Evening star., 1941-02-18

ground to believe is intended to
cruise or carry on war against a
power with which it is at peace; and
also to use like diligence to prevent
the departure from its jurisdiction
of any vessel intended to cruise or
carry on war as above, such vessel
having been specially adapted in
whole or in part within such juris-
diction to warlike use And the high
contracting parties agreed to OBJ
serve these rules as between them
selves in the future, and to bring
them to the knowledge of other
maritime powers and to invite them
to accede to them"
"In 1917 we passed a statute, one
of whose terms provided-"During a
war In which the United States is
neutral nation, it shall be unlawful
to send out of the jurisdiction of the
United States any vessel built,
armed, or equipped as a vessel Of
war. or converted from a private
vessel into a vessel of war, with any
intent or under any agreement or
contract, written or oral, that such
vessel shall be delivered to a bellig-
erent nation"
Act of June %, 1910,
Brought Into Picture.
BY the act of June %, 1910, we
provided Notwithstanding the
provisions of any other law no mill
tary or naval weapon, ship, boat, air.
trait, munitions, supplies, or equip
ment to which the United States
has title, in whole or in part, or
which have been contracted for,
shall hereafter be transferred. ex-
changed, sold, or otherwise disposed
of in any manner whatsoever unless
the chief of naval operations in the
case Of naval material, and the chief
of staff of the Army in the case of
military material, shall first certify
that such material is not essential
to the defense of the United States"
Then we declared safeguards for
our adherence to law Then we
declared the standard by which our
conduct as a Nation should be
measured. We did so because of the
assurance we would be kept out of
war. No one can read this bill and
doubt that its ultimate effect, if not
its declared purpose, will be to take
us into war. Every salutary protec-
ton in this field is being set aside.
If we did not more than turn to
Section (A) which provides-"Not-
withStanding the provisions of any
other law. the President may from
time TO time, when he deems it in
the interest of national defense, to
the extent to which funds are made
available or contracts are from time
TO time authorized by Congress, au-
thorize the Secretary of War, the
Secretary of the Navy, or the head
OF any other department or agency
of the Government"-to do all of
the things mentioned in Section 3.
The President has the sole discre-
ton, Notwithstanding the provisions
of any other law, without consulting
the Congress. and in disregard of
every law to set all of them at
naught and do exactly as he pleases.
Says President Can Enter
Into Power Politics.
The President can take us into
power politics and aline our military
and naval equipment, and all of
our American resources with the
nation, or nations, with whom he
chooses to associate himself It is
silly to say that there is limitation
to the extent to which the funds are
to be made available, and from time
to time authorized by Congress.
You we're told by the majority re-
port that there are safeguards to be
found in section (c) in that there
Is a time limit on the exercise by
the President Of the powers con-
ferred. If there were not any abuse
in the first place, if the Congress in
fact were retaining the constitu-
tional powers which are ours, why
should this limitation be inserted?
1t is perfectly apparent that the pro-
ponents of this bill, and the major
ity Of this committee, know full well
that the grant of arbitrary power to
the President under this bill is un-
safe and illegal, and in contraVen-