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Show l I Economic t Highlights imlii-di-ml News Review. Happenings that Affect the Dinner Tails, Dividend Checks and Tax Hills of Every Individual. National Nation-al and International Problems In-seoaratdo In-seoaratdo from Local Welfare. oOo A few months ago most experts were inclined to be dubious as to the success of the cause of disarmament this year. Now it looks as if the arms " conference is to be even more of a dismal failure than the most pessimistic pessi-mistic feared. There are two very I, large flys in the disarmament oint ment. One is Germany, which is increasing in-creasing its military budget, is arm- ing rapidly, and is cleverly abrogating abrogat-ing the arms provisions of the Ver-sailles Ver-sailles treaty. So long as 'Germany 'fc follows this course, France refuses to disarm wi.l, in fact, build up its de- j fense forces accordingly. Both Ger-many Ger-many and France blame each other , for wrecking the conference. .The I other fly is Japan, which has all thej major powers worried. Events of last I i i year culminating in the withdrawal V of Nippon from the League of Na- V tions have proven that Japan doesn't just talk, she acts. And she isn't in j 'J any mocd to arbitrate. The upshot of v all this is that a world which hasn't been able to recover from the deleter-' ious effects of the last war is again nearer war than at any time since, the spring of 1914. Unless there is a j definite change of policy, every great power will follow a course of intense nationalism, as Germany, under Nazi Frule, is doing now. Foreign trade will languish. Sky-high tariff walls, even complete embargoes, will be created. An armament race will begin and if that happens, taxpayers of all coun- 1 tries will find out. what heavy taxation taxa-tion really is. Nothing in the world is so expensive. The last war, for example, cost the world close to $400,000,000,000, according to the Carnegie foundation, and future gen- erations will pay for it. Oddly enough, I the best hope for peace and disarma-' disarma-' S ment is the depression! Most coun-.'- tries are pretty close to bejrig broke. fl:. Their citizens are complaining loudly about taxation. There's not an econo-. econo-. mist of standing who doesn't believe " 1 that another war would lead to na-y na-y tionah bankruptcies, revolutions that i it would set civilization back a hun- dred years. And a good many look- ers-on are of the opinion that memor-Jyrji memor-Jyrji ies of the last war are still strong in the minds of the common people, who bore the brunt of the struggle, even rill, if they have been forgotten by pre-miers pre-miers and chancelleries and high com- 5, mands. Most interesting international v events are now centering in the far , east. Japan's statement of policy ij'la which was-polite'y phrased, but said ; in effect, "We'll run China and every- -i thing else around here; you white boys better keep your hands off or M else!" startled the world. And Eng- r land's announcement that it would IL. te necessary to protect her textile in- iHH dustry from Japanese competition WM has caused both powers to prepare f for an Intensive trade war which will Hp be fought with tariffs now and per- haps eventually with navies. It's a (i serious situation the fuse is laid, and only a match is needed to start , w . it going. One encouraging phase of it I Is the general belief that the U. S, iC t2jt! wi" let other countries do their own I fighting, will keep absolutely neutral, y (Continued on last page! f) ) |