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President Roosevelt also had an excellent political reason for playing down Debts: he wants to keep his control over Congress. Such a controversial issue, if opened to diplomatic discussion now, would split party unity at the Capitol and jeopardize the President's domestic program. Certain is the fact, though, that he must go to Congress for authority to do something about Debts before June 15 when the next payments are due. The Congressional string on executive action, tied to the Hoover moratorium in 1931, still stands. It is generally believed that President Roosevelt will be given a free hand by Congress before it goes out of session, and that thereafter he will suspend the June 15 payments to keep the Debts from derailing the World Economic Conference.
Stability Begins at Home. The nation with the biggest advantage at the London conference will be the one whose internal affairs are in the best order. To that end President Roosevelt has been devoting his first month in the White House. He moved to balance the Budget and thus improve domestic economy by reducing veterans' pensions and Federal salaries, and by legalizing beer to raise new revenue. He brought most of the nation's banks through a paralyzing crisis. Last week he issued an order recalling by May 1 an estimated $1,000,000,000 of gold coin bullion and certificates still in hoarding, under severe penalties, as a means of giving the Government undisputed control over its gold reserve. He despatched Ambassador-at-Large Davis to Europe to pave the way in London, Paris and Berlin for a resumption of the Geneva disarmament conference April 25. Through Secretary Hull, he started Congressional action to prevent the publication of official U. S. secrets which would otherwise have caused an uproar in Japan.* He put experts to work on a new law authorizing him to attack the Republican tariff wall by means of reciprocity agreements with other nations. He tackled unemployment by means of his Civilian Conservation Corps working in the woods (see p. 12). He had reason to expect that within another two months he would have the U. S. sufficiently shipshape at home to justify his stepping into the world field.
The World: 34% Off. The problem he. Secretary Hull and the London conference were up against was how to revive world trade and thereby increase world prices. The attack was against the economic nationalism bound up in slogans like "Buy British" and "Buy American." Last week the Department of Commerce announced that the world's imports and exports in 1932 slumped to $26,160,000,000 from 1929's $68,290,000,000, 1930's $54.921,000.000, 1931's $39,597,000,000. This was a drop of 34% in value, 26% in volume in twelve months.
The present crisis in only slightly milder terms stared the London conference agenda commission in the face last January and the delegates from eight countries did not blink it when they issued their report. They found 30 million jobless throughout the civilized world. Wholesale prices had fallen one-third, raw commodity prices one-half since 1929. World bankruptcy loomed.
The London Conference Agenda includes the following:
Monetary and Credit Policy.
Prices.
Resumption of the Movement of Capital.
Restrictions on International Trade.
Tariff & Treaty Policy.