Evening star., 1939-11-05
Road to War Indicts Unneutral
U.S.. Spirit Rather Than Trade
Quotations by Isolationists' in Debate Pointed to
Factors Which Mills Saw as
Only Contributory
By Richard L. Stokes.

L.. SfOkeS.
mass hysteria" which for men like SEN
ators Norris and Wheeler Is the most
dreadful memory of the World War?
One answer might be that II Germany,
thanks to the policies Of Adolf Hitler, is
less popular today than 1t was IS years
ago. then France and England, owing
f1rst to their defaulted war debts and
second to the Munich settlement, also
are less enthusiastically regarded. A
plausible argument might be presented
that the emotional partisanship Of the
American people was forfeited when
Czecho-Slovakia was sacrificed It may
be significant that there is as vet no
Theodore Roosevelt preaching a moral
crusade in behalf Of England and
France.
Against great wave of emotion no
legislation outside dictatorship could
prevail. But the Neutrality Act, leaving
aside for moment its repeal of the
present embargo on military exports,
makes heroic efforts in the practical
field to avert every possible occasion
that might tend to align American
opinion, in Mills phrase, "irrevocably
on the side of the allies"
Designed to Obviate Quarreis.
Under penalty of heavy fine and i'm
prisonment, the granting of credits and
flotation of bond issues are forbidden
to belligerent nations or their agents.
American vessels are prohibited from
carrying passengers and goods to bel
ligerent ports, with specified exceptions
outside the war area. The President is
authorized to designate war areas to
which American ships and passengers
may not go. Title to goods shipped to
belligerents or their agents must be
transferred before they leave American
shores. American citizens are forbidden
to travel on ships of belngerent registry.
These precautions are admittedly CAL
culated to obviate quarrels over the Brit
ish blockade on one side and over sub
marine warfare on the other.
If "the road to war" declines the theory
of Senator Nye and some other isola-
tionists that finance and munitions
manufacture were basic" among the
causes which brought us into the World
War, evidence is not lacking that he
considered this to have been an impor-
tant effect or concomitant of the coun-
try's Immortality of spirit.
From the middle of 1915, he records,
"the great tide of wartime prosperity
began to how" In few months, he
quotes the elder Senator La Toilette as
saying, The stocks of the Schwab steel
properties rose from 100000 to $49,-
0O0000." Prosperity is described as
rising 'in an ever dizzier curve" Rail-
road terminals. East and West, "were
beginning to break down under the jam
of traffic" How were the allies to go
on paying? 'The bankers prepared not
only to sustain, but to expand the bubble
on the winds of credit imitation" With
the first Anglo-French war loan of $780,
100000 on September Is, 1915, "our neu-
trality was at an end"
Two Neutrality Alternatives.
The new act forbids such loans under
drastic penalties. and is thus designed to
place q curb on the export not only Of
war supplies but of foodstuffs, clothing
and other commodities which modern
warfare has shifted from conditional to
absolute contraband. But supposing that
once again new war wealth" though on
q smaller scale, begins pouring into
every corner of our economy?" Sup
posing there rises demand not merely
from industry, but from agriculture that
either the curbs be swept aside or loop
holes found in the law? Then the
creators of the act may reflect on advice
which Mills quotes approvingly from
the late Senator La Toilette. For true
neutrality, he said, there are two pos
sible alternatives-"to enforce our COM
mercial rights impartially against both
sides, or simply to cut off our commerce
from both"
Not the least interesting pages in "The
Road to War" deal with proposals which
were denounced as "unpatrDtic" or
"treasonous" in 1914-17, and which have
now been accepted by various factions
in the neutrality fight. AS early as Au-
gust IS, 1914, William Jennings Bryan
the judgment Of this Government loans
by American bankers to any foreign
nation which is now at war are in
consistent with the true spirit of neu-
tralty." During the same month a bill
was introduced by Senator Gilbert NJ
Hitchcock of Nebraska placing an en-
barge on the export of munitions.
After the sinking Of the Lusitania
Secretary Bryan vainly advised Presi-
dent Wilson that "a ship carrying
contraband should not rely upon pas
sengers to protect her from attack
Such views caused him to resign rather
than put his signature to the second
Lusitania note-an act leading Mills te
pronounce of Bryan that his was IS
failure which enshrines him in one o1
the more honorable inches of ou1
history"
Passenger Restrictions Defeated.
Early in 1916 there was flood of bill.
in Congress to deny clearance papers te
vessels carrying munitions. Senator
Thomas p. Gore Of Oklahoma introduced
. resolution denying passports to Ameri.
cans taking passage in belligerent yes.
sells. A similar measure was presented
in the House by Representative JET
McLemore of Texas. Only the admins
tration's utmost pressure was able t.
defeat the Gore-McLemore proposal.
When President Wilson undertook Il