Evening Star Newspaper, December 23, 1934, Page 29

Editorial Page Part 2—S8 Pages WAR PERIL DISCOUNTED IN SLAV-MAGYAR ROW Unity of Four Great Powers in Pressing for Peace Interpreted as Insuring Restraint of: Violence. BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. T MAY be fairly questioned if any of the recent crises in Europe, of which there have been a disquiet- ing number in the past two years, has been as completely misinter- preted on this side of the Atlantic as the latest. This affair, the Yugoslav attack upon Hungary, has been consid- ered as constituting an immediate peril to European peace, providing a parallel to the crisis of July, 1914, and finally furnishing the League with a shining vindication. In reality, how- ever, none of these interpretations was exact. As to the question of European peace, in the larger sense that was never in danger because the four great powers immediately concerned, namely Italy, France, Great Britain and Soviet Russia, were at all times united in a common determination not to be dragged into a conflict with each other. Germany, too, her attention concentrated upon the approach of the Pplebiscite in the Saar, refrained from any attempt to exploit a situation which under other conditions might have afforded her a chance for a profitable diplomatic maneuver. What was possible—and all that was possible—was that Yugoslav troops might have passed the Hungarian {rontier and such en irruption might have produced an explosion in the Magyar state. Under such circum- stances an occupation of Hungarian territory by all the Little Entente armies could have taken place. That Jocal disturbance was, however, pre- vented by the admirable behavior of the Hungarians themselves under ex- treme provocation. Powers Restrained Two Nations. Meantime the great powers, acting In close co-operation, exercised a re- straint upon both Yugoslav violence and Hungarian resentment. Resolved not to be drawn in themselves and de- termined to avert a local upheaval in the Danubian area, the four great powers presently imposed upon the Yugoslavs and their Rumanian and Czech allies a formula which, while bestowing upon them the appearance of a diplomatic victory, in fact pro- tected Hungary against any serious moral or material injury. To establish the contrast between the situations in 1914 and in 1934 it is necessary to look back for a mo- _ment to the earlier year. At that mo- ment Austria, considering her unity menaced by the Serb program—which aimed at detaching the southern Slav populations of the dual monarchy— seized upon the assassination of the archduke as a pretext for an attack upon Serbia. Such an attack risked 8 general war because, if Russia sup- ported Serbia, France would back Russia and Germany would stand with Austria. Four great powers were thus immediately concerned and the secu- rity, as well as the prestige, of Austria was directly at stake. In the more recent crisis no great power was directly involved. What oc- curred was that Yugoslavia, backed by the other states of the Little Entente, undertook to exploit the murder of King Alexander for one clear end, namely to break up the growing rap- prochement between France and Italy. By aliance France was bound to all the nations of the Little Entente and Italy to Hungary. The hope cherished in Belgrade, Prague and Bucharest was that Paris and Rome would be led to support their allies and thus come to quarrel. If that occurred then the chances of a Franco-Italian un- derstanding would be abolished. Feared Italy on Danube. The nations of the Little Entente desired to break up any Franco-Italian understanding because they feared that one of the considerations of such an arrangement would be a consent on the part of France to withdraw her support from the Little Entente and give Italy a free hand in the Danubian region. Already, at the moment of the July putsch, when Italy mobilized and disclosed her pur- pose to defend Austrian independence, France had given her support to Mus- solini, much to the chagrin of the ~Yugoslavs. Italy, for her part, had steadily backed Hungary's claims to territorial revision, based on the fact that by the Paris settlement of 1919 Rumania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were permitted to annex regions adjoining the new frontiers of Hungary contain- ing upwards of a million and a half of Magyars. These Magyars were taken without right or reason simply to bestow upon the succession states strategic frontiers and the control of railways having military importance. With Italian assistance, Hungary has, therefore, resisted all attempts on the part of the Little Entente to bring about a political and eco- nomic adjustment in the Danubian area, But as long as France stood with the Littls Entents, Italian sup. port of Hungary was of purely nega- tive value. It did prevent the crea- tion of any system of permanent order, but it did not render the Hun- garian demand for revision formida- ble. If, however, Italy and France were now to come to a general agree- ment, then the situation of the Little Entente would become serious. Jockeying for Power. ‘The Yugoslav performance was ac- cordingly conceived as a means of forcing the hand of the FPrench, demonstrating to the Hungarians the weakness of their position—since the Italians would be unable to back them effectively—and thus establishing the authority of the Little Entente itself in the Danubian region. Little Entente statesmen calculated that the French, fearful of losing the diplomatic sup- port of their Central European allies, would be stampeded into unreserved support of the Yugoslavs and thus again stand unequivocally against all ideas of territorial revision. Superficially, the maneuver seemed to have succeeded. The French, through Laval, backed Yugoslavia; the Italians, through Aloisi, sup- the Hungarians; but, ynder the surface, the great powers col- laborated in such fashion as to de- prive the Little Entente scheme of all but nominal success. Actually the French, British and Italians were equally angry over the undisguised attempt of the smaller states to force them into controversy. ~The result was that France and Italy emerged from the discussion far closer to agreement than before and British association with both had become much more intimate. In a word, the great powers pro- foundly resented the effort of the smaller countries to dictate their for- eign policies, for they recognized at once that the indictment of Hungary was only the pretext for what was a tempted. The British in particular, having been involved in the World ‘War which had its origin in Serbian policy, bitterly resented what seemed a new attempt on the part of the same capital to set Europe by the ears again to satisfy fresh southern Slav ambitions. Result: Powers United. Thus what the Yugoslav operation accomplished was to unite the great powers. That unity was really in- sured by the growth of the German menace. While Germany was weak France and Italy could afford to quar- rel in the Danubian region, setting up their rival systems of alliance. When, however, Hitler came to power and turned his attention to Austria the necessity for a common frout be- tween the two Latin powers became obvious. After the July putsch, too, Mussolini at last accepted as defini- tive the bankruptcy of his policy of playing a balance of power game be- tween France and Germany and turned to Paris. Obviously, then, because all the four great powers concerned were fol- lowing a common policy in the crisis of 1934, there could be no parallel with the events of 1914, when they were hopelessly divided. Thus the League's resolution of the crisis was of no lasting significance. In the many crises which preceded the World ‘War—those of Tangier, Bosnia, Casa- blanca, Agadir and the Balkan Wars —old-fashioned diplomacy had been perfectly adequate to prevent con- flict because the great powers were still resolved to avoid war. As late as the Winter of 1912-3 the Council of Ambassadors at London liquidated the Balkans Wars, because while Aus- tria and Russia were at odds their German and French allies were agreed in holding them back. The World War came only when the great powers themselves were hope- lessly divided. Then old-fashioned diplomacy failed. Had France and Italy been similarly divided in the recent crisis, then the machinery of Geneva would have been useless and conflict could not have been averted. So far the League has been effective only when great powers have been in agreement. It could do nothing in the Manchurian incident because Japan was ready to fight rather than withdraw. It could do nothing in the Disarmament Conference because Germany was resolved to have parity or quit. It could do nothing in the Economic Conference because the United States set its domestic re- covery program above all international considerations. Napoleonic Era Recalled. Put simply, the fact is that the rise of national socialism in Germany, by arousing the fears of the French, the British, the Italians and the Soviets, has restored something like a concert of Europe. These four great powers are now drawn together by the same kind of common peril which united Prussia, Russia, Austria and Great Britain in the Napoleonic era. As this process of association develops the smaller states, which have been able to exploit the differences between the larger to their own profit, have seen their situation growing worse and have endeavored to arrest the process. The recent crisis was, not impossi- bly, the last stand of the Little En- tente. It has by its tactics aroused the enduring disapproval of Great Britain and the resentment of Italy. France has found herself at the mercy of her smaller allies who have been ready and willing to plunge her into a clash with Italy and a quarrel with Britain to serve their own ends. What Benes, speaking for the Little Entente at Geneva, actually attempted to do was to make France the satel- lite of the Danubian alliance, and while the French paid lip service to their political commitments, their anger was not concealed. ‘Today all signs point to an early settlement of Franco-Italian differ- ences and to close Franco-Italian co- operation in the face of the common peril inherent in German plans in the Danubian Basin. British and Soviet association with this Latin combina- tion is already assured. What Musso- lini attempted to bring about at the moment Hitler seized power has thus become possible at last, although two years ago France resisted it out of def- erence to her Polish and Little Entente alliances. Problem Still Acute. Beyond question Germany will be invited to enter this new concert of Europe and equally surely Geneva will be used as the instrument of this part- nership. Whether Germany will come in or stay out is still debatable. Cer- tainly she will insist upon concessions in the matter of armaments. If, more- over, the other four great powers can continue to stand together Germany will either be forced in or isolated, and, in the lattér case, she will cer- tainly try to construct a Danubian system of her own. The face-saving formula ultimately adopted at Geneva does not in the least change the basic causes of war in Central Europe. The Austrian problem remains as acute as ever, The Hungarian determination to recover its lost Magyar populations is unshaken. ‘The tension in the Danubian Basin created by the Yugoslav tactics has added new political unrest and fur- ther economic disorder. Conditions are worse—not better, and the real profit of the affair will probably go to the Germans who, once they are done with the Saar affair, will be free to resume operations on the Danube. 80 long as the great powers stand together there will be no danger of any considerable war in Europe. So long as France, Italy, the Soviets and Great Britain stand together against Germany, conflict is similarly unlikely. While this situation lasts the states- men of the great powers can employ the machinery of Geneva as, before 1914, they used the methods of old- fashioned diplomacy. What is dan- gerous to count upon is that the new method will be better than the old when the great powers again divide. And what is essential to perceive at all times is that the League, like old- fashioned diplomacy before it, has been unable to remove causes of cons flict or to work at all save as the in- s EDITORIAL SECTION Che Sundwy Star WASHINGTON, D. C., SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 23, 1934, Nye J oins Great Probers Newspaper Man-Senator Leads Inquiry Through Legal Tangles. BY G. GOULD LINCOLN. F YOU want a man to investigate graft Or to make the arms barons sigh, To make 'em shell out You have only to shout For Senator Gerald P Nye. The Senator from North Dakota, Mr; Nye, bids fair to go down in his- tory as one of the great investigators of the Upper House: to take rank with the late Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana and with former Senator James A. Reed of Missouri. And yet, unlike these famous inquisitors, Sen- ator Nye is not a lawyer, a member of the bar. He is a newspaper man. Today he is pre-eminently in the limelight because of his inquiry into the operations of war munitions mak- ers, This inquiry, ordered by the Sen- ate when it adopted a resolution in- troduced by Nye at the last session of Congress, has already caused wide ex- citement in some foreign chancellories and disclosed tremendous profits to munitions makers in time of war. Now why has Senator Nye, a young man without legal training, become Wwidely known as a senatorial investi- gator in a day when Senate investi- gations rank high in the realm of in- quisitions? Simply because Mr. Nye has been willing at all times to tackle tough jobs which other, and older, Senators have been loath to take on. When he first came to the Senate back in 1925, he was 32 years old, one of the baby members. He was ap- pointed by the then Gov. Sorlie of North Dakota to fill a vacancy grow- ing out of the death of the late Sen- ator E. F. Ladd. Through a set of fortuitous circumstances for him the youthful Senator was appointed a member of the Senate Committee on Public Lands, and wifhin a year he became chairman of that committee. He was chairman of the commitiee when it was winding up the tamous Teapot Dome oil inquiry, which nad been started by Senator Walsh of Montana and so ably prosecuated by that Senator. Learned From Walsh. Senator Nye regards his service on the committee with Senator Walsh during the oil investigation as one of the most interesting and valuable in his career. He learned a lot about conducting investigations from Mr, Walsh, a lot about the tremendous amount of labor and preparation that must be gone through preparatory to the interrogation of witnesses. And Senator Nye looks back with some satisfaction to the fact that it was several questions propounded by himself that Harry F. Sinclair, oil magnate, declined to answer and for which Sinclair finally went to jail. They were simple, direct questions to obtain information which his lawyer colleagues on the committee had sought in vain to draw from Sinclair by a more circuitous route. He was chairman of the Public Lands Committee when it was going into the activities of the Continental Trading Co. This inquiry resulted in the Government's recovering some $11,000,000 in income taxes—more money, Senator Nye likes to remind critics of congressional investigations, than all these inquiries ever cost since the Government began. Some of the men involved in this money-making scheme fled to Europe and have never strument of a united concert of Eu- T 2 og‘ehe Council of the League has an advantage over the diplomatic in- struments of the pre-war era because it is permanently in being and can therefore be invoked more promptly. There is at Geneva a machine without previous parallel and a technique which represents a marked gain over the past. Geneva is therefore a more satisfactory means by which the great powers can impose their will, when they are agreed, than anything which has ever existed. Its fatal weakness lies in the fact that it has no re- sources of its own to impose its will and thus to avert conflict when the great powers are in collision. For all of the great powers under such cir- cumstances are bound to follow the example of Japan in 1931 and no great power will lend its strength to the League to enforce a decision of Geneva. Looking at the League from the outside and listening to the propa- ganda of the friends of Geneva in country, it is easy to conclude g:u:t tbtre'.r{a in the new institution returned to the jurisdiction of the Senate. The second big investigating job | 1930, when he was chosen chairman of the Senate Campaign Fund Com- mittee. It was this committee which turned up the fact that Mrs. Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms, then Mrs. McCormick, who won the Republican senatorial nomination in Illinois, had expended more than $100.000 in the primary contest she had with the late Senator William B. McKinley. The same committee went at length into the efforts of a grocer by the name of George W. Norris to muddy the Sen- ate primary waters in Nebraska when Senator George W. Norris, veteran Progressive. was up for renomination on the Republican ticket. The career of the North Dakota Senator reads almost like a tale by Oliver Optic, popular writer of boys’ stories 30 or 40 years ago. He was born in a small town in Wisconsin, Hortonville, and two years later was taken by his parents to Wittenberg, also in Wisconsin. There he grew up and went to grade and high school. His father was a publisher of weekly newspapers. Gerald Nye, as soon as he had left school, took over the Review, a weekly at Hortonville, which his father owned. He made a go of it, and eventually bought the paper. His next venture was as manager and War-Time Premier BY HAROLD E. SCARBOROUGH. ONDON.—When Parliament this week adjorned for the Christ- mas recess one question over- shadowed normal matters of routine business which ordi- narily would have occupied the at- tention of the members of Parliament. That question was: “What is Lloyd George driving at and whatever it is, will he get away with it?" Until a few days ago Great Britain's war-time premier was seldom con- sidered a factor in the current po- litical equation. Without any party behind him in the House of Commons, without any particular bee in his bon- net which would bring him continu- ously to the public notice, Lloyd George seemed resigned to retirement as “the Sage of Churt.” From time to time from his Surrey estate of that name he produced prize potatoes or calves. This Autumn he produced that volume of his war diary which con- tained the violent attack upon Earl Haig, but even that is now ranked as ancient history. In the political con- troversies which have been agitating Britain Lloyd George was forgotten. Hat in Ring for Premier. Yet within the past week he has not only thrown his hat back into the political ring, but is being seriously considered as a contender for the premiership after the next election; and it is a safe bet that whatever becomes of this ambition, the former premier’s name will be prominently before the public during the next year. At the moment the consensus of informed opinion is that Lloyd George is playing a long shot, but there is a general admission that if this still vigorous 71-year-old statesman is ever to stage a come back he could not have chosen a better time. The pres- ent superficial aspect of the British political line-up is, to say the least, misleading. Although the National government has an overwhelming ma- jority in the House of Commons, and although the country is relatively pros- perous, there is common consent among the politicians that if an elec- tion were held tomorrow the National government would have the greatest difficulty in securing 300 of the 615 seats in the House of Commons. Equally. however, it is agreed that Labor can scarcely hope for a clear majority—chiefly on account of its paucity of able leaders. If before the next election labor could put forth such personalities as it found in Ramsey MacDonald or Philip Snowden a few years ago, it is quite in the cards that the party might be able to form & majority government., It is in this sitdation that Lloyd George apparently discerns his oppor- turned over to Senator Nye was in| SENATOR GERALD P. NYE. ~—Underwood Photo. | editor of the Daily Plain Dealer at | Creston, Iowa. He became convinced, | however, that the weekly newspaper was a better field, and after a few months on the staff of the Des Moines Register and Leader, he went to Pry- burg. N. Dak., where he purchased the Fryburg Ploneer. Joins Non-Partisans. Fryburg, young Nye thought, could be made the county seat, although at the time he went there it had only 50 inhabitants. Although it never be- came a couny seat and its population remained about the same, Fryburg did have the only newspaper published in | that county. When the Non-Partisan League | movement started among the farmers in North Dakota. “je immediately es- poused the lencue's cause, although most of the well-cstablished newspapers opposed it. The farmers in the league began taking over o starting news- papers of their own, league organs in a way. Nye aided them all he could. He had a good offer to go to Michigan to publish a paper and was about to make final acceptance. The Non- Partisan Leaguers, however, did not wish to lose him. He was pursuaded to go to Cooperstown to look over a newspaper plant they had bought there. That was in 1919. So favor- ably impressed was he with the people and their reception of himself and Mrs. Nye—he had married three years LLOYD GEORGE CREATES STIR IN BRITISH POLITICS Blasts His Way Out of Retirement With Plan for “New Deal.” tunity. Naturally, at this stage of the game he has not done anything so crude as to declare his Labor sym- pathies. By means of a remarkable speech in Parliament, and subsequent newspaper interviews, he simply made it plain that he had a British version of the New Deal which would make Pres- ident Roosevelt's look weak and hesi- tating by comparison. He added that he would welcome the support of the non-partisan lines. At one step Lloyd Goerge thus as- sumed a strategic position of some strength. It is already obvious he will put forth nothing that could not be accepted by the most orthodox Labor- ite; equally, that some of his schemes will affect Left Wing Tories and Lib- erals who are disappointed at what they feel to be the limited extent of Britain's trade revival. During the coming year, therefore, Lloyd George will be able to offer his wares to the highest bidder. If Labor is cold to him, and if his plans for a national regeneration attract support in other quarters, it is possible he might find himself at the head of a bloc which would hold the balance of power after the next election. If, on the other hand, Labor decided to for- get its very real distrust and fear of Lloyd George and welcome him as its leader (a development which admit- tedly seems unlikely), it would pacify middle class opinion to an extent which is impossible with the party's present make-up. Morrison Has Strength. Perhaps the issue will narrow down to one of personalities. For various reasons, such older Labor leaders as George Lansbury and Arthur Hender- son are likely to cancel out each other. Labor's dark horse is Herbert Morri- son, chairman of the London County Council, a man of great ability but relatively inexperienced in a national sense. Spéculation now is turning to the possibility of Morrison, who is a Political realist, recognizing that Labor alone cannot hope for a majority, but that with Lloyd George’s aid it might scrape through. In that event Morri- son might be well content to permit Liloyd George to assume the premier- ship with himself as lineal successor. It is even suggested that Lloyd reached , ha the pinnacle of age and fame where he is without ambition in the ordinary sense, would be willing to serve in a subordinate capacity in any government that would carry out his policies. But there is & touch of the dramatic in the Welsh- man’s make-up, and few who know him doubt that he would like to end his career with a triumphant vindica- tion as peace-time as well as war-time " (Copyrisht, 1034 earlier—that he accepted the proposal | to publish_the Griggs County Sentinel- Courler, Six years later he was ap- pointed to the Senate and went to Washington to take his seat in the “greatest deliberative body in the world.” In the meantime Nye's advice was sought by the Non-Partisan Leaguers in the publication of a newspaper in Bismarck, the capital. Notwithstand- ing his youth he had become known all over the State. In 1924 he was pursuaded to become a candidate for Congress from the second North Da- kota district. He went into the cam- paign merely to make it possible for the Progressives—that was the year the late Senator Robert M. La Fol- lette of Wisconsin sought to set up a new party and was himself its candidate for President—to have a complete ticket in the field. He was defeated. Senator Ladd of North Dakota had supported La Follette for President, although he and other Non-Partisan Leaguers had rated themselves as Re- publicans. Indeed. the Non-Partisan League rather took over the Repub- lican party in North Dakota, althougn there was a bitter. stand-pat group which always fought the league. Vacaney in Senate. La Follette died in 1925, and so did Senator Ladd. The question rose whether the Governor of North Da- kota could appoint to fill the vacancy or whether he would have to call a special -lection. Many of the Non- Partisan Leaguers urged Sorlie, the Governor, to appoint, feeling that in this way they could be sure of having a Senator of their liking. The Gover- nor hesitated, but in the end met with a group oi candidates and their friends to make his decision. Nye had already indorsed half a dozen men who had asked him to do so. He had no thought of receiving the appointmept himself. At the meeting in BismarCk, Gov. Sorlie said he did not believe he could select a candi- date who would be satisfactory to all the Non-Partisan Leaguers. He sug- gested that they write out their in- dividual first and second choices and hand them to him. When all the ballots had been placed in a hat, the Governor went over in a corner and canvassed them himself with many a chuckle. He never did make known the result of the informal ballot. But he asked a couple of the candi- dates to meet with him in his office the next morning. And incidentally he asked Nye to come along. When they called on the Governor he told them he had made his choice. “Before I make the announcement,” he said, “I want you and you and you,” pointing to the candidates and to Nye, “to agree that you will sup- port my appointee.” Nye, who had no suspicion he had been considered for the place, agreed instantly, and the others followed suit. The Governor then exploded his bombshell, declaring he would ap- point Nye. Hard-Fought Battle Won. His appointment to the Senate was merely the beginning of the battle for Nye. When he came to Washing- ton, he found that there was a strong movement to deny him a seat on the ground that the North Dakota law made it necessary for the Governor to call a special election to fill the vacancy. In fatt, he came to Wash- ington “on a shoe string.” That he won, and was seated by the narrow vote of 41 to 39, is just another example of the fate which seems to have shoved him constantly forward. Since then he has been twice elected to the Senate and he is serving his tenth year in that body. Only re- cently Senator McNary of Oregon, leader of the little band of Republi- cans still left in the Upper House, sald that he would appoint Senator Nye to be chairman of the Republican Committee on Committees. In that job Nye will have to pass upon the as- signments of Republicans to the standing committees of the Senate. He is the first Progressive ever to have had this chairmanship handed to_him. For a number of years Senator Nye has been interested in the question of war munitions and the makers thereof. “I noticed,” he said, “that every time & big program for the Navy or the Army was about to be advanced, there was always talk of war between the United States and Japan, or an- other nation. I wondered who was back of such propaganda.” With Peace Units, He ked with representatives of peace societies on.a resolution for an investigation of the munitions. makers. But not until the last session of Con- gress did he introduce it, believing that the time had not come. When he' did put it in he pushed hard for special Articles BARUCH MAY - LAUNCH WAR MATERIALS STUDY Many Rumors Heard on President’s Sudden Interest in Department Plan for Mobilization. BY HERBERT F. L. ALLEN. PROBABLE shortage in stra- tegic and critical materials for war industry may be one of the first problems~to be tackled by Bernard M. Ba- ruch and Gen. Hugh S. Johnson, leaders in the creation of a skeleton pre-preparedness organization to be based upon the War Department's comprehensive plan for a war-time mobilization of the Nation's indus- tries. Of the many guesses as to the rea- son for the President’s suddenly man- ifested interest in a military plan that has been kicked around for several years, there are two that will not be downed. First is the charge that his action is a political move to spike the guns of the Nye Munitions Investigating | Committee. Second, that it is in some | way connected with a rift in our relations with Japan, and the recent shortage discovery. Baruch Welcomed. Adherents of the former idea claim | that business became alarmed over | the danger that, unless checked. the | Nye committee might force legisla- tion by Congress, virtually requiring the Executive to commandeer muni- tions and ordnance-making factories. To the already worried chiefs of American industries the selection of Mr. Baruch to head an organization | to control war industries and take | profits out of military contracts was | like manna from Heaven, for Mr. | Baruch has time after time declared his opposition to drafting industry, conscripting labor or confiscating capital. Moreover, he claims that the attempt of Congress to make | the Assistant Secretary of War re- | sponsible for plans for industrial | mobilization is fraught with danger. “The job of the War Department is our armed forces. That is a big job. To pile on top of it the task of economic mobilization would in- sure the failure of both,” he said Disclaiming any intention of ask- ing Congress for specific legislation putting the military plan into im- | mediate operation, Gen. MacArthur says: “The War Department con- tinues its studies, which are con- tinually in a state of flux, and keeps reporting to the appropriate commit- tees of Congress what it would recommend if war broke out tomor- | row, but no legislation is recom- | mended for passage by Congress an- ticipating the emergency.” It should be explained that the comprehensive plan, as so far re- vealed, is not the War Department's secret plan for actual war operation, but the foundation structure upon which is built a completely detailed scheme of war operation. Of this Gen. MacArthur says: “The minute the American Gov- ernment has made up its mind to engage in the undertaking of war the necessary legislation of the plan should be passed without the slightest | delay. The thing should be almost | synchronus.” Not a War Move. Thus the skeleton organization which Mr. Baruch and Gen. John- | son are charged with forming be- | comes in reality a pre-preparedness plan, not to be interpreted as a war preparedness move. Yet, in spite of President Roosevelt's disclaimer, a war move interpretation has been given to it, both here and abroad. In this connection attention has been focused on Japan's request, through Ambassador Grew, that the Ameri- can Government withdraw its claim to diplomatic immunity already ex- tended to 14 language student officers attached to the American Embassy in Tokio. It is said the significance of the Japanese request is its coming so soon after President Roosevelt's announcement concerning the mobili- zation of industry. It is claimed that the only ground upon which Japan might base such a request would be a suspicion that the American student officers were displaying too much curiosity. Moreover, there are nine undesignated attaches as a part of the Japanese Embassy force in Wash- ington, evidently enjoying diplomatic immunity. All of which leads back to the question of depleted stocks of raw material and those special com- modities which must come from countries far away, even Japan, Russia and India. In arranging for the procurement of commodities in time of war, “plans for the procurement of the raw ma- terials necessary to meet the pro- curement program must be made on the basis that the United States has lost control of the sea,” says a part of the military plan. The consequence of this would be the development of shortages of cer- tain raw materials which are known as strategic. Thus the idea of loss of the control of the sea conjures up the specter of starvation and depriva- tion such as existed in blockaded Ger- many. The only remedy is depend- ence upon the resources of the coun- try and a substitution of many other materials for those unobtainable from abroad. Herein lies the urgency of some arrangement controlling our in- dustrial and commercial relations with neutral and allied nations so as to in- sure the importation to this country of needed supplies and, in the lan- guage of the War Department plan, “damage the enemy in every way possible.” Recalls Procedure. Mr. Baruch has related incidents connected with new sources of sup- ply and substitution of uses during the World War, which he says were almost romantic. “We withheld Swedish iron from the central powers by buying it ourselves, persuaded Chile to disgorge nitrates by the dis- covery that her gold . reserve was sequestrated in a Berlin bank, cajoled from Spain the mules she had refused us by dangling before her a supply of ammonium phosphate for which dian currency.” In following the military plan to counteract shortage, studies commence with the determination of total! War requirements and are fol- by an investigation of posible solutions such as: 1—Augmentation of domestic supply wherever possible. of substitutes of -do- mestic . 3—The purchase and storage of reserve stocks large enough to be drawn on over a period during which imports are likely to be cut off. According to Gen. MacArthur, pro- curement plans for each of the stra- tegic and critical raw materials which do not exist in this country in suffi- cient quantity to meet war require- ments, have already been put in op- eration. “Each of these materials has been assigned to a supply branch for study,” he said. “The estimated requirements of the Army, Navy and civilian industry are balanced against the quantity of the material that is likely to be available in this country on M day, and a definite plan is sub- mitted for overcoming the deficiency.” ‘The deficiency existing today is a tributed to the long continued de- pression, nor is it confined alone to commercial stocks on hand in this country, for the War Department's existing stock of munitions is reported to be too old and requiring replace- ment. Manganese Imported. Among the strategic ray materials imported from abroad is manganese, ferro grade. More than 85 per cent of the world’s production of steel is manufactured in the United States, France, Germany and England. Not one of these coun- tries has within its boundaries man- ganese deposits of sufficient size to produce its requirements of man- ganese. The principal sources of manganese are Russia, India, Brazil and Cuba. China has large deposits in the prov- inces of Kiangsi, Hunan, Kwangtung and Kwangsi. Camphor, an essential in the manu- facture of gun powder, is almost en- tirely under Japanese control. In the field of substitutes is syn- thetic rubber, now produced also by the Du Ponts under the name of Duprene. According to Government records, the only other company suc- cessfully producing artificial rubber is located in New Jersey. Its product is known as Thiokol. Test by the War Department has shown that either of these products resists solv- ents better than natural rubber, but so far tests to determine its value for motor vehicle tire purposes are not conclusive. Would Not Be Lacking. Should a war emergency exist, the United Sttaes would not be lacking in either artificial camphor or arti- ficial rubber, but army officers claim that it is the delay in acquiring ade- | quate stocks, together with the greatly increased cost of production under war pressure, that should be avoided by peace time procurement or some arrangement for speedy manufacture provided. The following is a list of so-called strategic raw materials: Antimony, camphor, chromium, cocoanut shells, coffee, hides. iodine, jute, manganese, Manila fibre, mica, nickel, nitrates, nux vomica, opium, platinum, quicksilver, quinine, rub- ber, shellac, silk, sisal, sugar, tin and wool. The listed critical materials are: Copper, kapok. airplane spruce, white phosphorus, tanning materials and lead. At the present time domestic anti- mony is produced by only one smelter, at Laredo, Tex., using Mexican ores. Chromium exists in the Rocky Mountain States. We can get it in sufficient quantities but it would be expensive and greatly delayed. Cocoanut shells, an imported prod- uct, is used to make charcoal to be used in gas masks, but a substitute can be made from charred fruit pits obtainable from California and other fruit canneries. Iodine can be obtained from Chile nitrates or even from the brine of exhausted oil wells. Higher Costs Cited. Mica can be obtained here, but it is a question of labor cost, on the basis of a $2 labor charge in this country as compared with 20 cents abroad. Quicksilver can be obtained in suffi- cient quantities but it will be subject to delay and higher cost than that imported. In place of shellac, synthetic resin is taking its plaee. Large stocks of silk are available in this country. but if difficulty is experienced in getting silk from abroad cellulose rayon can be used. In place of kapok a bakelite sponge can be used for filling life preservers and cushions. Kapok is preferred be- cause of its superior non-absorbent quality. Tanning materials are oak bark, quebracho from South America, and sumac from Italy. Sumac attracts attention to a long abandoned farming side line in this country. It grows wild on unculti- vated lands in a large part of the United States and is especially abund- ant east of the Mississippi. Not more than 30 or 40 miles from Washing- ton, in the nearby Blue Ridge hills of Virginia, thousands of acres are covered with sumac which could be gathered and used in the tanning industry. That from Italy usually comes from Sicily and is of excellent quality because of the care taken In curing. The value of imported sumac runs into millions of dollars annually. Provides for Relations. In the military plan, provision is made for a foreign relations section, its duties being to maintain contacts with Government agencies of foreig.. countries, either direct as in the case of allied missions or through the State Department, and with agencies of our Government having to do with for- eign peoples or materials. It takes such action in conjunction with those agencies as may be proper and prac- ticable to stimulate the importations and exportations required in further- ance of the military program. The five outstanding factors in the foreign trade policy of the United States during a war would be, says the War Plan: 1. Conservation of domestic sup- plies for the use of the United States and the allied nations. 2. Encouragement to the importa- tion of needed raw materials and fin- ished products. 3. Prevention of trade directly, or indirectly, by persons in the United States with or for the benefit, or in behalf of the enemy or its agent. 4. The commercial and financial for the transportation of military ne- cessitles for the United States and the allies.