greed have no place in a civilized Commonwealth. We have curbed the rapacity of the rich. We must not allow selfishness to control anywhere. We have curbed the cupidity of capital. We cannot yield to the cupidity of those assuming to represent labor. We are many members, but one body. A government that isn't fit for all of us isn't good for any of us. Government for a few of us must not replace government for all of us." "Have you hope, Governor, that the dissensions that now disturb the country can be adjusted?" "Both hope and confidence," he replied. "When the passions exhibited in the Civil War were at their highest, Lincoln reminded those who doubted the outcome that 'the mystic chords of memory will swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.' We have just passed through trying years. The strain has been enormous. The nerves of the people are overwrought. They yield readily to the clamor of the agitator. They follow leadership which for years they have spurned, but they will again take up the orderly work of true Americans, when touched, 'as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.' "We cannot think of America without thinking of effort, of co-operation, of progress. Since the first small band of pilgrims landed on the Massachusetts shore and covenanted together for mutual protection and the maintenance of orderly government, co-operation has been our watchword, progress our aim, and the will of the majority has been the law of the land. And we have achieved marvellous progress. From small and scattered settlements fringing the bleak Atlantic coast we have swept across the Alleghanies and conquered a wilderness. We have followed the footprints of pioneers across plains and deserts and over mountains to the furthermost sea. We have built with tears and blood and labor the mighty states of an invincible Republic. "We have encountered material obstacles and overcome them. We have encountered physical dangers and surmounted them. We have wrung its secrets from the earth and mastered the sea and the air. We have met foes within and enemies without and we have conquered them. We are rulers of an empire. We are masters of our destiny. No foe that rises within us, no enemy that challenges us abroad can stay our progress or halt our march. Achievement is ingrained in our character. Progress is in our blood. Success is the genius of our people. No man nor group of men that stands in the way of America can impede that mighty procession. For America is progress and we march toward victory." "That, then, is why you say 'have faith in America'?" "That is why America must triumph-the spirit of her people. We have been tried in the fire of experience. We have met every test. In our youth we challenged autocracy and it crumbled before us. Disunion threatened us and we triumphed over it. And again in the world war we met the test. Chateau Thierry, St. Mihiel and the Argonne are the answer of America today to the Bunker Hill and Saratoga and Yorktown of the fathers. We have kept the faith. The manhood of the country today is as true to the ideals of America as were the men who stood by Wash- compromised. Obedience to the law ington at Valley Forge. "They gave us a government of laws and not of men. Lincoln made sure that it should be a 'government of the people, by the people, for the people.' There is no contest between the government and the people. There should be no conflict between the government and any of the people. Labor on the whole is loyal. It is only disloyal, anarchistic leadership that we oppose. The rank and file of labor is for law and order, and on the side of the government. The government is their government. And they And they will be its defenders in the future as they always have in the past. The supremacy of the government cannot be cannot be arbitrated; for when government compromises it surrenders, when it arbitrates it abdicates. "Massachusetts was the first battleground of the Revolution. Here, too, the first test of our loyalty to the ideals of the nation has been met. Here in Massachusetts we justified the faith that men everywhere entertained in us. The country now is facing the test. Let us meet it as it was met in Massachusetts, and as Lincoln said in one of the great crises of the Civil War: 'And thus having chosen our course, let us renew our trust in God and go forward without fear and with manly hearts." "Let us have faith in America." THE INTERNATIONAL TRADE CONFERENCE. By Edward N. Dingley. ostensible motive is "America's moral responsibility." At the close of the recent Inter- States to sell foreign securities. The national Trade Conference at Atlantic City attended by delegates from the four leading industrial nations of Europe and the United States, the chairman of the Executive Committee announced that in his opinion "the action of the conference will result first of all in a revolutionary change in the policies and doctrines of the Republican party." The resolutions adopted favored "the freest and fullest distribution of commodities and raw materials according to the national demand." The program announced involved the financing of Europe to the extent of five perhaps ten billion dollars, the organization of a "Business League of Nations," the creation of a system of corporations in the United From April, 1917 to November, 1918 the war seriously modified American trade with Europe. Imports from the belligerent countries declined and in the case of Germany ceased altogether. Exports to England, France and Italy increased enormously, beginning in the summer of 1914 and continuing in ever increasing streams until the close of the war. American exports in the calendar year 1918 reached the enormous sum of $6,047,874,437. Necessarily the increase largely was due to munitions of war and food. To pay for these commodies the nations at war or suffering from the war gave their notes, first to private investors, later to the United States government, the President being authorized to make the government loans as he personally saw fit. At the close of the war these government loans were: Great Britain France Italy Belgium Russia Czecho-Slavonia Greece Rumania Serbia Cuba Liberia ernment belong to the people. The entire sum represents the savings and future earnings of the American people. A large portion of the money loaned to Europe by the United States is still a time debt on the shoulders of the millions of Americans of moderate means who must have employment and wages. to pay it. In other words, Liberty and Victory bonds to the masses discounted in advance American prosperity, American employment, Am$4,316,000,000 erican wages and American thrift. 3,947,974,778 Europe's war obligations in Amer1,601,775,946 ica are a debt to the American peo343,445,000 ple, and millions of these people are 187,729,750 workingmen and workingwomen. 55,330,000 Only a few are creditors of large 48,236,692 means. 30,000,000 26,780,466 10,000,000 5,000,000 $9,672,272,569 These debts are all payable in gold. Nor does this tell the whole story. This sum does not include the millions borrowed from private bankers and investors before the United States government authorized loans. Europe's total debt to the United States easily exceeds $10,000,000,000 -all payable in gold. In the last analysis this debt is held by the people of the United States, a portion in large blocks in the hands of heavy investors, but most of it in comparatively small blocks. The obligations if held by banks belong to the stockholders and depositors, if held by the gov "BALANCE OF TRADE." By reason of the demoralization of industries in the warring nations imports from the United States to these nations heavily exceeded exports. This balance of trade against them has disturbed exchange so that the English pound sterling, the French franc, the Italian lire and the German mark are at a heavy discount-when measured in American dollars. The pound sterling has been as low as $3.99 1-2. However, this is due to currency inflation not to balance of trade. To the delegates of the five great nations assembled at the Atlantic City Conference the paramount problem was how to "restore the economic well-being of the world." By economic well-being they meant the restoration of the debt-paying power of the four European nations -Great Britain, France, Italy and Belgium. The official statement of the International Trade Conference, says the program, is "to lay before the business men of this country [the United States] the commercial needs and aspirations of their respective nations" and discover "ways and means by which the nations of Europe can freely carry on full trade relations with the United States along lines economically sound, commercially desirable and reciprocally beneficial." on The Executive Committee of the International Trade Conference consisted of twenty-bankers, ship owners, experts and representatives of four large commercial concerns doing business all over the world. Not one of the thousands of American manufacturing concerns doing a domestic business and coming into competition with foreign producers, was represented on the Executive Committee. The committee "textiles" was appointed "for the consideration of the textile situation in Europe" [not the United States], and the examination of "the necessity for a facile flow of raw materials, cotton and wool from the rawmaterial producing countries to the industrial plants of Great Britain. and the continent" [not the United States]. Of this committee of fourteen only three directly represented textile manufacturers, and all came. from New England. The remaining eleven either were representatives of associations of exporters, bankers or professors. Says a New York paper of the closing session of the Conference: "after reviewing all the week the state of affairs in Belgium, Great Britain, France and Italy and the United States, the leaders of commerce assembled concluded that the trade of the world in the future can best be carried on through the free initiation of commercial men. . . . The national preference for traders is for the principle of laissez faire... The Conference further went on record in favor of the freest possible exchange of commodities between the new world and the old; reciprocal recognition for nationals in foreign countries identical with that accorded in their own country to nationals of other countries." THE OBJECT IN VIEW. Thus it is obvious that the main object of the Conference was to add to the billions already loaned Europe enough more to make it within the realm of possibility for those nations at least four of them-to pay back the loans or the interest if not the principal. The committee on credit and finance reported that the known requirements would be: France Italy Belgium $800,000,000 600,000,000 100,000,000 $1,500,000,000 Great Britain's delegates said their country would not ask for additional aid, yet on that very day announcement was made of a loan of $250,000,000 through a private bank. Additional large loans have been negotiated since. It is not unlikely that all the other nations will put in a request so that the total additional loan will be between five and ten billion dollars. This added to the sums alreay advanced will make the total between fifteen and twenty billion dollars-a sum too large for ordinary computation. The program contemplates (1) increased international trade and extension of world markets, (2) granting of long-time credits to the nations and industries of Europe for the purchase of American goods, mostly raw materials. The plea is raised that the prostrated countries of Europe cannot pay their debt to the United States unless they are assisted in the reestablishment of their industries. They must have machinery and raw materials. Also the claim is made that the nations of Europe so recently at war cannot pay for the goods that they have purchased in America-for which they have given their notes and other obligations, unless America will extend further credits, assist in industrial rehabilitation and freely buy European products-especially factured products. On October 24th 1919, announcement was made at the Atlantic City Conference that "at present the continental nations. seem able to pay neither their old debts nor interest on their new, but they feel that if the means of production are set in motion again within a few years they will be able to meet all of their obligations." manu The program laid down by the export association and the International Trade Conference is: "Restrictions of American exports to the bare essentials and raw materials, increase of importations of European goods, saving by the general public in this country to provide sufficient funds to extend credit to European countries, and increase of production in the United States." Increased importation of European goods and at the same time increased production in this country! How can the American textile mills for example, profitably increase their production in this country if their committee of the International Trade Conference assists in promoting the program of increasing the importations of European textiles to compete with American goods? How can the world's markets for textiles be extended under a program of “limiting American exports to the bare essentials. and raw materials?” How can American producers increase their facilities and meet competition in the world's markets if the public saves its money "to provide sufficient funds to extend credit to Eu ropean countries?" The logic of this program is lame. Its patriotism is below par. THE INTERNATIONAL CRAZE. Under the misamatic influence of the craze for internationalism and "world markets," creditors of European countries both the United States government, represented by the Washington administration, and bankers and investors' associations, are obsessed with the idea that the war has dissolved nationalism, altered the traditions of America and |