Evening star., 1938-04-01
For an Invincible NAVY.

1t may be presumed that it is with
reluctance that an aggressively peace
minded statesman like Cordell Hull an
nounces the United States decision to in
woke the "escalator' clause of the London
naval treaty because of Japan's unwill-
1ngness to disclose her plans with ref
erence to super-warships. The Secre-
tary OF States PRONUNCIATION of that
intention means that we shall presently
begin building larger battleships than
the 35,oO0-ton 16-inch gun type to which
treaty powers hitherto We're restricted.
Construction, it is supposed, will pro-
vide for 42,oo0-ton battleships mounting
16-lnch guns. 1t has been estimated
that these behemoths of the sea will
cost, when battleworthy, $l00,0OOO0O
apiece. Great Britain and France pro-
pose to adopt similar building programs.
Japan, root cause OF 1t all, will probably
follow suit
There is no Disgusting the prospect
that the world, already bending under
back-breaking armament burdens. is
thus on the threshold of another reck-
less naval race, the outcome of which is
wholly unpredictable. Certain only is
that it will cruelty sap the vital re-
sources OF all concerned. The grim pos
sibility is that it may pave the way to
another great war, from which civiliza-
ton could hardly hope to emerge except
as a mercilessly crippled remnant of it's
former self.
Yet, disturbing and discouraging as
this outlook is, I'VE must face facts" as
President Roosevelt told Congress, when
foreshadowing the building plans now
pending. The Senate has just passed
the current naval appropriations bill
calling for record peace-time expendi-
ture of $55oo00,oo0 and is preparing to
consider the $l,127,OOO 900 measure
whereby the fleet will be expanded by
twenty per cent. The House has already
adopted both measures.
Recent events in Asia and Europe have
made an already strongly navy-minded
Congress more conscious than ever of
the necessity of keeping the United
States impregnable at sea. With Hitler
goose-stepping his way unimpeded across
Europe; with Japan proclaiming her
intention OF holding onto every inch of
Chlnas soil which she has seized; with
Mussolini laundering that Italy can
mobilize 100000 trained fighting men:
with Fascist propaganda eating it's way
like termites across Latin America. It
would be criminal negligence for the
United States to shut its eyes and ears
to what is happening-today, it is true,
lar beyond these sheltered shores, but
tomorrow, perhaps, at our very door,
In the House on March 49, during
discussion of the naval bill, Representa-
tive Wadsworth spoke words that should
soak into the consciousness Of every
American whose fiber has not been cor-
roded by the germs of blind pacif1sm.
The day I am painting may never
come said the upstate New Yorker.
people may say no European or Asiatic
country will ever attempt to gain a
lodgment in South America. I wonder
Those regions are today, with certain
exceptions, the greatest semi-deyeloped
portions Of the earth. They may tempt
people to the exercise of force in order
to gain expansion. No, the day may not
come when non-American power seeks
toothold IN this hemisphere. But who
in 1918, or even on July l, 1914, would
have ventured to guess that within four
years 100000 American soldiers would
be in France?"