Evening Star Newspaper, November 15, 1936, Page 41

WHAT PRESIDENT WILL DO ANSWERED BY, CITIZENS Vote Almost Wholly Tribute to Man in Gratitude and Admiration, and Not Protest on Issues or Rival. BY MARK SULLIVAN. ISCUSSION following the election has dealt chiefly with the man elected—what D will President Roosevelt do? ‘Will he go to the right? Will he go to the left? Will he do anything about the Supreme Court? Will he do any- thing about the Constitution? Specu- lation on that sort of question follows the precedent of past elections and is entertaining. But the real place to look is not at the man elected, but at the people who elected him. If there are to be permanent consequences of this elec- tion, if it is a sign.of something in process of happening to America, it lies in the minds of the 26,000,000 people who said they wanted Mr. Roosevelt to be the head of the Na- tion. Let us inquire just what was in their minds. Not all of them had the same motive or expectation, for Mr. Roose- velt's majority is an extremely diverse group. But we can find some com- mon denominators that were vaguely or definitely in the minds of those who voted for the New Deal. On election day, the very earliest clue to what was about to happen came from that tiny New Hampshire town which completed its voting earli- est and first gave out the results. Ac- eording to newspaper accounts, the seven voters, wishing to be the first district to proclaim its results, met Just after midnight of election morn- ing, and their returns were printed in the early issues of afternoon news- papers of election day. On the presidency they voted five for Gov. Landon, two for Mr. Roose- velt. In that was no particular clue. But in the voting for other offices was & sign of the country’s mind. As re- spects Governor, Senator, member of Congress and other minor offices, all seven voted Republican. Symbolic of Margin. Here obviously were seven persons, econservative in bent, Republican by tradition—but with two preferring that Mr. Roosevelt should continue to be President. Those two were sym- bolic of a margin which, multiplied all over the country, gave Mr. Roose- velt a total vote of some 26,000,000, and a majority of 10,000,000. Mr. Roosevelt's majority came mainly from persons whose voting for him was an exception to their accustomed ways of thought. Largest, I think, among the motives of those who voted for Mr. Roosevelt was gratitude. Millions of persons, in- cluding some of the best type of citi- pen we have, had suffered in the de- pression. They had suffered—and even greater than their suffering in actual- ity was their apprehension of worse that might come. During the years of depression they had lost their jobs, used up their savings, found them- gelves unable to pay interest on mort- gages on their homes, seen the failure of banks that contained their funds. Employers had carried them until em- ployers, too, fell into error. Relatives and friends had helped them until they, too, became destitute. In the midst of that despair they had seen Mr. Roosevelt become Presi- dent. With the mere fact of a new edministration had come hope. The hope had been strengthened by a sheer infection of optimism that radiated from the new President’s personality. Presently hope had become budding reality, in the form of banks réopened, employment renewed. In millions of cases these persons had had reason to feel direct, concrete gratitude for specific actions affecting them—the new administration had prevented foreclosure of mortgages on their homes, had renewed mortgages at lower rates of interest, had made new loans on generous terms. All this resulted in what we may eall a “gratitude vote,” and it was large. It may not have been intellec- tually exact. But if Mr. Roosevelt was not the cause of recovery he was the symbol of it; and it is the habit of most of us to think in terms of sym= bols. Nearly every competent author- ity agrees, I think, that recovery was bound to come anyhow; that indeed it might have been more rapid under another President; that in fact it was more rapid in other countries. Econ- omists know that; but the human in- stinct of the average man, which felt the emotion of gratitude and deter- mined to give expression to it by vot- ing for Mr. Roosevelt—that quality of human nature may be as admirable as the cold logic of the economists. Relatives and Friends. It was not merely the complete and utter victims of the depression, not merely those who had gone on relief. It was also the relatives and friends of these. Relatives and friends had been under the burden of contribut- ing support to their intimates, and this Mr. Roosevelt had ended. Many & worker who during the depression had suffered no diminution of in- come felt as grateful to the President as those who had been obliged to go on relief. Mr. Roosevelt, to some ex- tent, had established the idea that relatives and friends need no longer care for their own needy—the burden is on the Government. That notion may not be good; if it is to be a per- manent feature of the American way of life America may not be a better eountry for it. But it had been done, and those who had been relieved from earing for their own unfortunates felt gratitude to Mr. Roosevelt. A large generalization to be made about the Roosevelt voters has to do with their economic status. They ‘were workers, laborers in factories, white-collar workers in offices. Dur- ing the depression they had passed through terror. Those who had not lost their jobs had been fearful of Josing them. Those who were elderly ‘were scared about their old age. Per- haps not many of them blamed their employers, nor felt resentment toward them. But they had come face to face with the worst phase of an eco- nomic system which from time to time makes jobs ‘insecure and at all times old age & peril to many. And they had seen Mr. Roosevelt propose, snd partly bring about, a modifica- tion of that economic system, the social security act, which greater security of employment, cer- tain security for old age. Some of this group felt an addi- Roosevelt's dependence, an enlarged status of personality in their relations with em- ployers. One group that voted largely for Mr. Roosevelt, because of economic benefits either received or expected, was the farmers—especially the ten- ant farmers. Of all the farmers in the United States something more than 40 per cent are tenants who do not own the acres that they plow. It cannot be said, as a sweeping gen- eralization applicable to all the coun- try that the tenant farmer is a de- pressed group. Between the tenant farmer in the South and Southwest, and the tenant farmer in States like Towa, there is a vast difference. The tenant farmer in the Midwest is a man of property, with a fair economic status, for, without owning the land, he owns the plant, the cattle, the im- plements, the horses and the crops. To tenant farmers everywhere Mr. Roosevelt had held out a promise of greater access to ownership of the land. ‘The proportion of farm owners who voted for Mr. Roosevelt was less. Yet many of them had received direct cash benefits from the administration. Others had received amelioration of their mortgages or of the rates of in- terest they had to pay. For nearly 15 years, ever since the bursting of the war-time boom in prices of farm crops, farming had been a depressed occupation, relative to other industries. For 12 of those years, during which the Republican party had been in power, farm spokesmen had clamored for relief and had been turned away by Republican Con- gresses. Mr. Roosevelt listened to them. To some farmers the Roosevelt administration gave one form of largesse, to others another. To prac- tically the whole of the farming in- dustry he had given something. Most of them felt grateful and voted their gratitude. In the sum of those who made up Mr. Roosevelt's vote there were other | groups. There were debtors who found | their obligations easier to pay, either through increase in prices that took place during Roosevelt’s administra- tion, or through the lowered interest rates and increased business activity that came about. Here, again, much of this would have happened under any President, for much of it was a normal incident of the inevitable rebound from depression. But Mr. Roosevelt, if not the cause of recovery, was the symbol of it. And to fail to distinguish between cause and symbol, and to pay deference to the symbol, is one of the most familiar of human traits. There was recovery—and there was Mr. Roosevelt in the White House. Ergo, the one was the cause of the other. It was the reverse of the equally illogical assoclation of Mr. Hoover with depres- sion. Sentimental Expression. Another group of the Roosevelt voters consisted of those who, without having received direct personal bene- fit from Mr. Roosevelt’s administra- tion, nevertheless saw Mr. Roosevelt as a humanitarian and voted for him sentimentally. What elected Mr. Roosevelt was the sum of various gratitudes. It was wholly gratitude toward Mr. Roose- velt. It was not, to any serious degree, hate toward any element of the coun- try's social structure. Mr. Roosevelt at varlous times tried to stir up hate, did so blatantly. It was quite unneces- sary, for the attainment of his objec- tives did not depend upon creating hate toward any group. There was no condition that called for the hate- provoking epithets and speeches which Mr. Roosevelt occasionally emitted. One can only assume that the egging of Mr. Roosevelt to this sort of thing came from advisers close to him who had an objective more extreme than his own, an objective of bringing about & real class struggle in America, and out of that a revolution to the Ameri- can form of soclety and government. Mr. Roosevelt's vote was almost wholly a vote for him as President and as man. To a very slight extent was it a vote against any person or against any institution or idea. It was not a vote against the Constitu- tion. It was not a vote against the Supreme Court. It was not to a meas- urable extent & vote of angry protest in behalf of New Deal measures which the Supreme Court had invalidated. Had the ballots in this November elec- tion contained the question, “Do you wish N. R. A. re-enacted?” probably ‘most of the voters would have ignored the question or voted no. And prob- ably the same as to Triple-A. (Copyrisht, 1936. by the New York Tribune, Joliet Is Depending On “Electric Eyes” JOLIET, Ill. ().—Since the day two guards politely opened the gates of Joliet Prison permitting Convict Henry “Midget” Ferneke to walk out posing as a visitor the State of Illinois has spent more than $20,000 to make the place more fool-proof. Ferneke, accused of five gun slay- ings, was captured in Chicago shortly after his successful ruse and he committed suicide before they could return him to Joliet, but the ease of his escape moved the State to make im- provements. “Electric eyes,” designed to detect metal upon & person, new fences around the prison entrance and changes in the guard system are the major improvements. Perneke's trick cannot be duplicated, Warden Ragan says, because s new double registry system has been in- stalled. All visitors have to register when they enter and leave the prison. They have to record their name, address and the name of the prisoner they are visiting. The handwriting and in- formation must tally in each instance or they don't get out. London Co-operating For Noiseless City LONDON (#).—Out to make the city “all-silent” by 1940, London Pas- THE SUNDAY: STAR; WASHINGTON, D.” C,; NOVEMBER 15 1936—PART - TWO. ar or Peace in 1937? With the League on the Wane, How Long Can Europe Escape Conflict? Will Next Summer— When Germany Reaches Her Maximum Strength—See Start of New Struggle? BY PERTINAX. T are the prospects of peace nnd war in Eurone in these closing weeks of 1936? Let us attempt to draw the balance sheet. ‘The cardinal fact to place on record is the distinct weakening of the so- called system of collective security. In Geneva the session of the Assembly which took place in September-Octo- ber brought deep discouragement to every one concerned. Among the na- tional delegations there was no longer any pretense of behaving as though the League of Nations could again be made a living force. The issue of the limitation of armaments, quietly drop- ped two years ago, was officlally re- vived—but in a most unimpressive and ineffective manner. ‘The sudden disappearance of the gold bloc gave rise to the idea that a conference of the greatest econcmic powers could be summoned for the purpose of investigating how the channels of international trade could best be reopened. However, it soon dawned upon the promoters of the movement that President Roosevelt's adherence to the scheme could not be obtained in the midst of the electoral campaign and, moreover, that the most logical course was to wait for the end of the negotiations between the Locarnian powers which, if successful, would eliminate, or at any rate re- lieve, the international tension. But the most adverse factor was to be found in the extraordinary lack of trust and confidence shown by most delegates toward the Franco-British leadership. In that leadership rests whatever chance remains of achieving something on the collective principle. The rout suffered by the League when at grips with the Abyssinian problem has utterly discredited the London and Paris cabinets with other member states. Everywhere one finds the con- viction that it would be futile to repair the Geneva machinery so long ts the two great governments of Western Europe have failed to prove they are ready to assume full responsbility— by deeds as well as by words—for the maintenance of international law. Holland Action Exemplary, Nobody had foreseen that the As- sembly would revolt against Messrs. Delbos and Eden, rather than accept their suggestion that the Abyssinian delegation should be turned out, with- out further delay, from the interna- tional institution. It is significant that Holland should have headed the movement—a country which feels that it is most exposed to the danger of & German invasion. The preparations made by the general staff at The Hague to flood the land in an emergency bear witness to its fear. Holland therefore is more interested than any other na- tion in strengthening its old connec- tion with England. In the same respect, consider the attitude of Belgium! A creation of the first Anglo-French entente cordiale a century ago she now evinces the greatest reluctance to cast her lot with her two historical protectors and associates in the new Locarnian treaty. She dreams—though it can- not be more than a dream—of a policy of neutrality which would place her above the battles of the future. And the Belgium foreign minister who in- dulges in such empty visions, who would withdraw from active co-opera- tion with the two great democratic states, is a Socialist! Lacking Anglo-French leadership, the League has turned into a confused, unceriain group of nations. But as- suming that the policy of collective security could be revived by France and England—what about its possi- bilities of being translated into victory on the battlefield? We know that, last March, when Adolf Hitler freed himself from the Rhineland pact of Locarno and or- dered the Reichswehr into the militarized zone, the German general staff had come to the conclusion that resistance would be inadvisable if the French Army took the offensive. It ‘was agreed between the Fuehrer and his generals that, in such a case, the Reichswehr would withdraw. In other words, Hitler gambled upon the timid- ity and wobbling mood of the French cabinet—and won. French Arms Believed Superior. Today, despite all the steps that have been taken by Germany to strengthen its army, most experts (French and foreign) believe that the preponderance of military power has not yet ceased to rest with France. Most competent observers anticipate that the German military machine will not reach its maximum of ef- ficiency before the Summer or Autumn of 1937. Meanwhile, it is true, the Rhineland will have been heavily fortified. This will lessen to & material extent the Austria Has Huge Defense Program VIENNA (#)—National defense is the largest item of & new 220,420,000 schilling (about $41,200,000) work- creation program launched by the Schuschnigg dictatorship to combat economic and political unrest. The expenditure of 71,850,000 schill- ings (about $13,400,000) is planned for military purposes, including the construction of barracks, but no branch of commercial activity is ne- glected in the scheme, the largest in Austrian history. At the beginning of Summer 242,- 227 persons in a total population of about 6,500,000 were officially listed as on the dole—but this is only part of a picture that includes sluggish in- level. Particularly hard hit, with 118,412 dole-receivers, is Vienna, which is called a truncated capital because -war treaties cut from it a large share of the hinterland that support- ties like Wiener-Neustadt, St. i 2 14 Q E%gé?‘ i 2 1 ig ] i capacity of the French Army to make deep inroads into German territory, and has led many experts to believe that the practical value of France's assistance to her associates in Central and Eastern Europe is about to be re- duced, if not wiped out. But other experts—and the highest leaders of the French Army are reported to share in their opinion—insist that, even under the new circumstances, they will be able to keep the major portion of the German forces busy, and that the al- lies will be relieved and helped to & corresponding degree. In the Mediterranean, the antagon- ism between Italy and England, an aftermath of the Abyssinian war, makes it doubtful whether, in wartime, the British and French fleets could in- sure all the communications of stra- tegic importance between the western and the eastern sections of that sea, or between metropolitan France and her African possessions—a reserve of man- power that could not be dispensed with. But, hemmed in between the prog- ress of pangermanism in the Danubian countries and the speedy strengthening | of the British position in the Medi- terranean — especially through her close co-operation with Turkey—the Fascist government can hardly expect ot follow an independent line very much longer. Sooner or later, it will have to seek for some bargain in Lon- don and in Paris, and limit its ambi- tions. Through Turkey, the British government is likely to secure the good will of Soviet Russia, and the Yugo- slavs and Greeks are normally in sym- pathy with it. To - withstand such a coalition, Benito Mussolini and his advisers would have to plunge very deeply into the embrace of the Hitlerian Reich. With such an inveterate gambler as the Duce, no prediction can certainly be made about the forthcoming moves of Italian diplomacy. But there are risks that not even he would be likely to take. Against those two adverse elements —the fortification of the Rhineland and the uncertainty in the Mediter- ranean—must be set forth the process of military expansion now discernible in France, Great Britain, Soviet Russia, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Rumania, The socialist government of Mr. Blum, impressed by the peril of peace, has recently appropriated no less than 14,000,000,000 francs for the extension and consolidation of the “Maginot” fortified line and for the improvement of field artillery, and has charted a 5,000,000,000-franc program for improving the air force. It is no exaggeration to say that after the ful- | fillment of these plans, there will not | be much to be added to the French | | armory. As to the British rearmament—it is | being energetically conducted as re- | gards the navy and the air forces, but | | is impeded, as to the army, by the re- luctance of the average citizen to | enlist. However, it will be fairly com- LATIN AMERI TRIUMPH OF ROOSEVELT CANS HAIL See His Victory as Evidence Vox Populi Still Is Supreme—Call Success Boon for World Democracy. BY GASTON NERVAL. NY one who had been following the progress of the “good neighbor” policy in the West- ern Hemisphere, could have known that Latin Americans would be jubilant over the re-election of President Roosevelt. The most superficial review of the record of the past three and a half years in the relations of the United States with the Latin American coun- tries revealed substantial and defl- nite gains. The extraordinary improve- ment in various political and economic aspects of Pan-Americanism, the re- pudiation of armed intervention, the abandonment of “dollar diplomacy,” the truly “New Deal” for some of the smaller Caribbean nations, the bene- fits of the reciprocal trade pacts con- cluded with eight of the Southern countries, were concrete achievements, carrying all the force of accomplished facts. On the face of these achieve- ments it is easy to predict—as did this column—that throughout Latin Amer- ica the re-election of President Roose- velt would be received enthusiastically, as a significant indorsement of these policies by public opinion, and as a guarantee of their continuation for the next four years. Made Record Issue. In the field of foreign affairs the administration had made its own rec- ord the issue of this election. In its platform, as well as in the major pro- nouncements of its campaign spokes- men, the party in power had pledged itself to preserve and perfect the im- provement in inter-American rela- tions brought about under the “good neighbor” policy. 1t is true that the. opposition, also, had some attractive promises o make. But, aside from the fact that the Republicans had to stop at promises, for they had no record of achieve- ment to point to, even these promises were marred by certain obvious con- tradictions. As this column stressed, on the eve of the election, their tacks on the reciprocal trade program, their pledges to revoke it, their de- nunciation of all international agen- cles for the maintenance of peace now in existence, including the non- political World Court, their somewhat confused definitions of what consti- tutes imperialism and what protection, were difficult to reconcile with their offers of greater inter-American trade, better instruments of peace, more fre- quent use of the machinery for arbitration, and less tampering with Latin American sovereignty and rights. From the pan-American point of view, there was no question, therefore, as to which side would have the sympathies of the Latin America. But this accounts only for part of the Latin which may be called the “official reac- " for it inl the attitude of tion,” for terprets the from the southern foreign offices. It is, however, the most important part, for behind it are not only the po- litical interests of international diplomacy, but the ideals and aspira- tions of millions of men and women in Latin America who have pinned their hopes for the future in the final victory of democracy over the | world. In such troublesome and uncertain times as these, when the breakdown of democratic forms of government is openly hailed by powerful leaders abroad, when reactionary forces are at work everywhere trying to dis- credit and destroy the tenets of social justice and erecting artificial barriers to the progress of the human mind, when liberal institutions are being swept aside by the passions of a few egomaniacs or the greed and ambitions of a few vested interests, the new gen- erations of Latin America, nurtured in ideals of freedom and social equal- ity, were waiting for just such a demonstration of democratic vitality and self-respect as the one which the people of the United States gave No- vember 3. A free presidential contest in itself is a novelty nowadays. When the contest takes place in a country of nearly 130,000,000 people, with more than one-third of them going to the polls voluntarily, peacefully, without the threat of concentration camps, political vendettas or class antago- nisms, the novelty is enhanced. When those forty-some millions of free voters express their preference, by an overwhelming majority, for the man who has been attacked by the most powerful interests throughout the land and elect him over the wishes and frenzied efforts of the same groups which have silenced the common peo- ple in so many foreign parts, the nov- elty acquires a significance the world cannot afford to overlook. See Vox Populi Supreme, The lesson which Latin America learns from the unprecedented victory obtained at the polls by President Roosevelt is that, in this country at least, vox popull is still supreme. In Europe the outcome of the election has been colored, interpreted accord- ing to the political philosophy in vogue in each country, which is, of course, that dictated by each particular gov- ernment, but for the public opinion of Latin America the meaning is unmis- takable. The new generations of Latin Amer- fca had been looking forward to this presidential election in the United States as a sort-of political test. ' The defeat of President Roosevelt would have meant that not even in the politi- | cally and economically most developed | country in the world could progressive reform be achieved by peaceful, or- derly and legal methods. For coun- tries considerably less mature, ma- terially and politically, as are the Latin American, the alternative would have been either despondent despair—the very atmosphere which breeds reac- tion—or final recourse to force. For- tunately, the democratic ideal was the victor in the United States, gives hope to Latin America: plete after 18 months, if the assurances Mr. Anthony Eden gave to Mr. Blum in Geneva are to be trusted. Soviet Ruasia today has at its dis- posal an incomparably greater volume of war material and ammunition than the Imperial army of 20 years ago, and the aerial forces loom large in the picture, However, her transportation facilities are still poor. Poland, Yugo- slavia and Rumania are being rearmed by France; and Czechoslovakia, in possession of the huge Skoda works, contributes to the restoratiom of the Rumanian forces. Here, too, railway communications are the hardest ques- tions to solve. The members of the virtual antigermanic coalition are dis- Jointed. It is not easy to make them fit in together in & general strategic scheme, To sum up, Germany will be rela~ tively stronger than at any subsequent time during the next 12 months; erward she ought to become rela- tively weaker, unless something now unforseeen hinders the opposite camp’s rearmament plans. We are not yet sure whether we can avoid the great trial. A doubtful period of 12 or 18 months, or, pos- sibly, 2 years, is ahead. Anyhow, the nations devoted to the maintenance of peace ought to be strong enough to ward off the crisis if they are wise enough to enforce their solidarity at every turn. Parties May Be Reviving. ‘The financial and economic distress of the German people—which this Winter will exceed what it was last year—means that the feet of the Hitlerian colossus are perhaps made of clay. It is asserted from serious diplomatic sources that, under the surface, the old German parties have been revived. But, are all the governments which, in an international sense, can be called conservative, ready to sink their dif- ferences and concentrate on a com- mon line of defense? The true cause for anxiety is that no affirmative answer can be returned to that ques- tion with a feeling of certainty. In the last resort, everything de- pends upon the French and the Brit- ish cabinets. If they make up their | minds to stand by the principle of in- divisible peace every one will follow suit, from Soviet Russia to Turkey, from Czechoslovakia to Yugoslavia and Rumania. In Poland all odds are that Gen. Rydz Smigli, the com- mander in chief, would then have enough authority to overcome the| Germanophile leanings of Col. Beck, | foreign minister, and his clique. Italy| herself would probably have to lower D3 CROP INSURANCE VIEWED NEXT STEP OF NEW DEAL Score of Problems Confront Farm Offi- cials in Working Out Plan—Combina- tion Cash-Produce Premium Likely. BY BERTRAM BENEDICT. HERE does a triumphant New Deal go from here? Probably the President himsel? does not know all the answers to that ome, but one plausible answer seems to be: “Into ;:'rgp insurance if the farmers want During the election campaign Pres- ident Roosevelt announced that an administration committee was study- ing all angles of the crop insurance problem. The committee will report to him before Congress convenes, Gov. Landon also called the subject worthy of earnest consideration; so a crop in- surance measure in Congress might well be supported by both parties. Immediately after the election, Secretary of Agriculture Wallace con- ferred with insurance executives and warehouse men on crop insurance. Then he conferred with farm leaders. ‘These, although having no quarrel with the idea, weren't sure that most farmers would take to it. ‘Wallace on his side agreed that there was no point in going ahead unless a considerable number of farm- ers wanted a chance to insure their crop yields against disaster. Possibly & trial will be made with only a few key crops, perhaps only with wheat. If the experiment is made, and proves & great success, crop insurance may | s00n be in general effect in the United | States. All Business Affected. If crop insurance helps the farming regions, it may benefit the cities al- most as much. For our economic history proves that the whole country cannot really prosper while agricul- ture is in the doldrums. The half-dozen years before 1929 | may have looked like an exception to this dictum, for industry and com- merce seemed to be thriving while the farm areas were in distress. craz- ily bolstered by speculation and per- haps by instalilment buying and reck- ; less loans to Europe. When the ava- lanche burst upon us late in 1929, it was long overdue. That made it all | the worse. Farmers have long suffered because they could not use insurance to pro- tect themselves as husiness men could. Here is a manufacturer or a store owner. If his stock or his plant is injured by fire, or theft, or some other predictable casualty, he may still be sitting pretty., He is protected by in- surance. Here is a farmer. His crop is largely or wholly wiped out by too little or too much rain, by insects, plant diseases, tornadoes, or early frosts. He is just out of luck. Insurance against his | troubles has in most cases not been her terms. But if the ministers in Paris and in London continue to hesitate be- | tween a policy of collective security | and a policy of “every one for him- | self,” their associates or sympathizers | in Central and Eastern Europe will | more and more move mdependentlyi and, in despair, some day come to terms with the German Reich. Czechs Fear Attack. In Geneva, on October 2, Mr. Litvinoff, commissar for foreign af- fairs, said it in so many words to| Leon Blum, the French premier. He warned that Czechoslovakia, owing to her perilous geographical position, would be the first to be attacked, and that it rested with France to de- cide whether she was to be assisted or abandoned to her fate. “You tell me,” Mr. Litvinoff is reported to have added, “that the necessary arrange- ments will be worked out after the contemplated conference of the Lo- carnian powers has been brought to a close, because to act otherwise would seem to prejudice its failure. But the sands are running out at a very high speed.” What Mr. Litvinoff did not say is| that the general uneasiness, perhaps, does not result so much from the delay recommended by the British government and agreed to by the French than from a lingering belief that, when closeted with the repwe- sentatives of Adolf Hitler and baing pressed by them to accept peace in the West, provided their respective countries do not any longer assume any responsibility for the freedom and independence of Central and Eastern Europe, the French and British min- isters may be swept off their feet by & tremendous wave of pacifism at home and precipitated into surrender. Do not let us forget that France cannot face the present issue in Europe apart from Great Britain. An overwhelming outburst of British de- featism would thus be sufficient to suppress any desire of the French government to stick to its principles. China Is Reclaiming Vast Flood Lands NANKING, China (#)—Hundreds of thousands of acres of land re- claimed from lake and marsh, or won back from desert wastes to give life to man and beast mark €hina’s first lasting victories in her 4,000-year war with Nature's twin destroyers—flood and famine. The great flood of 1931, and famine that followed, cost China hundreds of millions of dollars and untold misery to millions of its people. But before the flood waters had receded, China with the assistance of money and en- gineering skill from abroad mobilized for a fight which is expected eventual- ly to end the floods. In the valley of the Upper Yellow river, where flood and drought have alternated for centuries to make hu- man life practically impossible, 158 - 000 acres of land have now been irri- gated by a system of canals and dams which carry off the river waters in times of flood and distribute them to inland areas where water is needed for crops and cattle. available. It is true that most farmers can now get insurance against hailstorms. | In five States this protection is offered | by the State. Hail insurance, whether State or private, has proved practi- cable because only a small district is | afflicted at one time. Indemnity has | to be paid to only a small number of policy holders. Fruit Growers Insurance. In the South and on the Pacific Coast fruit growers can take out in- surance against frost damage. There | is also a little insurance of live stock, mostly in Pennsylvania and Ohio. And in some of the Southern and Western States all-risk insurance is available on fruits and vegetables. Possibly this insurance has proved practicable because it is written in a localized area, covers crops with a high value per acre, is susceptible of careful supervision and (in some cases) is worked out with farmers’ co-operatives. However, it is still true that most American farmers cannnot protect all their crops against most of the perils which threaten them. General crop insurance has been tried, by private companies, without success; and the failure is frequently pointed to by skeptics on the subject. However, in some cases the companies concerned operated in only a single State or small area. When a large part of their coverage was devastated by a crop hazard, naturally the in- surance fund went into the hole. One large insurance company did try general crop insurance over the whole country from 1920 to 1922. But crop prices fell sharply in 1920. Inas- and cents basis, the venture proved unprofitable. A similar attempt by another com= pany in 1931, also a year of declinirg prices, met no better success. Obvie- ously crop insurance cannot work un- less it is on a national scale, or at least covers a large territory; nor un- less it protects itself against fluctua~ tions in farm prices. Secretary Wallace evidently believes that crop insurance cannot be worked out by private companies, but must be a Government project. He points out that when a drought or some other crop disaster befalls a section, the Government must spend relief funds there in any event. So even if a Government insurance fund should go somewhat into the red, the Treasury might really be breaking even. One danger would have to be zeal- ously guarded against in any Gov- ernment - crop insurance: Political pressure against premium differentials. Farmers likely to suffer crop losses might allege discrimination, to say nothing of unconstitutionality, if they had to pay much higher rates than farmers better situated. Yet a higher premium for the worse risks is cardinal in good insurance procedure. In this connection it is of interest to note that when A. A. A. was alive, it really operated as a kind of crop ine surance. That is, a farmer who re- stricted production got his benefit payments even though crop disasters would have prevented him from grow- ing much or anything on the land taken out of production. If practically all his crop were wiped out, he still had the A. A. A. benefit payments to fall back on. This protection still ob- tains under the present benefits paid in return for co-operating in soil con- servation programs. Problems Involved. One thing is sure: Crop insuranc~ cannot function exactly as other form of insurance. For instance, if drought reduces the national output of a crop by 20 per cent, the price on the re- mainder of the crop might, because of scarcity, increase more than 20 per cent. It would be silly to indemnify a farmer who lost 1,000 bushels cf 90-cent wheat if as a result he sold his remaining 5,000 bushels at $1.25 So Secretary Wallace proposes that crop insurance take account of whether & farmer’s crops have been damaged more seriously than the same crops in the country as a whole. Also, if a crop insurance fund, pub- lic or private, were to guarantee an output of so many bushels of wheat, and then were to collect the premium in cash, the fund would have to gamble on the price of wheat needed to make its contracts good. Similarly, if it paid for deficiencies at a given price per bushel, it would really be insuring not only the crop, but also the price. So Wallace, and also President Roosevelt, have been playing around with the idea of insured farmers' pay premiums, and perhaps receive ine demnity, in kind. The portions of crops paid as premiums would be stored. They would be released to farmers who had low yields, or would be sold for their benefit. Thus an “‘ever-normal granary” would be cre- ated. Many Crops Perishable. The difficulty here is that certain crops are perishable. So some au- thorities hold out for a combination of cash and crop premium payments. Finally, no matter what plan of crop insurarce might be tried out, it would prot bly have to dovetail in with & production restriction program. Otherwise it might have the same un- fortunate effect as the Farm Board under President Hoover in encouraging an overexpansion in production. Perhaps crop insurance might be available only to farmers who co- operated in a Nation-wide agricultural program. Perhaps insurance could be used as the method to enforce satis- factory quotas in all the main crops, and perhaps the Supreme Court would hold that this device met constitu- tional requirements. In that event crop insurance might prove to be one of the central solutions for agricul- tural distress—the most serious and baffling economic difficulty which has bedeviled the United States in the last decade. much as the insurance was on a dollar (Copyright, 1836, Chinese Reds, Setti ng Up Republic, Are Seeking to Extend Influence NANKING, China (#).—A new Communist People’s Republic which has yet to receive recognition from the U. 8. 8. R, and which is but little known beyond its own boun- daries has been set up by Chinese Reds on the banks of the River of Golden Sand in the remote border province of Sikong. Close to 100,000 Chinese and Tibetans make up the citizenry and soldiery of the little republic, whose capital is Kantse, 400 miles north- west of Generalissimo Chiang Kai- Shek’s Szechuen stronghold, Chung- king, near the upper navigation limit of the Yangtze River, Protected by Nature. Pursued through West China and driven from Szechuen by Gen. Chiang’s troops, Red Chieftain Hsiao Keh led his Communist comrades into Sikong, Inner Tibet, finding for them 2 home in a region protected by nature from the operations of modern military forces and yet close enough to trade and pilgrim routes to Tibet to assure steady supplies of food and money. ‘While robbing the rich to support their own poor followers, these Chi- nese Reds have won over Tibetan lamas (priests) who control the affairs of the more remote areas of Sikong by offering them posts in the Golden Sand River People’s Republic. Having established their authority in Northeastern Sikong, the Reds now are casting their eyes on Baan, capi- tal of the Sikon provisional provincial administration. Garrisoned by a mixed Tibetan and Chinese force of only 1,500 men, who have never shown any great aptitude for fighting, except among themselves, the capital is not expected to be able to withstand a siege by Hsio Keh's Reds. Direct Approach Threatened. With Baan in the hands of Com- munist forces, China proper would be cut off from direct land approach to Inner Tibet. This would work no great hardship on either Chinese or Tibetans, but it would increase greatly the difficulties in the way of the Panchen lama’s long deferred return to Lhasa, unless the spiritual pontiff of Tibetan Buddhism chose to follow the example of several of the lesser Tibetan religious dignitaries and coms to terms with the Communists. Britain Is Bolstering Defenses Around Hongkong to Meet Next War HONGKONG (#).—Haven of peace of |of. the East and have forced the and port of refuge in troubled Asia for nearly a century, the crown colony of Hopgkong is the latest far-flung outpost of British dominion to take heed of the rumblings of danger ahead and make itself an integral part of the empire defense scheme. Honkong's security in the past has been based upon its remoteness from the conflicts of Europe and upon the cannon - commanded strip of water which has preserved it aloof from the man-inspired and natural disasters and commotions which have kept China in turmoil. Renewed Russian activity in East Asia, Japan's program of expansion southward as well as westward and, most of all, the new threat of long- ranged destruction from the air have shaken the confidence of the Gibraltar cojonial authorities, with the help of the British Army, Navy and Air Force, to authorize the expenditure of more than 1,000,000 pounds sterling to ase sure protection for the 750,000 people who live in the colony. Although commerce and trade have always been the prime interests of the colony, Great Britain has maine tained there for some years the head= quarters of its China army and navy. To enable Hongkong to take its part in the empire defense program, the colony garrison will soon be increased from iour to six battalions. The royal artillery is replacing small and semi-obsolete guns with heavy ord- nance capable of commanding the sea approaches to the island. o Although expansion of the Hong- kong naval station has been delayed by concentration of the British ad- miralty’s attentions on the great base at Singapore, the dock yard, work- shops, coal and torpedo depots are being kept up to & high standard of efficiency. &