THE ECONOMIC WAR

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 205, 22 April 1932, Page 4

THE ECONOMIC WAR

Senator W. E. Borah, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the United States Senate, can always be relied upon to be interesting when he makes a public statemept. This is not because he always exhibits a prof ound grasp of his subject naatter, or unusual breadth of outlook, or marked skill m deplomacy, but because he usually appears to know what he wants and to possess the courage to say what it is without ambiguity and often with a racy picturesqueness which is typical of a ceitain class of American. As the spokesman on foreign attairs for the national legislature of a great power Mr. Borah is unic[ue in his generation, possibly in history. The great protagonist oi the sehool of political thought which holds that America shoulcl both have its cake and eat it; in other words, that she should enjoy all the advantages, especially the financial, and economic advantages, of a front rank position among the nations, without any of the responsibilities, Mr. Borah is pnequalled as a special pleader. He is seldom at a loss for the striking word or the telling phrase so beloved of his countrymen, millions of whoin follow him with an unquestioning faith which would be amazing were it not for the fact that the worship of the^ "slogan, the trite f'ormula, the striking verbal label, is a national characteristic. All men, however, have a weakness somewhere in their armour, and Mr.'Borah's is a complete lack of that invaluable safeguard, a sense of humour. This while it enables him to take himself and his views quite seriously upon every subject and under all circumstances, also leads him into errors from which the saving grace would have protected him. The contents of the British Budget and his nation's nervousness regarding Europe's intentions in respect of war debts have furnished him with his latest occasion for a great discovery. Since 1918 (the year of the Armistice) Europe has been engaged in "the Great Economic War,' which still continues, he said, when commenting on Mr. Chamberlain's failure specifically to provide in his Budget for debt payments to America. He then proceeded to show, presumably to his own satisfaction, that the troubles of the world during the past 14 years were due wholly to the policies of the European nations in the prosecution of that war. He claimed that im~ mense sacrifices have been made in the cause of economic stability by the United1 States and that these had all been rendered abortive "by the conduct of other nations," leaving his hearers to draw the conclusion that America has throughout played the part of the fairy godmother, the unselfish philanthropist, forgiving just debts, and generally holding out the helping hand to her distressed fellow nations. What are the facts? The laggard among the great nations of the west, she came officially into the great struggle against military absolutism only in April, 1917, and it was not until late in 1918 that she finally appeared effectr ively in the field. During those years from 1914 onwards she haq been quietly engaged in the first svrategic moves of that "great economic war" of which Mr. Borah now complains, and wheq the Armistice put an end to military operations the world found itself hopelessly in debt to her as a reward for having in the words of a noted American lawyer, "held the fort at immense cost in men and material while America mobilised her forces." The next step was the indignant repudiation of the plan of the. idealist President, Dr. Woodrow Wilson, which he hoped, would have made his country Europe's ally in peace as well as in war. Then followed a series of manoeuvres designed to regularise the financial relationships, as between dehtor and creditor, of America and her former allies. These succeeded, probably beyond the Americans' wildest dreams, and in the light of experience, it is very difficult to avoid the conclusion that they were aimed espepially against Great Britain, the world's greatest financial and commercial power, and therefore America's most dangerous rival. Presently, as a result'of these arrangements, the world's goods and gold began to flow toward America. This did not suit her at all. She was willing enough to take the gold (she finally held for a short time more than half the world's total supplies) but the goods she would not have. She therefore erected impassable tariff walls, thus helping to initiate the tariff war of which ! she has since so bitterly complained. Meanwhile, she has presistently refused to join the European countries on terms of equality of responsibility in their efforts to find a solution to their problems, preferring the role of "adviser" and seizing the slightest pretext for acting as dictator. With these facts in mind it , is not difficult to perceive Mr. Borah's misfortune jn his latest J discovery and how a sense of humour might have saved him.