TRADE BARRIERS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 508, 17 April 1933, Page 4

TRADE BARRIERS

1 c It appears abundantly plam from recent developments that t America is awakening in no un- ' certain manner to the fact that ^ the restriction of trade with for- ( eign markets is seriously aifect- " ing her general industrial prosperity. Mr. Roosevelt has been • mainly responsible for leading , the Democrats to a realisation of j 'the wisdom of tariff concessions, ] but he has received delinite back- 1 ing from others prominent in [ the tinancial and commercial life . of the country. He has a strong backing from his new Secretary j of State, Mr. Cordell Hull, who • is also striving to convince Ame- ; rica that the moderation of tar- ; iffs would not result in the flooding of American markets by the ; products of cheap foreign labour. Quite logically he seeks the explanation of why 13,000,000 Americans have been thrown out of work during the operation of the highest tariffs in the nation's history. It is scarcely fair, of [ course, to blame the tariffs abj solutely for what has happened, because there was a steady volume of unemployment in Great Britain when it was a free trade country. Other factors than tariffs, therefore, have been responsible for the intensification of the world problem of unemployment. Mr, Hull, however, is expressing ideas which America must accept bef ore there is much j chance of recovery, but he is a j type of man who should not take i a great deal of time in driving I his views into the minds of the | most enlightened of his eountrymen. For many years he has held that economic nationalism is the biggest curse of the modern world and the most fruitful causes of war. He has been described as the "most honest man in the Senate." In America's great boom days he was one of those who foresaw that good times would. not last for ever. He was alone when he held that prosperity based upon greed and j selfishness would not last, and in the past three years he has had the melaneholy satisfaction of I seeing his prophecies fulfilled one

by one. As America must play a major part in the restoration of world economic order — even Mr. Bernard Shaw, in his general attaclc on the country, has admitted that it may save the human race— it is reassuring to have in high office a man whose record is unimpeachable, and whose mind is filled with the highest idealism. With the support of such a one, President Roosevelt, in collaboration with Mr! Ramsay MacDonald, another idealist, should be able to help the limping world over the stiles which at present seem so high.