As the greatest industrial country and with an overseas trade second erly to that of Great Britain, the paramount influence of America on the rest of the world can hardly be questioned. Every businessman must] be concerned to ask what this movement signifies. Is it a change of the, long-term trend, downwards; or no more than a secondary reaction of exceptional violence? "If the former, how much farther ig it likely to go? Whether oF not a confident answer can be found to these questions it is essential as a first step to consider the background of the whole movement and the nature of the circumstances Pr that are responsible for it.
While it is still true that the prosperity of every country Is bound up, in the Jong run, with that of the rest of the world and that no country can Jhope to achieve complete economic independence except at the cost of reversion to a primitive standard. of living, the ties are not so immediate and evident og they once were. Poliical exigencies and economic' stress. have led most governments to take novel and unorthodox measures for times of peace, beginning with Great Britain's "repudiation of the gold. standard in 1931, and these measures have, as usual, brought unexpected. and unwelcome consequences in their train. America has been the outstanding experimenter and hence the course of recovery there has been £0) different from that in Burope. Therein, perhaps, might be found an explanation of why American recovery stopped short ata relatively early. stage while in England industry is still in full swing; and therein, possibly, a clue to the future,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.