Evening star., 1934-10-04

Discussion Of the revelations before
the Senate Committee Investigating
the Trafic in War Material continues
in the press, with a general assump-
ton that legislation to provide rigid
control over the industry will be intro
duced when the committee completes
its task during the coming Winter.
There seems to be no enthusiasm
for the proposal of Senator Nye, chair
man of the committee, to eliminate
the profit motive in the munitions and
all other industries by imposing in
war time tax of 90 per cent on in
comes over $4,000.
Many students of war" according
to the Baltimore Sun, ARE convinced
that in another major war every par
ticipating power will, as a matter of
self-defense, have to nationalize the
whole industrial structure at the very
beginning of the fighting. Thus the
Nye plan would be step toward pre-
pairing for another war and not in
any real sense an assurance of peace" ="
Observing the tremendous cost of
the World War, the New York Herald
.
simple scheme for the conscription of
all incomes would probably, without
considerable elaboration, make the
waging of another major war next to
impossible" That paper concludes
that, from a military point of view,
the trouble with Senator Nye's plan
Is that 1t Is too weak, not that it is
too drastic"
stern regulation" of the munitions
business is advocated by the Buffalo
News The Bloomington Paragraph
says that las the investigation has
shown clearly that the munitions trade
Is an international affair, it may be
that only joint international action
can put it under proper restraints" "
The Bismarck IN. d. Tribune ad-
vises that "one result Of the current
investigation may be a complete re-
vamping of our national defense
plans and enactment of the American
Legion's proposed law to take the
profit out of war" The Tribune
charges that interests involved de
feated the Legion's universal draft
measure"
Demand for full details of the busi-
ness Is made by various papers, while
the Ann Arbor CMich.) Daily News
insists that "the munitions business
has such a direct and profound effect
on the lives and fortunes of innocent
bystanders that it cannot be protected
by the reticence which might apply
to ordinary businesses. The Portland
Oregon journal predicts "a great
popular demand for the probe to con-
tinue to the awful end"
Among those who are not opti-
mistic over the prospects for q real
control of arms makers Is the Charles
ton Is. c. Evening Post. "It will
be hard" thinks the Evening Post,
ito prevent makers of munitions from
selling them to all who wish to buy.
It was not possession of ornaments
that caused Austrian hatred of Serbia,
but this hatred that caused Austria
to possess itself of arms to give it the
expression Austria's statesmen knew
1t would some day have, just as it
was the mutual hatred of France and
Germany that caused both of those
countries to arm themselves to the
teeth. Houses are no more the prod
uct of the people who sell brick than
are wars the product of those who sell
munitions. There is a hue and cry
for taking the profit motive out Of
war, and perhaps it should be done If
1t can, but does anybody believe that
compelling Germany to rely on gov
ernment manufacture for its arma-
ments instead Of on purchases from
private makers will make 1t whit