The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-11
LET'S NOT MISS THE POINT

XXTE DeueVe mlScOncepClOn mas grown up as 10
w what the Senate Munitions Committee investi-
CATION OF J. p Morgan & Co. is all about It is
looked upon too much fiead-hunting expedition
as another one of those public displays in which high
finance is put on the pan with proof of wrongdoing
as the objective and sensation as the result.
Actually the real purpose is, or should be- to show
what part if any trade and finance played in getting
us eventually into the World War, to review the
periences of 1914 to 1917 and if possible to benefit
from those experiences in writing legislation that will
keep us out of the next one
The fact that j. p Morgan g. Co. happens to be
the subject of the investigation is after ALL incidental
1t might be any other company. The good the bad
account of the conpanys affairs is likewise Incl
dental Nothing yet has been developed to show that
Morgan g. Co. did anything more than act the part
of shrewd and capable inanciers who, according to
the code of those days. legitimatey entitled to
drum up all the trade they could get.
DY 1914 to 1917 standards their activities were
- good business" If they hadn't got the business
somebody else would have And let us in our hind
sight not delude ourselves the nation as whole
wanted the business. 1t somebody elses war.
Times hard here. Export and import trade had
been paralyzed. America fiat. Buy bale of
distress had appeared.
Then the orders started coming from abroad. First
few growing rapidly to an avalanche: billions of
them Mars wore the clothes of Santa Claus. A
boom on, thanks to conflict way across the
into which we would never permit ourselves to
be drawn.
And so on to the time when those who were fight
ing into the problem of What do we use for
roe ,nv+
If we were going to keep customers and prevent
a collapse we had to make loans to them. Hence
such language as this from secretary of state writ
ing to the President of nation that had solemnly
declared neutrality and placed ban on loans:
1--WE are face to face with what appears to be a
critical economic situation which only be relieved
apparently by the investment of American capital
in foreign loans to be used in liquidating the
balance of trade in favor of the United States
Can we afford to let declaration as to our con-
ception Of the true spirit of neutrality made in the
first days of the war stand in the way of our ma
ational interests which seem to be seriously threat
ened?"
America wanted to have her war cake and eat it.
THUS the structure built up. Thus got
into the game. And thus the force of trade
contributed to the sudden changing of our slogans
from HE kept us out of war; to lover there" from
Il didn't raise my boy to be soldier" to Ships and
more ships"
1t isn't necessary to tell the rest of the tale
the story of death and disease of the arrnless and
the legess and the gassed and the blinded on the
human side and the billions in unpaid war debts
and bonuses on the economic side. Never in all his
tory there such CHASTITY self deception that
thing which we thought was war prosperity.
In the financial part of that tragic drama j. P.
Morgan & Co. played important role. But to view
this investigation merely inquiry into the
methods of Morgan is to miss the larger lesson.
And if that lesson is not learned and is not
applied, now, in this Congress which is meeting
while another world conflict is again in the making
we as nation will have only ourselves to blame if
we once again, and soon find ourselves on that same
old road to war.