Show sentimental A AMERICA we have had a great deal of sentimental ti internationalism in the country during the past ten years and it has been based on little more than theory at best for a time we were advised that we must cancel the european debts and lower our tariff and if we did not do so we would choke choice the last breath from the panting figure of prostrate europe we did scale down our debts in some instances to the point where they represented presented little more than what was due for money and credit advanced after the signing of the armistice but we ve were told that even this would not be enough for a time the debt cancellation talk subsided but we hear now and then a slight revival val in the su that the matter ought to be taken up and the debts readjusted of course nobody in america wants to see europe perish especially we do not want uncle sam to be the cause of the old worlds demise and the fact of the matter is that europe is not nearly so bad off and we are not nearly so eo much better off in comparison as a lot of internationalist tion alist propagandists would have us believe writing in the worlds work henry kitteridge norton declares that not only is europe not prostrate but she is better off than she was waa before the world war of course she might have been better off to a greater degree had the war never happened but the fact remains according to the figures that since 1913 europe has gained six per cent in population nine per cent in production and eight per cent in trade the figures quoted by mr norton are arc taken from the report of the world economic conference in geneva in 1927 which are generally admitted even by the internationalists to be correct france the one nation for which the debt worked the hardest declaring that unless we forgave the debt the french republic could not survive or would at best have to struggle under terrible economic burdens for generations i france according to mr norton is busy and prosperous and has to recruit each year many workers from belgium italy and poland to man her factories the supply of french workers is not great enough to the demand secretary of commerce lamont recently made the statement that we are not the great creditor nation that we are generally supposed to be great britain still surpasses on that score in spite of all the advertising about uncle sams CaPt captured all the foreign markets and cornered the wealth of the world it is true that wo we sell each year moro more than we buy but this is partly offset by the enormous suns sums m of money which our tourists spend abroad and by the considerable sums sent bade back home to relatives by alien workers in america they are in the minority of course but the trouble is that the great majority of the people are so busy working to make america even a better and more prosperous country in which to live that they ordinarily neglect to take the measure of the sob sisters only when confronted by a real crisis does the real america spirit finally assert itself |