Evening star., 1939-11-05

undertakes to purchase peace at great
price. With September unemployment
figure of 9,471 900, it seeks to renounce
. second "blood-stained boom" by re-
fusing credit to belligerents and limiting
exports to their cash resources. It has
revolutionized traditional maritime pol
Icy by forsaking much of the doctrine
Of the freedom of the seas
Despite these surrenoers, Is the price
offered high enough? Will the Neu-
trality Act, as its champions aver, prove
q SUFFICIENT buckler against participation
in the present conflict? Or does it, as
opponents protest, contain f1ssures
through which war may be able to
strike? Such questions, now in the minds
of all thoughtful Americans, recall
book Of five years ago which portrayed
a strange and tragic Nemesis-the fate
under which a peace-loving democracy
insensibly permitted itself to become
entangled and then to be swept head
long into the World War. Extensive quo
tations from this classic were read into
the record during the neutrality debate
by Senator Bennett Champ Clark of
Missouri. 1t is THE Road to War" by
Walter Mills.
Disagrees With Nye.
Interest will center first and chiefly
on the authors opinion as to the war
making influence OF trade with bellig-
erents in arms, munitions and imple-
ments Of war, which is authorized by the
new act. Contrary to widespread i'm
ecfA L.
no means subscribes to the thesis of the
Nye Munitions Committee. This was
stated during the debate by Senator
Gerald p. Nye, Republican, of North Da-
kota. as follows:
THE munitions trade, the war trade
and the necessity of financing that trade
were basic to larger consideration that
ultimately had the United States tramp
ing straight into a war"
On the contrary, Mills explicitly de-
clared that mo one could accuse Mr..
Wilson or his administration of vulgar
interest in the profits of munitions
manufacture" In another place he made
the following animation: ITO allege that
j. P. Morgan & Co. brought the United
States into the World War to save their
investments (Which for the most part
they had passed on anyway, of course)
Is to take very romantic view of such
affairs" He was furthermore at pains
to point out that the sinking of the
Lusitania, with the loss of 124 American
passengers, which was to prove q de-
cisive factor in our entrance into the
war, occurred several months before the
war boom got under way
It should be noted that "The Road to
War" was published in 1885 and that the
Nye Munitions Committee-which is not
mentioned in the book-did not make its
report until 1886, and that it was also
not until 1896 that Carlton Savage, as
sistant to the counselor of the State De-
partment, issued the second volume Of
his Policy Of the United States Toward
Maritime Commerce in War" This VOL
ume made public secret papers in which
Wilson's Secretary of State, Robert Lans-
ing, and his Secretary of the Treasury,
William G. McAdoo, used the argument
Of certain collapse Of war prosperity to
persuade the President to reverse his
former policy of discouraging private
American loans to belligerents. 1t also
brought into the light of day dispatches
apparently unavailable to Mills in which
Walter H. Page, Ambassador to Great
Britain, gleefully transmitted English
threats that further interference with
the blockade would mean cessation of
war orders.
Falls Shy Of Clark's Position.
At any rate the position taken in "The
Road to War" is the less extreme one OF
Senator Clark-that war trade, including
foodstuffs and clothing as we'll as mill
tary commodities, was merely one in "a
combination of many elements" Among
the factors listed in a series of offenses
committed by the German Empire, be-
ginning with the invasion of Belgium
and the sack of Louvain and progressing
to unrestricted submarine warfare and
the Zimmerman note, which suggested
an alliance with Mexico for the re-
conquest of the Southwest. Another is
the infatuate Anglophilism of Ambas-
sador Page and the secret diplomacy Of
Edward M. House, who was instructed
by President Wilson to negotiate on be-
half OF peace, and who instead, the
author charges, worked secretly for inter-
vention on the side of the entente. 4
further great influence is declared tc
have been British propaganda.
If the book has one phase more
ominous than another it is an insistence
that the supreme factor governing oul
entrance into the World War was tn.
unneutral temper of the American peo.
pie. The author never wearies of EN-.
broidering this theme, which, in hi.
opinion, accounted for our acceptance
outside notes of protest, of the illegal
British blockade, our hospitality to tn,
allied point Of view and refusal to hea
that Of the Germans, and our relinquish
ment of control over American export
10 the English consular service.
The volume, Mills states, IDEALS will
an episode profoundly Influenced by
passionate acceptance of the entent
case" One reason for the "overwhelm
ing effectiveness" of allied propagand
in the United States is declared to hav
been found in "the predisposition Of tn
American public to receive It," Tn
allies, he says again, had only to play Vi
an opinion overwhelmingly disposed i
their favor" Champions Of Germany
like Profs. Francke and Meinsterberg q
Harvard, and the Ridders in New Yorl