News of the Week T HE speech which Mr. Robert Bingham,
the American Ambassador, made at the Pilgrims' Dinner last Tuesday, is to be taken as something more than an expression of personal views. The nominee of President Roosevelt, arriving in this country charged with messages from his chief, has been able to add one more to the inportant and reassuring pronouncements of United States policy. Mr. Roosevelt and Mr-. Norman Davis have defined the American attitude towards an aggressor and have given assurances which remove the whole substance of the difficulty arising from the old problem of the Freedom of the Seas. Now Mr. Bingham has made a statement of specific value in regard to American tariff policy. He speaks of a" changed attitude on several subjects by the people of the United States," and amongst these a..change from the once prevailing view that the higher the tariff the higher the general level of prosperity in the United States. They are at last prepared, he Said, "through proper agreement, to lower tariff barriers so that international trade may begin to move again." This is a promising statement made on the eve of the Economic Conference, and serves to dot the "i's" in the words used by the President in his inaugural address : "We cannot merely take, but we must give as well."
