Evening star., 1939-06-19
Facing Neutrality Facts

More than score of Senators have
signed round robin and a minority
OF Republican members of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee have
signed a report opposing repeal of
the existing ban on sale of arms to
nations engaged in warfare. This
embargo provision, with several less
important provisions, is all that re-
mains of the controversial 1887 Neu-
trality Act. The part of that act
which held the greatest promise as
a bulWark against entanglements
that make for war-the cash and
carry section-WaS allowed to ex.
pire, on May l last. That section
authorized the President to prohibit
shipment of supplies of any kind to
belligerents unless divested of Ameri-
can ownership and shipped in for
eign bottoms. Demise of that section
lifted all restrictions on American
trade in war zones, except with re-
spect to arms and other actual i'm
plements of war.
Chairman Pittman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee has
propounded to the signers of the
round robin very proper, though
perhaps embarrassing, question. Re-
ferring to a statement criticizing
talk about detesting war while at
the same time scheming to get profit
from the wars of other nations"
Senator Pittman wants to know if
the signers of the round robin are
sincere enough to cary their philos-
ophy to the logical conclusion-ex-
tension of the embargo to such other
necessities of war as cotton, oil, cop
per, steel, scrap iron and the sundry
other materials without which a
warning nation cannot carry on it's
fight. Are the Senators and Repre-
sentatives who demand retention
and tightening of the automatic
arms embargo ready to face the
economic disturbances which would
result from logical inclusion in the
ban of cotton, oil, steel and the other
war essentials?
They will have opportunity to pom
der upon all aspects Of intlexible,
mandatory embargoes during con-
sideration of the administration
sensible compromise proposals, en-
bodied in the Bloom bill Without
questioning the lofty ideals of the
isolationists, they should recognize
the fact that America cannot escape
every conceivable type of interna-
tional storm by hiding its head in
the sand. In lieu of such a policy
Secretary Hull proposes that Amer
lea should face the problem of our
foreign relations squarely, free to
adapt ourselves to every changing
condition and unhampered in meet
ing the particular exigencieS of each
new crisis.
The clamping of a mandatory en-
barge on arms to Great Britain and
Germany, if they went to war this
summer, would have the effect of
aligning us on Germany's side, as
she is better prepared for war than
England, who would need to buy
materials from US. The Hull bill
would open our arms and other trade
to both sides-but only England,
through her control of the seas,
would be in a position to avail her
self of the opportunity. This trade,
through operation of provisions SINH
lar to cash and carry" of the 1887
Act, could be carried on with
minimum risk of commercial or f.
nancial involvement of the type that
helped to draw us into the World
War There is no absolute guarantee
against war in law or diplomacy, but
the Hull program comes closer to the
goal than any proposal so far ad-
vanced by the so-called mandatory
neutrality bloc.