Evening star., 1933-05-18
EUROPE MAGN|F|ES-
HOPES IN j. S. PLEA
Both Hitler and Macdonald
Held in Wrong in Seeing
Peace Guaranty.
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

After President Roosevelt delivered
his appeal for reduction Of armament,
and before replies came from Chancellor
Hitler and others in Europe, the judg-
ment of Washington was universal that
Mr.. Roosevelt had taken an extremely
important and beneficial step. That
Judgment continues.
With the comment from Europe heard,
At is clear that Mr.. Roosevelt has made
at least two momentous achievements.
He has saved the conference at Geneva
from being made a failure, and he has
pointed out some concrete steps which
almost certainly will be taken. They
will constitute definite additions to the
movement for preservation OF peace.
The replies and comments from
Europe, however, as often before went
almost grotesquely far in imaginative
Interpretation or in hope beyond what
Mr Roosevelt had said and beyond what,
from the American point of view, Is
possible Chancellor Hitter saw in the
realization of the high-minded proposal
of the American President the
mighty United States are to be injected
into Europe as guarantors of peace"
Isolationists in Way.
Nothing of that kind, of course, is in
Mr.. Roosevelt's message or in his mind
Il might as well cease to be in the mind
~ Herr Hitler. From such suggestion
the isolationists in the Senate would
fun away with speed and momentum
that would carry them to the Pacific
Coast.
Less figuratively, against such a
suggestion the isolationists would nght
''to the bitter end" to the last ditch'
and in all the other ways and degrees
that characterized the refusal to unite
with Woodrow Wilson's League OF
Nations.
If the proposition before the Senate
were phrased as the German chancellor
phrases it. the iSolationists in that body
would command not only the one-thlrd
necessary to prevent ratification, but an
easy majority.
Similarly, Prime Minister Ramsay
Macdonald told the London Pilgrims
Society that America has boldly and
openly cut her moorings and
launched herself under full sail on 10
new waters
If President Roosevelt had done that,
which he did not. his proposal would
not have the faintest chance OF the
ratification by the Senate which the
concrete parts of his proposal must ulti-
mately have Worse, the fact that this
kind of comment comes from Europe
puts an argument against Mr.. Roose-
velt's perfectly practicable proposals
into the hands of American isolation
lists There is hardly State in the
Union. or a congressional district, where |
a Representative could be reelected II
he indorsed what Chancellor Hitler I'M
plies America will do or may do.
Actually, Mr. Roosevelt in his speech,
so far as he made concrete proposals,
confined himself to steps which are
definite and important advances but |
which there is every reason to suppose |
the Senate would ratify and American :
opinion support.
Senate Favors Arms Cuts.
The proposal to abolish certain land |
weapons for offensive use would be |
ratified by the Senate with only negli- |
g Bile opposition. Limitations on naval |
armament were ratified after the Wash |
ington conference of 1922. When fur
ther limitation was made by the Lon |
don Naval Conference Of 1929, a pro-
longed and intense attempt at opposi- |
ton led by Senators Hiram johnson |
and Kenneth McKellar resulted in their |
mastering only about one Senator out |
of seven. 1t is a safe generalization |
that limitation of armament commands |
the support of the Senate.
Mr.. Roosevelt's proposed "non-aggres-
sion" agreement that nations send no
armed force beyond their borders"
would also probably be ratified, al
though it would mean, on our part, that |
we could no longer, in the familiar
practice, land Marines to protect Amer +!
ican life and property in Latin Amer
ican countries.
The other concrete proposals in Mr.. |
ROosevelt's address similarly excite no
serious opp sition in the Senate. Mr.. |
Roosevelt quite evidently confined him |
self to what he could safely propose |
because the Senate would not balk at |
IL. He made no mention of con |
sultative" pact. Such pact is germi- |
mating among the proposals at Geneva. !
What the American Senate would do |
about such pact would depend on the |
extent to which it would commit |
America to action decided upon by q |
consultative conference.
The one thing which both the Senate |
and American opinion would reject |
would be the thing implied in Herr Hit
ler's phrase "the United States are to ]
be injected into Europe as guarantors
of peace" Herr Hitler could not have |
chosen words more likely to excite |
American apprehensions, or words more |
distant from Mr.. Rcosevelts intention.
(Copvricbt 10G2N