Evening star., 1937-12-03

Members of Congress. and especially
foreign diplomats in Washington. who
know how to read between the lines, at
tach high importance to the action of
Senator Barkley, Democratic Senate
leader, placing in the Congressional
Record a recent New York Times edi-
torial entitled Americas Aloofness."
The administrations chief spokesman
at the Capitol is regarded as undoubtedly
having chosen this method of signaling
Congress that the international views
expressed in the editorial are not far
from, If not absolutely identical with,
those held at the White House and State
Department. Special significance is seen
in the incident because the article takes
a veiled wallop at certain distinguished
Senators of ultra-isolationist and super
pacifist tendencies, who have been snip
ing publicly and privately at the ad-
ministration for branding Japan an ag-
gressor and inviting war" The edi-
torial deprecates an ostrich policy on
the part of the United States at this
hour of universal menace to free peoples.
1t reminds the country that the world
is challenged not only by a rapacious
Japan, but by JapaneSe-Germa
Italian alliance bent upon lawlessness
and loot. The article, now stamped with
approval by administration spokesmen,
urges Americans to give tangible ex-
preston of the country's determination
to stand by the other democracies should
the need arise"
Although issued several months be-
fore the dictatorial coup detat at Rio
de Janeiro the Brazilian government is
now circulating in Washington q 400
PACED book, published in faultless Eng
lish by the ministry of foreign affairs
and devoted to the Statistics, Resources
and Possibilities" of the vast South
American state. Ambassador Oswaldo
Aranha is hopeful the volume will pro-
mote intelligent understanding of the
problems with which the alleged Fascist
regime OF President Vargas is graphing.
While he is patriotically anxious for a
sympathetic view of Brazil's new deal.
Aranha's friends at home suspect he is
not 100 per cent in tune with everything
that has recently happened there. This
belief rests upon the fact that the AM
bassador, as leader of the revolution
which vaulted DR.. Getulio Vargas into
the presidency, became the architect of
VIC AAoce AAOCl dA dAlo consul
tuition in Brazilian history. 1t is the sys-
tenn under which the Amazon republic
thrived until last months cyclonic
events. Ambassador Aranha still car
ries bullet in his sturdy frame as a
souvenir of his participation in the
rebellion OF 1880.
Strange things happen in politics.
While vindictiveness and revenge are not
marked traits in either President Roose-
velt' or Attorney General Cummings.
some eyebrows are raised in Washing
ton over the inclusion of AL Smiths s
name among the defendants about to be
prosecuted for violation Of the antitrust
laws. The 1928 Democratic presidential
nominee and former Governor of New
York Is bracketed with Clarence H.
Mackay, chairman of the Postal Tele.
graph & Cable Corp. in Smiths capac-
ity as trustee in the Postal reorganiza-
ton. No doubt disavowal would promptly
be forthcoming of the merest suggestion
that political animus motivated the suit
against the old-time idol Of Manhattan.
But it's everybody's secret that Al has
been in the New Deals bad books ever
since his Liberty League banquet speech
at washington two years ago.