Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-11
The Propaganda Probe.

The charges that shipping interests
in this country sought to break down
the naval limitation conference at
Geneva, through the aid of William B.
Shearer, are to be investigated by the
Senate naval affairs committee. The
shipbuilding concerns have admitted
employment of Shearer. They insist,
however, that he represented them at
Geneva merely as an observer, and that
whatever work as propaganda he
carried on there he did ION his own"
Mr.. Shearer says that he has received in
the neighborhood of $4,000 from these
companies, but that he is entitled to
$250,000 more under his contracts with
them. Judging from the demand made
by Shearer, he must consider that his
services to the shipbuilding companies
were extremely valuable, and that they
must have gone further than the mere
duties of an observer.
The public and the Senate committee
will be DESTROYS Of knowing just why
the shipbuilding concerns should be
willing to pay Shearer $4,000, the
amount admitted by them, for services
as an observer at the Geneva confer
ence. 1t might have been expected
that the shipbuilding concerns would
have full information regarding the
involving this country, Great Britain
and Japan for naval limitation, along
with the rest of the world
President Hoover, in a statement to
the press yesterday, asserted that "the
disclosures of interference with and
propaganda against the efforts of the
Government in its negotiations of in
ternational agreement for the reduction
of naval armament are already so evil
dent as to require that these matters
should be gone into to the very bot
TOM" Senator Borah, chairman of the
foreign relations committee, insists that
these efforts amount to "a criminal
conspiracy against the people and the
Government of the United States"
The right of American citizens who
believe in being prepared for war to
urge upon Congress and the country
the need for great Navy is undeniable.
But efforts by any interests or persons
to prevent the contamination of an in
ternational agreement sought by the
Government of the United States for
the limitation of naval armament has
a different aspect. When private Amer
lean interests and individuals, with a
selfish and money interest of their own
to serve, undertake to prevent the car
rying out of such a policy, they are
treading on dangerous ground
President Hoover has moved promptly
in an effort to prevent the use of secret
methods and propaganda to break down
the negotiations which are now being
conducted by this Government with
Great Britain and others, looking to
naval limitation. 1t is probable that
his denunciation of such methods will
60 far to halt them. Monkeying with
the Government of the United States is
a serious pastime. Usually it is suff1-
Gent to bring into the light the efforts
of propagandists to clip their claws. The
Senate committee, with its broad powers
of investigation which have recently
been upheld by the courts, is in a posi-
ton to deal with propagandists effec-
lively, merely by showing them UP to
the country.
Adequate military and naval pre-
paredness is one thing. 1t is desirable
and to be desired by all patriotic citi-
zens. But a race for supremacy in
naval armament, rather than a reason
able agreement for limitation, leaving
the country still amply prepared, is
still another. Efforts to defeat the lat
ter may we'll be scrutinized carefully to
determine just what reasons are back
of them.