Evening star., 1939-05-08
Moore Warns i. ).
Not 10 Give War
Power 10 President
Former World Court
Members Letter Reed
As Hearings End
BY the Associated Press.


Senator johnson. Republican, Of
California presented to the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee dec
laration by John Bassett Moore, for
mer State Department official. that
to confer the power of peace and
war on the President would at
once make us an autocracy."
The statement was in a letter
Mr.. Moore wrote Senator johnson
shortly after former Secretary OF
State Stimson advised the commit
tee that should a war come this
country should take sides by aiding
Great Britain and France.
Mr.. Moore, one-time American
member of the World Court and
State Department counselor in
1913 ID, asserted the agitation for
the abandonment of our neutrality
is directly associated with the effort
to invest the Chief Executive, open
ly or under benevolent DISCUSSES,
with the power of peace and war,
which is by our constitution vested
in the Congress-
Growth of Demand Seen.
Growing out of this movement,
he wrote, is the demand that the
Chief Executive be given power to
distinguish aggressor and non-ag-
gressor nations and the claim that
the United States has a duty to
help Ito crush the aggressor.'
This argument, as applied At the
present time. he said. follows the
line of cleavage between 'democra-
cies' and 'autocracies.
Advocates of abandoning neutral
ity, he added, ARE those who wish
to convert our democracy into an
autocracy by comforting the power
of peace and war on the President,
which would at once make us an
autocracy."
After reading Mr.. Moore's letter,
Senator Johnson, acting as chair
man in the absence Of Senator Pitt
man, Democrat, of Nevada, declared
the committees long hearings at an
end. The members almost imme-
diately begin executive sessions to
undertake to write neutrality law
on which a majority can agree.
Columbia Man Heard.
The final witness was James T.
ShotWell Columbia University pro-
fessor of international law, who
urged adoption of policy which
would permit discrimination against
an aggressor nation in time of war.
Criticizing neutrality law provi-
sions which apply equally to all
warning nations as surrendering
"our neutral rights" the witness
said that by providing special treat
ment for treaty-breaking aggressors
I'VE would to some extent recover
our freedom of action without at the
same time misleading militaristic
governments into the delusion that
we had ceased to care for our
rights
Urges Action Before Crisis.
Whatever neutrality action is
taken, Prof. Shotwell emphasized,
should be finished before a crisis
arises. He urged the committee to
avoid extreme policies-either ex-
treme isolationism, which he said
the present law represents, or inter-
nationalism, which he indicated
would result from discarding all such
legislation and relying upon inter-
national law.
Meanwhile, the congressional ar
gument over neutrality appeared tc
be narrowing to a choice between
the present law, plus renewal OF the
"cash-and-carry" system, and the
plan proposed by Senator Pittman,
Democrat, of Nevada.
This leaves one principal ques-
ton to be settled: Shall the United
States refuse to sell arms and am,
munition to warning nations, OF
shall it agree to make such sales
for cash?
Senator Pittman's Plan.
Senator Pittman, chairman Of thu
Senate Foreign Relations Commit.
tee, wants to make the "cash-and-
carry" system mandatory for a.!
American goods, including mum.
tions. This, in effect, would repea
the arms embargo in the present
law.
In a separate clause his bill pro
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