ECONOMIC NATIONALISM

Sir Arthur Salter writing on the future of economic nationalism in the current issue of Foreign Affairs lifts the discussion of the present crisis out of the level of immediate economics into politics. The world is faced, as he says, with a choice between a further development of the closed national economic units contained within high tariff walls which we have at present and a breaking down of these barriers to allow international circulation of trade. But it is not merely a choice of two economic systems, it is a choice of two contrasting world orders.

"Will economic nationalism increase or decline?" Salter balances the probabilities and answers that it must decline because it can only be a temporary solution. Modern industrialism is moving steadily toward organization on a larger and larger scale "which is compatible only with secure access to markets which are larger than those comprised within national frontiers". If the inevitable growth of industrialism will eventually supplant nationalism with a world order, nevertheless, as Salter points out, the immediate future may see nations drifting without leadership into a competitive system of closed national units even more dangerous than those we have today. Whether the resulting period of suffering and destruction can be avoided under the leadership of the great nations is the challenge of the present crisis.

In order to resist the present drift towards nationalism vigorous action is necessary. It is the pressure of organized, separate interests which is forcing national politics into protection and is strangling world trade. Until these separate interests are subordinated to the general good of the nation, until nations are governed by true national policy rather than destructive nationalism, no progress is possible. As Sir Arthur Salter sees it, the world is full of governments who fail to govern, if they are to save themselves from destruction they must rid themselves of the dictation of particular private interests and once again assert their authority in the interests of the whole.