Evening Star Newspaper, October 9, 1927, Page 45

EDITORIAL PAGE NATIONAL PROBLEMS SPECIAL FEATURES WASHINGTON BY WILL P. KED I war comes again— Hundreds of thousands of industrial plants, in ever ate in the Union, will start imme diately when Congress rings the bell, each with contract already made out, knowing just what quantity of which article on a list of up d of 700.000 essential war materials it must pro- duce, with adequ: plant, sufficient and proper machinery and trained working force ready, with raw materials guaranteed, with power provided and with transpogtation assured to get the war supplies where they are needed on time. Congress will get a bill showing the approxi mate cost of the conscientiously Industrial ‘war-time service, the requirements for the Army and for the civil- jan population. familiar through personal survey with the facilities of each plant, will take charge of the production and delivery program, leaving Army officers free to do their own particular job— fighting. The United States will be on a self-sustaining basis. NEDY. deleted. The importance of all this is emphasized by the fact that for every coldier actually on the com Jine in the World War there were 17 men supplying him to make him effective. This is the business program worked out by the War Department and American hu'_lustr_\' co- operating, with the best counsel and active assist- ance of all agencies of Government. It is the efficient, businesslike mobilization of industry in times of peace to be ready for war, with a con- sequent wholesale saving in time, money, resources and lives. ) For the first time in history we as a Nation are taking advantage of the bitter lessons taught us during any war. Congress has written a saving clause into the new national defense act of 1920 which clearly—legally—defines for the first time the rightful and all-important place of industry in the program of national protection. By its mandate the Assistant Secretary of War has im- ‘posed as his principal duty “assurance of ade- quate provision for the mobilization of fl\fl(e.flfll and industrial organizations essential to war-time ‘needs.” Here, for the first time in the history of the Army, is a definite and distinct cleavage made between the purely military affairs, under the chief of staff, the general staff and the fighting arms, and the strictly business affairs, under the Assistant Secretary of War, an industrial staff and the seven supply branches. * %k ¥ X The big lesson of the World War from the in- dustrial viewpoint was this: TIndustrial preparedness had been no one’s busi- mess. While by the millions our selected man- power was rushed into service under the flag just as fast as they could hold up their arms for the oath, we could not equip them. They fought over- seas with borrowed weapons and borrowed artil- lery, and on the day the armistice was declared not one American tank or one American fighting plane had reached the battle front. We had to improvise the complete structure from the ground up, with consequent delay," confusion, trial and ‘error, clash and competition, profiteering—waste of both treasure and men’s lives. Even though we had a protected start manu- facturing munitions for the allies for three years behind the barricade of allied arms, even though all the people were eager and Congress appro- priated unprecedented sums of money, it was im- possible immediately to expand and strengthen the industrial structure to bear the war-time load— an increase of 15 per cent in coal, production, an increase of 30 per cent on our gigantic steel in- dustry and hundreds of previously unheard-of re- quirements in mountainous quantities. In Janu- ary, 1918, there were 250 ships laden with war materials tied up in American ports for lack of fuel. There were zflc blockades, damming up the flow of imperatively needed supplies at our shipping centers and critical power shortage at Niagara Falls and Pittsburgh. Had we been able to shorten the past war but one week by industrial preparedness the saving would have supported our peace-time Army for an entire year, and many precious lives would have been spared. ith profiteering prices | | | tries. Now comes the Nation's plan to profit by this cruel lesson. Had we had the same plans in 1817 that we have today the time of getting ready could have been cut in half, and the country would have been saved $10,000,000,000, or one-half of our national del use the value of the dol- lar fell to ahout 60 cents, every individual ci has since been losing a large fraction of each dellar he rveceives, for we are thus still paying our pound of flesh into the rapacious maw of wor—and, above all this saving of money, thou- sands of our war dead would be alive today. American industry, legally made a partner of the Government, was called in to plan its own campaign to meet war-time requirements of the Nation and to help draft the program for mobili- zation. First, Department Busines there was organized last yvear the Council,” on which are serv. | nized engineers were organized War | | sort of ing 15 outstanding industrialists, giving their own | time and the services of the great institutions they administer, to whom was committed the duty of constantly examining and improving all polici and methods of current procurement for the mi tary establishment. They sce to it that sound business principles are followed and that every dollar appropriated for the Nation's defense does its full duty. With their farknown business ability and pre-eminent industrial standing. they give assurance that the great superstructure of supply plans is being built on a sound foundation. * o ke The map of the United States has been charted into 14 procurement areas, without regard to Army corps areas or other military division—en- tirely on the basis of industry, with headquarters at Boston, Bridgeport, New York, Buffalo, Phila- delphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cleveland, Cincin- nati, Birmingham, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis and n Francisco. The main reason for this division was to de- centralize procurement and save that all-important element—time. This grew out of the experiences and set-up of the War Industries Board, which, particularly at the time of the armistice, was op- erating effectively in mobilizing American indus- The War Department fell heir to all the records of that war-time board. The country had fallen naturally into these divisions during the war, each section producing a different type of essential supplies. I'or example, the Bridgeport area, taking in half of Connecticut and Massachu- setts, is essentially the ordnance center. In each one of these 14 procurement districts the activities of the seven supply branches of the Army—Quartermaster Corps, Ordnance, Air Corps, Engineers, Medical Corps, Signal Corps and Chemical Warfare Service—are co-ordinated and supervised in such matters as manufacturing fa- cilities, raw materials, priorities in production and distribution, standardization and specifications, prices to be paid, contracts to be let, curtailment, substitution and conservation in deficlent jtems and in their demands for power, funds, labor and transportatfon. In some of these procurement areas each of the seven supply services has a chief and in New York, while several other areas will be grouped under one chief of a supply serv- jce—as, for example, the Signal Corps has a chief in only three areas, because those are the only ones in which the articles it requires are made. * %k X X In most of these services this area chief is a civilian_who was doing the work during the World War, who knows the terrible waste and delay and what a hard job it was under those conditions of unprecedented demand and hectic rush disrupting normal economic conditions. They have consented to continue their magnificent service as civilians, without rank or pay. Each of these has an executive assistant, who is in the Regular Army and who runs the office. Built around these executives is a staff of key men in industry, each of whom carries along some par- ticular phase of the planning work in that dis- trict. They are mostly executives of some plant that is allied to the work of the War Department. These civilians, some of whom hold commis. sions as Reserve officers, will be in charge of their particular _procurement area in case of an emer- gency. The idea of the War Department is to leave these men, who know all phases of the industrial life of that particular area and who know also the requirements and program of the War Department, to “carry on” during the emer- gency and so to free the Regular Army officers EDITORIAL he Sunday Star | D. C, SUNDAY from that procurement work and allow them to take their place in the circle of operations. Under such a plan it will not be necessary for half of the Army to be far away from the fighting, trying to keep the other half supplied. As an illustration of the care with which civil- ians have been recruited for Reserve officers in these procurement areas, for two years the Amer- ican Engineering Council has been working with the War Department to get men of proper train- ing. experience, background, attitude and spirit who would recogiize this as a patriotic oppor- tunity. 1n each large center committees of recog- to recommend those who would make high-grade Ordnance Re- serve officers. These committees were given care- ful instruction as to the type of men wanted, the War Department wrote its specification for the men it needed, and the engineers, who knew all about them, picked the best men for the jobs. * % % % Each one of the more than 700,000 different jtems which the Army used in the World War and many others which are included in the re- quirements for a future war have heen traced to their source of raw material. Through these 14 procurement areas the peace-time manu- facturing plants of the land are being prepared to produce all of these articles promptly, in what- ever quantity may be needed, with the load care- fully distributed so as not to cause any economic disturbance, shift of labor or steady flow of sup- plies to the civilian population. The big thought is to let American industry know just what its war-time ta will be and to bhe prepared to do it. Heretofore it has had to make its plans in the dark, it at all. Sur of all the plans in each of the 14 areas are heing constantly made. The general staff of the Army tells what their requirements will be. These chicfs and exccutive officers of the several supply services in these 14 areas know what the plants can produce, and so the order is allocated in consonance with the facilities. In this program of having the thousands of units that make up the industrial life of the tion—each individual factory—always ready to take up its share of the war load, there is no thought of governmental interference to the point | of telling business how to run its own affairs. Business recognizes this and is co-operating 100 per cent. It wants to be free of the fear of what might happen, as did happen in the World War, when some bumptious officer ruthlessly dictated changes that ruined many industrial plants. It wants gradually to make whatever changes are necessary for a smooth shift to a war basis. So factory plans for war time are being made by the factory executives in order to be ready to obtain the right type of machinery and trained help to make the particular product that will be allocated to that plant. And all this is done with one emphatic under- standing—that war in America is not a money- making proposition, and that the plants that fur- nish the Nation in times of peace must do it also in time of war, and that there will be no “bootlegging™ interlopers, no ‘shoestring” con- tractors, no “cost-plus” favorites. * ok % ok Now across this industrial map of the United States there are four generpl and essential sup- plies for industry that must be provided for and distributed just as carefully as the procurement needs of the Army are allocated—raw materials, labor, power and transportation, Studies have been made by the War Depart- ment, with the co-operation of industrial experts and with the advice of all Government agencies, to see how the raw materials should be allocated. For example, with regard to minerals of major importance in national defense, recommendations prepared by the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers have been incorporated bodily into the raw-materials program. Surveys are being made to see if there is the necessary labor in each of the procurement dis- tricts. For example, there may be a talcum powder plant in Springfield, Mass. This is not a war necessity. But the same machinery and the same personnel can be used just as well to pro- duca some ordnance requirement—so perhaps half of the force will be thus reassigned. Also in the same locality there is doubtless a great deal of retired labor that will be glad to “do its bit" in an SECTION | MORNING, OCTOBER 9, 192 emergency. All this is being surveyed, so that the Nation may know its reserve industrial man-. power. This is extremely valuable also during peace days, for it will show how the labor market can be stabilized, by disclosing where labor should be distributed and leveled out to prevent localized unemployment and where the reserve reservoirs of labor are located. e In regard to power—to obey the implied man- date of Congress that ¢he future must not see such heart-rending power shortage as there was around Niagara Falls and Pittsburgh while the youth of the land was braving the Hun shells and ately in need of explosives and other munitions from home with which to give a de- cisive American answer—a complete electric-power survey of the United States has been made by the Army Engineers, working with the National Elec- Light Association and other super trade or- tions. As part of its system of public the United States Government is going to see that sufficient power is available for every factory throughout the 48 States that may be | called upon to produce in times of emergency. The surveys thus far made show that if we utilize | peace-time industry intelligently there will be little need for new war-time faci 5 The transportation blockade during the World War, with hundreds of ships laden with sorel needed supplies that could not put to sea for lack ot fuel and factories that had to shut down also for lack of fuel because loaded and empty freight cars from all points of the compass were barri- caded around our principal factory districts and ports of shipment, with the Government eventually taking over all of the railroads physically and scrambling them in an almost hopeless tangle, with terrible uneconomic loss—a depression of 5.000,000,000 in railroad values—will never happen again, . o0 W Plans have heen drawn by the War Department and the Association of Railway Executives for the control, but decidedly not the management, of the railroads by the Government in such an emer- gency. There will be set up a priorities: board to give right of way to the most ential re- quirements in the order of their importance and carefully routed to avoid any blockades. .This priority system will be used as a club whenever necessary. For example, if steel is needed for some war essential, and a manufacturer of pleas- ure automobiles refuses to stop using it for non- essential product, he will quickly find that he cannot get a single carload of coal to run his plant or a single freight car or engine to deliver his pleasure product for profit. Through control of priorities on cars industries essential to the war- time effort of the Nation can be controlled. The plans are now about 65 per cent com- pleted for the war-time procurement of all articles the Army will need. Allocations have definitely been made to 14.000 plants. The contracts have been placed with them, which are tentative and unsigned, but actually in their hands, to be signed and sent in to the centralized control in the War Department just the minute that Congress says, “War is declared.” So the whole Nation will be ready to start to- gether, with the factories and the civilians know- ing what they have to do—and let the Army figh! An important peace-time by-product of th industrial mobilization program is that it is caus- ing industry to analyze its problem, just as the War Department is analyzing its problem, with a keener understanding of the needs of everyday in- and the propagation of plans to better meet them. ‘With industry and its co-partner, labor, know- ing just where they stand, what they are re- quired to do; with disturbance minimized, and with assurances of raw materials, power and trans- portation, not only will war-time prices be stabil- ized, but the net peace-time result will be to take a large part of speculative gambling out of the real needs of the people—the essentials of life. * Kk Kk K But the War Department is not resting with this establishment of a businesslike procurement program. It has learned a few more lessons from the World War experience. In the last war practically every article the Army used had to be made expr for it, because it required some- (. mercially for the same use—such trivial, things as canteen caps. Under the new, practical regime as much as possible of the commercial product will be used. The Army will not wait for a spe- cial style of *dungarees,” but will buy out a man- ufacturer’s entire stock of overalls. When uni- &0 about ragged and cold while they wait for pretty new uniforms to be manufactured accord- ing to pattern, but will take every suit of clothes in a dealer's stock, throw them into a vat and make them all one color, put a red tag on the officer’'s shoulder and say, “March them.” Of course, this cannot be done with such re- quirements as ordnance, which is vitally impor- tant. In time of peace practically no one makes it, and so ordnance supplies is one of the biggest problems for the War Department, becau it isn’t much use calling out the soldiers until can arm them; so everything else will give wa before ordnance priorities. But the Quartermas ter Corps can take practically anything it needs out of commercial stocks. Similarly, we are going to have no more big cantonment building, with the cost-plus and sal- vage grafts to mushroom operators. Ifrecruits e called into the service, the War Department will take over a big hotel, perhaps, and keep them there until some troops have been sent out from an Army station or a National Guard camp, and then the recruits will be drilled at those places. * & % % Not only have the War Department Business Council and the relic of the War Industries Board and the leading industrial organizations worked up this program of industrial mobilization, but the War Department has undertaken another pre- paredness program to perpetuate the executive- industrial force in each of the 14 procurement dis- tricts and keep it up to the nth degree of trained efficienc; This industrial college is doing for the now distinct business phase of the Army's work what the War College does for the military In the Munitions Building in Washington an industrial college has been started, where the Army officers who are to be executives and office man- agers in each of the 14 procurement areas are being tr on industrial methods problems of the Army. It is foreseen also that advancing years will make it necessary to relieve the civilian chiefs and their staffs of specialized industrial aides in the procurement areas. So Congress has heen asked and authorized the establishment of a “Mu- nitions Battalion.” Four hundred promising un- dergraduates, chosen by college authorities to meet certain definite standards, are to be enlisted next Summer at the close of their juniof year in college. They will be stationed at Fort Washing- ton, on the Potomac, in what will resemble a pre- Plattsburg camp and given an intensive course in soldiering, and treated as soldiers in every sense of the word, for three months. When the colleges reopen, they will be assigned back to their respective schools, with tuition paid and the regular allowance of an enlisted man, and free from any military duty whatever throughout the school year, to finish their college course and re- ceive their degrees. When they have graduated they will have already given the Army three months and have received nine months in school. Therefore, they will owe the Army six months to balance the account. Then their “Munitions Battalion” will organize again, and there will be added to their soldiering duties three or four hours a day of study and coaching on the basic procurement work of the Army, under sclected instructors who are gradu- ates of the Army Industrial College, now in opera- tion, and of the Harvard School of Business Ad- ministration, where Army officers are now- taking courses to fit them for key positions in procure- ment work. and on basic procurement * %k %k ¥ With the Christmas holidays the members cf the “Munitions Battalion” will complete their tour with the colors and will go forth to take their place in the industrial life of the Nation and spe- cialize on their chosen lines. If the college author- ities and the War Department have picked their men well, they will in the course of time work their way to commanding positions in industrial life. At the end of 10 years there will be 4,000 young veterans of the ‘“Munitions Battalion,” the elder of whom have advanced to executive posi- tions. They will be available as understudies and thing just a little different from that made com- forms are needed, they will not make the soldier | ined for their future work by a drilling | for replacement of the various district chiefs in the industrial preparedness set-up. They will have been soldiers; they will have absorbed the lessons st emergency; they will be competent and willing to carry on in the next emergency: they will be numerous enough and qualified to fill the key positions in mobilization of industry for any emergency that may arise. ‘War Department plans include an estimate of cost of the entire program that it may be pre. snted to Congress the moment the emergency arises; and thus those who are in charge of levy- ing taxes upon the people to meet the burden of war will know in advance the size of the bill, with an itemized accounting of what the money is to be spent for. Tt is proposed to bar the obnoxious profiteer,” as well as that other despicable char- weter of the same hue—the “slacker.” *® % kK orts are now being made by those who are counseling on the preparcdness program to make this procurement planning and industrial mobiliza- tion for preparedness a stabilized, recognized part of the War Department's work. Heretofore there has been no financing of it, and the business council is emphatic that there should be a speci- fied percentage of the appropriation and personnel of the War Department allccated to this new lne of work that the law directs the A it Secre- tary to perform. Such a businesslike provision for its support is now being worked out, =o that it may take its place in the regular organization of the War Department. In order that the United States may be entirely self-sustaining, a very special and intensive study is being made of critical items in the list of essen. tial war materials. This country is better equipped in natural resourc raw materials, than any other nation, but we have flaws in our armor. For example, Cincinnati is the tool-making center of the world, but we must have the manganese and tungsten and suellac and other prerequisit before we can make the tools necessary for manu- facture of 700,000 different items with which our soldiers must be supplied. If the sea lanes were closed to us, we would be deprived of some of these critical items. The solution is either in laying up a reserve supply or in developing some satisfactory substitute, with a scheme for local development, with a double guarantee by both reserve supply and substitution where possible. For example, we are now depend- ent on Brazil, A 4nd Africa for manganese, which is essential for steel making, one of the prime war needs; practically ‘all of our tungsten comes from China, and for shellac, which we use in the manufacture of almost everything, we are dependent upon the excretions of a little bug in India. Why, recently when a little tramp steamer =ank, the price of shellac was boosted 1,000 times, because there was 90 dayvs’ supply on that little waip, and there was nothing to take its place in our industrial life. ation, which is not healthy in peace times and might prove most perilous in war days, the War Department, with the co- operation of the great engineering societies of the country and all other agencies of the Government interested in this field, is making critical studies, looking—and hopefully—toward development of a workable substitute. The big industries, such as steel, tool manufacture and the General Electric Co., are heart and soul with the Government in this effort. The pledge is given that American genius will find the solution of this problem. This whole layout of the new partnership in preparedness between American business and the War Department was started under Dwight M. Davis, now Secretary of War, when he was the Assistant Secretary, with Col. H. B. Ferguson, Corps of Engineers, as chief of “procurement plan- ning,” demonstrating marvelous vision and in- spirational ideas. It is being carried forward by Col. Hanford MacNider, now Assistant Secretary of War and former commander of the American Legion, as a sacred duty to his buddies in arms that their terrible sacrifices may not have been in vain. » Let there be no misconception that this is any part of an effort to militarize business and the Nation. Industrial mobilization is rather a frank and unmistakable declaration to the world that we not only want peace, but intend to have it. For no nation on the face of the earth (or combi- nation of nations) will plar aggression against a prepared America. SEVENTIETH CONGRESS INHERITS BATCH OF LEFT-OVER PROBLEMS ' Measures That Failed of Disposition at Last Session Will Add to Troubles When New Proposals Come Up. BY J. A. O'LEARY. ‘With such important new business as flood control for the Mississippi River and revision of Federal taxes to be dealt with, the Seventieth Con- gress also will inherit a number of legislative problems left unacted on by its predecessor, the Sixty-ninth. Some of these left-over matters had mdvanced to within a few steps of en- actment at the last session and prob- ably would be out of the way now had it not been for the jam that de- wveloped in the Senate in the closing weeks of the old Congress. -~ While these measures will have to start at the beginning again, since this is a mew Congress, their chances for pas- sage this Winter are bright. In this class falls the public build- ings Dill, authorizing an additional $100,000,000 for new structures in the States and an authorization of $25, 000,000 to buy all the private land in the Pennsylvania avenue triangle for the Washington Federal building pro- gram. The District of Columbia por- tion of this measure passed both branches of Congress at the last ses- slon, but the parliamentary situation prevented Senate leaders from obtain- iag a vote on the House ;mn‘ndnwntf to increase the authorization outside of Washington. Postal Rate Provision. The bill revising certain schedules of the postal rates, including a pro- vision to restore the rate of 1 cent to private mailing cards, is another that had reached the stage of a con. ference report when it was stranded | in the Senate fiilibuster last March. The so-called alien property bill, in. ‘volving three major problems between the United States and Germany grow- ing out of the World War, passed the ‘House at the last session, but was one of a number of measures still clamoring for consideration in the Senate when the hour of adjournment | arrived. Because of its urgency, the second | deficiency appropriation bill, which died awaiting Senate action in M h, probably will be the first left-over question to be taken up by the new funds to be provided for in that meas- ure to carry on essential functions for the remainder of the current fiscal year. There fs still another class of pro- posed legislation that has been com- ing up annually for a number of years, and some of these matters are almost certain to be revived again by the introduction of bills and com- mittce consideration of them. Railroad Consolidation. Under this heading are such. topics as rallroad consolidation, the future operation of the Muscle Shoals prop- erty in Alabama and the question of setting up some machinery to en- courage peaceful relations in the coal industry as a means of preventing future fuel emergencies. The extent to which these questions will be con- sidered is not so certain at this time. Senator Fess, Republican, of Ohio, had a bill pending at the last session, which probably will be presented again to encourage the unification of the rail carriers in accordance with the aim to group the railroads of the ation into a number of strong sys- tems for the general improvement of transportation conditions, vear the rail facilities of Amer- t time were owned by 1,500 ted by about 1,000 separate v companies The Fess bill would declare it to be the policy of Congress to encourage unification of the roads into a num- ber of well balanced systems, with a view to maintaining necessary weak and short lines, maintaining existing ago, | routes and channels of trade as far as practicable, promote economy, pre- ve the advantages of effective com- petition and to move traffic at the lowest rates compatible with maintenance of adequate and efficient transportation service. Procedure Is Outlined. In order to carry out that policy the bill outlines cetailed procedure by which two or more carriers would bhe permitted to move voluntarily to- ward unification, subject to approval of the Interstate Commerce Comruis- zion. The proposed measure then Congress in December. Nearly all of the Government departments and the District of Columbia are in need of provided that afted seven years the (Contjnued on Fogth Page.) As set forth in a report made to the | Senate on this subject more than a the | BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. ENEVA.—Writing from this side of the Atlantic last year, 1 set forth in detail the im- pressive phenomenon of Amer- ican unpopularity. We were |then “Uncle Shylock” from Lands |End to the Urals. We were even |more bitterly denounced in the coun- tries with which we had been asso- clated as allies during the war than in Germany, to whose ruin we had con- tributed the decisive blow. Viewing the same problem after the lapse of 12 months, how do we now stand? At the outset one must note a change, a change at least in degree. Whatever else Europe thinks of the American Nation, it no longer concen- trates its attentjon on the financial issue alone. Again, where its opinion tended to be explosive in 1926, it is far less passionately expressed in 1927. As an American, one Is infinitely less unpleasantly conscious of Kuropean resentment. Even the brief Sacco-Van- zetti outburst has died away and left little aftermath. I do not think, however, that one can fairly say that we are more pop- ular today than a year ago. A great deal of the outward change has re- sulted from the improvement in finan- ial conditions, notably in Belgium and France. A year ago hoth countries were in the throes of grave crises and, in Brussels and Paris, American debt {policy was held responsible. Today the {crises are over. Stabilization in Bel- { gium, a system of pegging in France, {have resulted in ending fluctuation in exchange. at an end. * ok % ok Uncle Sam, then, is far less fa- miliarly presented as Uncle Shylock. But that unlucky old fellow is, one must confess, taking on still another disguise in European eyes. He is com- ing to seem not a little imperialistic and perhaps a bit militaristic—or more }lcan action at the naval conference is \largely responsible. In European eyes blame for the fail- ure of the canference itself is rather impartially distributed. On the whole the continent looks a little aghast at what it conceives to have been British blundering. But in the larger sense it holds America responsible because it totally fails to see any reason for the Immediate discomforts are | exactly navalistic. For this the Amer- | American insistence upon equality with Britain in the matter of fleets. Failing this, Europe generally has undertaken to find an explanation based on its own experience. More- lover, at Geneva and in the League one most frequently hears a new ex- planation voiced. From the League point of view the United States is be- coming a menace to Europe collec- tively. Quite naturally, then, Europe ‘must unite against us. save at Geneva, can that union be accomplished? I have made various endeavors to discover the origin of this belief. It would be an easy and simple solution to find that it had been the result of British propaganda stirred by the fail- ure of the naval conference and the resulting strain upon Anglo-American relations. But I am frank to say that no such cause is discoverable. It seems rather to have developed in Geneva spontaneously than to have been brought here from England. * K K ¥ The temptations to reason by anal- ogy are many. Europe is conscious of the fact that we alone emerged victorious from the war and that the economic and financial consequences of this are to give the United States power beyond that enjoyed by any other nation, even in the pre-war pe- riod. The use of our financial power, too, has been such as to arouse al- most universal European resentment. But last year all the denunciation was confined to the money side. Shylock- |ism was perceived, Caesarism was still hidden. Today you cannot proceed far with- out seeing the utter transformation. Germany, before 1870, says Europe, had no thought of naval strength and And where, | less idea of military domination of !the continent. But a military victory won so easily and at such Nttle ex- pense changed the whole mentality of the people. Is not the same trans- formation at least possible in the case of the United States? This was the anxious interrogation of one of the jmost liberal of German editors. That a conflict between the United States and Great Britain is at least conceivable is the view of many con- tinentals if of few Britons. The Con- tinent is used to British sea suprem- acy. At the moment it is even recon- ciled to it. Britain as the guarantor of France under the Locarno pacts is a necessary elemegit in French secu- rity and the stronger Britain is on sea, as on land, the better France is satisfied. On the other hand, by the same pact Britain guarantees Ger- many against France, and any con- flict between America and Britain would leave Germany helpless be- tween France and Poland. In reality the thing goes much deeper. Vaguely conscious of the fact that the World War utterly changed the position of Europe, weak- ened its influence, reduced its powe: equally aware of the concomitant rise in American importance, Europe has not been able to find any real evi- dence as to what America means to do with its power and quite naturally vields to the suspicion that we will, in the end, employ that power in the traditional European way. * K Kk At all times and under all circum- stances the American riddle continues to challenge European attention. At the end of the war and until the over- throw of the Wilson regime, Europe had our role all cut out for us. It accepted Mr. Wilson's program at face value. We were to remain in Europe, become a partner in the League and in all European matters. In fact, at that time it seemed that the consequence of the war had been to add one new great power to the European constellation. That we should both be a great power and stay out of Europe was not dreamed. Again, in the immediate post-war years, Europe was not yet conscious that the shift against it was more than transitory. It did not perceive how vastly our wealth and power would - continue to expand and how slow would be its own recovery. Nor could it even dream of that revolt in Asia and Africa which was to slow down European recovery at home and curtail European influence abroad. ‘While the rise of America has been measurably at the expense of all countries on this side of the Atlantic, yet, as all Europeans see, the chief loser has been Britain. By our debt policy we have forced Britain to pay what the continent regards as annual tribute. Now by our naval policy we give the British the choice between equality on our terms and a compe- tition in naval armaments which the British treasury cannot, sustain. Since the United States retired from Europe eight years ago, only two What Does Europe Think of Us? clear messages have come from Wash- ington, the first the demand for debt payment; the second insistence upon naval equality on terms which the British insist would mean American superiority. Meantime in all this period Europe has been gaining a conception, and perhaps an exaggerated conception, of American wealth, prosperity, power. It has been learning that the bases of this power are permanent and that European recovery itself is hardly attainable save as American methods are imitated and as Europe through economic union escapes from the devastating consequences of tariff frontiers and the exhausting effects of competition within narrow national limits. * K % % To unite economically against the American economic peril has been the burden of many European sermons in past years. But all union has been impossible because Great Britain has stood outside the circle. All Britlsh policy has been consciously directed at arriving at some sort of agreement with America. From the contipental point of view, all the advances have been British, all the rebuffs American. And the final disclosure of th4 Ameri- can spirit has come in the challenge of sea power. We have financial supremacy, i economic superiority. Do we mean to add to it political supremacy based {upon naval and perhaps later military strength? Solemnly Europe asks this question and over the answer gravely shakes its head. In this situation nothing is more natural than that in the circles of the League American policy should receive rather sinister interpretation. Nowhere in Europe is there less perception of American real- ities than in Geneva. In fact, from first ‘to last Geneva has always been wrong about America. When I Tirst began to come here less than four years ago, the conviction that American entrance into the League would not be long postponed endured. The Americans resident here, as well as most of the American visitors, confirmed the impression, It was useless then to suggest that for some years the question had been set- tled in. America and the debate ad- journed; that not even a change in political control would reverse the de- cision of 1920. If Geneva has at last recognized this condition, it has ued on Third Page.) PLANE AND MEN CAN BE SAVED BY PILOT IF ENGINE GOES DEAD Fatalities in Military and Mail Services Reduced to Minimum by Experience—Stress Laid on Preserving People Before Craft. BY FREDERICK R. NEELY. “The motor failed and the plane crashed, killing the occupants.” Several hundred, perhaps several thousand, persons who read this fre- quent line in stories of airplane acci- dents, or hear it as relayed by word of mouth, shudder and come to the conclusion that when an airplane motor quits, the plane crashes; that when a plane crashes, it usually kills somebody, and, therefore, they'll never 80 up because the engine might fail, and so on. ‘When experienced pilots read the foregoing line in storfes of airplane accidents they want to run up to the roofs and scream at the tops of their voices that: “Dead engines don't cause crashes, altogether; they cause stalls and the crashes result from the stalls. It is perfectly possible to get back to earth safely with a dead engine. It's being done every day by people who know their aviation.” Pilot Is Blamed. And then they would like to go on with a perfectly simple plan of reason- ing to overcome this fear that they believe grips the public every time ‘“engine trouble” is assigned as the cause of the crash. True, engine fail- ure is probably the original cause, but there are so many steps that a pilot can take before the ultimate is reached that the ‘‘veteran” airman of 10 years’ flying refuses to believe that when a motor quits the crash will fol- low and there's no use trying to pre- vent it. Any pllot about Washington, and there are plenty of them old in the game, will obligingly go into the de- tails of these “engine failure” crashes. If he knows with whom he is talking he will not hesitate to place the blame on the pillot, if deserved, even though the pilot has paid the penalty of not carrying out the watchword of flying —alertness. Most airplanes are constructed with an angle of incidence in the wings which gives them the natural ten- dency to climb. Put yourself in the pilot's cockpit, they will say; grasp the stick with the right hand and put the balls of your fegt on the rudder bar. Now you are flying along peacefully at a thousand or more feet. The stick is in “neutral,” thereby overcoming the angle of incidence, and the plane flies on a level course. Just for curi- osity, ease back on the stick and you will see the nose go up slowly. Simul- taneosuly, the arrow on the air-speed indicator, which, for example, has been resting at 90 miles per hour, be- gins to drop. Keep that same grip on the stick and the arrow falls lower and lower until it reaches “60" or even “50.” There's the stall in a majority of the faster planes. Then things will happen thick and fast. With a mighty swish, the plane may fall off on one wing and go plunging down, nose first, into a spin. In your dizzy rush downward you note the altimeter reads 1,500 feet, so there is nothing to worry about. In a few seconds you have acquired sufficient flying speed, through the spin, and you pull out gracefully. It also is perfectly possible to be in some planes that will stall unless you keep watching them like a hawk. More than once students have become enthralled by some sight on the ground while handling planes in the air, and unknown to them the angle of incidence has caused the plane to climb slowly, but “teadily, until it fs ready to go into a spin. Crashes on Take-off. | 1 the plane were one or two hun- dred feet above the ground and the foregoing events took place, the story would be a sad one. The plane would strike the ground on its nose and he would be a lucky man in the front seat who escaped with even serious injuries. In these cases the engine did not fail. It was the work of the pilot that caused the spin. In a majority of cases the same truth can hold good even if the engine does cease to func- tion. The most frequent crashes resulting “indirectly” from a dead engine, as the pilots will emphasize, occur on the take-off. Very few pilots survive from this type. These crashes are brought about in this manner: The pilot prepares to take-off by (Continued on Eleventh Page.)