countries have been experiencing, the real ‘seriousness of which does not seem to be as yet fully realized in this country. ‘The coincidence, however, of these two facts—the Hoover moratorium plan { for Europe and the Chilean call for a Latin American Conference fcr Eco- nomic Relief—happening within a few days of each other, have served to impress upon the public mind a de- termining question: Why should not | the same attitude shown toward Ger- many and the other European coun- tries be adopted in respect to the eco- nomically stricken republics to the south of the United States? Of course, when I say the same at- titude T mean the same spirit of benev | olence, co-operation and good will, not | exactly the same material action or the | same actual steps, for the Latin Amer- |ican and the European problems are two, different in character. The differ- |act that in Latin America there are | but instead governmental debts exclu- ‘slvely to private individuals and banks. Not Diplomatic Problem. | Debts to private individuals and banks, thecretically at least, are not subject to Government decisions. Nei- | ther the President of the United States nor the State Department can suggest | a_postponement of payments. Probably not the bankers themselves, because | the bonds are actuslly scattered all over ! the country in the hands of private in- dividuals who ‘bought them from the | banks for invesiment. But what the United States Government could do, it is claimed, with the same spirit that in- spired it in proposing the European moratorjum, is to lead the way for & careful and friendly consideration of the Latin American problem. | The Latin American debts are owed to the people of the United States, not {to the Government, it is true, but, on | the other hand, in a democratic sysiem like this, it 15 asserted. the Govern- {ment is the representative and adviser of the people, and. as such, nothing can prevent it from recommending a course of moderation and co-operation toward {helpless debtors. The Government might call attention to the gravity of the cconomic and financial situation in Latin America and make proposals for alleviating it. Two courses have been repeatedly mentioned by press correspondents in the last few days. Suggests Money Advance. One would be that the Government “inspire” private financial interests to advance to the harder hit Latin Amer- ican republics sufficient money to meet their interest payments and sinking fund requirements, and thus relieve their greatly reduced national budgets of this drain. ‘The other would be relatively small Government loans direct from the United States Treasury or non-govern- ment loans from the Federal Reserve System. In either one of these cases the Latin American republics, it is said, would gain the same benefit as from a mora- torium, while holders -of their securi- ties in the United States, Canada. Eu- rope and elsewhere would not suffer the deferment of income from bonds. ‘There is some question as to_the au- thority of the Federal Reserve Board to extend credits to Latin American cen- tral banks, according to a New York ‘Times dispatch, because of their varied and, in cases. pecullar organization. Many of these institutions, however, are organized along the lines of the Amer- ican Federal Reserve system, and where there is adequate Government control the reserve banks probably could legally extend credits. Either that or the conversion of short-term into long-term loans to pre- vent further drainage of their gold re- serves, with consequent adverse effects on exchange and currency, appears to be the best way to help Latin America ;\lb of this threatening financial depres- on. Complement of United States. In studying the Latin American sit- uation various considerations should be borne in mind. In the first place, it might be well to remember that Latin America comprises 20 different repub- lics which by geography and history constitute the logical economic cogg- plement of the United States. It is true that, politically, there are still 2 few problems separating the Latin Tepublics from the United States, but none of them is of an unsolvable nature. Psychologic differences which account for certain misunderstandings are grad- ually adjusting themselves, and, in gen- eral, the ideal of a pan-American move- ment is ing day by day on the other sldAe'o! Rio Grande. any rate, it is claimed, the Latin American countries, if not so already, are bound to be better friends of Uncle Sam than the European powers. It is being argued that, from a purely senti- mental point of view, they are then en- titled to the same, if not to a more sym- pathetic, treatment by their American creditors. Economic Value Important. But this is not all. fven more sig- nificant than their political importance is their economic value to the United States. ly speaking, the Indiapensanie to the-proeperiy of the e e P of United States. Countries of vast but exploited natural resources, and lack- ing industrial products, they constitute th the best prospscuve field for the investment of n capital abroad the best prospective. market. for the R T Increase Obligations. | consumption of American manufactured | 8oods. It might be added that it will | not be long before the word “prospec: tive” may be scratched from this sen- tence. Economic conditions in Latin America have a tremendous bearing on tne United States. Of course, the amount of money involved in the European debts resulting from the war is consid- erably larger than that of the Latin American obligations, but in the end, taking into consideration American capital invested in the 20 Latin Ameri- can republics, American foreign trade in that part of the world, and all the economic factors which enter into the life of nations, the United States, it is argued by proponents of the financial ald plan, ought to be more concerned with the situation in the rest of the | Western Hemisphere taan with that on | the other side of the Arantic. Why Not Help Customers? | Besides, from a purcly materialistic | point of 'view. anothe: question could be raised in this respect: If the United States gives a hand to Germany, Italy, France, Great Britain—which are her competitors in world trade and in the conquest of precisely that same Latin American market—why should not she | help the Latin American nations, which | are not her competitors but her cus- | tomers and friends? | Finally, there is still another consid- | eration ‘which the statesmen and the |financial leaders concerned with_this crisis always have in mind. The Latin | American countries are the victims of a situation for which they cannot be | made responsible. Tney cannot be | blamed for it. | The main cause of their economic | troubles is to be found in the enormous | decline in the price of commodities and | raw materials on which their whole eco- nomic life was ccntered. With only a few exceptions, the Latin American countries depend entirely on one or two single products. Therefore, the extraor- dinary fal! in priccs which followed the | stock” market crash, intensified by the |evils of overproduction, has upset the economic structure of nearly every one | of them by cutticg to a half, or a third, the price of ths particular commodity which constituted the bulk of its ex- ports. Coffee Drop Hit Seven. | A few brief figures will help to illus- | trate the situation. Prices on coffee, | dropping from $23.50 to $9.50 a hundred | pounds from January, 1929. to January, | 1931, have affected Brazil, Colombis, there is this ence, a fundamental one, lies in the Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Gua- | temala and Haiti, some of these coun- fhings should suggest to no intergovernmental debts involved, | tries being dependent almost exclusively | on their coffee exports. Sharp declines |in sugar prices, averaging 79 cents a | hundred pounds over the two-year ! period, have b:en felt in Cuba, the Do- | minican Republic, Brazl, Colombia and | Peru. Chile, Mexico and Peru have (sunzted a drop in copper prices which emounts to $6.12 a hundred pounds. ‘Thg decline in the price of tin, amount- ing to 49 per cent has injured particu- larly Bolivia, where 82 per cent of all exports is tin. Even more pointed de- clines have been registered in wheat |and corn, prices for which have been reduced in the two-year period by 61 |and 69 cents per bushel, respectively. | _This decline, while primarily affect- |ing Argentina, also is reflected in con- | ditions in Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Mex= | ico and Peru. And so on. : These figures show that the blame | of the crisis cannot be laid upon the governments of thos: countries. De- pending largely on their exports to cover their expenditures and meet their foreign obligations, they havs been forced, by this uncontroliable decline in values, to cut down their budgets to & minimum. to create new taxes, to co promise their credit and to face the WOrst general economic depression they have seen in years. Peru, Bolivia and the Brazilian State of Banta Catalina have already requested that payments jon their foreign debts be suspended temporarily or considerably lowered. Debis Are Doubled. In other words, the Latin American governments have seen their foreign debts suddenly doubled or tripled as a result of this decline in the price of their major exporting products. For they are compelled today to seil two or three times as much of those prod- ucts—to get the money required to liquidate their foreign obligations—as they did only two years ago. And, still |the worst of it. they cannot sell that ;nuth because there is no demand that arge. | It is obvious that the governments themselves cannot be blamed for a | erisis of this kind. Truly, governmental {inefficiency and extravagances have | added to the seriousness of the situs- | tion in certain specific cases. but in the | main it is evident that the Latin Amer- |ican countries are the victims of an economic phenomenon beyond their control and for which they cannot be held responsible. (Copsright, 1931). German City Has T American Schools BERLIN.—Munich is. as far as known, the only metropolis in Germany that has the singular distinction of possessing two American schools—one being for boys and the other for girls. American Institute in Munich is the name of the boys’ institution and it is headed by Dr. Franz Anton Pfeiffer, who is its founder. For years before the World War the veteran American educator was principal of the American school conducted in Munich by Dr. J. M. Coit and Dr. S. D. Bissel. The idea of having an Americ school for boys in Munich was the fruit of Dr. Pfeif- fer’s visit to a number of colleges and universities in the United States several years ago. The girls’ school is a branch of Miss Weaver's Indrebrook School for Girls at Tarrytown-on- Hudson in New York State. Both schools are located in magnificent villas and have large enrollments. Viking Discoveries Made by Excavaters KONIGSBERG, Germany.—The re- sumption of the Prussia Museum of Excavations interrupted by the Winter have brought to light finds of great his- torical interest, from the days of the Vikings (ninth to eleventh century). Among them is a richly ornamented Norman sword with & runic inscri) which it has not yet been possible to decipher. A brooch of Courlandish ori- gin shows that the Scandinavians had commercial relations with that country. The provincial museum of the Loch- stadt Castle on the so-called “Frisches Haft” has secured a sword with the word “amen” inscribed throwing new light on the introduction of Christianity into Scandinavia. An- other Viking sword. dating from the eleventh century, came to light from the bottom in the Baltic Sea in & fisher’s net. L3