Evening star., 1939-09-20

post cards and kilograms that turned
enough wavering votes in the Senate
to keep the United States out Of
the World Court.
Will the radio priest, who Is urg-
ing his followers to bear down on
Congress for retention of the arms
embargo, repeat his famous victory
in the World Court fight?
1t is not inconceivable that he
will. There is large and sincere
body of opinion on his side; no one
questions, for example, the sin
cerity of the group which will lead
the fight against the President in
the Senate. There is, moreover, the
fact that the issue has been so
distorted in the minds of many we'll
meaning people that it appears to
be not the simple issue of whether
or not the United States should per.
nit the sale of arms on the CASH
and-carry plan to all nations alike,
but the issue of whether or not
the United States should enter the
war. There is also the fact that this
Congress contains some $50 first
term members of the House and
that flrst-term members are notori-
ously susceptible to massed attacks
such as that which the Coughlin-
ties and other groups have launched
against the proposed embargo re-
peal.
The best judgment here today on
the eve of what undoubtedly will be
a momentous session, is that repeal
will win, but that the fight over
it will be long and bitter. 1t will
be surprising if the issue comes to
a head in the Senate, which will
first deal with it, in less than 80
days. The spearhead of the oppo-
sition to the President has not only
sincerity and great oratorical ability
and stamina, but parliamentary
shreWdness in high degree.
Propaganda against repeal Of the
embargo has poured in upon men,
bers of Congress this week in steady
and growing stream. In the House
yesterday, the mail relating to the
neutrality issue was so heavy the
first two deliveries of the day were
each an hour and a half behind
schedule. Inquiries brought out that
it was coming to all Congressman,
from all parts of the country. A
great percentage of it. from the
wording, had been inspired by
Father Coughlin's radio blast Of last
Sunday.
The writer went through a pile Of
some 500 messages. part Of those
received by mail and wire in the
course of two days by Middle
Western Congressman. Among them
was a batch of 200 printed post
cards, each individually signed, from
the members of a church group
which had evidently passed resolu-
tions demanding the retention Of
the embargo. The cards called for
"a strengthened neutrality law for
maintenance of the arms and
credit embargo" and for continued
pressure for conciliation, co-opera-
ton and international agreement"
War Peril in Present Law.
Typical of many expressions be-
traying, as this writer believes, q
misconception of the issue before
Congress was this: Keep the neu-
trality act unchanged. Vote against
cash and carry
Now if the neutrality act under
w, yrTo ie
unchanged, there will continue to be
ban on the sale of arms and the
implements of war to belligerents,
but there will be no restrictions
whatsoever on our trade in other
commodities. It is the profound be.
lief of Secretary of State Hull-to
name but one Of the more conspic-
uous advocates of revision-that We
are far more likely to be drawn into
war under the present act, with its
permission of unrestricted trade in
such commodities as steel and
copper and other things of vital
Importance to the belligerents, than
we should be if all trade with bellig-
erents, whether in arms or in any,
thing else, were subjected to the
strict provision that the belligerent
pay cash and take the goods away
in other than American ships.
Both the Pittman proposal in the
last session and, to a lesser degree,
the so-called Bloom bill as 1t was
reported and as it passed the House,
only to be shelved by the Senate,
contained what amounted to the
cash-and-carry plan for goods other
than arms and ammunition.
Disservice to Cause Of Peace.
Repeal of the arms embargo, then,
is not the sole issue Repeal Is
bound up with the question Of what
shall be done about other goods,
which may now be transported into
all the seven seas by American
ships. Just what the administration
will ask for is not yet known. It
wants, of course, repeal of the arms
embargo. AS for the rest, the mes
sage of the President, it is now
believed, will be in general terms
the statement of an objective rather
than insistence on any specific plan.
There can hardly be any doubt,
from the votes in the last session,
from the evident overwhelming de-
desire of the country to keep out Of
the war, from the fact that the CASH
and-carry plan for all commodities
was contained in the original ad-
ministration-approved bill as it
came from the House Foreign AZ
fairs Committee-there can be little
doubt that joined with the arms
embargo repeal, if it Is brought
about, will be stringent regulation
Of all sales Of all commodities 70
the warning nations.
Those who are crying out that the
present Neutrality Act should be
kept unchanged are befogging the
grave issue before Congress-and
they are doing a positive disservice
to the cause Of peace for the United
States.