Evening star., 1941-02-18

ton of the Constitution, or they
would feel the necessity Of reclaim
ing" to the Congress its powers, and
"reclaiming" them more than two
years from the present date. 1t is
not unlike telling an incendiary that
he has until o'clock tomorrow aft
ernoon to burn up your house, but
after that he will have no power to
act.
Wanted to Put Country
On Neutral Footing.
In September, 1899, the President
said: THE step I recommend is to
put this country back on the solid
footing of real and traditional neu-
trality" In the interim since that
declaration we have seen the Presi-
dent take a given step for reasons
when public acquiescence was be-
lieved to have been achieved, new
step and yet another step far along
the road away from the solid footing
of traditional neutrality. We readily
recall what happened in the at
tempted transfer of the American
flag ships to the Panama flag in
October, 1899. Mr.. Hull so seriously
protested that the President himself
directed the Maritime Commission
to cancel the certificate of transfer
Yet, last week, we learned of the
transfer of five American-flag ships
to the Panama flag to ply between
here and the British Isles, and il
caused never ripple. We remem-
Der, as we'll, the lamentable incident
when a member of the French pur-
chasing mission crashed in one oi
our American bombers in California
Now, we fly our bombers directly
overseas. In 1899 we were told al
we had to do was to lift the en-
barge, that England had plenty o1
munitions and men. Step by step
week by week, we find something
new, than which none was more eX-
treme than the transfer of so de-
stroyerS from our fleet, until this
bill was submitted.
Phrase "Short of War"
Is No Longer Heard.
It was the much-talked of meth
ods short of war" two years ago, a
year ago. You no longer hear the
phrase short OF war" AS Prof.
Corwin put it: What is of vastly
greater Importance, however, is the
ability of the President simply by
day-to-day conduct of our foreign
relations to create situations from
which escape by the route Of war
is difficult or impossible. Indeed,
there are times when his power is
most effective in shaping policy by
not being exercised or by being
exercised weakly; while, because of
its primitive organization, execu-
tive power has an available
capacity for putting forth new
methods, new instruments of policy,
in way not open to the more COM
plex and cumberous agencies Of
government, fact we'll illustrated
by the recently contrived moral
embargo and other expedients for
the carrying out of the policy Of
furnishing aid against aggressors
short OF war.
DIR. Hutchins' Statement
Is Declared Pertinent.
The statement Of DR.. Hutchins of
the University of Chicago is singu-
larly opposite. He spoke from full
heart, and said:
II speak tonight because I believe
that the American people are about
to commit suicide. We are not plan
ming to. We have no plan. We are
drifting into suicide. Deafened by
martial music. fine language and
large appropriations, we are drifting
into war.
But can We stay out? We are
told it is too late. The house is on
fire. When the house is on fire,
you do not straighten the furniture
and clean out the cellar, or ask
yourself whether the house is as
good a house as you would like. You
put out the fire if you can.
The answer is that the house is