Evening Star Newspaper, April 7, 1937, Page 11

WASHINGT D. C, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 1937. This Changing World THE EVENING News Behind the News STAR, ON, cTHE opinions of the writers on this page are their own, not necessarily The Star’s. Such opinions are presented in The Star’s effort to give all sides of questions of interest to its readers, although such opinions may be contradictory among U. S. at New Headline Folk Threshold of War Era America Too Busy to Realize Isolation Breeds Menace. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. WENTY years ago this week I was riding up to the Capitol in an automobile just behind | President Woodrow Wilson so as to hear him deliver the message in which the United States formally recognized a state of war as having been begun by Germany, A troop of cav- alry assembled outside the buils ing. Inside, both houses of Con- gress were Wait- ing tensely. In the Speaker's room, just out- side the House ehamber, the Presid stopped to tal with members of Con- gress. He seemed solemn, worried he believed wa conditions in th had no control. Xeep America tried every the G disre, American citizer David Lawrence nervous, He was taking a step which | s forced upon him by | world over which he He had struggled to out of war. He had | honorable means. But | s insisted on | and on attacking carrying American | > engaged on peaceful | ender the seas T and retire, or | ca uplm d the traditional seas were free? should A Positio War Sentiment Widespread. Today ther who have risen to den: n entry into | Wilson's course | orred war. that unless soon | “decimation | i the of life 0.000 persons | wbered about human the loss "34 000 life was much the diseases cor and the dislocation of families due to the helplessness of the injured What has the World War taught? Like all wa was fought at time by the ra 1d file of the Na because of a belief that a vital princ have passed | head in Ger- | The peace of world is g rarely conguers peop! defeat armies. TI disaster flowing from the war was the economic eatastrophe. The rest of the world never did see the importance of rescuing the German people from their plight. The world has not yet learned international co-operation. The cry of foreign entanglement and the re- minders of 1917 as a costly experi- ment in world coalition against a ocommon enemy have made American public opinion cool to the idea of aiding other peoples. Today, the three democracies of Britain, Prance and the United Btates stand alone, each anxious for the help of the others in assuring | world peace, but America, the richest | of all, is too steeped in her own prob- lems to recognize that peace will come only when there is re-employment throughout the world. and when pro- duction is stimulated by the making of good, for peacetime uses instead of for armament. Today, also. America midst of a period of due to the way Europe has bid up is in the rising . prices | Garner Reported Behind Move for Formal Sit-Down Condemnation. BY PAUL MALLON. OME very informed Senators have an idea that the man behind these recent legislative moves against sit-down strikes is none other than President Roosevelt’s own walking sphinx, the White House no-man, Vice Presiden: John Nance Garner. They would not be surprised if the persistence of Senator Jimmy Byrnes in favor of a declaration against coal sit-downs might be at- tributed—strange as it seems—to some private encouragement he has received from Mr. Garner. They noted the vast white eyebrows and short black cigar of this most skilled of the President’s ‘legislative advisers popping around senatorial desks during consideration of the matter. Some Senators thought they heard him tell them he was in favor of the adoption of the Byrnes amendment. They also have understood he is the one who most energetically urged Mr. Roosevelt to take a forceful stand on the issue. Their eyes and ears may have deceived them. Mr. Garner is difficult to catch with the naked eye and practically impossible by ear. Also, there seems to be some doubt in their minds as to whether he was speaking for the President or just for himself. Regardless of these surmises, it seems to be quite clear that Mr. Garner is in favor of stronger pronouncement against sit-downs than have been made so far. * ok kX This is one of the few things about the situation. In the absence of any official declaration of policy, a variety of crisscross currents have developed, leading in many opposite directions. What seems to have happened is this: The White House is supposed to have a private promise from the crusading Lewis labor group to keep its sit-downers standing up. At least this information has been conveyed to administration authorities in Con- gress. There seems to be no question about the sincerity of the promise, but considerable doubt whether it can be fulfilled. The Ford unions, for instance, are said to be balky in the face of the Lewis leadership. Also the wilder unions outside his juusdlmnn are certainly planning more sit- down action. The President is being represented to his Congressmen as belicying the situation will ease down now and straighten itself out, without¥any drastic legislative action or the Government taking a firm hand. He is not opposed to the House investigation of the situation, and, indeed, may let Mr. Garner come around the White House again despite his activity for the Byrnes amendment. (Wise politicians noted that the Byrnes move tended to take the pressure off the President to declare against sit-downs.) Meanwhile, the general unpopularity of this illegal and strong-arm strike method is rising so rapidly, it may clear the atmosphere for a declaration of policy shortly. Note—One of Mr. Roosevelt's ablest labor lieutenants wrote a speech setting forth in comprehensive fashion the labor policy of the administra- tion. He intended to deliver it last week. His superior officer declined to pass the declaration, and indicated the White House objected to any such statements just now. The labor lieutenant tore up the speech, wrote an innocuous one as & substitute. * x k X What makes this Supreme Court delay in the labor decision so interesting is the fact that practically every lawyer in Washington long ago decided the case in his own mind. Outside opinion is virtually unanimous. Rarely has there been such agreement among rail-sitters. The bus they say, is clearly interstate comymerce, and therefore the Govern- ment will win its rights to super=- vise labor disputes in that one. The three manufacturing cases are clearly not interstate commerce, and hence the Government will lose those. Only difference of opinion seems to be on the fifth case, in- volving the Associated Press. Un- official jurists cannot decide clear- ly whether Government supervision there would interfere with freedom case, of the press Delay of the decision for eight weeks in the face of opinions so clear- cut is naturally encouraging many rumors. Some say the court is filibustering. Others believe the old accepted viewpoint of the court is being revised, just as in the minimum wage case. The only thing certain about these and other rumors is that they only rumors. No one knows definitely what is happening within court. are the ® ok % X The way the court usually works on the inside is this: After hearing the public arguments, the justices hold a conference and discuss the case. After two, three or more days of discussion they vote. If the vote is close, Chief Justice Hughes usually lets the matter rest a few days and then tries to get them together on a common ground. Sometimes other features of the case are discussed a second and a third time. In the end one justice is designated to write the decision. The wording of his decision is discussed, accepted, rejected or changed by the other justices. If non-conforming justices decide to write a minority opinion, they wait until the majority opinion is completed before they start on it. Under such an arrangement, delays can be caused by & dozen insignificant developments. (Copyright, 1037.) the prices of scrap iron and steel !nr! wholeharted backing of the Nation, ! armament. America is at present:somethmg. however, which does not again reaping the profits of war and | seem at perhaps sowing the seed of future | coming because of the economic disasters, which only lhe‘kpmo and the doctrine of self- | statesmanship of men like Cordell | containment which is still dominant | | Hull can save, provided they have the |in the United States. “'M STEPPING OUT IN A BIG BEAUTIFUL NASH—AND IT COST ME ONLY A FEW DOLLARS MORE* THAN ONE OF THOSE SMALLER CARS!” Actual photograph of Nash LaFayette-"4 #FOR AS LITTLE AS $1 OR $2 A CAN GET OUT OF THE ““ALL THREE'’ CLASS. A check-up recently made in ten representctive cities shows that the Nash LaFaoyette-400" 4-Door Sedan with tr: ”* 2-Door Sedan with trunk MONTH EXTRA YOU FEW dollars more than the similarly equipped 4-door sedans of the “AN Three" small cars. In many places, the SLUGHT difference In price amounts fo just $1 or $2 a month extra on unk DELIVERS for justa your fime payments. +| literature | flelds—whether of culture, themselves and directly opposed Challenge Is Answered Pamphlet “We or They” Discerns Real Struggle in Political Theories. BY DOROTHY THOMPSON. NCE in a great while a deep conviction, rooted in spiritual and intellectual sources, finds limpid and eloquent expres- sion. When it does, one gets a piece of literature. Such a piece of literature, in our times, is Prof. Karl Barth's “Theological EX- istence Today.” Such a piece of Was Etienne Gilson's ode to reason, the speech delivered last September at the Harvard Ter- centenary Con- ference of Arts and Sciences. And such is Ham- ilton Fish Arm- strong’s “We or They.” I have meant to write about this little book for weeks, ever since it appeared. But now I am compelled to write about it. Because my own mail contains scores of letters from people who ask: “Tell us more about what Fascism really is. Tell us what liberalism means in the world today. Don't you think Hitler has done, by and large, a fine piece of work? Doesn't the Soviet government make our Ameri- can democracy look poor?” And for all those I have an answer: Read this little book. It is only 100 pages long, but there is not an unnecessary or inappropriate word in it. It is published by the Macmillan Co. And it deserves to be read by as many people as there are Americans. Liberal and a Democrat. Mr. Armstrong's little book is sul generis. For it is a highly personal | document, written by an American, | a liberal and a Democrat; written by | a man who is wise in the ways of the world—Mr. Armstrong is the editor of Foreign Affairs, an inveterate trav- eler and a keen and scholarly student of Government. It is an apologia for liberal demo- cratic government as a form of col- | | lective life. It is vibrant indignation, | bright with aphorism, warm with feel- | ing. It is a gentleman picking up a | glove that has lain two long neg- | lected at the timid feet of democ- | racies. Mussolini announced in October. | 1930: “The struggle between two | worlds can permit of no compromise. | . Either we or they! Either their | ideas or ours! Either their state or ours!” Lenin said. “Either the deatn of capitalism or the death of the So- viet republic!” And Mr. Armstrong takes up the challenge—not in be- half of capitalism, but against the Catilines, in behalf of self-govern- ment, against dictatorships of any kind, for any cause. In behalf of the free enquiring spirit against the dogmas of the right or the left. And he challenges the dictatorships in all religicn, education or human well-being and happiness. We or they? All right, he says, and | he answers boldly: We. Democracy Versus Foes. Mr. Armstrong sees and asserts | that the struggle in the world is not between the White Catilines and the | Reds. The struggle is between the defenders of liberty and democracy Prof. Dorothy Thompson. the moment to be forth- | isolationist | and the parliamentary state, against | the adversaries of those principles. On the one side are all those parties, from the Conservative to the Socialist, who are out to defend political free- dom and apply the liberal and demo- | cratic method of preserving an in- | termal balance of power. And on the | other side are those whose views of the When R. 1. Smuh started out 10 buy a new car, he looked at the “All Three” cars . . . then saw Nash. 1 got the surprise of my life,” said Mr. Smith, “when I faum{ that big Nash LaFayette-“400” 2-door sedan delivered for only a few dol- lars more than the similarly equxpptd 2-door sedan of one of the ‘Al Three’ small cars.” Look at that car in the pic- ture. It's a great big 117- inch wheelbase car. You get amore powerful six cylinder engine. Larger hydraulic brakes. Strongest type of steel body construction in the industry. Roomy, spa- cious interiors. Much more “‘real automobile” . . . yet this big Nash LaFayette- «400” delivers for just a FEW dollars more than the “All Three’’ small cars. See Nash for VALUE. Let the X-Ray System open your eyes to the amazing value Nash now offers. Seeit at all Nash showrooms now. $25 A MONTHI Ask about the convenient terms and low rates available through the Nash C. I. T. Budget plan. In most places, you can pay as little as $25 a month on your time pay- ments. Automatic Crulsing Geor now available on all Nash Models af slight extra cost. DAVID S. HENDRICK, INC., Distributor, 1700 Kalorama Road N.W.—Phone Adams 4880 1507 14th St. N.W. HARRISONBURG, VA. Harrisonburg Wrecking Co. A | man, Italian and Russian pundits. to The Star’s. state is revolutionary, who wish to capture it and then intrench their legal or insurrectionary coupe d’etat in rigid and permanent form. All other issues are inferior to this issue. New economic freedoms are neces- sary; conceded. Mr. Armstrong is never more eloquent than when plead- ing for the application of the liberal spirit in the economic fleld. But he sees—what too many fail to see—that political freedom is the condition of all freedom; that to throw it away for security, annual wages, national honor or even the welfare of all workers, is to disarm one’s self before an un- known destiny. Measures Dictatorships. Mr. Armstrong takes up the dic- tatorships one by one, measuring them by those yardsticks which have been the implements of civilized man- kind for a thousand years. Shall we go to them for art? he asks. And answers with the statements of Ger- Shall we go to them for science? he asks. And answers with words out of the mouths of their own scientists. | For education? For morals? For | statesman-like ideas? For religion? For economic wellbeing? For law? According to Nazi Reichsminister | Frank, who sweeps aside the rmmed‘ &onception that what is not pmhsbmd is allowed, “when no specific law ap- | plies the courts shall mete out punish- ment according to the underlying idea of the penal code, or according to healthy public sentiment.” “The model laws,” says Mr. Arm- strong, “which certain American pro- fessors acclaim after spending a Sum- mer in Soviet Russia would be chal- lenged as a return to barbarism if they were proposed in the United States. “The word ‘law’ as uttered in Rus- sia is separated from the same word | as used in travel books by American | professors by all that has happened in penology from the Middle Ages | to this day.” Angry But Not Unfair. Mr. Armstrong is angry, but with a | fine, cold anger. And he is often | funny. His selections from German, Ttalian and Russian official literature | are acidly malicious, but they are not | distorted and not unfair. | And Mr. Armstrong comes to the | conclusion that in one thing the dic- tators are right. There is no point of contact between their world and ours. There is no common dictionary; | there are no common definitions ac- | cording to which we and they can | communicate | The gulf is absolute. And what are we going to do about it? Fight to | exterminate them? No, says, Mr. Arm- strong, not if we can help it. But he is aware that, though it takes two to reach an agreement, it only takes one to make a war. * % k% I wish I had written this book. T | am glad that I have read it. I hope that it is put in all the high schools, | that Americans may reafirm their love of freedom and prepare to work and to sacrifice for it. (Copyright, 1837.) England and France See Signs United States Would Go to Their Aid in War Again. BY CONSTANTINE BROWN. RANCE and Great Britain are not entirely to blame if they increase their propaganda activities in this country to draw us closer to them. Neither are their people the victims of a tissue of stories when they are told: “Don't worry, in the end the United States will fight on our side.” One of the most popular Parisian newspapers, the Paris-Midi, carries & story over a three-column head containing the resolution introduced late in March by Representative Siro- vich of New York. The resolution, which received little attention in this country, says nothing more than that the United States, in order to ward off an eventual attack from the dictator- ship countries, should cancel the war debts and form a common front with France and Great Brit- ain. Such a step would tell plain- ly to the authoritarian states that they will have to face, in the event of an aggression, 400,000,000 men deter- mined to wipe them off the face of the earth, There is no doubt that the idea of the Representative jrom New York is a humanitarian one. It’s the old thought to fight a war to end wars. But he undoubtedly did not realize the effect such a resolution would have on the present negotiations between the European powers. The correspondent of the French journal admitted “there is mo chance of the resolution being taken into consideration, but it is very significant that a year ago there would not have been a single American political man to make such a suggestion. Now this is possible.” The Sirovich resolution is interpreted by responsible people abroad to mean that in the event of a showdown the democracies of Europe could count on the United States. This, together with the new neutrality bill— strongly favoring Great Britain—encourages the French and the British to count once more on American support * % % There are in Europe two races which would rather fight than eat, the Germans and the Yugoslavs. These people are undoubtedly the best fighters on the continent. Since the end of the World War the political experts have been look- ing toward Yugoslavia as the storm center of Europe. They always spec- ulated that it is from there the new storm would break. Now the Little Entente and her confecderates are sadly disappointed because the Yugoslav government has decided to adopt a policy of peace. The visit of Count Ciano, Mussolini’s foreign secretary, to Belgrade seems to have upset the apple cart of the European alliances. Ciano and Prince Paul, the Yugoslav regent, have had a heart-to-heart talk, the result of which has been that Yugoslavia and Italy, bitter enemies since 1919, have agreed to bury the hatchet and live as good neighbors. The Yugoslavs, worried over the war clouds which have gathered in Europe, want to stay out of any fights as long as possible. They have come to terms with the Germans regarding an interchange of products; they have been promoting the Balkan block to keep the Balkan nations out of another conflagration and now they have agreed with Italy to settle most of the problems which have envenomed their relations in the last 20 years. This agreement enables Italy to withdraw some of her troops—the best— from the Yugoslav border and bring them wherever they are most needed— probably to the French border. It is because of this that Edward Benes, the President of Czechoslovakia, had to rush to Belgrade and ask the government piont-blank: “Are you with us or against us?” Benes has been received with a good deal of enthusiasm; he is an old friend of the country. But it is doubtful that he will change the course of the new Yugoslav policy. These warriors are now bent on peace and while not intending to desert their old friends, they will not take a chance of having a war on their hands— which is not their own war. * ox x % The Nordics, Sweden, Norway and Denmark thoroughly scared of another European war have de- termined to form an alliance—the Nordic bloc—to defend their polit- ical independence and their eco- nomic interests, should another European war break out. These eminently peaceful states—Sweden has not had a war on its hands for over 100 years—are afraid of Germany, Russia and, up to a point, Great Britain. They suffered a good deal during the last war and fear they would not escape as easily in the next war—just with certain economic losses and injury to their national pride. While Sandler, the Swedish foreign secretary, means isolation,” they have their eyes riveted on the United States for assistance in the event Europe goes crazy once more. The idea of the Nordic statesmen is to agree on a neutrality formula along the Americar: lines, then, if the war does break out to come to some sort of an understanding with this country to defend neutral rights— whatever that expression may mean. and What They Do Leon Henderson, Boss, U. S. Evangel of Func- tional Economics. BY LEMUEL F. PARTON, T SEEMED to this onlooker that the incumbent presidential mind, expounding its theory of cone | sumers’ goods versus capital goods, was flddling with certain abstract | ideas quite alien to presidential cere- 1bxaLmn in the past. The big news of this administration might well touch on the idea man who happens to be lose in at Washington rather than this or that patronage monger. Con- | sulting all Washington ouija boards, one finds the name of Leon Henderson spelled out every time. It would, of course, be discourteous to suggest that any one is merely funneling ideas into the President’s mind, but, by all available evi- dence, the rotund, said “Neutrality never, somewhat Fal- staffian Mr. Hen- derson is the most important fount of new doctrine in Washington today. He is in the news today, as the silk textile % industry engages him for a na- “tional survey, with Gen. Hugh Johnson retained as adviser. Mr Henderson was with Gen. Johnson on the War Industries Board, and, as economic adviser to the N. R. A, was just as good a table pounder as the general. He landed in Washington early in 1934 as a sharp critic of the old-line price eeonomics and drastic price-fixing devices which were being worked into the N. R. A. Mr. Henderson had been for eight years director of the Russell | Foundation of New York | doctrines were backed up b\ hutk and | vehemence and 1 oce al readi- ness for back talk, which Gen. Johnson | appreciated. David Cushman Coyle put it all in { his little book. ss Tacks,” which was read mainly by | s innocen enough capital goods or col goods to make them important c tenders in the basic argument. The Leon Henderson. energetic and versatile young Mr. Henderson worked his way through Swarthmore College as a reporter, umpire, e, factory worker, waiter and salesman of ice cream, candy and calendars. D g the war he was a beagle for the Ordnance Department, niffing out waste a ng rank of capt Technology and | of Pennsylvan rsonnel stu ‘The nub of his arg the distortion of the price structure and inevitable deflation caused away capital goods pr here for its probable bear dential policies for the next three years. | (Copyright, 1837.) 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