The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-10-30


 the plane. They landed, the plan' two-thirds of the reduction he or- iginally sought, or about $40,000,- 900.
 The whole dispute is expected to furnish congress with material for one of the most important contests of the coming session. After the budget Is sent to Capitol Hill by the president, 1t must be an- alyzed by naval committees which are not in sympathy with the presidents proposals.
 The Navy league, in the state ment which aroused the presiden- tial ire, charged:
 That Mir Hoover's proposal for immunity for foodstuffs in war time showed "abysmal ignorance" of the functions of a navy, and that such 8 policy would result in Digger and bloodier wars" That as ia gesture of friend- ship" the president postponed con- struction of five cruisers before the London naval conference of I1930.
 That he sacrificed at London what President Coolidge refused to concede at Geneva in 1927--a pre- ponderance of large-gun cruisers. That he Wa sready to halt con- struction of 87,000 tons of cruis- CTS and other craft in, anticipa- ton of a one-year naval holiday, while insisting upon construction | of five destroyers ''as part of a program for unemployment re- lief"
 That at every turn he has sought ito restrict, reduce and to starve" the navy in the name of budgetary reform.
 That the president knew that to enter a one-year naval holiday would place this country behind Great Britain and Japan in auxili- ary craft. The Navy league hav- ling supplied such information. That his entire program from five months after he took office until now demonstrates that he is willing to sacrifice the navy to his foreign policy, and to further pro- posals for world arms reduction.
 That, despite his "fondness for Ifact-finding commissions" he failed to study adequately the navy's needs.
 The present dispute is the most acrimonious since the Shearer lobby investigator in 1929. At that time, 1t became known that William B. Shearer, big-navy pro- pagandist had attended the unsuc- cessful arms conference at Geneva lin 1927 as an observer" and that he was credited in some we'll informed quarters with having had a large part in wrecking that conference.
 This came out when Shearer sued three shipbuilding companies for $250,000 he claimed as due
 him as their representative at | Geneva. The companies were the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co, the Bethlehem Ship building Corp, and the American Brown -Boveri Corp.
 l Defends Naval League
 New York, Oct 30-(U. P0 - Claiming that the United States Navy is gagged" William B, Shearer, naval expert and propa- gandist, came to the defense to- day of William Howard Gardiner,
 head of the Navy League from whom President Hoover has de- manQe0 an apOlOBy.
 Slightly stouter than he was al the time of the Geneva naval con
 ference, which he was accused of
 breaking up through his propa- ganda when the United States fail
 ed to obtain parity with Great Bri.
 tain, Shearer, who now lives al
 Stamford, Conn.,, appeared in New
 York to-day in a jaunty tweed suit | A. At,k Ia rn.
 stunned his old oratorical form
 congressional investigation into his
 activities.
 q recognize the importance oi
 President Hoover's denunciation oi
 MT Gardiner" he told the United
 Press, Ion this, the naval issue
 but MT Hoover himself said he wal
 going to take this issue to the peo. pie and, with the navy gagged, how will the people know the true con.
 ditions unless someone like MI
 Gardiner is permitted to speak?"
 Shearer said he had alway.
 found Gardiner conservative in hi.
 statements.
 The erstwhile "big drum of tht
 navy" as he called in the inves
 tigations which followed the col lapse of the Geneva conference said he believed a congressiona investigation of Gardiner's charges
 should be made.
 "If a resolution is introduced in to the senate to investigate M Gardiner's charges and the Nav! league, I hope 1t will include {
 resolution to investigate those higi influences and organizations tha are trying to destroy American power"
 It was suggested that Shearel
 might be more specific about th' influences he described. "All right, do you want me tt name them?" he retorted. "Her'
 they are: Nicholas Murray But
 Ter, president of Columbia uni l versity; the Carnegie Peace Foun datoin. the Foreign Policy associa ton, the Non-Partisan league o pr Raymond D. Fosdick: MT Libb, of Washington. whose office Is righ opposite the war department ant he is the head of some society fol
 the prevention of war. and man, | Al