The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-01-13
ARMS MAKERS
PROFIT AS U. S.
URGES PEACE
QulxotiC Situation Aired in
Plea to Ratify EN-
barge Treaty.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS
Scripps- Howard Foreign Editor


WASHINGTON, Jan. ia quiz
otto and astounding situation was
revealed by State Secretary Henry
L. Stimson in his statement sup
porting President Hooyer's message
asking the senate to ratify the in
ternational treaty 10 control the
sale and shipment of arms.
we frequently find" he said,
that at the very moment when we
are bending every effort toward
conciliating differences between
friendly states, arms are being
shipped from private manufacturers
in the United States for use in the
threatened or actual conflict"
And, he added:
THE United States, in justice to
its own convictions and its own dig
nifty, never should be placed in such
position that it could not join in
preventing the supply Of arms or
munitions for the furtherance of an
international conflict while exercis-
ing its influence and prestige to
prevent or bring to an end such a
conflict"
= Arms Makers Profit
Though the secretary did not con-
meet directly the situation in South
America with the above, he made
clear reference to the war between
Bolivia and Paraguay, in the Chaco,
and the mobilization for war be-
tween Colombia and Peru on the
upper Amazon, now in full swing
The United States has taken the
lead automatically in attempting,
first to prevent, then to stop, the
war in the Chaco and now is leav-
ing no stone unturned to head off
the threatened Colombian-P Peruvian
conflict.
Meanwhile, arms manufacturers
in Europe and America, it is said,
are selling and shipping all pos
sible arms to both sides.
Position Held Ridiculous
Secretary Stimson made it plain
that in his opinion the present DO
SitiOn of the United States on inter-
national traffic in arms, which the
convention now before the senate
seeks to control, is ridiculous, con-
Trajectory, undignified, humiliating
and often a monkeywrench in the
wheels of the worlds peace ma
chinery.
Having led in framing the cove
nant of the League of Nations and
the Kellogg pact outlawing war, we
now are in the position OF making
money by selling arms to the
violators of those pacts.
Representatives of the United
States signed the treaty of st. Ger
main in 1919, whereby the leading
world powers agreed to prevent the
prOmiscuous sale of arms for pur-
poses Of war.
Never Ratified Here
This never was submitted to the
senate for ratification. The Wilson
administration quickly was super
seeded by the Harding regime, and
this is what the then State Sec
rotary Charles Evans Hughes, in
part, gave as the reason:
There is particular objection to
the provision by which the con-
tracing parties would be prohib-
it9d from selling arms and ammu-
n1tions to states not parties to the
convention. BY such provisions this
government would be required to
prevent shipments of military sup
plies to such Latin American coun-
tries as have not signed the con-
vention, however desirable it might
be to permit such shipments
Blocking Own Program
The arms embargo treaty now
before the senate was signed by
eighteen nations, at Geneva, in
June, 1925. 1t was to become eff
tective four months after ratifca-
ton by fourteen powers. Fourteen
powers long since have ratified it,
but, according to Stimson, some of
them stipulated that their adher-
ence was contingent upon certain
other powers dotng likewise, the
United States being one.
The United States, therefore, now
is in the position of blocking the
treaty regarded as vital to the
proper working of the peace pacts,
which this country largely initi-
ated.