RECOVERY OF EUROPEAN TRADE ESSENTIAL TO US

"The growth of Germany into the position of a first rate individual power before the war helped rather than, injured Great Britain's commerce, and the rapid, recovery of European trade today would have a similarly wholesome effect upon our own trade." Professor A.A. Young, Chairman of the Economics Department of the University, said to a CRIMSON reporter last night when questioned respecting the prospect and probable usefulness of the International Economical Conference to be held under the auspices of the League of Nations in Geneva this coming May. "For selfish as well as unselfish reasons," continued Professor Young, "the United States should do all they can to help insure the success of the coming conference.

Young Helped in Preparations

Professor Young was a member of the Preparatory Committee which met in Geneva last April to plan the coming conference. The other members of the committee representing the United States were Mr. A.W. Gilbert, Commissioner of Agriculture for Massachusetts and Bon: D.F. Houston '92.

"All of the world's governments have been asked to appoint delegates to the International Economical Conference," said Professor Young, "but it is rumored that the United States might not send representatives. There is no good reasons for its not doing so. It is not expected that treaties will be formulated or that any agreements will be entered into or even that the Committee will make any specific recommendations. Its primary object is discussion, and its fruits will be indirect."

Brussels Gathering of Great Avail

Professor Young stated that the Brussels Financial Conference of 1920, which at the time seemed to accomplish nothing really worth while had subsequently influenced the financial policies of practically all the European nations.

"The two subjects with which the Conference is most likely to concern itself," added Professor Young, "are tariffs and industrial combinations. Different as these two subjects are in most respects they have certain elements in common. The present obstacles to industrial progress in Europe are such as might exist in the United States if every state in the United States had its own protective tariff and if industrial companies found it difficult to operate with more than some one state. Efficient industrial organization calls for larger markets than the petty national economic units into which Europe is split up can now provide."

Professor Young has much more confidence in tariff reduction than in the creation of great international industrial combinations. The economy as achieved by large-scale combinations, he claims, was commonly overestimated. He does not look for any general or sweeping reduction of European tariff in the near future. He said he thought there would be reduction in central and Eastern Europe and that the general trend of European tariffs would be downward instead of upward.