Evening star. [volume], July 07, 1940, Page C-3, Image 25

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
Hitler Victory Thought Likely
To Make U. S. Gold Worthless
Any Price Nation Pays for Unneeded Yellow Metal
Declared Too High, Since It Cannot
Be Resold in Market
By Herbert M. Bratter.
When in 1871 Germany exacted from
France a great post-war indemnity, the
former was enabled to substitute gold
for silver in its monetary system and
thereby a long step was taken toward the
world-wide demonetization and aban
donment of silver as an international
standard of value. History probably will
show that the French capitulation to
Germany in 1940 has sealed similarly the
fate of the international gold standard,
whose lingering “'last illness” dates frome
the great depression.
For the Nazi conquerors of Europe, as
self-confessed executioners of the gold
standard, intend that the reichsmark
shall be the unit of value in all their
far-reaching international barter deal
ings. As reported recently from Berlin,
"after the Reich has conquered France
and Britain, it will declare war on the
gold standard.”
This should give Americans food for
serious thought. We own about $20,000,
000,000 of monetary gold, or nearly three
times as much as all the rest of the
world combined. More gold is pouring
In at the rate of billions of dollars’ worth
a year. In one recent week $532,000,000
of foreign gold arrived here and addi
tional large shipments are believed to be
on the water as this is written.
The United States has long been the
only country ready to buy all gold from
all comers at a fixed price. The Govern
ment need not buy all gold. The law
does not require it. But the Govern
ment elects to do so, paying the legal
price of $35 an ounce, as compared with
$20.67 prior to 1933.
America Is the Market.
Some Americans, in self-delusion, ar
gue that $35 is not too high a price to
pay for gold, that $35 is the world price.
What makes it the world price, however,
is the fact that we are the world's big- <
gest buyer. We are the market. Just
let us stop buying gold and we shall
quickly see that no other buyer or group
of buyers can take our place.
Even the most ardent defender of the
present American gold policy admits that
the price of gold would take a dive or
Vanish altogether the moment we
stopped buying. And, conversely, there
can be no shadow of doubt that we could
hot sell our gold stock abroad. If we
could sell it, it would buy abroad only a
fraction of the value we have given for
it. Gold is too great a luxury for the
outside world to absorb by the billion.
When a country holds nearly three
fourths of the world's gold, any price
is too high a price to pay for gold we
do not need. The large excess reserves
of our banking system, the close to $2,
000,000.000 of gold held idle in the Treas
ury, the power to alter the legal reserve
requirements of the monetary and bank
ing system all are proof that any price
is too high a price for us to pay for
more gold. In the 1920s we ran up a
huge speculative structure on $4,000,000,
000. Today we hold five times as many
dollars of gold.
Just as it is a fiction to buy 20 cents
worth of silver for 35 cents and then
put it on the Government's books as
worth $1.29, so it is self-deception for
the country to buy gold at $35 an ounce
and so value it on the Treasury's books.
It cost $35. But it isn’t worth $35.
There may be no better way now of keep
ing our books on gold, but we should
be frank enough to recognize that $35
an ounce is an artificial price.
Becomes American Legal Tender.
So far as it goes, the Federal Reserve
Bulletin is correct when it states: ‘‘The
purchase of the gold has cost the Treas
ury nothing." But the reader should
not assume that it has cost the country
nothing. The law that enables a for
eigner to get $35 an ounce for gold here
is a law directing every American to
give the same consideration to those
dollars as to any other $35. The for
eigner's gold becomes American legal
tender.
The gold we now have we are ‘‘stuck
with.” We cannot get rid of it. To talk
of employing it in post-war reconstruc
tion abroad, as did a high official last
year, is pointless, for what the post war
world will want from us is real wealth
Buch as foodstuffs, clothing and manu
factured goods: not gold and silver
tokens of wealth, the “receipts" that
have been given us during past years
in exchange for real wealth. On the
books the cost of the bullion policies of
the 1930s as yet shows no loss, and for
silver indeed it shows an imaginary
profit; but the loss is none the less real.
What about our future gold policy?
We read that in Paris the Germans
may have captured as much as $1,850,
000,000 of gold. That figure may be en
tirely erroneous, but it'is known that
several hundred millions fell to the in
vader in the low countries, Poland,
Denmark, Norway, Czecho-Slovakla and
Austria. The war indemnity is still to
be announced. And, if England is de
feated, Germany may draw tribute from
British Empire gold mines, directly or
indirectly.
Question Is Raised.
This raises the question: Should Uncle
Sam continue indefinitely buying all gold
from all comers? Should he keep posted
the official notice which in effect tells
any conqueror that he is free to bring
his gold and sell it for good dollars?
Or should he adopt a new policy, tell
ing foreign countries: “You no longer
have the right to sell us your gold. When
we give dollars for gold, hereafter, we
shall consider it a favor to be recipro
cated by you in some different way.”
Our buying of gold, it should be noted,
is equivalent to putting dollars into the
hands of the sellers. Since we now have
no need at all for the gold, and our
banks have billions of dollars of surplus
reserves, the excuse made for continu
ing the buying policy is that it makes
jobs for Americans to produce the goods
and services foreigners buy here with the
proceeds of their gold.
The main difference between work
creation through bullion imports and
through the W. P. A. is that in the latter
instance we recognize the process for
what it is. If we add to our gold stocks,
issuing gold certificates, as much poten
tial inflation is involved as there would
be if we financed the W. P. A. with
issues of greenbacks. At least in the
latter case the benefits would not be
scattered abroad. The gold problem here
has been in reality the problem of public
spending. Under the W. P. A. the spend
ing is planned. Under the uncontrolled
bullion program it is left to the wishes
and panic of foreigners.
Underlying the Nation's grim adher
ence to the gold-buying program since
Munich has been the desire to help Eng
land and France. To that end all gold
has been cheerfully received by the
Treasury, including gold from the ag
gressor nations, even bars stamped with
the hammer and sickle of the U. S. S. R.
Discrimination Is Urged.
In view of the recent proposal to ab
sorb for joint marketing the commodity
surpluses of the Western Hemisphere,
and in the light of the administration's
defense of the foreign silver program
“because it puts dollars into the hands
of Mexico,” one may expect the present
policy of buying gold to be continued in
sofar as it helps Latin America and
Canada. But, in view of the likelihood of
complete German dominance of Europe
and Europe's colonies, it may behoove
the Government to be discriminating in
its gold buying. No new legislation is
needed. No present law. but only a me
chanical and lonely adherence to de
funct gold-standard tradition, dictates
the continued purchase of gold from
countries whose political and trade
methods we oppose.
If Germany defeats England, contin
uance of our present gold policy is bound
to help the totalitarian powers very
materially. Only America seems to lack
understanding of the situation. Abroad
the "gold problem” is better appreciated.
British financial observers frankly ad
mit that “the value of the gigantic gold
stock of the United State depends upon
the defeat of Nazi Germany.” a recent
Canadian article on gold sagely concludes
as follows:
"Gold is a wasting asset with an obvi
ously dubious future and it would be
only common sense to cash in on the
maximum possible quantity at the top
of the market.
The German Viewpoint.
From Berlin an American newspaper
correspondent reports as the German
view that: * • The United States is
beginning to approach the day when
they will have lost all its partners in
the game of gold and will be alone
with all the world’s gold in its vaults,
making it valueless.”
The Treasury is now reported to be
studying ways of keeping war-booty gold
and silver out of the country. A bill to
effect that end (S. 3977) was introduced
by Senator Townsend, Republican, of
Delaware on May 14.
Drift in monetary matters is no longer
tolerable. A change in our gold buying
policy is long overdue.
Europe’s Octopus. |
* - ►
i !
—MUM———i
Japan Set for Final Thrust
Grab Feared After ‘China Incident* Is Liquidated
By Marquis W. Childs.
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, center, is shown inspecting a new tank for his remarkable Chinese Army.
The officer on his right is Gen. Chang Chih-chung, his aide de camp, hero of the battle of Shanghai in 1932.
—A. P. Photo.
LITERALLY in every corner of the
world the present upheaval is mak
ing itself felt, altering the structure of
states and changing the pattern of lives
both great and small. This military and
political earthquake has rocked not only
Paris, London, Washington, but Singa
pore, Tokio and Chungking—the sta
bility of the East as well as the West.
For three years the Chinese nationalist
government under Gen. Chiang Kai-shek
has held out against Japan. That has
been one of the strangest paradoxes or
our time—that a so-called backward
country could so long resist one of the
great industrial and military powers.
While at the same time France, consid
ered to have the most formidable army
in the world, collapsed in 18 days.
But now with Britain and France pow
erless to defend their stake in the East
and the United States compelled to meet
grave problems in the Atlantic, Japan
proposes to liquidate as quickly as pos
sible the “China incident.*’ This is to be
done first of all by a process of strangu
lation. China’s difficult and hazardous
access to the outside world is to be closed.
That is the real meaning of Japan's
action against Hong Kong and other
British possessions in the East. The im
mediate Japanese demands call for ces
sation of all shipments to Chiang Kai
shek’s government through British
owned Burma and French Indo-China.
France has already ordered her Ambas
sador in Tokio to accede to this demand,
having no other alternative. The British
have balked and that is why Hong Kong
is now menaced.
Once the China Incident” is liqui
dated, the ambition of the Japanese will
have no limit. Indo-China, the Dutch
East Indies, Singapore, perhaps even
Australia and New Zealand, perhaps the
Philippines, seem to be ready for the
taking. The only deterrent is the United
State fleet, which in recent months has
been based at Hawaii supposedly to pre
vent the Japanese grab.
It appeared to be a major reversal of
policy when two weeks ago a large part
of the fleet was reported steaming for the
Atlantic via the Panama Canal. This
was widely interpreted as meaning that
the government had abandoned the Pa
cific in light of the threat to British rule
in the Atlantic. Then just as suddenly
the fleet moved back to Pearl Harbor and
Admiral Joseph Richardson, commander
in-chief, issued an indignant denial that
the movement of any considerable num
ber of the vessels of his command was
contemplated.
Elaborate Chess Game.
This is. of course, an elaborate chess
'game across the broad waters of the
great ocean. To announce the moves in
advance would be a severe handicap.
Both the Navy and the State Depart
ment are keeping mum as to what the
next shift of the fleet may be. They are
considerably annoyed at speculation by
editorial writers and columnists on fu
ture American policy in the East, insist
ing that all such speculation is made use
of immediately by Japan.
In this chess game across 5,000 miles
of ocean the United States stands to lose
comparatively little. At any rate, im
mediate losses would be comparatively
small since the trade with China has
already virtually disappeared. But the
Chinese are threatened with complete
domination by Japan and the destruc
tion of the last stronghold of their na
tionalist government. Even in a time so
full of shocks and surprises this threat
disturbs many Americans who have fol
lowed with sympathy and admiration
the three-year struggle of Chiang Kai
shek’s government.
What are the chances for survival now
that the Japanese are seemingly free of
all Western restraint? The Chinese,
Colombia Gains 50 Pet.
Population in 20 Years
The Census Bureau of Colombia has
recently published the results of the civil
census taken on July 5, 1938, the first
complete one to be taken since 1918.
During those 20 years the population
has increased by 2,846,816, or almost 50
per cent, rising from 5,855,000 to 8,701,
816. Colombia is still predominantly
rural 6.008,991 inhabitants being classi
fied as country dwellers, against 2,692,825
city dwellers.
The capital, Bogota, is the largest city
in the republic, with 330,312 inhabitants.
It has more than doubled in size since
1918, when its population was 143,994.
Colombia has six cities of more than 75,
000 inhabitants; the other five are Me
dellin, 168,266 ( 79,146 in 1918); Barran
quilla, 152,348 (64,543 in 1918); Cali, 101,
883 ( 45,525 in 1918); Manizales, 86,027
(43,201 in 1918); and Cartagena, 84,937
(51,302 in 1918).
Unofficial figures released to the press
stated that the Indian population of the
republic was 106,807, divided among 398
tribes.
A
it is obvious, must from now on depend
almost entirely for military supplies on
Soviet Russia. Government sources
here indicate that during the past three
years more essential materials have
come from Russia than from any other
source. And the Soviets have, of course,
a real self-interest in assuring continu
ance of resistance to Japan. If the Jap
anese conquest should be completed,
Russia would have an aggressive and
powerful nation on her immediate bor
der. It is particularly important for
the Soviets to prevent this at a time
when German might is all-powerful in
Europe.
But certain practical considerations
enter in here. Russian military supplies
—up to $150,000,000, according to sources
here—have reached Gen. Chiang by two
different routes. One, and perhaps the*
least important, has been the difficult
and hazardous land route which branches
off from an extension of the Trans
Siberian Railroad. The highway from
the railhead passes through desert
country and is frequently all but im
passable.
Mostly Sea Traffic.
The bulk of Russian aid since 1937
has not gone over this long and dubious
route, but by sea to Rangoon, thence by
rail to Laichow and from there through
Burma by truck to Kinming and Chung
king, the latter a distance of nearly
1,500 miles. If the British were to yield
to Japanese demands, this route for
Russian aid would be closed, and all
help, perforce would go over the land
route.
Whatever the Immediate future of the
present Chinese government, the build
ing of the Burma road will go down in
history as one of mankind's great
achievements. It was constructed under
the grave emergency of war without the
aid of any modern road-building ma
chinery—over difficult mountain terrain
and through disease-ridden swamps.
Peasants carried the stone on their backs
and crushed it with hand tools. And
all this was done in less than two years.
No one who has traveled over the
Burma road to the capital, Chungking,
but has been deeply impressed by what
this undertaking meant in human toil,
suffering and patience. When Ambas
sador Nelson T. Johnson was in Wash
ington on leave a year ago he showed
motion pictures of the Burma road. Mr.
Johnson, who had come out over this
highway built by hand, spoke of it as a
“miracle.”
Almost as extraordinary is the supply
service maintained over the Burma road
by young Chinese truck drivers who daily
risk their lives as calmly as any soldier.
They drive mostly at night, hiding from
Japanese "bombers by day under the
great camphor trees that line the moun
tainous sections of the highway. The
danger from slides and washouts is al
most as great as that from bombing and
machine-gunning planes. Passing from
malarial heat to bitter cold high above
the clouds, existing on the scantiest and
simplest food, a driver must be tough
to survive the Burma road.
Superhuman Efforts.
Another heroic chapter in China's re
cent history is the moving and re as
sembling of a substantial industry. Ma
chinery was transported, for the most
part, on barges up the Yangtze River
over falls and rapids inland as th€ gov
ernment fled before invading Japanese
armies. Here again a superhuman effort
was required to reassemble industries in
remote provinces where machinery was
virtually unknown. These reassembled
factories are being operated on a co
operative basis, a conspicuous example
of the extension of democratic controls
in wartime in marked contrast to the
practice in western nations.
How nearly this pick-a-back industry
can supply Chiang s army with muni
tions no one can say. Certainly it can
not produce planes or artillery or tanks.
And it is highly doubtful if it can sup
ply ammunition for the million or more
men Gen. Chiang has in the field. The
serious deficiency is gasoline. From the
beginning, China has had to depend en
tirely on outside sources of supply for
this bulky material. With the roads
from the sea shut off the problem of
gasoline will be the most acute that the
Chungking regime must face.
Another factor is morale. For three
years Chinese leaders have held a gov
ernment and an army together. It is
true, of course, that because of the low
standard of living the Chinese can exist
at levels that would mean the extinction
of any western people. Nevertheless, the
effort to sustain the cause has been of
necessity never ceasing. And there have
been appeasers among the Chinese, in
fluential men who have argued that the
thing to do was to make the best pos
sible terms with Japan. These voices
will be raised more emphatically in view
of the present threat.
But also there Is the question of
Japanese morale. When the war began
three years ago the Japanese public
was assured by the army that it would
be over in three months. As armies
equipped with all the costly mechanical
weapons of modern warfare have pushed
deeper into the vastness of China, the
drain on Japan has been more and more
obvious. Rising prices, serious inflation
scarcely concealed by official juggling of
figures, a gold reserve dwindling to noth
ing, all this has meant that every man,
woman and child in the island empire
has suffered.
And in this respect the contrast with
China is interesting. While from 50 to
60 million Chinese have felt the cruel
force of war, the other 350,000,000 have
been untouched. A sprawling, loosely
knit people, with no strongly centralized
government or financial system, the bulk
of the Chinese people have gone about
thetr business little disturbed by the war.
Then there is the problem the Jap
anese face in policing this great Asiatic
expanse. They have succeeded every
where in creating deep and lasting
hatreds. Conspicuously poor administra
tors, except over slave populations as
in Formosa and Manchoukuo, the Jap
anese have succeeded chiefly in stirring
Chinese patriotism. It has been more
and more difficult for the Japs to find
Chinese of sufficient importance and
docility to head the puppet governments
they have sought to establish. The lat
est, Wang Ching-wei, is a shadowy fig
ure whose regime at Peking is wholly
dependent on Japanese machine guns
and planes.
Guerrillas Harry Japanese.
Besides the regular army in the field,
there are perhaps a million guerrillas
engaged in making the Japanese oc
cupation as painful as possible. The day
that a Japanese garrison leaves an out
post behind, the guerrillas move in. £11
this costs enormously. Another drain
on the Japanese economy has been the
huge graft taken by Japanese Army of
ficers who have come to regard the Chi
nese war as their own private and
highly profitable monopoly.
Finally, there is the part that the
United States has played in the Chinese
war. Repeatedly from the Government
and from private individuals have come
expressions of sympathy for the Chinese.
The mass of opinion has been strongly
opposed to Japan. But this has not
meant any very material aid for China.
The Roosevelt administration has bought
Chinese silver and made two or three
comparatively small loans. But at the
same time American industrialists were
supplying Japan with the sinews of war.
American exports to Japan for. 1937,
1938 and 1939 totalled $759,638,000, of
which $257,740,000 was in metals, includ
ing scrap iron, and $140,214,000 in pe
troleum products.
From time to time there was active
and widespread agitation to embargo
the shipment of war materials essential
to prosecution of the war. Those in the
State Department who took a “realistic”
line were convinced that an embargo
would bring retaliation from Japan,
either directed openly against the United
States, perhaps in the Philippines, or
aimed at the Dutch East Indies or Indo
china. Now it is considered too late to
close the door, particularly since the
Japanese have accumulated substantial
reserves of scrap and other materials.
Those in the best position to guess sugr
gest that the Japanese war may end not
in any single dramatic event, but by the
grachial liquidation of hostilities with
possibly a final face-saving settlement
for Chiang Kai-shek. They do not, how
ever, rule out the possibility that Japan
may finally overreach herself. For exam
ple, if resistance, however feeble, were en
countered in Indo-China, more money,
more resources would have to go into an
enlarged theater of war. And Japan'*
economic system is now straining at the
seams. •
Paraguay and Bolivia
Cultural Links Sponsored
Under the auspices of the minister of
public instruction, the Institute Para
guayo-Boliviano was recently established
in Asuncion, Paraguay. At the initial
meeting a governing board was elected,
of which the minister of foreign affairs
and the minister of justice, worship and
public instruction of Paraguay were
named honorary presidents.
The primary objectives of the insti
tute were set forth as follows: (1) To
work for friendship and rapprochement
between the two countries; (2) to pro
mote the cultural and intellectual union
of the two countries; (3) to encourage
interchange of university students and
professors; (4) to further a knowledge
of Bolivian letters in Paraguay and Para
guayan letters in Bolivia, and (5) to
maintain a close contact between Para
guayan and Bolivian universities.
f 'l
a 4
Stimson’s Prophecy Fulfilled,
U. S. Now Arms to the Teeth
World Might Have Been Spared Present Wars Had
the Geneva 1932 Conference Heeded
Advice to ‘Stop Japan’
By Constantine Brown.
Eight years ago last April, Henry L.
Stimson, then Secretary of State in
Hoover’s cabinet, went to Geneva, offi
cially to help the moribund limitation of
arms conference. In fact, Mr. stimson
had little hope that arms could be
limited. He got up from a sick bed to
make the last plea to the British and
the French not to belittle the issue of
Japan’s invasion of China. Had they
listened to Mr. Stimson's arguments,
Europe might not have suffered its
present hardships and the United States
might not have found it necessary to
become an armed camp. An armed
camp this country is going to be before
the summer is over.
Ramsay MacDonald, then Premier of
Britain, and Andre Tardieu, Premier of
France, received Mr. Stimson with de
monstrative politeness. Mr. Stimson had
learned by that time to read between
the lines of diplomatic effusion.
“Gentlemen,” he pleaded, “it is not
the piffling economic interests of certain
American citizens and institutions which
worry me. I would not turn a hair on
their account. But I want you to look
into the future and realize that if one
nation is permitted to break solemn en
gagements and pacts with impunity, in
less than a decade you will have all the
other nations taking the law into their
own hands, and a period of interna
tional brigandage will follow. Think of
the Germans and Italians in relation to
Europe and Africa before you dismiss
the Asiatic problem so lightly.”
Tardieu Wag Silent.
But M. Tardieu, who had developed
a diplomatic laryngitis, could not talk,
and Ramsay MacDonald was too con
vinced of "peace in our time,” which had
brought and kept the labor party in
power, to be induced to side with Mr.
Stimson actively.
Furthermore. Mr. MacDonald was
never a strong*Premier. On major issues
the first labor leader to be Britain's
Prime Minister was unwittingly a tool
in the hands of the city. Mr. Stimson’s*
warning that they might soon see Indo
china and India endangered was re
ceived with a skeptical smile by the
leaders of the foremost "democracies,”
as were later reports of the efficiency of
the German military machine.
Today the French Empire has dis
appeared. The military earthquake
which shook France for 15 days engulfed
an empire over 100 years in the making.
The British Empire may continue to
exist in the Western Hemisphere, but
England, unless some miracle can hap
pen, may go under. Her powerful navy
might be able to put up a hectic fight;
her newly organized aviation might
bring down enemy planes at the rate
of three or even four to one. But she
cannot withstand a concerted onslaught
of the totalitarians in Europe, in the
almost unanimous opinion of well
informed experts in Washington who
heretofore have been uncannily correct
in their estimates of the situation in
Europe.
Air Fleet Is Outnumbered.
The German-Italian air force outnum
bers the British by at least four to one.
To the hundred or more divisions which
Britain may have today in the Isles the
totalitarians oppose no less than 300.
Some 250 submarines which form the
Italian-German underseas fleet can
wreak havoc with the British home fleet.
The Italian-German line fleet cannot be
disregarded either, now that the British
Navy is without effective French support.
The units which the French have not sur
rendered and which are still with the
British fleet are reported to be in bad
shape. The morale of the men Is shot
to pieces, and the maximum that can
be expected from them is patrol or con
voy duty—provided they are accom
panied by British men-of-war.
Under these conditions it would take
a nation of supermen to combat suc
cessfully the attack which Hitler and
Mussolini have planned for the month
of July. The French Channel ports and
the Jersey and Guernsey Islands are of
paramount importance for the operations
to be conducted by the Reich against the
British homeland.
World Picture Changed.
Washington is looking at the situation
realistically now. The whole world pic
ture has changed radically in less than
three months. When the war broke out
in September the world was still con
trolled by seven major powers: Great
Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the
U. S. S. R„ Japan and the United States.
One of these has now been eliminated.
Another, Great Britain, is by way of fol
lowing the fate of her former ally.
Italy is a power in relation to Germany
only. Any attempt on the part of Musso
lini to follow an independent policy
would be punished immediately by Ber
lin. Russia is a world force only because
of her nuisance value and her immensity.
Thus today shows only three major
powers: Germany, Japan and the United
States.
While there is a strong link—perhaps
temporary because their long-range in
terests are far from identical—between
Germany and Japan, there is an im
mense difference between our country
and the two other world powers. The
United States today is a thorn in the
flesh of the totalltarians. It is determined
to stick to the democratic formula of
government and to the ngw old-fash
ioned theories of international trade and
relationships.
The natural riches and the gold we
have in this country are not coveted by
Germany or Japan. But so long as this
country remains what it is—the unswerv
ing enemy of governments based on sup
pressions of Individual freedom and con
quests by military power—there is but
scant possibility of an agreement be
tween the three remaining world-powers.
Faces Potential Danger.
Any quixotic idea of sending active
military help to the fighting European
democracies has. by necessity, been
abandoned in Washington, for the good
reason that they cannot be helped now.
But because this country is facing a
potential danger on two fronts, the re
armament program will be hastened no
matter what platforms for peace may
be adopted by the Republican and Dem
ocratic candidates.
The opinion of the specialists who be
long to neither political party is that
America must henceforth arm to the
teeth; that every cent which can be
squeezed out of the taxpayers or bor
rowed from the same source must be
spent on armament. And—what is still
more worrisome—a clash with the powers
in the East and in the West must in
evitably follow.
A surrender, of course, is possible. By
surrender is meant the acceptance of
proposals from Berlin and Tokio eventu
ally restricting our sphere of economic
activities and the dovetailing of our
policies with those of the totalitarians.
Every piece of reliable information that
reaches Washington from Tokio and
; Berlin has the same leitmotif: The
arrogance of the United States must be
curbed. Her influence in world affairs
must be restricted unless she accepts the
totalitarian political philosophy.
This is the reason why impartial ob
servers in Washington predict that the
United States will before long become
one huge arsenal supplemented by im
mense armed camps.
Fairbanks Expects Boom
From New Army Air Base
With plans under way to begin
work on a United States Army air
base near Fairbanks. Alaska, a new kind
of boom is in prospect for this former
gold-mining camp of Uncle Sam's Far
i Northwest, says the National Geo
graphic Society.
“ 'The Golden Heart of Alaska.’ Fair
banks is set almost exactly in the geo
graphic center of the Territory. Al
ready it is reached by railway, motor
road and air service!! the society states.
"More than 30 planes come and go
at the local airport of this little towm,
whose population is estimated to be
little more than 4.000. One of the more
dramatic activities of the pilots is to
deliver by parachute supplies of bread,
bacon and beans, mail and medicines to
gold miners working in the vicinity.
"Fairbanks was bom of gold fever in
1902, when an old prospector named
Pedro struck it rich along the creek
; which now bears his name. Today
Fairbanks is still a growing town, no
longer entirely dependent on its major
industry of gold mining. As the me
tropolis for a vast hinterland it is an
important trading center, as well as
headquarters for a rising lumber busi
ness, and something of a mecca for
summer tourists. Telephones, Tele
graph, electricity and radio, together
with a hospital, chamber of commerce,
schools, churches and clubs, indicate
an active civic life that belies its size.
It is expected that the new Army air
base will add some 2,500 people to the
city's census figures and make air
minded Fairbanks a center for nearly
2,000 more planes."
Ixs&l
Mad* in Japan.
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