Evening Star Newspaper, September 6, 1935, Page 9

- NYE ASKS PEOPLE T0 AID NEUTRALITY Senator Traces Steps That Led to World War and Assails Advisers. (Continued From Eighth Page.) that sucked us into the last European ‘War. 5 For years our State Departmen has been striving to work out a policy of neutrality. It has been prevented from accomplishing acceptable re- sults because of its determination to make the policy one enabling the President first to determine who was the aggressor in a foreign conflict and then to let that policy operate against the aggressor. The Senate committee investigating the munitions | industry about a year ago set to the task of working out a neutrality pol- icy, taking as its base the experience revealed as entering into the step-by- step program leading America into the World War. We did not under- take to do more than draft a prog gram for consideration by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate. Four Legislative Proposals. This general neutrality program was covered by four legislative pro- posals as follows: Senate joint resolution 99 proposed to withhold passports from Americans traveling in war zones, and forbid Americans to sail upon the vessels of nations at war. It would constitute a warning that Americans who risk their lives in war trade can expect no greater support from their fellow countrymen than those adventurous souls who risk their lives by joining the foreign legions. Senate joint resolution 100 pro- posed an embargo on all loans and credits to nations at war, a step which would at once notify our Morgans and other bankers that if they must have a hand in another European war they will have to enlist personally in the foreign legion. Senate joint resolution 120 carried two distinct proposals. First, it pro- vided a positive embargo on the ex- portation of munitions of war to a belligerent nation. Second, the reso- lution provided that, in that larger field of commodities not classified as munitions, but considered as contra- band of war, while American exporta- tion is permitted, the buyer of it is under requirement to accomplish de- livery of his purchases himself and not with the use of American ships or the American flag. Licenses for Manufacturers. A fourth and final proposal by the committee was a bill providing for an extensive program of licensing muni- tions manufacturers and exporters, and for larger publicity and knowl- edge of the activities of these forces. This program, taken together, some of us considered a well-rounded-out program to avoid some of the dangers which experience reveals to be con- ica’s desire for peace. Experience clearly teaches the need for such a program and policy. The record now uncovered by the Munitions Investi- gating Committee is so positive a warning that America ought to con- sider its problem No. 1 that of how to keep out of the wars of other peo- ple. With our economic structure completely broken down by the last such war; with death, despair, debt and destruction our reward for par- ticipation in it, how can we consider any problem more important than that of keeping out of another war? After the last war was over, Presi- dent Wilson told us about its causes. Speaking in 1919, he cast aside the beautiful phrases about making the world safe for democracy and ending war, and bluntly declared that the war was “a commercial and industrial war,” and “not a political war.” It will be necessary to look to the record to know of some of the things which caused Wilson to speak as he did, to face some cold, cruel facts which have been buried in darkness all too long, to be frank with ourselves before an- other war, as Wilson was frank after the last one. Facts, however cruel they may be, ought to help us avoid, another time, that selfishness which had 120,000,000 people offering their all to insure security for the invest- ments of a few. To state that America went into the | last war to help American commercial and banking interests is in itself too bold a statement to command a | hearing. 1t is necessary to go further and state the step-by-step course through which these commercial and banking interests led us to war. Dates From Sarajevo. In listening to experience we first |of all hark back to Sarajevo, which was not wholly different from the | present Italian-Ethiopian mess. Then ! we see all Europe plunged into war, | just as she might very easily be again | by what is now an engagement alone between two nations, one strong, one weak. We recall how this titanic conflict in 1914 and 1915 at once | created a new market for American | munitions. The record now shows | that our Government, seriously bent {upon maintaining neutrality, gave | thought to the matter of these muni- | tions sales and financing. The State | Department, confronted by the fact |that the British blockade was pre-| | venting- American supplies getting to | Germany, observed the tremendous | |growth of trade with the Allies and | then pronounced to the world: | “A neutral government is not com- | pelled to prevent these sales to & | belligerent. Such sales * * * do not |In the least affect the neutrality of | the United States.” | could not get supplies from us, such neutrality as we were showing caused | consternation and strained relations. Ambassador Girard from Germany | advised Washington by cable as fol- | lows: | “Universal, very bitter, and in- | creasing feeling in Germany because of reported sale by Americans of mu- nitions to Allies.” | But America, seeing its trade with |the Allles increased 300 per cent. couldn’t think of altering its neutral- ity policy however bitter the Central | Powers might be. Besides, it was main- | be enlightening to follow certain cor- | of embarrassment.” ained, if we were to change our Naturally, since the Central Powers | THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, unneutral act against the Allles. It ought to be noted here that Great Britain during those days was stopping American shipments to Germany. This in itself was an aggression against us, a challenge to our rights upon the high seas, an insult to our flag which our ships carried. Why did we tolerate this? We shall soon see. Loans to Allies Barred. This great trade in America for munitions of war naturally called for large money supplies. While our State Department saw no injury to our neutrality by American sales of sup- plies to the Allies, it did very officially put its foot down against loans of money to them. But while the Gov- ernment was opposed to the loans our bankers were not. Mr. Lamont of the firm has written that J. P. Morgan & Co. was wholeheartedly behind the Allies from the start. The firm even sent one of its partners to England to place his firm’s services at the disposal of the Allied cause. Early in 1915 Morgan, as agent for the Allies, signed his first contract with the Du Pont Co., and from that time on over 70 per cent of the business done with the Allies by Du Ponts was negotiated through the Morgan firm. And the Allies needed Morgan. Without the help of some such American firm how were the Allies to finance their Ameri- can sales? European banks didn't have the required gold to do the job. Our State Department forbade loans to the nations at war. So, the Mor- gans devised a program of “credits” to meet the situation, and to this the State Department did not object. Per- haps we shall some day know by what tinguished between loans and credits. In any event, there soon came a time to distinguish between them, and the State Department closed its eyes and forgot its objections to loans. Profits Soared $2,000,000,000. Business was on in a big way. Bankers’ profits were tremendous; business was booming. Through 1914 to 1916 the net profits of American corporations increased two billion dol- lars. By 1917 total outstanding loans and credits to the Allies had reached {over two billion dollars, Morgans | then had demand loans and over- | drafts due from Britain of approx- imately $400,000,000. Obviously these | debts could not be met at the time. | Indeed, the Allies needed more loans, | | more credits. In the early part of 1917 it became clear that the bankers, could not themselves carry the burden of this financing. They sensed that| the credit of the great American Na- tion must be brought into play if their own selfish necks were to be saved. | got into the war and by the war’s end our Government had lent seven bil- lion dollars to the Allies. Most of loans owing Morgan and other bank- ers were redeemed—redeemed with the | money our own Government, through | the sale of Liberty Bonds, poured into | the cause of making the world safe for Democracy. Now by what steps did our Govern- ment move so tq the assistance of these bankers ,who were enjoying ['profit_from Edfope’s blood? It will | respondence, especially a letter by line of reasoning the department dis- | when the bankers themselves ceased | What followed is history. After we| this is yet unpaid, but the private and a cablegram by our Ambassador at London to his Government in Wash- ington. I should like to read them in their entirety, but my time for this broadcast will not permit. Helplessness Pleaded. When Germany protested our ship- ments and help to the Allies and urged an embargo on arms to all the belligerents, our State Department pleaded its helplessness by answering Germany as follows: “The placing of an embargo on the trade in arms at the present time would constitute * * * a' direct viola- tion of the neutrality of the United States.” All because we had no neutrality policy before the war broke. As it was, to be truly neutral after the war came was an unneutral act in itseif. Preposterous! It ought to be suffi- clent warning to us to see to it that we have a genuine neutrality policy before Europe blows up again. It ought here to be pointed out that our business with the Allies during those so-called neutral days was actu- ally making us part of the Allied | cause. Andre Tardies, premier of | France, later wrote, concerning our; loans and credits to the Allies, and I quote him: “From that time on, whether de- sired or not, the victory of the Allies became essential to the United States.” The letter by Secretary Lansing, of which I have spoken, addressed tc the President, is dated September 6, 1915. It inticates so clearly what we must( now do If we would avoid our expe- rience of then again. In it the| Secretary points out the considered | necessity of floating Government loans | for the Allies. He feels this i neces- | sary if we are to avoid a serious | | financial situation. He states the | splendid trade balance coming to us | from the Allies; declares that balance | to be $2.500,000,000, then he points out that— “If the European countries cannot find means to pay” this trade balance, “they will have to stop buying and our present export trade will shrink proportionately. The result would | | be restriction of outputs, industrial epression, idle capital and idle labor, numerous failures, financial demorali- zation and general unrest and suf- fering among the laboring classes.” ‘Wanted to Wink at Policy. Secretary Lansing evidently forgot | that if we did lose this war trade we | would only be having to go back to | what a year before was a mnormal | trade. But he goes on in his letter | | to say that the only way to meet | | the emergency is to wink at our pro-1 nounced neutrality policy about loans | and permit the Allies to float large bond issues in America. “The result,” he said, “would be a maintenance of the credit of the borrowing nations.” | He goes on in his letter: | “In October, 1934, after a con- | ference with you, I gave my ‘impres- | sions’ to certain New York bankers | In reference to credit loans.” | Ah, now we begin to see how closely Morgan kept to the thinking of those who were providing our neutrality in | those hours. But back to the letter. | Lansing points out that the declara- tion against loans is now “a source Embarrassment Why, to those who were to whom? policy then it would constitute an |Secretary Lansing to President Wilson | drinking profits from Europe’s flow stantly lurking in the path of Amer: D. C, of blood. In concluding his letter to the President the Secretary says: “We are face to face with what appears to be a critical economic situation * * * Can we afford to let * * * our conception of the true spirit of neutrality * * * stand in the way of our national interests? * * * My opinion is we ought to let the loans be made for our own good. * *, * Something should be done at onceMo avoid the disastrous results which will follow a continuance of the present policy.” So ends the Lansing letter. So ended our neutrality concerning loans. So came the Morgans and the Allies | into full possession of America's co- operation, all to the end that busi- ness, commerce, profits, should not be interrupted. Now let us turn to the cablegram by Ambassador Page if we would more clearly understand what was at work in official minds: This cable was dispatched to and read by official Washington just a month before we plunged headlong into the World War. Hear these excerpts from the Page message: “The financial inquiries made here (London) reveal an international con- dition most alarming to the Ameri- can financial and industrial out- look, * * ¢ » Halt in Buying Feared. He follows with a tale of England's inability to finance the game of war further and unless something is done England will have to stop buying of America. He added: “This will, of course, cause a panic | in the United States. * * * Prance and England must have a large enough credit in the United States to pre- | vent the collapse of world trade and ' for now. of the whole European finance.” And now listen to this fine bit of as Page continues: “If we should go to war with Ger- that case our Government * * * might has gone beyond the ability of Mor- gan. * * * Perhaps our going to war pre-eminent trade position can be maintained and a panic averted.” And so, into the war we went. Not to make the world safe for democracy but to prevent a panic. Pouring mil- lions of American youth into the Two- Suits FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1935. trenches was of far less consequence than a panic wolld be, for some few people, I suppose. Read these Lansing and Page com- munications and you will find therein not one word of solicitation about the men who would have to sacrifice their lives; about the homes that would be broken; sbout the debt that war would bring to the masses. All you will find therein is a worry about gold, commerce, loans and profits. They were the things that were mov- ing us in those days. Commerce Lesser Consideration. Combine this knowledge with that concerning the trouble which Ameri- cans put us in by insisting upon truve eling on the vessels of nations at war, the Lusitania, for example, and it seems to me we have something of a picture of what might be at work to draw us into another war. It was | these things which our committee | had in mind in offering its program of neutrality which I have spoken of | tonight. We were convinced that if | America really wanted to stay out of | the next European war it would will- | ingly sacrifice commerce, and that | when commerce and neutrality were in conflict America would abandon the commerce. In that spirit we pre- sented the neutrality program. It was Ibecomlng increasingly evident that | leaders hoped to escape this issue. It at no time was placed upon the so- | called “must” program. | A threatened filibuster brought forth a compromise and accomplished the passage of a resolution meeting the munitions export, thé sailing upon belligerent vessels and the munitions | licensing issues. This was not enough, but it was the best that could be had ‘The compromise left un- touched the issue of loans and credits, commerce in contraband, and makes 1chlseh‘ng of America by an American | the munitions export feature manda- | tory only until next March. | "But I can say to those Who are | l‘many‘ the greatest help we could give | interested that we shall be returning | the Allies wou'd be such a credit. In | to Congress in January with the high- | est resolve to enlarge upon the exist- | guarantee such a loan. * * ¢ I think | ing neutrality program and to make | | the pressure of the approaching crisis | its mandatory features permanent. In | the meantime, let us rejoice that some | progress has been made, a new policy | is the only way in which our present | inaugurated. A splendid foundation !is now afforded to build upon. | Critics Already at Work. | But, already neutrality critics are | | at work seeking to discredit the pro- | gram. They are saying that neutral- ity should be left to the Executive; Trouser for Fall that Congress cannot cope with for- eign relations and the emergencies of war, when we know that we left our neutrality to the Executive 20 years ago. ‘They are saying that legislation like this is pressure in advance which causes embarrassment to the State Department in the present world emergency, while we observe American corporations entering - into contracts for oil concessions in Ethiopia in the | very face of warnings to Americans by that same department to get out and stay out of Ethiopia. ‘These critics point out that if we had denled munitions to England dur- ing the World War, think: of what our good heighbors, the Canadians, would have thought of us. And then they would go a step further and fashion dreams about Canada or Mex- ico being attacked by a foreign foe. Of course such critics are not going to believe that Congress could, and in all probability would, alter its policy in such an event. “It is impossible to foresee situa- tions which might arise,” say these critics, “and we ought, therefore, to leave a neutrality policy discretionary with the President and not manda- tory upon him.” Have they forgotten that a President, and a well-meaning one, had all this discretionary power during those years when the world was last at war and we wanted to be neutral? Congress Can Alter Policy. When we hear these critics let us be constantly reminded that if Con- gress does continue its program of providing a mendatory neutrality policy, the same Congress can alter that policy to met unforeseen.emer- gencies when they arise, and that it is probably well that all the people should have & voice in determining courses that mean war or peace and that the only way for them to enjoy that volce is through their elected representatives in Congress. Members of Congress have been hearing from the American people upon this question. My mail is but a sample of what others have had. It reveals a determination to keep America out of other people’s wars. | It comes from business and profes- slonal leaders, from educators, from scholars, from fathers and from mothers. It comes not alone from isolationists and pacifists. Those who urge a strong mandatory neutrality policy are for the most part those who would gladly give of their full A—9 service and sacrifice in defense of country if we are attacked, but men and women who are unalterably op- posed to being made parties to wars to protect selfish interests with in- vestments abroad or with prospect of profiting from war. No one would be so foolish as to insist that the full neutrality program outlined tonight will prevent war, But it would offer safeguards badly needed. Even the compromise pro- gram already the law affords a splendid step forward looking to the prevention of America being drewn into what appears now to be in che making abroad. I most sincerely hope that Americans will keep their dander up on this issue and be insistent that & complete job on neutrality be done, and insistent that the legisiative pro- posals to control war profits and the munitions industry which are before Congress be enacted into law. British Warship Arrives. GIBRALTAR, September 6 (#).— | The newly modernized battleship Bar~ | ham, which recently left England for | service in the Mediterranean, arrived today a day ahead of schedule. It was announced the man-of-war will remain here four weeks. VALLEY FORGE TOURS every Sundey from Philedeiphia . . . . .$1.00 round o $2.75 Wilmington _ Saturday, Seprember 7 $5.00 Elmira, Watkins Glen, va $7.50 Erie, Oil City, Red Bank, Pa. $5.65 NEW YORK panLy one way Coaches only Lv. 1230 A M. 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