Evening star., 1937-12-29
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VIE

THE Cult of Weakness" is the name
of an outspoken little volume by Senator
Henry Cabot Lodge, jr. Though pub
lished in 1882, current developments
clothe it with peculiar timeliness. In
a chapter entitled The Peace Fight"
the young Massachusetts, Republican
might almost have been dealing with
present-hour conditions at Washington.
Decrying the prevailing national dis
inclination drastically to resent fragrant
violations of American rights, Mr.. Lodge
wrote:
1T is. therefore, no wonder that some
who allow the intensity of the present
to blur their perspective are beginning
to ask themselves whether we are Ma
ton or state of mind. A large part
OF the organs Of public opinion is con-
sciously pacifist, as are so many Of the
articulate intellectuals. Lobbying and
propagandizing are more efficiently con-
Quoted by pacif1sts than by their op-
ponents. The former seem to be more
adequately financed; and the press,
through inattention, thus often sue
cumbs to their efforts The people who
once applauded a Theodore Roosevelt or
Leonard Wood applaud men of this
type no longer. These are perhaps cheer
full symptoms. Certain it is that they
are mentioned neither in sorrow nor in
anger. But should they not at least be
recognized as indicating change in pub
Tic psychology-a change to which the
deliberate forces of pacifism have in some
degree contributed?"
4 X ~
According to Roland Robbins, man.
ager of Trans-Lux, Washington's news
reel theater, advance public interest in
the Panay bombing films is breaking all
records. The cameras tell-tale story of
Japan's mistake" in attacking American
ships is awaited with eagerness approxi-
mated only by that excited by the other
smash pictures of 1937-the burning of
the Hindenburg and King Georges coro-
nation. Now that it can be told, the
prospective screening of the Panay out
rage caused almost as much perturbation
IN the State Department as the actual
affair in China itself. Highly sensitive
to popular reaction at moments of inter-
national tension, Secretary Hull's aides
were quick to realize the possibly
dynamic effect of photographs of
U. s. s. Panay's fate. In diplomatic
quarters the view is encountered that
Washington's almost unseemly haste to
KISS and make up with Toxic may have
oeen due to anxiety to close the incident
before the country was swept by wave
OF indignation over ocular proof OF the
bloody business on the Yangtze Decem-
ber IL.
Despite allegedly friendly White House
passes at the utilities and other branches
OF industry, business expects to find It
self the target of an old-time Koose-
veltian barrage in the Presidents mes
sage to Congress next week. Trust
busting Assistant Attorney General Bob
Jackson's broadside at monopoly profit
eers" as the architects in chief Of the
current slump is Enthusiastically the OPEN
ing gun In the new crusade. F. D. r.
indicates that his heavy artillery, which
presumably will bark in terms of whole
sale antitrust prosecutions and punitive
taxation OF boarded profits, will be
trained on only 40 per cent minority"
OF malefactors. But with 1898 elections
just around the corner and 1910 not far
away, the President is credited with
fierce determination to renew the war
on economic royalty in the belligerent
spirit Of the 1886 Madison Square Garden
speech. As Mr.. Roosevelt's desire to
restart the wheels Of recovery cannot be
doubted, many OF his supporters question
the wisdom Of fresh attacks on business
at this critical moment.
4 4 l.
Just before the wi(em and Mary
football team went b lapolis "a Sep.