Evening Star Newspaper, November 1, 1936, Page 35

E’ditorial Page Political Round-Up Part 2—12 Pages RETURN TO NEW DEAL BY WARBURG EXPLAINED He, Glass and Others Feel Party Can Best Be “Put in Order” by Remaining Loyal, Observer Believes. BY MARK SULLIVAN. JAMES P. WARBURG, a distin- guished Democrat, who most gravely disapproves Mr. Roose- velt as President, nevertheless has announced that he is going to vote for Mr. Roosevelt next Tuesday. ‘This curiously equivocal declaration is more than one man’s statement of his position. Properly understood, it con- stitutes a major incident of the cam- paign. It throws a searchlight on the very heart of the conditions which are ahead of America. If Mr. War- burg’s position is understood, then the position of a large body of Democrats can be understood. And understand- ing of the position of these Democrats will enable the public to sense the very great danger which the country faces. The torment in the minds of con- scientious men, their inability to see the way out, the consequent conflict between inner conviction and overt action, illustrate the somberness of the situation. For light on the attitude of Demo- crats of this type let us start with Senator Carter Glass of Virginia. He abhors the New Deal. He said, in a newspaper interview April 8, 1934, “The New Deal, taken all in all, is not only a mistake—it is a disgrace to the Nation. * * * I would rather have died than live to see the dis- grace of this era.” This Senator Glass has never re- tracted. He never did retract it. Yet Mr. Glass is going to vote for Mr. Roosevelt. Why? Let no one suppose it is merely because Mr. Glass is an officeholder running for re-election. ‘There is another reason animating Mr. Glass and other Democrats. We shall find a clue to the reason by con- sidering the case of another Demo- crat, Mr. Warburg. Praise for Warburg. Mr. Warburg is a Democrat of high character and exceptionally talented mind. He was a fiscal adviser to the President during the early part of his administration. He had close personal relations with Mr. Roosevelt. And he became convinced that Mr. Roosevelt, because of his temperament, is, in an essential and ominous sense, a danger- ous man in the presidency. Convinced of this, Mr. Warburg Wrote a book about the President en- titled “Hell Bent for Election.” So forceful was his criticism that some newspapers, printing it serially, omit- ted the more accusatory portions of it. Subsequently hundreds of thousands of coples of the book were circulated. “Hell Bent for Election” constitutes the most penetrating indictment of the President—and the most disturb- ing to the reader—that has come from any source. It contains the most in- cisive and enlightening analysis of | Mr. Roosevelt'’s personality that has appeared anywhere. It may be that this analysis may stand in history as & contribution to the final literary portrait of Mr. Roosevelt'’s person- ality. Mr. Warburg's analysis of Mr. Roosevelt'’s personality is the more convincing because it is done without malice. On page after page Mr. War- burg -says, with obvious good faith, that Mr. Roosevelt “fundamentally means well,” and that Mr. Roosevelt | s a man is likable. Mr. Warburg | speaks of Mr. Roosevelt as having a “lovable personality.” “I have,” says Mr. Warburg, “a feeling of affection for him which longs to deny what my Teason tells me is undeniable.” But Mr. Warburg, sees the necessity for separating Mr. Roosevelt'’s “lovable Ppersonality” as a man from his “words and actions” as President. Of Mr. Roosevelt as President, Mr. Warburg says: “The whole pattern of his living and thinking is woven around his emotional desires, predi- lections and prejudices. * * * I be- lieve that Mr. Roosevelt wanted to become President and wants to remain President primarily because being President expresses, more than any- thing else would express it, the fact of being liked and admired by the greatest possible number of people. ® * * Mr. Roosevelt’s mind is so ex- ceedingly unclear that he does not realize that the only way he can pos- sibly do what he wants to do is by being a dictator. * * ¢ I think Mr. Rooseveli has a definite liking for the devious as opposed to the direct, for the complicated as opposed to the l‘m]fl!." L ‘Told of Dangers. Mr. Warburg thinks that because of these traits in Mr. Roosevelt his course, if he is permitted to go on, would finally “substitute for the American form of government a cen- tral ‘suthoritarian’ state, along the linies of the various European experi- ments in socialism and dictatorship.” And Mr. Warburg says (this predic- tion is one of the most disquieting ever made about America): “It is my considered opinion, for what it may be worth, that as time goes on and as- the popular applause upon which Mr. Roosavelt is so dependent becomes less and less audible he will become more and more feverish in his activity, more and more grandiose in his schemes. * * * Mr. Roosevelt is no more likely to c'l‘:me his basic char- acteristics a to c e feo e ol ot done with him, the better for the " Mr. Warburg said all that. He said 4t within 12 months past. Yet within Colby; former Democratic Senator James A. Reed of Missouri, former Democratic Gov. Ely of Massachusetts will vote for Gov. Landon. So will many minor Democratic leaders. Several of the most important sources of Democratic thought, in- cluding the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Omaha World Herald, think that refusal to support Mr. Roosevelt is best. Especially expressive of the despair which besets many of the most thoughtful Democrats is the Balti- more Sun, which announces it cannot support Mr. Roosevelt—but apparently feels it cannot support Gov. Landon, either. Of all the thoughtful Democrats in the country, fully four-fifths feel about the New Deal much as Senator Glass has expressed himself, and feel about Mr. Roosevelt much as Mr. Warburg has expressed himself. I am speaking of men of the more intellectual type— Democrats who understand political principles and the organization of society. Among men of that type the estimate of the proportion of silent dissenters, four-fifths, is not excessive. I think the same proportion, though perhaps less, applies to Democrats in high party position. Democrats in the Senate and House, Democratic Governors. Very few of them speak out against the New Deal, but many feel as Senator Glass does. This state- ment applies, many suspect, to some of the Democratic leaders who in this campaign are active for the re- election of Mr. Roosevelt. How account for the course these Democrats are taking? I will not at- tempt to assign particular views to particular men. But, speaking of them as a group, they think something like this: They think America is in desperate danger of being carried into a changed form of society and gov- ernment. They want to save America from that fate. To help in accom- plishing that they think it best to retain their positions of leadership. And it is quite true, as to many of them, that if they should go out of their party they would go out of public life and therefore out of influence. Problem Now Faced. Some of them think—and practi- cally all thoughtful persons agree with this—that much of what the New Deal has done was necessary and is good. They think the problem now is to separate what is good in the New Deal from that part of it which leads toward one of the new European conceptions of government. They think they can best help to bring this about if they remain within the Dem- oeratic party. Some of them think America has been carried so far that only the Dem- ocratic party can retrace the steps. By that they mean this: That in the near future conservative action taken by Democrats would -be better re- ceived by the country than conserva- tive action taken by Republicans, They think that if all the conservative Democratic leaders should in this cam- paign join the Republicans there would be left in the Democratic party only radicals. And thereafter, if Mr. Roosevelt should be re-elected, his direction would be certain to be radi- cal. Some of these dissenting Demo- crats think that by remaining Demo- crats they can influence Mr. Roose- velt in the conservative direction. Some of this type of Democratic leader have an uncénquerable distrust of the Republican party, especially of its traditional policy on the tariff. Most of the intellectual type of Democrats who see the defects in Mr. Roosevelt’s course but still support him do so—I quote some words of one of them, Mr. Dean Acheson, for- merly Mr. Roosevelt’s Undersecretary of the —“more in hope than in faith.” Here, then, is the situation. A very large number of the Democratic leaders feel about the New Deal as Senator Glass and Mr. Warburg have spoken about it. The things Mr. War- burg and Senator Glass have said are harsher than anything ex-Gov. Smith has said or Mr. John W. Davis. Yet here is the clearage: Some, like Senator Glass and Mr. Warburg, think they can best serve the coun- try by remaining regular; others, like ex-Gov. Smith and Mr. Davis, think the path of best usefulness to the country goes along with the path of conscience. The attitude of Democrats like Mr. faithlessness—as they would be if they supported Gov. Landon in this campaign. World’s Oldest Book Italy Studies Plans To Evacuate Cities EDITORIAL SECTION he Sunday Stae . WASHINGTON, D. C., SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 1, 1936, Reds Facing Dictators’ Wall Italian and German Alli BY CONSTANTINE BROWN. HE German-Italian alliance, foreshadowed in this column last August, now has become an accomplished fact. Count Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini’s youthful secretary of state and his son-in-law, and Baron Kogstantin yon Neurath, Hitler's dummy foreign fitnister, have put the final touches to an agreement which has been in existence since last July. The two cougittfes now are tied together by a document which pro- vides a whole-hearted co-operation on the basis of a parallelism of interests. Neither Berlin nor Rome calls this dgreement a treaty of alliance, or a pact. It is, according to the Berlin foreign office, a mere understanding, the terms of which ve been put down on paper. The two dictators have signed so that there could be ng_ Jnisunderstanding in the future. and Berlin are exultant over this - diplomatic arrangement, LATIN AMERICANS AWAIT RESULT OF U. S. ELECTION Effect on Foreign Trade Feared if State Department Policies Are Altered. Nominees’ Speeches Scanned Closely. BY GASTON NERVAL. ATIN AMERICA, with the rest of the world, has followed the progress of the presidential campaign in this country and is anxiously awaiting the result of next Tuesday's electoral contest. ‘This interest is twofold: First, there are the more or less immediate consequences which the outcome of the election will have on certain aspects of the foreign policy of the United States. For countries which have such varied political and eco- nomic relations with the United States, because of their geographic proximity, as the Latin Americans, any alteration in the trend of the State Department’s policies is of capital importance. And then there is the significance of the election from the strictly academic viewpoint of political science, the lesson which the world will learn from this contest between conservative and liberal forces in the democratically most advanced nation on earth. As to the first, and always barring unforeseen circumstances which' may abruptly change the logical course of events, Latin Americans may easily form an idea of what treatment they L3 il i ) with oratorical emphasis by their official spokesmen. Besides these promises, on the Dem- ocratic side they find some facts. The achievements of the “good neigh- bor” policy, the extraordinary im- provement in the political and eco- nomic relations of the United States with Latin America in the past three and a half years, the benefits of the reciprocal trade pacts, the definite commitments of the Roosevelt-Hull administration against armed inter- vention, dollar diplomacy and other unfortunate practices of yesterday, with the corresponding acknowledg- ment of former mistakes, are con- crete facts, carrying all the force of accomplished results. G. 0. P. Contradictions Seen. Against these facts, on the Repub- lican side they find some curious contradictions. The Republicans want more and better inter-American trade, yet they attack bitterly and prome ise to repeal the reciprocal trade pacts signed with nearly one-half of all Latin American countries. They promise to. co-operate in the efforts to maintain peace, yet they denounce all the international agencies exist- ing for that purpose. They pledge themselves to support the “great cause of international arbitration,” yet they reject the only universally accepted tribunal of arbitration, the World Court. They condemn imperialism, but they deny that they have ever practiced it. In other words, both major parties promise to do right by Latin America, but the Republicans either do not know how or else they-are not en- tirely sincere about it. Nothing il- lustrates better this conclusion than the differing views of the two candi- dates with respect to former hege- monic policies of the United States. Mr. Landon, in his major address on Y | peace and foreign policies, had this to say on the subject: “We have been means, say the foreign offices of the two authoritarian states, the laying of the corner stone of a new edifice of peace for Western Europe. Its ultimate purpose, again, according to Rome and Berlin, is eventually to bring into this agreement the other Western European nations — France, Great Britain and Belgium—thus establishing a common economic front and, what is more important, a bazrier © against communism, which It | might otherwise become rampant iance Aimed to Further Peace, but at Same Time Block Russians. through the remaining democratic states of the continent. The German and the Italian gov- ernments agree to have a common policy regarding the resurrection of the Locarno treaty. They favor non- aggression pacts between the West- ern European nations, but are ada- mant regarding Eastern Europe. Russia, in particular, cannot be in- cluded in any such pact, because in the eyes of Hitler and Mussolini the (Continued on Tenth Page.) BALEARIC ISLANDS HELD LIKELY CAUSE FOR WAR No Nation With Mediterranean Interests Can Afford to Let Another Take Them, Observer Says. BY THEODORE PRATT. N FRANCE I had seen, printed on the wrapper of a piece of Italian cheese, & map of Italy that in- cluded the French Riviera as Ital- ian territory. When I went to Majorca, Spain’s largest island on the Balearic Archipelago in the Western Mediter- ranean, I never expected to see any- thing as fantastic as that cheese map. But during the two years I lived on Majorca the cheese map became a very ordinary affair. One writer, whose book I read on the Balearic Islands, called them “the in- nocent isles.” For a time I thought this was an apt description of the re- mote, quiet Balearics, and the outside world mostly agreed with it until the recent query of Mussolini to Ger- many, while Spain was torn with revo- lution, asking how Hitler would regard Ttaly’s moving in on the Balearics. The Balearics are anything but in- nocent in their significance as the present focal point in commanding the Mediterranean. In consequence, though mostly forgotten by the world up to this time, they compose some of the most important bits of land for quick and violent contention in any future world war. My first intimation of this came in the little town where I lived on Ma- Jjorca—Puerto de Pollensa, a fishing village on the most remote end of the island. The only thing there was an excellent natural port, but that was very important, indeed, as was proven by the fact that hardly a month B 8 8 g Egggggggégs ly, these fortifications, during the revolution, fell into the hands of the rebls without a shot being fired, for the Balearics have always remained | strongly royalist. Among Spain’s plans for torflfylnz; her island possessions was that of making a seaplane base at Puerto de Pollensa, as if in answer to the great interest taken in the spot. This, however, she found impossible to do because her bombing planes couldn’t safely get off the water there, due to the erratic currents of winds sweep- ing down from the mountains. But among her other plans she created & military zone 5 miles back from all the coasts. She started a spy- scare, with wholesale arrests. She made it plain that the influx of tour- ists to Majorca was not wanted. Why? Spain, to the consternation of Ma- jorcans who had invited and invested heavily in the tourist trade, did not want attention to be called to the islands by the world at large because they were becoming a bone of con- tention on a scale more extensive than she was sure of handling. Her in- ability to hold Minorca, the northern island, in the nineteenth century, against successive occupation by the French and the British, was remem- bered. France has long wanted the islands —or at least their use—even a bit more than Italy wants them. France could use them very readily to trans- port troops from her African posses- sions. More than that, she would like to make sure that no one else is be- . |tween her and Africa. France tried before the deal could be consummated. Then she tried outright purchase, which also failed. Mussolini, with his dream of Medi- Straits, would be a more valuable thing to any nation that wanted to control the Western Mediterranean and the entrancé to it from the Atlantic Ocean. | Bngland FLOOD CONTROL PLANS TO BE BASED ON COSTS Potential Benefits Must Exceed Amount of Losses in Order to Obtain Appropriations. BY LESTER N. INSKEEP. HE ever-increasing height of flood waters in the Potomac River basin may be laid direct- ly to many modern develop- ments. The question now is whether man can control the result of his mis- takes. These are problems confront- ing the United States Engineer Office a8 it seeks to detemine the extent of damage done in past floods and whether steps can be taken to safe- guard the farmlands, industries and cities extending west from the Capital into Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. During a series of public hearings conducfed under an act of the last Congress, providing for a survey o determine the possibility of safeguard- ing life and property in the river basin, Lieut. W. J. Matteson, acting district engineer for this area, and his aids have gathered some interest- ing data. They have not, however, re. ceived sufficient information to reach ) even a tentative answer to the problem of whether a flood-control program will be economically sound. ‘The act under which the preliminary survey is being held provides that losses must exceed cost of relief through the construction of dams, levees or other projects designed to control the waters of the Potomac during flood stage before a control appropriation is made. Causes Are Reported. Causes of the increasing heights of floods were given by sufferers who at- tended the meeting as: 1. Denuding of forest lands with- out consideration to reforestation, and the washing of lashings from timber cuttings to the Potomac tributaries, 2. Washing of unguarded farm lands, which not only causes a rapid flow of water from hillside farms, but also send tons of silt and rocks into stream beds. 3. Railroad and highway bridges, abutments and supports, which gather debris, backing up the water until it has reached a sufficient height and velocity to either tear away these structures or flow over them. The re- sult is & sudden burst of penned-up fury that sweeps swiftly over every- thing below it. 4. Culverts under an ever-increasing number of Federal, State and county roads, sending surface waters speed- ing toward the stream forming the natural watershed in which they are located and causing a sudden rise in- stead of slow, natural drainage. Narrow Channels Cited. 5.+ Industrial and municipal dams, levees. walls and other man-made in- strumentalities which cause streams to flow in narrow channels, or- divert them from damage at one point to much more serious harm in another. 6. The gradual but unmistakable filling of stream beds, causing flood waters to overflow the banks of streams which originally flowed in channels of sufficient depth to carry off large volumes of water. Buggested control, as submitted to the engineer's office, include dams placed in the headwaters of tribu- taries and, in some instances, in the streams themselves, many believing a series of such dams would store s sufficient amount of water to alleviate damage until the crest has been passed, at which time the water could be gradually released from the con- tainers; construction of levees at the points of greatest destruction; re- moval of bridge and railroad fill ob- structions by a different type of con- struction; dredging in channels which have become clogged with debris and rocks, and soil conservation. Engineers conducting the prelim- inary survey have refrained in general from expressing themselves regarding the suggestions made. By inference, however, they have expressed consid- erable skepticism on the actual value of proposed dams. Proponents have been questioned carefully as to where such projects could be built and | whether in many instances they would cover sufficient farm lands to coun- teract any benefits to be generally derived. Soil Measures Cited. It has been definitely stated that soil conservation cannot be taken into consideration as an immediate eid in controlling floods. Soil conservation experts have stated it will take 10 to 12 years to educate farmers with sloping fields that strip farming and | seeding of hillside fields are to their benefit as well as all other dwellers in the basin. While reforestation is an acknowledged remedy, that, too, must be passed as an immediate aid in controlling excess water. City and town officials, farmers, orchardists, manufacturers and coal | mine operators who have appeared before the engineers have all been advocates of flood control. They, | naturally, wish protection, but few | have been able to suggest definite | remedies. Many have advocated con- struction of one or another of the type of projects heretofore mentioned as good general policy. Great difficulty has been encoun- tered in obtaining accurate and full accounts of flood losses, and without these the engineers are unable to even hazard a guess as to whether construction costs will be lower or greater than damages done. Most of the communities have promised to gather the desired data and forward it to the district engineer. The city of Cumberland was the only municie pality or county to furnish losses in detail. Losses already submitted run into many millions of dollars, but control projects also will run into many mile lons. At this time it is a toss-up as to which will be the greater. Actual prevention costs cannot be madé known without a complete sur- vey containing.the number, character, height and cost of flood control proj= ects. The result of the preliminary survey will determine whether the general survey is justified. Washington is the only large city directly affected. The city receives the full rush of flood waters from the entire upper basin and will watch with interest attempts to harness the stream. Treasury Experts Display Wizardry In Redemption BY LOUIS E. REICHARD. OT 50 long ago a man in a greatly disturbed state of mind hurried into the Redemption Office of the United States Treasury. He had a distressing story | to tell, and lost no time getting under way. It seems that on the Saturday be- fmhhclllltlhe'l?el.mryheb‘d’ withdrawn $3,500 from his bank—the amount of his pay roll for the follow- ing Monday. This money he took to his home and hid. On Sunday his house burned to the ground. Follow- ing the fire a feverish search of the debris was made, and the tin box in which the money had been put for “safe keeping” was found. The bills in that box were in a sad state, but not altogether destroyed. With doubts torturing him, the Treas- ury visitor was acting on the sugges- tion of a friend and calling to inquire whether there was a possible chance | of salvage. In the Identification Office they lis- tened sympathetically to his story, and then set to work. For hours ‘Treasury experts worked over those charred bills. Finally they were able to identify $2,900 of the $3,500. The man went away happier, wiser—and somewhat poorer. His name was added to the long and growing list of those who marvel at the wizardry of the employes of the Identification Section of the Redemption Division. This was just one of a considerable number of instances in which Uncle Sam’s skilled workers have saved thoughtless, careless or downright fool- ish persons from the consequences of their folly. All May Not Be Lost. If you should come home some evening when the weather had sud- denly grown chilly, and find a glowing fire in the furnace in which you had hidden a roll of bills, try to control yourself. All may not be lost. Search hope until his experts have performed an autopsy. 1L your_pet dog playtully seizes & Phoenicians, Romans, Carthaginians, Vandals, Moors and Dutch fought for them. It would, in fact, be hard to find a place over which more war has been fought. England and France that Italy may repeat the actign of her Roman forebears in doing the same. No nation with any Mediterranean interests could afford to let another take over the Balearics in the event of another world war. A weakened Spain would be in no position to hold them. A desperate scramble for their would almost be sure to fol- low. outbreak of another war. It 1s improbable that the Balearics be the first thing fought over. .would be a sad piece of irony, in- of Damaged Money good-sized bill, runs off and tears it to bits, save the pieces. Even if your | goat should unearth, chew and swal- | low with goat-like gravity the wad of | bills you buried in a cigar box, you need not despair. A veterinarian can | remove the mutilated bills from the | goat’s stomach, and the Treasury ma- gicians very likely can salvage enough to pay for another goat—perhaps a number of them. It has been done. By what means do these wizards ac- complish the seemingly impossible? They will tell you modestly that, after all, it is rather simple. Receiving a package of charred bills, they begin by sorting the various Ipiwes very carefully, eliminating for- eign matter, such as ashes of ordinary paper. For the expert, distinguishing be- tween the ashes of ordinary paper | and the ashes of paper out of which | money is made is not so difficult. Burned money paper has thickness, body, a dull look and a tendency to hold together. Common paper, which is lighter, lacks toughness, turns shiny and crumbles quickly into soft ashes. ‘When the remains of a partly cre- mated bill have been sorted, they are pasted piece by piece upon a sheet of paper the exact size of the original bill and in approximately their true position. On such pieces, examined under a microscope, trained eyes find various marks that identify the bill as surely as fingerprints do human beings. The fact that there are about 135 issues of paper currency and that bills of various denominations carry dis- tinctive designs on their faces and backs adds both zest and difficulty to the problem in hand. Notwithstand- ing the difficulties that arise in the solution of such a glorified picture puzzle, a badly mutilated bill may be redeemed for its full vaiue—though, more likely, it will be for somewhat less than that. Yardstick for Values. In this connection, Uncle Sam has & yardstick for determining the value of damaged money. After a marred bill has been mounted, it is measured to see exactly what proportion of the original remains. If three-fifths of it have been accounted for, the owner may shake hands with himself. It will be redeemed for its full value. If there is “clearly less than three-fifths and clearly more than two-fifths,” the owner may have to be content with a 50-50 settlement. However, there are instances when a bill is redeemed at face value even though less than two-fifths of it can be definitely identified. In such a case the owner must sign an afidavit that the rest of the money has been en- tirely destroyed and present a certifi- cate of good character. But woe unto him who thinks he can redeem two-fifths of a bill today and the remainder a year, five years or ten