Evening star., 1935-04-03

Eighteen years ago this week the
United States entered the World War.
Except that armies were in the field
and gunfire was roaring all over Eu-
rope, present hour conditions "over
there" are almost as explosive as they
were then. Tense and dangerous as
the situation is, our people in Wash
ington do not believe it will flame into
open conflict in the immediate future.
No European country really wants
war or is ready for it. What's going
on is a strenuous struggle to preserve
peace. The result at best will be an
armed truce, from which sooner or
later war is expected to ensue, unless
craftsmanship devises preventive
measures not now in sight. Disarma-
ment meantime has about as much
chance as the proverbial SNOWFALL in
the lower regions.
Any possibility of our embodiment
in the mess is as remote as ever. The
Roosevelt administration is in vigi-
liant touch with developments in the
various storm centerS, but there will
have to be some serious provocation
to induce your Uncle Sam to burn his
fingers in a crisis regarded at Wash
ington as strictly none of our buSl-
ness. The Presidents absence, among
other things, is prirna facie evidence
that nothing is anticipated likely to
involve us. F. D. RS campaign
against the barracuda and the sword
fish is the only sort of warfare in
which he's interested at the moment,
regardless of the troubled waters in
which Europe is fishing. The Old
World situation is designed to gener-
ate support for the keep-us-out-of-
war laws which Senator Nye's COM
mittee is about to hatch. Isolationist
sentiment is almost at high-water
mark.
Historians of the present troublous
phase of the New Deal will discuss
in terms of bewilderment Roosevelt
trials and tribulations with the Sew
enty-fourth Congress. They are bound
to regard as a phenomenon the fact
that the President, with two-thirds
Democratic majority in both houses,
has to fight for practically every inch
of legislative headway. Congress has
been in session three months, yet its
only major achievement is the work
relief bill, with even that huge and
hapless project not yet out of the
woods. Each days delay in N. r. A.
renewal. social security. holding COM
pany, labor, banking. railroad and
shipping legislation makes it increas-
ingly possible that Mr.. Roosevelt may
swing the big stick if he expects Con-
gress to transact before July l the
business he's batted up to it. A
common explanation of slow motion
at the Capitol is that Senators and
Representatives sense that the New
Deal is slipping and feel they can
now buck it with an impunity they
never dared before. One subtle sug-
gestion is that congressional obstruc-
ton is of administration origin. in
order to soft-pedal dictatorship talk!
X X X X
N. r. AS grand army Of employees,
higher-ups as well as lower-downs,
Graves early solution Of the renewal
legislation snarl, in order that Blue
Eagle morale may be restored to some
thing like its former self. The rank
and file have been in state of jitters
for months, hardly knowing from day
to day who really was who in the
organization, or whether there would
be any N. r. A. at all after June 16.
Considering all the slings and arrows
political, administrative and Judi
cial-that have come its way, the con-
sensus is that N. r. A. has done pretty