Something in the Air
SOMETHING IN THE AIR T T BEGINS to seem apparent that Russian Com-¦¦ munism will be important to the United States for several reasons among which the little cenacles of class-conscious...
...Quite apart from the circumstance that Dr...
...SOMETHING IN THE AIR T T BEGINS to seem apparent that Russian Com-¦¦ munism will be important to the United States for several reasons among which the little cenacles of class-conscious brethren in the side streets are not to be reckoned...
...Cravath...
...Convinced as we are that all discussion of the Soviets hinges upon this question, it will be interesting, indeed, to find out why Messrs...
...It was above all an instrument of surveillance over the political and social activities of the Soviet regime, and an action having a positive effect upon the credit status of Moscow at the bar of world opinion...
...Ivy Lee contrived to have propagandists for Bolshevism and leaders of American industry shake hands on the same thing—political recognition of the Soviet Union by the United States...
...They are often the victims of poverty, unemployment and social discrimination...
...But why do the spokesmen for Moscow want that recognition...
...The whole performance was unworthy of Williamstown, unworthy of public opinion, unworthy of the United States...
...Thus a nation already heavily involved in the financial order of Europe and Latin America will add another to the list, thereby incidentally guaranteeing a species of tyranny which has been denounced from virtually every pulpit in Christendom...
...Paul Cravath, Colonel Hugh L. Cooper and that eminent representative of the press who actually denied the malice of Russian censorship on evidence which was itself censored...
...It seems to us that here is reason enough for insisting upon an honest, complete and impartial study of why the Russians seek recognition...
...Lee's idea...
...La Guardia was the only congressman on the program...
...To surrender it now would imply that the instrument is no longer needed, and that the credit status of the Soviets is an affair of no importance...
...To abstain from polite diction momentarily, it was a frame-up...
...We have already said that the morality of trade with Russia is not a matter regarding which off-hand decisions can be made...
...The fact of ths matter is that, contrary to the normal Williamstown proceedings, this debate was staged and conducted from start to finish for a purpose...
...The menace lies elsewhere...
...And we suppose that everybody who read the accounts of the Institute proceedings which appeared in the press must have come to the same conclusion...
...Contrasting the tranquillity of this debate under Massachusetts auspices with the animus which colored several meetings of the Fish committee, the Nation naively remarks that the first "was marked by common sense and freedom from politics"—that whereas Representative Carl G. Bachman in Washington performed as "usually only blackguards" do, Williamstown had "a sane and reasonable discussion...
...Nor did it express, in the first instance, an opinion of Bolshevism...
...Paul Scheffer, banned from Russia by the Stalin government...
...Lee, Mr...
...With similar adroitness, tranquillity and sanity were then injected into newspaper reports of the meeting...
...At Williamstown Mr...
...The national policy of non-recognition was not adopted for commercial reasons...
...But if Washington will endorse Stalin and throw a mantle of respectability round the bloody hulk of his past and present, bankers of the United States may proceed to farm out money in sufficient quantity to render the U. S. S. R. a complete success...
...We shall pass over the contents of this beautiful tide of oratory, say nothing of the effective forays into otherwise pleasant round tables undertaken by Dr...
...We should merely like to point out here two plain, simple, monetary facts: First, the welfare of the banking institutions which arrange loans to such governments as the Russian does not depend upon whether these are ever really paid back...
...What it means, however, is that if our industry hopes to get more Russian business it must cease refusing to recognize Russian dictators on the street...
...It is the United States investor, not the United States financial merchant, who will suffer if the loans are not repaid...
...Christians may well see in each of these hungry, baffled, impatient souls an indictment of their own collective failure to heed counsel sacred from eternity...
...Second, there will be no investors unless Washington endorses the venture now officially blessed by Mr...
...Lee, Cravath, Cooper, Bognadov et alii, in lovely harmony assembled, dodged it entirely...
...Perhaps these things are really true...
...If circumstances have addled them the fault is scarcely their own...
...If the Moscow government purchases wares here and sends cargoes of pulp wood and manganese in part payment, the action seems entirely fair and above board...
...Does Moscow want recognition because the stability of its regime depends upon getting credit in quantity...
...One has as yet too much faith in the Tightness and potentialities of America to believe that these groups will grow into an army strong enough to endanger beneficent institutions developed and defended through thousands of civilized years...
...And of course there are other reasons in plenty...
...But we cannot find out whether they are by ruling out all evidence not commercial in character...
...Paul Cravath...
...But when eagerness to increase this trade leads individuals or groups to seek the aid of the government and to suggest that the United States accord political recognition to the Soviets, the picture changes entirely...
...It runs like this: not to accord full status to a government as firmly established as is Stalin's is to enshrine a social and financial anomaly...
...It can be traced to the genuinely sinister willingness of business to adopt, for temporary advantages, a program and a policy the ultimate effects of which may be disastrous...
...Scheffer is not yet in full command of the English language, it was quite impossible for him to hold up, in two brief addresses, a parasol sufficiently large to shield the audience from a downpour of propaganda emanating from assorted Russian speakers, Mr...
...But what produced this tranquillity and sanity...
...This query—which is undoubtedly the most important interrogation in the world today—was naturally left unanswered...
...The business of marketing wheat abroad which is badly needed at home, in order to supply the government with funds—or of any similar commercial maneuver—is necessarily dangerous and tentative...
...This one was a distinguished German newspaperman, Dr...
...Ivy Lee, whose activities in behalf of prominent American interests have long since made him a warm advocate of recognition for the Soviets, brought together a group of speakers only one of whom was not heartily in favor of Mr...
...Was it the famed Berkshire air or the circumstance that Mr...
...Scheffer, and confine ourselves to one point...
...For these a good defense can be made...
...The American argument was no secret and was most effectively phrased, we regret to see, by Mr...
...Now witness the discussion of the matter at the Williamstown Institute of Politics...
Vol. 12 • August 1930 • No. 17
