Evening star., 1933-01-18
WATSON ASKS 41%
WORLD ARMS CUT
Slash of 5 Per Cent a Year
For Next Decade Urged
in Senate Speech.
BY the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
A sweeping reduction in world arrna-
ments-41 per cent over the next 10
years-was proposed today by Senator
Watson of Indiana as the first step
toward world-balanced budget"
Asserting that the four words-arma-
ment, war. destruction and debt-"tell
the story of the worlds great worries
today" the Republican leader, in his
first Senate speech of the session, sug-
gested the real road to peace and pros
perity was for all nations to slash arms
expenditures 5 per cent each year for
the next decade, which would result in
an aggregate of IL per cent at the end
Of the period.
At the conclusion of his address, Sen
ator Watson introduced resolution de-
claring it to be the sense of the Senate
that the United States initiate a multi
lateral treaty to carry out the project.
Recalling that no heed was paid Pre-
mier Mussolini's program for so per
cent reduction in world armaments or
President Hoover's suggestion for a 33ls
per cent cut in the size of all armies.
the Republican leader, now serving his
sixteenth and and last year in the Sen
ate, said only slight progress" was
made at the recent Geneva Arms Con-
ference.
Ample Defense Assured.
What does the Senate of the United
States propose to do about it?" he asked.
Are We to admit that we are powerless
in the presence of this great problem?
Can We offer any suggestion that will
save debt-burdened and war-cursed
world from present debts or from future
Wars?"
He said the Al per cent slash would
leave ample armament for the protec-
tion and defense of every nation and
yet 1t would largely solve all the prob
lens that grow out of the present arma-
ment construction of the world"
1T would at once give the peoples OF
all lands to understand that from this
time henceforth ornaments are not to
be increased, and that would mark an
epoch in the progressive march OF
civilization he asserted.
Also. he added. it would decrease the
annual burden now laid upon the backs
OF the people in the form of taxes to
equip armies and build battleships, and
this most aSsuredly is a colsummation
devoutly to be wished"
Costs $4,000, ,OoO,00O a Year.
Declaring armament is still costing
the world each year almost S4,000,000,-
900, he said this sum would retire most
OF its public debt, whether foreign or
domestic, In the course of few years. :"
1T is no longer doubted anywhere" !"
he said, that the destruction of world
credit and the lessened rate of the flow
Of money are blights brought upon all
people AS direct result of the destruc-
ton and of the waste of the World
War. So terrible was the after
math Of that titanic struggle that the
nations have not been able to lower
their obligations since fighting ceased"
Discussing acceleration of inventions
and other methods of correcting tech
biological unemployment, Watson said:
There are, no doubt, many things
to correct in our social and economic
life. but it takes long periods OF time
to solidify public opinion to the point
of making correction possible.
Paramount Problem.
However, there is one thing that
must be brought to pass in the near
future, one thing upon which the peo-
pies everywhere agree, and that is a
reduction of taxes. Let us make a start
in the greatest wholesale reduction
ever known by lessening expenditures
for armament"
1t seems to me-" he asserted, "that
the solution of all other problems can
wait until we take this first step in the
progressive disarmament of the world
Unless the nations of the earth are pre-
pared forthwith to stop spending their
income on armament, nobody can pre-
dict the decadence that shall necessar-
lily befal the peoples of the earth"