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Tariffs Flayed. That there is one subject on which Statesmen MacDonald and Hoover can never see eye to eye was evident when the Socialist flatly denied every U. S. Republican tariff dogma. "Tariff barriers between producer and consumer are certainly not justified by the experience of the World!" he proclaimed. Then, presumably referring to European states, he said: "Under tariffs we have poverty, under tariffs we have low wages, under tariffs we have unemployment, under tariffs we have class conflicts just as much as we have under a sort of disorganized free trade. And in addition to that, out of economic differences, political differences soon begin to appear.
"The British Government will heartily cooperate in every attempt to translate political agreements into economic agreements that make for economic freedom. . . . This Assembly must face the problem of tariffs!"
United States of Europe. Scarcely had Socialist MacDonald made his amazing declaration of policies than he was obliged to rush back to England to preside at the Schneider Cup Races (see p. 61). After his departure the Assembly—still groggy from the impact of so much candor—concentrated on the tariff problem, heard Prime Minister Aristide Briand of France expound his famed concept of a "United States of Europe" which would sweep away tariff barriers among the Continental States. Usually M. Briand is as sonorous as Mr. MacDonald had been. But he knows the value of contrast. Therefore he spoke in precise, level tones, yet moved his audience to bursts of applause.
"I do think," said M. Briand earnestly, "that where you have a group of peoples grouped together geographically, as in Europe, there ought to exist some sort of federal link among them.
"It is that connecting link which I desire to establish, and obviously the most important component of that con- necting link would be an economic agreement, and I believe that in the economic sphere an agreement can be reached.
"But also there should be a political and a social link which, of course, would in no way affect the sovereignty of the parties involved. I shall, therefore, take this opportunity of asking the various representatives of the European States at this Assembly whether they will not unofficially consider and study this question in order that later, perhaps at the next Assembly, we may be in a position possibly to translate it into reality."
Strongly supporting the Briand thesis Germany's Peace Prize winning Foreign