An Ambitious World Policy The United States Senate is rather
strong in indivi- dualists, and not too much importance must be attached outside America to the comprehensive resolution on foreign affairs introduced by Senator Tydings on Tuesday. What the Senator from Maryland proposed was the assembly of an international conference at Washington to discuss international debts, reduction of armaments, currency stabilization and the revival of world trade. That is an heroic, though not inherently an impracticable, programme. Debts, currency and trade all in some measure hang together, and for the United States in particular disarmament is almost inseparably associated with debts, for the average American is utterly hostile to any idea of debt remission while the armaments expenditure of debtor countries is rising yearly. But Europe has its own affairs to settle first, and their settlement would greatly facilitate agreements with the United States. The Tydings resolution contains a useful saving provision, for it requests the President, " if not incompatible with the public interest, to advise such Governments as he may deem appropriate . . ." The adoption of the resolution might therefore have the useful effect of empowering Mr. Roosevelt to take action if and when he sees fit, without at all forcing his hands.
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