Evening star., 1935-12-08
BY LANES WALDO FAWCETT.

TIME whole world Is concerned
about embargoes. With the
League of Nations instituting
Il an economic blockade against
Italy, the people Of China continuing
q boycott of japanese goods, anti
Nazis everywhere discriminating
against the products of Nad Ger
many, and practically every govern
ment on earth pursuing one kind Of
tariff policy or another, the free flow
of trade Is a myth.
And the masses in each Of the coun-
tries involved in the current confusion
are aware of the danger. Instinc-
lively they fee. the peril of such pro-
cedure. They appreciate, perhaps
without knowing exactly why, the fact
that an embargo is form of war. In
motives and intent it is an act of hos
tility. Its character is punitive.
But the significance of the word is
somewhat concealed by the language
Of the average lexicon. For example,
the Century Dictionary says: EN-
barge, a stoppage or seizure of ships
or merchandise by sovereign author
ity; specifically. restraint or prohi-
bition imposed by the authorities of
country on merchant vessels or other
ships to prevent their leaving its ports
and sometimes amounting to an in
terdiction of commercial intercourse
either with a particular country or
with all countries" And the Encyclo-
pedia Britannica explains: Embargo
may be either civil or hostile. Civil
embargo Is the restraint placed by
sovereign upon his own subjects. by
prohibiting them or their vessels from
leaving the realm. Hostile embargo is
the seizure and detention by the SOW
ereign of one state Of the subjects and
property of another state with a view
to obtaining redress for some injury
by exercising pressure on the latter
state"
Policies Judged by Fruits.
Subtle differentiations, however,
mean nothing to the multitudes. They
judge Of policies by their fruits and,
though willing enough to concede that
the Leagues coercion of Italy is
civil rather than hostile embargo, do
not suppose that it matters very much
either way. Both types Of action put
a stop to trade.
A supplementary Interpretation
might be that of boycott on selling.
That word, commemorating Capt.
Charles Cunningham Boycott, agent
of the Earl of Erne in County Mayo,
Ireland, really means: The refusal
and incitement to refusal TO have
commercial or social dealings with
any one on whom it is wished to bring
pressure" 1t therefore refers to buy
ing as well as purchasing and is appr-
cable to Premier Mussolini's campaign
against goods manufactured in ma
tions joining in sanctions. The
League boycotts Italy by refusig to
sell; II Duce bcycotts the League by
refusing to buy. And in both instances
the common people suffer.
To illustrate the point, the story of
the embargo acts passed by the Amer
lean Congress in 1907 and 1912 may be
cited. They were intended, according
to the Encyclopedia Americana, ito
distress foreign countries and obtain
the revocation of hostile measures" /"
In theory, they were peaceful war" ,"
designed "to be cheaper than actual
warfare and equally efficient, but in
fact injuring ourselves deeply and the
others little, and ending in real war at
last"
Our embargoes," the Americana
continues. belong exclusively to the
French English wars of 17e4-1814.
Their ultimate cause was that the
agricultural classes, who controlled
the administration, did not believe in
commerce and preferred abolishing it
to spending anything for its protec-
ton; moreover. they we're mainly
Southern and Democratic, the COM
mercial interest mainly New England
and Federalist, and the former were
not loath to spare themselves the cost
Of war by impoverishing the latter.
jays Treaty Guarded Commerce.
The first embargo was for so days.
due to mutual orders of France and
England for seizure of neutrals which
placed the United States between ham,
mer and anvil. Jays treaty of Novem-
Der 10, 1894, for IL years measurably
protected our commerce, but near its
end conditions became infinitely worse
In 1867 the thronging mutual