W

By JOHN R. ROBINSON

ITHIN one week of the announcement of the full text and scope of the Dawes Plan

its effect was felt.

I am an American salesman and foreign-trade survey man, selling a commodity in universal use in LatinAmerican countries. My selling is done entirely through local agents. I visit country after country, working with these agents, calling on the trade day after day, selling where possible and observing effects of foreign competition, then working out plans with our American offices and mills to meet this competition.

Like the majority of American mills, ours are designed to manufacture, at peak production, twenty per cent more than our American trade requires. This twenty per cent excess production, forming the safety-valve of organization, must be marketed abroad. We come into competition with practically every country in Europe on at least half of our grades.

At first thought, the Dawes Plan would seem fatal to us. Our biggest competitor in Latin America is Germany. This is equally true relative to more than half of the American merchants and manufacturers who count on handling twenty per cent of their production through foreign channels. The Dawes Plan, in brief, stabilizes German currency and manufacture, establishes a central bank of rediscount, issue, and reserve, and loans Germany, through this bank, $200,000,000, of which 110,000,000 is to come from America, with which to stabilize currency, purchase raw material, and get her factories into proper production line. It places the railroads under private instead of government control.

These factories, with lower labor costs, come into active competition with American factories. The money we loan Germany is used in rehabilitating these factories, stabilizing currency so that the factories can make proper financing arrangements, and sending the products of these factories over the seven seas to all parts of the world.

Since the announcement of the Dawes Plan I have covered the Republics of Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, and Cuba. These markets ordinarily should. be excellent grounds for the products of

the factories of the United States. Cuba, especially, because of the tariff preferential in favor of goods from the United States, has been looked upon as essentially our market.

But for the past three years in all of the above republics, with the exception of Panama, Germany has been making rapid strides at the expense of the United States. Even our preferential tariff did not save us in Cuba. France also has been coming back strongly in all four, but France's trade is in specialized articles in which she always has excelledwomen's wear, jewelry, tableware, perfume, wines, and kindred articles. Germany, with a broad field of manufacture, is the real competitor of the United States.

American salesmen will join in testifying that there is no such person as a firstclass German salesman. Before the World War Germany sold her goods through excellency of product, long banking terms, and low prices. Anybody can sell goods under these conditions. Since the war Germany has sold her goods only on low prices. That is the sole argument the German salesman ever offers. I still am not convinced, after five and one-half years of active contact and competition with German salesmen, that a single one of them would fit into a high-class American organization where we must sell on excellency of product, honest dealings, and first-class service.

Import statistics of the various LatinAmerican countries show rapid increases in German sales in these countries in the years 1921, 1922, 1923. In almost all cases they compare with decreases in American imports.

Germany's increase was due to the break in the German mark. Workmen were paid in depreciated currency; raw material was imported from abroad with credits established through the sales of these same worthless marks; the goods were carried abroad in German ships of the rapidly increasing German mercantile marine, and the officers and sailors were paid in the same worthless currency. The ships were coaled from German mines, owned by the steamship operators -the Stinnes and Horn interests. Even the food for the cfficers and crews of these boats was taken on in foreign ports and charged to credits established

through the sales of marks. The railroads in Germany, politically controlled, carried goods for almost nothing.

This made the lowest production and transportation cost in the history of foreign trade, and allowed the German salesman full swing in his theory that price alone is good salesmanship. These were the causes for Germany's rapid increase in export trade. Hamburg shipped out more tonnage than in the boom days before the World War.

Then came the Dawes Plan. Whether or not news of the text of the Dawes Plan was known in advance by German manufacturers, or whether they sensed the business knowledge of Dawes, Young, and Robinson, and knew that this knowledge would shatter Germany's false trade foundation, is not known. But two weeks before the announcement of the plan the last big cut in German prices was made, and the salesmen were instructed, at least in the territory I have visited in the past three months, to unload the great surplus stocks which apparently had piled up in every factory in Germany, as against the day when production costs would be higher. The German manufacturers evidently feared the seizure or price control of these stocks by the commission established by the Dawes Committee.

This lasted until the last of July. And now come the reaction and the practical results of the Dawes plan.

Along the entire line of German manufactures, and even along the line of those products which have been made in other countries but marketed through Hamburg jobbers and commission men, a sharp rise in prices was put into effect. German workmen, under the Dawes Plan, must be paid in currency which is being stabilized. All other production, raw material purchases, and transportation costs come under the same heading. Raw materials needed from abroad will be paid for out of credits established through legitimate banking and loan connections, instead of through the continued sale of worthless marks.

Germany is being put on a par, to a certain extent at least, with the rest of the world. Germany must get to a basis of good product, reasonable terms to buyers, and real service if she wants to exist in foreign trade. No field is being

closed to her, but she must honestly compete with the rest of the world, and work out her own salvation instead of crying for sympathy and charity.

The world's markets are big enough for all of us. There is sufficient demand abroad to take care of the German and British and Scandinavian products, as well as the products of the United States, Japan, and the rest of the world. American and British manufacturers can take care of themselves if world trade conditions, as applied to their competitors, are even. Real competition produces

T

real salesmanship, and real salesmanship will enlarge any market. Salesmen, hard put for trade, will work with their own customers, showing them new methods of re-marketing goods and creating demands where demand before did not exist.

The Dawes Plan can have no other effect than the stabilization of world trade and the consequent enlargement of world markets. Those editors and politicians in the United States who are opposing the Dawes Plan and the consequent loan by the American people of

$110,000,000 to Germany are traitors to American trade. They place their own opinion, formed from partisan theories, against that of the head of the greatest electrical company in the world and two bankers of vast domestic and international experience.

As a practical man in the field, allow me to tell them that we salesmen, who have to go out and fight competition in foreign lands, welcome the Dawes Plan, and already we have felt its beneficial effects in the orders we are able to send back to our own American factories.

WO points stand out of my survey of Wisconsin as peculiarly significant of the conditions and methods which have made that State a pocket borough for Senator La Follette. First, the Coolidge managers, who are straining every nerve to cut into the La Follette strength in the Senator's home State, though they have no hope of defeating him here, do not dare to use his war record against him. They believe that they would make him votes instead of hurting him.

The second illumination was along much the saine line. I was talking with a farmer-preacher of Puritan stock, a man of great ability and insight. "There are a lot of people of our breed here," he said. "There are really more of us than there are of any other kind. But La Follette has got hold of all the rest and organized them, and we're helpless. A good many of his people might be good Americans, too," he went on, rather bitterly. "It's partly our own fault-we were too slow in getting hold of them. Now La Follette won't let us."

It is extremely important just now to come as close as may be to a real understanding of what has happened in Wisconsin and why, for La Follette and his followers are trying to do to the rest of the country just what they have done. here. This is the big issue; Davis has practically vanished as a contender in the Presidential race, and there are many acute observers who predict that this is the last appearance of the "unterrified Democracy" on the National stage. The indications are increasing that the conflict between the ideals and purposes represented by Coolidge and his somewhat reformed Republican Party, on the one hand, and La Follette with his per

By STANLEY FROST

sonally conducted "progressivism," on the other, will be the storm center of our politics for years to come. It is essential to know just what La Follette's "progressivism" means, aside from oratory.

Most of the discussion so far has been abstract and theoretical, but it ought to be more than that. La Follette has been in active and almost absolute control of Wisconsin for over twenty years. He has had full scope to work out his theories; if he has failed, it has been because he did not want to do it. So this State to-day can give us a fairly clear picture of how La Folletteism works, what it will accomplish, and what its tendencies are.

"A Foreign State"

THE first thing to remember about

Wisconsin is that it is a State quite foreign to the American tradition and American experience and thought. This need hardly be argued. This is so, not so much because of the very large proportion of German and other Teutonic stock by which the State was settled, as because its people have definitely and carefully been held out of the meltingpot. Lutheran and parochial schools flourish and keep a large part of the children from any contact with the democracy of the public schools; there are whole communities where German is still the common language; there are homes of the third generation where the children have never heard a word of English. It is inevitable that with these conditions many thousands have not learned-could not learn-anything of the American point of view; far less share our instinctive purposes and beliefs. They are still almost as they were when their grandfathers arrived from the old country; an honest, rather pious,

tenacious, industrious people, mentally rebellious against outside domination but instinctively docile under authority, and without great personal independence or initiative.

These are the people whom La Follette has represented. There can be no doubt that he has represented them accurately and faithfully. Whether the results, according to American standards, be good or bad, whether they will help or hinder the development of American. thought and civilization, they have been, as a rule, about what the majority of the citizens wanted. Certainly, under our theory of government, they have a right to them. The question now is whether the country as a whole wishes to follow the same road and to get the same results.

Under La Follette's rule (the Governors and Legislatures that have come and gone have been merely parts of his administration) Wisconsin has been on the whole fairly well governed. In all the things which may be used as measures she stands neither at the top nor at the bottom of the list of States. There have been aid to the farmers, fair honesty, good roads, a State university recognized as one of the best, decent enforcement of all laws except the Volstead Act, and schools about on a level with most in the Middle West. Nothing bad; nothing remarkably good. It is notable that when La Follette's adherents are asked to list his achievements they seldom speak of these things, however. They speak, instead, of what has been done to "the interests." The railroads, the corporations, the grain dealers, the cattle brokers, are the things most in their minds, along with the fact that "the burden of taxation has been put on those

who can bear it best." Yet, in spite of all these "progressive" measures, rates and prices in Wisconsin have kept pace with the rest of the country. Whatever benefits have come to Wisconsin farmers ahead of those of other States must be reckoned in minute percentages. They are not visible to the naked eye.

In short, Wisconsin, with all the

zenship in Wisconsin calls for little more than law-abiding conduct. There are almost no civic responsibilities. The State attends to them. There is, in fact, a bureaucratic autocracy, differing from the old-time autocracies only in that its head is elected.

An Anti-Tax Campaign

lie along the lake on the Illinois side of the State 'line and the vacant land on the Wisconsin side seems to confirm the charge.

There also seems to me to have been another result of the bureaucratic system which it is impossible to prove with figures, but is of great importance. Wisconsin, more than any other State I

education, in prosperity, and in government generally, about on an average with her neighbor States. La Follette has brought no millennium; neither has he caused much wreckage.

It is when we turn to look at the government itself that we see the biggest difference. There has been a wide tendency toward an increase in bureaucracy, in government by commissions. Wisconsin has outdone all other States. It has a bureaucracy par excellence. It has sixty-two State boards or commissions, with from 2,600 to 2,700 employees, and

high cost in taxes. During the twenty-year period between 1900 and 1920 the increase in State expenditure was 432 per cent. This has been partly covered in the tax rates by an increase in assessment values of 235 per cent, but the fundamental fact is that the tax paid per person has actually increased in that twenty-year period by nearly 400 per cent, as against about 100 per cent for the country as a whole. Since 1920 there has been another 50 per cent (over the 1920 total) for the disbursements of the taxing units of the State, but I have

in public spirit. There is little of the hustling public improvement so common in most Middle Western States. There is little support for State fairs and similar institutions which usually draw enthusiastic crowds. There are few "public movements." There is a rather intangible feeling that the people are apathetic toward all community affairs. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Wisconsin seldom polls more than half its possible vote.

Against Big Business

ernor-who is usually controlled by La Follette. These commissions cover every conceivable thing, their power reaches down into the most minute details of local government in every respect, they overlap and conflict, they are autocratic in the extreme.

The value and efficiency of these swarming State bodies and employees are not called in question here. The fact is that they exist. Because of them the traditional American system of local selfgovernment and local responsibility has practically vanished; nothing remains but a shell and a name. "The State is all; and the State is La Follette. Good citi

distributed.

Wisconsin is certainly one of the most complexly taxed places on earth. In addition to the general property tax there are a State income tax which raises an average of nearly $5,000,000 a year, corporation taxes, inheritance taxes, occupation taxes, taxes on gross earnings for certain businesses, and the usual license-fee system. One result of all this, business men tell me, is that many manufacturing corporations have been driven out of the State. A dozen have been named. I cannot be sure what the reason is, but the difference between the clusters of manufacturing plants which

are summed up in this fact: that in the present campaign it is his opponents who are trying to focus attention on his record and the history of the State-his supporters are talking chiefly about the tyranny of big business and what La Follette will do to it. Incidentally, the men who are attacking the record are making little headway. The State as a whole seems satisfied with that record.

To get at the sources of La Follette's real strength, however, it is necessary to go outside his achievements as an administrator. They seem to satisfy Wisconsin, but they do not arouse it to enthusiasm. Yet La Follette is a religion

here; in a less civilized age he would have been well on his way toward being a demigod. And every one admits that there is hardly a chance of wresting the State from him.

terly. "Our Bob is the only honest man.

in the Senate," one farmer told me. When I asked about the Senators who follow La Follette's lead, he answered: "We'll trust 'em so long as they take his orders. But we won't trust 'em by them

First of all is his political machine —this same bureaucracy. The men in it are no idle ornaments. They are all workers; and practically all the appointments have been political. It may be merely coincidence that swarms of them appear each on his own businesswherever in the State there is incipient rebellion to be subdued or strength to be enlisted. They do appear. They are backed up by an elaborate network of local workers, on some sort of public payroll. Politicians on both sides say that there is at least one such in every school district in the State. This whole army is working for La Follette all the year round. It is an organization as effective as Tammany's. Like Tammany's, it is paid by the Government, but, unlike Tammany's, it is owned personally instead of by a group. Also it is better fortified than is Tammany against an occasional defeat at the polls, for most appointments to the machine are for six years.

This great State-subsidized, personally controlled machine not only makes it possible for La Follette to get out his vote, to jam primaries, and to perform. all the more or less accepted tricks of other political machines; it enables him to spread any desired propaganda promptly, to secure instant information of incipient revolts, and to have his representative in every gathering. It also preaches La Folletteism from dawn to dark, and fills the air with his praises. And it pays to advertise, even in politics. Another great strength is in the primary law. This was one of the first measures he put through, and has saved him many times. Its peculiar virtue is that in it any man may vote on whatever party ticket he elects. That is, a Democrat or Socialist may help select the Republican candidates. In the hands of a skillful man this gives tremendous power. One of La Follette's earliest successes was the practical disruption of the Democratic Party. He enlisted many of its members and many Socialists, and used them to "gang" the Republican primaries in the days when he did not yet control the party. Backed by his splendid machine, this is a mostly deadly

weapon.

Not that he needs it often these days. His magnetism, his charges against the interests, and his propagandists have established him beyond question with most of the people. He is trusted ut

It follows that any man who does not. take La Follette's orders is dishonest"a servant of the interests." Even a whisper from the La Follette workers brings political death-a fate which is about to fall on Lenroot if La Follette lives till the next election, in spite of the many years' service Lenroot has given "Little Bob." This is a power which La Follette has used ruthlessly. There have been many attempts to rebel against him. None have even got well started.

All this is machine politics raised to its highest pitch. It has made La Follette a State boss almost without a peer. But it was originally founded upon, has grown out of, and is still supported by his issues and policies. Chief of these, of course, is the attack on big business. The "tyranny of the interests" has been. his stock in trade, and beyond doubt his early campaigns did much to destroy serious evils and curb ruthless and grasping wealth. He gained his power in the muck-raking days, and the good fight he fought then has never been forgotten. Nor has he permitted the issue to be changed or forgotten, however conditions have altered since.

Allies, Socialists and Others

NE of his steady policies has been a

working arrangement with the Socialists, who usually send to the Legislature a dozen or twenty members. He has needed them several times, and their influence is to be seen in much of his legislation. They have denounced him bitterly until the present campaign, but they have voted with him, and they now declare that he has done much of the "rough work" of preparing for Socialism. It is impossible to say whether this alliance has been from choice or from political necessity. But it does not hurt him with the conservative farmers. Apparently nothing could. They assure one that he is merely using the Socialists, and controls them.

Finally, La Follette has been even more successful than most men in catering to various groups and winning their support. This is common enough in politics. He has done it remarkably well, done it in such a way that he has kept the gratitude and support of the groups long after their immediate need of him has passed. In time he has got them all; as my farmer friend said, he has succeeded in welding practically all the groups which are outside the American tradition. Catholic, Lutheran, union.

laborer, radical, and farmer-each thinks of La Follette as his particular champion.

Especially is this true of the Germans. It has been mentioned that the antiLa Follette workers do not dare attack his war record, disgusting as that was to most of the country. It has made him a hero here. This is so largely true that one suspects that actually his support is almost entirely Teutonic-hyphenate. There are few farmers among his followers who are not of Teutonic blood. The Socialists, too, are mostly Germans. The Lutherans are, of course. In other States where I have been I have found the same line. There is growing reason to believe that both in Wisconsin and outside La Follette is the candidate not so much of radicalism as of hyphenism.

Yet there is something to be said for these German-minded people. They have been here in a comparatively solid group, with little chance for Americanism to enter. Yet they are not radical, and they are not opposed to Americanism as they understand it, excepting always the Socialists. They have complaints, some of them well founded, against the way the Government has been run. They have very definite sympathies with the Fatherland. But in 1920 dozens of counties in which La Follette had carried on his radical propaganda went strongly for Harding. And to-day the opponents of La Follette find that their strongest argument against him is that he is attacking the Constitution and endangering fundamental American institutions! Men who can be reached by that argument are not at heart hostile to America. They can be taught.

The net result of twenty years of La Follette, then, is fairly clear. He has capitalized the dissatisfaction of all who were in any way at outs with the Government as it is operated, or all who could be made dissatisfied. He has appealed successfully to class and religious interests. He has turned the halfunderstood Americanism of the Teutonic groups and their state of mind growing out of the war, not merely against governmental abuses, but against the Government itself. He has welded all this into a machine as powerful as any boss ever constructed.

With this he has established a form of government quite out of harmony with American traditions, erecting instead a personally controlled autocratic bureaucracy which he has made the framework of his political machine. He braced this with a primary law which made democratic rule out of the question, giving him power to outwit the will of the majority. He has, in short, built up a form of government which is not in its political machinery, its purposes, or its administration either democratic or American.

The Roosevelt Memorial Highway, lost among the firs and spruces of Curry County, Oregon

HE Nation's newest high

THE

way is dedicated to the memory of Theodore Roosevelt. It borders the vast waters of the Pacific from Astoria, Oregon, to Crescent City, California, and marks the last frontier of the great West which Roosevelt knew and loved. Rugged, picturesque, magnificent, it is a fitting tribute to the great American whose name it bears.

There is another reason why Roosevelt would have been gratified to know that this highway was to bear his name. It was begun by the State of Oregon to provide employment for returned soldiers of the Great War. The Nation will be richer in spirit and beauty because of this new achievement in engineering. Roosevelt was a lover of dreamers-dreamers of the two-fisted variety that made dreams come

true.