The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-10-17
In Today s Mail

The Pittman Act would prohibit American ships from entering belligerent ports or any "areas of combat" as defined by the Pres-
 ident, and would prohibit Amer
 ican ships from carrying arms in any event except on licenses is- sued by the Munitions Board.
 3. Entry of American citizens
 into war areas.
 The President under existing
 laws covering the issuance of pass
 ports has stopped the entry of
 American citizens into war areas,
 except in cases of necessity, as i'm
 terpreted by the Department of
 State.
 The Pittman Act subject to cer-
 tain exceptions, covered by regula-
 ticns to be issued by the President,
 would forbid American citizens
 from entering "areas of combat"
 or belligerent ports or from travel
 ing on the ships of belligerents.
 1. Credit.
 The present Johnson law for
 bids the giving of any credit to
 belligerents who are in arrears in
 their payments of war debts to us,
 except ordinary commercial cred
 it customarily used in peace time."
 The Pittman Act would forbid
 the extension of any credit, ex-
 cept non-renewal credits for 90
 days of a character customarily
 used in peace time transactions"
 The suitability of the means:
 The neutrality issue is divided in- to two major issues. The first con- cerns itself with the repeal of the existing law, which places an abso- lute embargo upon arms estimated to be approximately 10 per cent of the goods essential for the conduct of war, but leaves both American and belligerent ships free to carry the remaining 90 per cent of the war essentials. The theory is that the major evil exists in cur being Q party under any terms of the crea- ments which are considered the tion of the death-dealing instru- symbols of war. The second is founded on the idea of isolation and proposes that all American ships and citizens be excluded from areas of combat as defined by the president It. seeks to isolate us entirely from the areas of combat, to free us of re- sponsibility for the ownership or transportation of arms, and to bar our citizens of ships from war areas
 There is third issue. as to the handling of credits to belligerents in payment of purchases of war mater ials. This is not a matter of such compelling principle or difference of means that the adoption of one or the other can be a determining fac- tor in getting us into war. We shall therefore dismiss 1t from this dis cussion.
 The character of our neutrality is influenced by the purposes which we have set ourselves to accomplish. These purposes, it is true, may change or develop Tn different direc- tions as the war goes on. It is the feeling of those who insist upon the retention of embargoes that our will to stay out of war will be determin- ed by the use of arms and their le- gal definition. This might be true if it were to be a war quickly ended by the superiority of arms. as in the case of the swift conquest of Poland. It is not. It is now plainly recog- nized by both sides that it is going tc be a long war to be won by the slow processes of exhaustion. We believe it is apparent that the dif- ferences between the provisions de- fined by existing law and thbse de- fined by the Pittman Act. when clearly understood. are not such as