Evening star., 1940-01-09
Minton, in Forum,
Sketches Problems
Before Congress
Indiunu Senator Sees
Trops Ahead for
Peace Stund

Senator Sherman Minton. Demo-
crat, of Indiana spoke on "A Pre-
view of Congress" last night in the
National Radio Forum, arranged by
The Star and broadcast over a
Nationwide network of the National
Broadcasting Co. The text Of his
address follows:
am grateful to The Evening Star
of Washington for the opportunity
afforded me to speak tonight on
Its forum of the air on some Of the
problems that confront this session
Of Congress just opened.
Keeping the United States at
peace, I am sure you will all agree,
is the most important problem of
all. We will keep America out of
war. That is the will of the people
and I assure you that the admins
tration in Washington, from Presi-
dent Roosevelt on down, Is as
anxious and determined as you are
that we stay out of war. We look
about us and except in the Americas,
there is hardly place in the world
that war is not raging or threaten
ing.
Just two months ago special ses-
sion of Congress ended with the
repeal of the arms embargo and the
strengthening of our laws to avoid
war. This was accomplished over
the dire forebodings of members of
Congress and others, that such a
course would certainly lead us to
war. With two months of expert
ence the wisdom of that course has
been made manifest and peace more
surely vouchsafed to us. One of the
best ways to stay out of war is to
stay away from war. That, we are
doing. However, we live in a world
ruled by war and not by law There
Is no code of morals in international
affairs upon which to base a system
Of international law. We have no
organized society of nations to MAIN
tain the peace of the world, and in
its place we have the inevitable
alternative of anarchy and chaos.
Law of jungle Prevails.
The law of tooth and claw of the
Jungle prevails and the mighty op-
press the weak and scarcely any one
respects anything but the power of
the other nation to enforce its will
There are no safeguards of the rights
of nations in the world, except such
as they provide by their own might.
Every nation is a law unto itself
The rights of nations are sanctioned
by their own armies and navies. 1t
must be so in the absence of an or
ganization for collective security.
Thereewas time on the frontier
Of our own country when persons,
like nations today, were a law unto
themselves and every fellow carried
the law of the land on his hips, in
the form of pair of siX-shooters.
No man was without his protective
weapons in those days. Finally. or
ganized society, collective security,
If you please, came along and people
acted together to organize State,
county and local governments for
the protection and enforcement OF
their rights. Until that was done
everybody was armed for his own
protection.
That is the position we find our
selves in today in the world of
nations. We must be prepared. We
have no one to protect us but our
selves and we have more to protect
than others-the priceless institu-
tions of democracy and the richest,
most desirable Iand in the world.
Defense Must Be Adequate.
In the last Congress we appropri-
ated for national defense 81 SOC, ,OO0.-
900. On the opening of Congress
on Wednesday, the President rec
commended larger expenditures for
national defense. I do not know,
and neither do you. what the events
In Europe may bring. If they should
bring challenge to us in the worlds
greatest democracy by the success
Of the totalitarian arms over there,
the greatest crime against America
would be our failure to be pre-
pared. We are not going to be
unprepared, and this session of Con-
gress, with singular unanimity will
provide the necessary funds for ade-
quate defense.
I deplore the necessity for spend
ing these large sums in the most
indefensible and the largest enter
prise in the world, that of making
ready to kill people I regret it all
the more when these funds are so
badly needed to feed and care for
the needy people-to enable people
to live. BY force of circumstances
We have no choice but to prepare
to defend our precious liberties and
our great country. This will entail
an additional expenditure of not less
than s300,000,000, making our total
expenditures for national defense
this year around s1,8OO,OOO,
This is, as the President pointed
out in his message of Wednesday
to Congress, the only important in
crease in the budget Congress will
be asked to provide, and we must
provide the taxes to meet this ex-
penditure for our defense. You will
be ready, am sure, to assume your
share of this tax burden to provide
Tor our defense. So this session of
Congress will increase the military
And naval establishments of the
country and provide the taxes to
pay the bill for such increase.
I mentioned the fact that in the
special session closed in November,
We had removed the arms embargo.
We did that in the interest of fair
play. We did it not to help some
other nation, but to remove barriers
that kept other nations from helping
themselves. After removing the
embargo we restricted our vessels
and citizens from going into the
war zone. This had the effect of
destroying large part of our mer-
chant marine, built up at great
expense and effort, and the scrap
ping of our ancient policy of free
dom of the seas, for which we had
fought two wars. These sacrifices
were made in the interest of peace.
! approve. In my opinion, any ma
terial sacrifice is preferable to war.