BEHIND OUR FENCES

In attacking the new trade agreement with Canada ex-President Hoover is once again showing his habitual narrowness and complete lack of imagination. As if determined to bring his attacks on the New Deal into the limelight at any price, the man from Palo Alto in a not altogether successful attempt at humor described the treaty as "the more abundant life--for Canadians."

Such an attitude is typical of the man who as President, while our foreign trade came crashing down to rock bottom, said that tariff walls cannot be made too high. It is also typical of the American superstition that a high standard of living depends upon a favorable balance of trade. Although it is almost a truism that American prosperity depends upon Europe's having enough gold stocks to keep her currencies somewhere near stability, the United States continues to believe in a mulish manner that this country must sell the world more and more and buy less and less. To point out that America is no longer a debtor nation, as she was before the War, has small effect upon men who would rather have gold taken out of their teeth than out of the treasury vaults.

Assistant Secretary of State Sayre in a recent speech called attention to the fact that in 1929 the United States imported more goods than ever before. The magic of the numbers 1929 in the American mind needs no emphasis, and perhaps this statistic can be made the "open Sesame" to a more sympathetic acceptance of the Canadian pact. As Mr. Hoover said, those affected by the new rates were not heard. They certainly will be now. Whether Mr. Roosevelt likes it or not, he will hear from them, and in loud tones, but it is hoped the government will ignore individual interests for the common good.

Whatever may be said about the New Deal, the efforts of President Roosevelt and Secretary Hull to increase the trade of the United States and to drag the country out from behind the fences she has raised, promise to be to the permanent credit of the administration. Mr. Hoover's quip about the "more abundant life" is an indication of the shallow thought behind his attack. The man who coined the phrase, "Prosperity is just around the corner," should look before he leaps on another man's catchword.