Evening star., 1932-01-04
MONEY SEEN BASIS
OF us. ARMS PLAN
Naming of Dawes and Davis,
Both Bankers, Points to
New Policy.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Ou JLb JllIGSllOlu VI falllDdoodiOl
Dawes arrival in Washington this
week for a consultation on Geneva Dis
armament Conference matters, certain
straws begin to indicate how the
American wind at the conference will
blow Overtowering in significance the
appointment of even Gen. Dawes as
chairman of the American delegation
is President Hoover's naming of a Sec
ond Democrat, Norman H. Davis, as
one of the United States spokesmen
Mr., Davis last service as Assistant
Secretary of the Treasury in 19l9-l920
was in connection with our $l2 900 000,-
900 of foreign loans. He was in charge
of them during the critical period be-
fore they were funded by individual
agreements with the debtor nations.
Davis knowledge of everything con-
nected with the debts is deep and wide.
Just before he became Assistant Secre-
tary of the Treasury, Mr.. Davis was
member of the Paris Peace Conference
Commission on ReparationS.
Bankers to Take Lead.
The New York banker will team up
at Geneva with Ambassador Dawes who,
like him, Is a financier by occupation
and has the distinction of having been
chairman of the famous commission
which in 1924 laid down the first
reparations plan" evolved by Europe
for the purpose of helping Germany out
Of economic choaS. Just before he ac-
cepted the craftsmanship of the Dawes
Plan Commission, the ChlcagOan COM
pleted a term at Washington as hrst
director of the United states bureau oI
the Budget.
These respective backgrounds OF
Dawes and Davis are being widely dis
cussed throughout diplomatic WaSSng-
ton as preSaging the nature OF AMER
ican policy at the Geneva DlSarma-
nent Conference. 1t is being asserted
that palpably the United States pro-
poses stressing the financial and buo-
getary note rather than the strictly MIL
itary and naval note. To London PreSl-
dent Hoover sent his Secretary OF the
NAVY. Charles Francis Adams to assist
in negotiating a treaty for naval nml-
tation. Had Mr.. Hoover intended that
purely armament questions would be
thrust forward by the United States at
Geneva. it is argued that he would al
most certainly have dispatched Secre-
tary Adams to Eurore again, accom-
panied this time BY the Secretary OF
War. Patrick j. Hurley. Instead the
President is sending bankers, repara-
tions experts. budget maSters-DaWeS
and Davis. Not a soldier or sailor Is
on Jne QelSBdGlOlI'
Castles Remark Recalled.
On September %, 1881, the Under
secretary of State, William R. Castle,
jr., made what is only now being rec
ognized as a meaningful reference TO
'sthe fight for reduction Of armamentS"
which the American Government Is
yaging. Mr.. Castles clOSeneSs to the
Hoover throne Is well known. 1t Is be-
ing recalled that 1t was the Undersec-
retary's supposedly casual remark at a
State Department press conference IN
Nav of last year about the possible
necessity of a moratorium which was a
couple of weeks later translated into the
now historic move by President Hoover
to bring about a one-year holiday In
intergovernmental debt payments. Ao-
dressing the Advertising Club of Boston,
Mr.. Castle had this to say:
"The whole question of disarmament
comes down to question OF competl-
ton Although we are too distant to be
a threat to most nations, cannot pc
lieve that we should not be among the
first to agree to any kind OF cut IN
armament which would give confidence
and would yet leave. us, in comparison
with others, as strong as we are today.
No one nation can cut its armamentS
to the bone. because there Is always
possible the madness or the cupldity OF
other nations. Every nation must pro-
tsct itself. But, on the other hand, no
nation is safer with high general level
OF armaments than it would be with
low general level If the level is every
where proportional.
at is said that the world spends an
nually three billion dollars on arma-
YnentS, and yet it is clear that indi-
vidual nations would be just as safe II
the volume of this construction were
proportionately cut down one-haf or
thFee-QuarterS.'
Here is something like a pretty def
mite hint from an authoritative admin
istration quarter that fiat cut in bud
getary expenditure on armamentS, WITH
out attempting to delmit them directly
in categorieS like battleshipS or army
divisions, appeals to the Hoover govern
ment as a practical short cut TO dis
armament In the past, American au-
thorities have not looked with much
favor upon budgetary disarmament be-
cause manufacture and maintenance OF
weapons Of war cost more in this coun-
try of expensive materials and hlgh
wages A fat slash in aTmamentS on
purely financial basis rnight therefore
weaken the United States relatively
much more than other countries, which
90 not neeQ 10 MAKE SUCH ltdNy OuLIhy
on their land and sea establishments.
Hitherto France and Italy have been
the principal proponents OF budgetary
Limitation of ornaments. The Prepara-
tory Disarmament Commission, whose
draft treaty" will be the formal ma
terial upon which the Geneva confer
ence will set to work, approved the prin-
ciple Of budgetary limitation. But 1t
emphasized the fact that the eXpendi-
lures of one country We're not to be
compared with those OF another coun-
try, but only with the expenditures OF
the same country in successive years.
Opposed by Service Heads.
Boiled down to the essentials in which
the American people are interested, 1t
looks as II the DaWeS-Dayis combination
at Geneva spells a determination on
President Hoover's part TO tackle dis
armament on the dollars-and- d-centS
basis. Our naval and military author
tiles would not throw up their hats in
enthusiasm for such a program, should
It turn out to be the one our delegation
Is instructed TO pursue. The admiralS
and the generals are convinced that
budgetary limitation is nothing but a
European euphemiSm invented TO cause
the United States "to lose another con-
ference" But gold braid and brass
buttons will not be predominant in the
delegation which viii speak for the
q. S. A. at Geneva next month. The
men who for the last 10 years have been
dealing with debts, reparations and bud
gets will have the right OF way.
(Copyright, 1922