Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1948-02-04
CHAPTER 9.

The way toward neutrality legis-
lation in the United States was
paved by the hearings Of the Nye
Committee established by the Sem
ate to investigate the manufacture
and sale of arms and munitions. 1t
is doubtful that any congressional
committee has ever had a more I'M
fortunote effect on our foreign re-
lations, unless 1t be the Senate For
eign Relations Committee CONSIDER
ing the Treaty of Versailles sub
mitted by President Wilson.
Following the publication of
articles purporting to reveal details
of the sale OF munitions by American
manufacturers to foreign govern
ments, Senator Gerald P. Nye, Re-
publican, Of North Dakota, intro
duced a resolution in February, 1884,
to create a committee to investigate.
After the Senate allowed the reso-
luton to pass, virtually by default
and without more than casual con-
sideration, Nye, minority Repub-
lican member and an insolationist
of the deepest dye, was appointed
by Vice President Garner to be.
chairman of the Investigating Com
mittee. This was blunder of major
proportions, the responsibility for
which was Senator Pittman's, him.
self an isolationist in numerous re-
spects.
Pittman Was Preoccupied.
Ordinarily, when a special COM
mittee was created for any purpose,
especially an investigating commit
tee, a member Of the majority party
in this epoch the Democratic
Party-rather than member Of the
minority party would be made chair
man.. Pittman, though chairman OF
the Foreign Relations Committee,
was preoccupied In other ways, and
decided to let the appointment go
to Nye. The Vice President would
have accepted Pittsman's recon-
mendation of another chairman, had
he chosen to make one.
Had dreamed that an isolationist
Republican would be appointed I
promptly would have opposed 1t, but
I expected that a member of the
majority party would be named
under the usual practice and that he
would keep the investigation within
legitimate and reasonable bounds
and not make 1t great propaganda
movement.
The appointment Of Nye was a
fatal mistake because the committee,
under his craftsmanship, proceeded
to enlarge the scope of its inquiry
into an attempt to prove that the
United States had been drawn into
the First World War by American
bankers and munitions makers. 1t
ignored or contested the broad
reasons for our entry into that war.
namely, the unlawful sinking of
American ships and the destruction
Of American lives by German sub
marines, and the danger to the
United States of nation with prin-
ciples such as Germany's winning
the war. We had to invoke the prin-
ciple of self-defense.
Internationalists Hit.
Therefore the majority OF the
committee, in effect, dug the ground
out from under those Of us who had
the international viewpoint and who
argued that. If the peace Of the
world were to be maintained, the
United States had to take its share
in the effort. ,a s."
Their view was that, if the sale of
munitions and the granting of loans
to belligerants could be prevented,
the United States automatically
could avoid war and need not CO.
operate with other nations toward
that end. The rising dangers in
Europe and Asia were to them
merely an impelling reason to with
draw within our own shores as
opposed to doing anything to help
other nations resolve these dangers.
BY impugning the motives and
honesty Of President Wilson in the
First World War, by etching a sordid
caricature of our former associates,
Britain and France, and by white
washing the Kaiser's Germany, the
committee gave the American
people wholly erroneous view as to
the reasons why we had gone to war
in 1917.
The committee made undoubtedly
useful disclosures concerning the
traffic in arms, but its effect was to
throw the country into deepest iso-
lationism at the very moment when
our influence was so vitality needed