Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-08
BY WILLIAM HARD.

peace moves IN MdnCnurla ana inter-
governmental debt moratoriums and
lack Of Federal money for public works
for the employment OF the unemployed
are topics which now seem likely to tie
themselves all up together into one
big endless Snarl as soon as the Con-
greSS reconveneS.
The politicians on Capitol Hill are
getting back here generally in an ex-
trenely anti-foreign state of mind.
They have been among the voters. and
most of them report that the voters
have turned very sour on foreign adj
ventures. Thus the makings become
apparent of cleavage and conflict
precisely of the sort that tore the coun-
| try into violent factions under Wood
row Wilson in 1919 and 1920.
The White House, now as then, is
deeply impressed by the International
istic petitions of organized church
groups and of associations dedicated
| to q specialized interest in world peace.
In 1919 and 1920 these petitions were
| for the League of Nations. Now they
are for reductions of intergovernmental
| debts and for extensions Of naval holi-
days and for efforts to impose the OBJ
legations of the Kellogg BRAND peace
! pact upon the nations of the Orient.
Now, as then, the White House gains
its knowledge of public sentiment
largely through manifestations brought
| to 1t in print or in person by bodies of con-
scientious and convinced and convincing
enthusiasts. They constitute the only
/ organized public sentiment in the
| United States regarding foreign affairs
The White House hears from them con-
tinuously. They are ''world-minded,"
and the White House tends, under
bombardment from them, to think the
country ''world-minded" 1t was so
under Woodrow Wilson and it is so
under Herbert Hoover
Members of the Congress- on the other
hand, instead of residing continuously
| in washington, 60 back home and en-
counter great deal Of unorganized and
unilluminated public sentiment. The
White House hears from the leaders
OF thought" Members Of the Congress
talk with voters who attend no DEM
onStrations, sign no manifestoes, con-
| Vey no petitions to Washington and
have no appointments with the Presi-
cent TO inform him of their views.
Ihereupon members of the Congress,
now as in 1919 and 1920, get back to
| washington with an estimate of the
pubic mind that varies greatly from
the Presidents estimate of it, Putting
the present variance roughly, one might
say that it stands as follows:
=, The White House inclines to think
mat q great and grand role by the
united States in Europe and in Asia
VIII De backed by the people. The Con-
sress is due to incline to think that such
role by the United States will ultimate
| ~ De repudiated by the people.
y
| IT iS aft this rOint that the Nav,,
League has a certain sympathy from
| congressman who are opposed to a
large Navy. They think that our at
titude toward Japanese activity III
Manchuria Is preposterous in view of
our apparent naval willingness to con-
cede to the Japanese a complete dem
nance Of Oriental waters.
The Navy League has wholly failed
to prove that President Hoover and
Prime Minister Macdonald on the Rap
loan River entered into a secret which
they have not divulged. How the Navy
League ever expected to prove the ex-
istence of plot Of which the existence
was never confided to anybody remains
q mystery even to the most hardened
OF washington journalists The Navy
League has also wholly failed to prove
several other allegations of a more or
less political variety.
Is k*
Nevertheless its statistics regarding
the American and japanese fleets have
been shown to be essentially in strict
accordance with ofncial governmental
figures. The trick in the compilation
OF those figures is in the admission or
omission OF leverage" vessels. The
Navy League omits them. 1t justiftes
itself by remarking that the London
| naval M
gards such vessels as obsolete and I'M
serviceable and allows for their replace
ment. The Navy League then calculates
| the present tonnages of the United
States and Of Japan in "underage" serv-
! iceable aircraft carriers, cruisers, de-
| stroyerS and submarines. For the United
States the total combined tonnage of
those classes of ships, built and build
ing, is now 456,050. For japan 1t IS
455,985. Thus Japan in those classes
stands to us now in the ratio not OF
to 10, but Of approximately 10 to 10.
The Navy League then calculates the
consequences for the United States and
| for Japan Of the one-year naval-build-
1 ing holiday which presumably goes into
effect this month. During that year,
according to the league. our tonnage be-
| coming leverage" in the classes men
toned will be 64,470. The Japanese
tonnage simultaneously becoming over
age" will be only 14.s54. This is be-
cause of the relative youth Of the Japa-
nese ships and the relative senility OF
ours.
At the end, then, of the holiday year
the tonnages of the two fleets In all the
non-battleship categories put together
| will be:
| Japan-441 ,10l.
United States-391, $50.
Thus Japan will then actually ex-
coed the United States in the fleet cate
gories that do the quick nodernistic
parts of naval warfare.
Additionally we are barred by the