Evening star., 1937-06-04

Europe is engaged in it's perennial
wsr-scare pastime simultaneously with
the semi annual war debt due date at
Washington. On June Is 81 $40, 59, 1868
in current and past installmentS will
be payable. Little Finland as usual. will
meet its half-yearly obligation, but all
the rest Of Uncle Sans debtors, an even
dozen, are expected to continue in de-
fault Germany is not ordinarily tab
ulated among the repudiating nations,
but she is in arrears on the Treasury
books for $406 ,6l6938 principal and ac-
crued interest, representing unpaid costs
of our Army of Occupation on the Rhine,
dating from the Armistice until con-
Clusion OF our separate peace with the
old Reich. Some authorities think the
hour would not have been inappropriate
for Secretary Hull to admonish would-be
belligerents that instead OF planning to
invest more billions in another war,
they might devote some OF their spare
change to curtailing long neglected
obligations to the United States. Among
the powers immersed in the Spanish
mess, Italy this month owes total OF
debt payments in arrears amounting TO
$8l ,978,l63: France, 1892, ,700,850, and
Great Britain, S87l ,8l560l. These va
r;ous sums, OF course, are mere fractions
of the aggregate due us. Periodical
Treasury figures of war-debt defaults
do not include the sums We claim from
Soviet Russia for advances to the Car
ist government and compensation Tor
American property.
Both parties in New York City, In
their quest for mayoralty timber. seem
to be turning longing eyes toward WASH
ington. Conferences in Manhattan this
week between Senator Wagner and
James j. Dooling, leader of Tammany
Hall, gave rise to reports that either
Wagner or his colleague, Senator Cope
land, will be the wigWam choice for the
Democratic nomination at the 1orth-
coming powwow of party borough chiefs.
With revival of agitation among Re-
publican leaders against reHomlnatlon
of Mayor La Guardia under the G. Q. p.
label. the search for a candidate of un-
questioned regularity is In lively prog
ress. w. Kingsland Macy, former State
chairman, recommends George Henry
Payne, 4 member OF the Federal Com
munications Commission, as the Repub-
licans' best bet.
Administrationists consider that Pres
ident Roosevelt's House victory in the
relief earmarkng contest is impressive
refutation Of the theory that his con-
troll of Congress has vanished. The
vote in favor of unrestricted White
House disposal OF relief dollars places
new feathers In the respective caps OF
Majority Leader Sam Rayburn OF Texas
and his alert whip, Pat Roland OF Penn
sylvania. With the spirit OF rugged
independence now rampant, 1t was no
childs play for New Deal captains to
suppress the earmarking revolt. Their
success encourages Rooseveltian forces
to believe that while there's by no means
a band of harmonious brethren de-
pendable on all occasions, the House can
be relied upon to stand by the President
on all major controversies now In sight.
Just how solid Roosevelt congressional
control" Is will not finally be deter
mined until the Senate drive for $780,
OOO. 900 relief cut is out of the way.
Berlin seems headed for an annual
floral festival riyaling Washington's
cherry blossoms. There have just ar
rived in the German capital. with COM
pliments Of the Japanese Women's In
terna tionAl Good Will Association, 100
bags of Japanese chryMnthemum and