THROUGH AMERICAN EYES.
There are occasions when, there is real value in what is sometimes described as the general consensus of public opinion, but there is usually a danger when some problem arises apparently involving a clashing of national interests that democracy will be swayed by emotional and national feeling rather than by a carefully considered view of the situation. And when the con- troversy happens to centre around intricate matters of finance, there is all the greater danger of power exercised by a comparatively uninstructed democracy. We can see this easily enough when we are looking at the affairs of another nation. There would probably be a general agreement here that the United States by her rigid imposition of War Debts, accompanied by her deter- mination to prevent, through the medium of high tariffs, her debtors from paying in goods and services is not only acting unjustly but is displaying crass ignorance of the effect which this policy has produced not only upon the troubles of the world, but upon her own situa- tion. Yet this is not how the situation strikes the . average American who only realizes such potent facts as the depression in his country, the ever-increasing volume of unemployment, and the big Budget deficit, so that when the debtor nations which signed certain debt contracts some years ago seek at this juncture a postponement of payments, it seems to him almost in the nature of an affront and a kind of last straw. To persuade this average American at the present moment that his own troubles are largely due, first, to the unwise use made by his country of war prosperity, and, secondly, to the impediments placed by America to a recovery in world prosperity, is almost impossible.
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