Glacier County chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1931-1940, 1940-06-21
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Washington, d. G.
FIFTH COLUMN GUNS IN u. s.

istration of all privately owned fire.
arms had more behind it than he
disclosed. Inside fact is that this
constitutes one of the most serious
problems facing the government
in its war against fifth columns.
Following the World war, one
armament company alone disposed
of 1000 Tommy" guns to private
purchasers after trying unsuccess-
fully to sell them to the army. About
10000 of these deadly weapons are
'unaccounted for" How many are
in the hands of potential fifth col
umnists the government, under ex-
isting laws, has no way of knowing.
Jackson's proposed statute would
provide the power to find out.
Another unmentioned factor trou-
bling officials is the tremendous in
crease in the sale of guns and am
munition in the last two years. Tax
collections by the internal revenue
bureau give the following figures on
this astounding traffic in our
peaceful" country:
Total sale of taxed firearms, rifles,
shotguns, pistols, revolvers, to pri-
vate persons in 1938-$24 ,959 ,048; in
1939-$36, 0l0,6S4
In the past three years these sales
reached the amazing total of S97,-
403, 730-which is almost one-fourth
of the army's 1887 appropriation. 1t
is also vastly in excess of average
sales for sporting purposes and law
enforcement.
Note-The U. S. is far behind 9TH
er powers in regulating firearms.
England, France, Germany, Italy,
Japan all have drastic laws on the
private possession of weapons. The
national firearms act of 1894 i'm
posed a limited regulation on the
sale Of machine-guns and sawed-off
shotguns by requiring manufacture
ers, dealers and pawnbrokers to reg
lister sales and transfers. But the
many thousands of these lethal
weapons sold before 1884 still are
unaccounted for.
OIL TO ITALY
1taly's entrance into the war has
at least one harmful effect upon
her ally, Germany. It means the
end of U. S. oil shipments to Italian
ports for trans-shipment to Ger
many.
These shipments, especially of lu-
bricating oils, have been heavy since
the first month of the war. With
Italy at war, however, U. S. ships
are barred.
This will stimulate Axis efforts to
open up oil resources in the Near
East, and Italy is sure to make a
drive for the British and French
oil fields in Iraq. Or getting through
the Suez canal, she will strike at the
oil fields of Iran, under control of
the Anglo-Iranian company.
Meanwhile British oil shipments
from these sources will be diverted
from the Mediterranean route, and
the result probably will be a heavy
increase of U. S. oil shipments to
Britain and France.
APPEASING MUSSOLINI
Allied and Roosevelt diplomacy
struggled behind the scenes until
almost the last minute to keep Mus
Sol1nl out OF war.
1t was on Monday that the Ital-
ian dictator shouted his hoarse-
voiced proclamation of war. And
as late as the preceding Saturday,
the French were still dickering with
him. At that time they offered him
the island of Corsica, birthplace of
Napoleon, as well as the important
African colony of Tunisia, plus
French Somaliland with its Red Sea
port Of Djibuti.
But Mussolini wanted more.
Real fact probably was that he
could not afford to antagonize Hit
Ter by failing to declare war. A
Nazi victory looked too certain, in
which case Mussolini would have
been left facing the triumphant and
resentful hordes of Nazi Germany
just across the Bremen pass.
Note-A lot of people think Mus
solini will face an aggressive Nazi
army anyway.
ROOSEVELTS MOVES
President Roosevelt came to real
ize that nothing counted with Musso-
lini except (D what he was going to
get in return for keeping the peace;
and (2) whether he was going to
be on the winning side.
Accordingly, the last weeks an
nouncements from the White House
that the United States was selling
army and navy planes direct to
the allies, plus surplus army equip
ment, was calculated to have a dou-
bic effect. One was the actual help |
it would give the allies. The other |
was the hope that Mussolini would
be Influenced by the fact that the
United States was talking in deeds,
not mere words, and that these
deeds might turn an allied victory. |