l
i " ,*128 The Nation [Vol. 134, No. 3474  
Federal Reserve areas. The bill does not abolish banking then could it have avoided the present confusion, the charges l
afliliates but proposes a searching examination of them and and counter-charges, and the wholesale misapprehension as ·;,
complete publicity concerning their transactions. In the to whether the State Department does or does not approve  
moderation of this measure the sponsors of -the bill were foreign loans which exists in the public mind. .
. doubtless guided by the fear that more drastic regulation [_
would cause large national banks to take out State charters. ERD SNOWDEN, who with Ramsay MacDonald and  
The bill seeks to control speculative loans; and, finally, sets   H. Thomas deserted the British Labor Party in the ,
P up inside the Federal Reserve system a corporation to hour of its greatest need, is beginning to wobble again. He 2
liquidate the assets of failed member banks and to make threatened to resign from the National Government because ‘· 
cash available for depositors as early as possible. of its insistence upon a general 10 per cent tariff on all manu- l_
factured goods, contending that the projected tariff sched- —, 
Y SHIFTING GENERAL DAWES to the Emergency ule is entirely unnecessary in view of the depreciation of the
B Reconstruction Corporation and appointing Secretary pound sterling. It is difficult ·to forgive Snowden his sins of  
~ Stimson to the head of the Commission to the Disarmament the immediate past, but it must be acknowledged that here he  
Conference, the President has improved the quality of the stands on firm ground. A permanent tariff would .in any case  Y
commission. In saying this we are well aware of Mr. Stim- prove costly to Great Britain-—to say nothing of its disastrous ‘_ 
n son’s great unpopularity with the American newspapermen effects upon international trade. But the depreciation of the S. 
, and of his ineptness in handing out news. No one could pound and other circumstances have made such a tariff doubly F 
i have done worse in this respect than he did at London. None unnecessary. Were the MacDonald Cabinet’s plan for a Q
L the less, Mr. Stimson is most eager, as his utterances have` blanket schedule to be carried through, it would mean, as  ‘
steadily shown, to obtain a real measure of disarmament, and Snowden emphasizes, that Great Britain had unashamedly " 
l more than that, his rank puts the American delegation on embraced protectionism, the most dangerous form of that eco-  
‘  the same footing as those of other countries so far as that is nomic nationalism which has brought world economy and  
possible for us. There had been genuine resentment abroad world trade to their present low estate. In spite of his Hat  
° at the President's failure to put anyone on the commission of disagreement with the majority of the Cabinet, including the  
higher rank than an ambassador. These last—hour shifts and Prime Minister, however, Lord Snowden will not resign.  I
appointments have, however, injured the solidarity of the Rather than spoil the fiction of national un·ity, Mr. Mac-  
~ commission and very much delayed its getting together on a Donald will endure the almost unprecedented spectacle of a  l
Q definite program. Meanwhile, the President’s hasty appoint- Cabinet split on a major issue. ;§
‘ ment of General Dawes to the Reconstruction Finance f
l Corporation in advance of the passage of the bill -by Con- JAPAN WILL NEVER be held in check by mere words, · `
gress has been another blunder, for the law distinctly by public remonstrances from Geneva alone. This the  ‘
` states that the directors of the corporation are to choose their League of Nations and the American State Department  `S
` own officers. As both of these men are Republicans, this has ought to know. The latest proof of the contempt in which ·< 
given the Democratic minority a chance to charge that the the Japanese hold the insincere peace gestures from Europe Q 
President is playing politics with the corporation. What a and Washington is revealed in their activities at Shanghai. .
pity it is that the President has not a wider range of ap- The Chinese have only one weapon with which to oppose
pointees to choose from! With him it is always Dawes, Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and that is their boycott  A
Fletcher, or Gibson; or Gibson, Fletcher, or Dawes; of Japanese goods. The Chinese have used this weapon with L 
or Fletcher, Dawes, or Gibson, with Meyer thrown in every telling effect; Japan’s trade with China, and therefore the _ 
now and then for good measure. well-being of her people, has been seriously impaired. Japan I
now means to break the boycott with military force. She 2
= OUR CONSTANT WISH that The Nation might have has sent 1,400 marines and several warships to Shanghai  T
the means to establish its own Washington Bureau with with the avowed determination to reduce `the Chinese to  ,
  observers to report each week on what is actually happening utter helplessness. She even threatens to close Shanghai
J in Washington is intensified by the fact that in our leader harbor to Chinese vessels! Tokio does not appear to be ‘
 f on foreign loans in the issue of January 20 we were the vic- bothered for a moment by the international complications  if
, tims once more of inaccurate or inadequate Washington re- that might be encoun·tered in carrying out this plan. Several °, ii
i porting in the dailies, and therefore did the State Depart- Powers have troops stationed at Shanghai, and they have  _
_ ment something of an injustice. We would, of course, not treaty rights there no less sacred than those Japan claims in J
I have said that the State Department approved an extension Manchuria, The representatives of these Powers will need  
, of a short—term credit loan to Colombia of $20,000,000 had the utmost tact to prevent a clash with the Japanese invad-  
we known that it was not correct, as reported, that the State ers. But far more serious is the fact of the Japanese `
Department passed upon this matter. We also learn that invasion itself. Japan may, by juggling diplomatic phrases, » _
the State Department did not ignore the protest of the Com- be able to justify in international law her aggression in  i
I rnerce Department with regard to the Bolivian loan of $23,- Manchuria, but she can never justify the hostile stand she  
l 000,000. While we greatly regret having been thus misled has taken at Shanghai.  
' into an unwarranted comment, we do not believe that we have  
done any substantial injustice to the State Department. It HE NEW stand-still agreement between German banks ·
should never have had anything whatever to do with foreign T and industry and Germany’s private short-term credi-  
V loans, should have refused to state whether it had or had not tors is probably as good a solution as could have been reached "
_ objections to them and have kept its hands off entirely. Only under the circumstances. The agreement, to be effective for  
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