Evening Star Newspaper, August 15, 1937, Page 31

1940 CANDIDATE HINGES ON PARTY-CONTROL WAR Democrats W;ho Opposed Court Bill May Challenge Roosevelt Again on Vital Issue. BY MARK SULLIVAN. O WRITE about the split in the Democratic party is vain—for there are matters even more portentous ahead of us. To write about ‘‘Democratic” and “Re- publican” at all is vain. Those familiar American terms have little bearing on the issues Mr. Roosevelt is going to present to America, and about which the country will have to decide. But it is difficult to make these matters elear until they arrive, until the people are face-to-face with them. However, the new issues, while atterly different from any America has known before, probably will be fought out through the machinery of two old parties, The two parties and their names are deeply rooted in American usage. The names will remain, but under them strange things will be done. Meantime, what is happening to the two parties. especially the Dem- ocratic party just now, remains im- portant. Is there a split in the Democratic | party? There most certainly is. Will it be healed? National Chairman- Postmaster General Farley says it will be. But will it? Showdown Brought Changes. Before answering that, consider the mature of the split, and the extent of it. The split was brought out by the President’s court measure. The fig- ures of the split are interesting. Just before Senate Leader Robinson died, before the break and the show-down came, the division of Democrats in the Benate was about as follows: For President’s court measure__ Against President’s court measure. No position taken _ =5 After Senator Robinson died and the break came, the 11 who had taken no position went over to the apponents of the President's measure. The final line-up, %o far as there was any for- | mal line-up, wa: For President’s court measure__.__37 Against President's court measure__38 That is, on the President’s court measure the Democratic Senators were divided almost exactly evenly. Prac- tically the same division appeared again, when the Democratic Senators met in party caucus to choose a suc- cessor to Leader Robinson. The 175 Democratic Senators divided thus: 38 for the candidate preferred by the President, 37 against. To see the President's party in the Benate divided almost exactly in two is to recognize there is a split. When a President has lost half his party’s Senators he has lost more than half. For some Senators remain with the President not because they agree with him, but just because he is Presi- dent. The actual dissent of Democrats from the President’s ideas is more than half. Besides, the 37 Senate Democrats who oppose the President usually will have on their side the 16 Republicans in the Senate. In other words, on any issue in the Senate the €ide opposed to the President can ordinarily win. ‘Want Control Recognized. Speaking broedly, the Democratic Benators opposed to the President can beat him on any measure in Congress any time they want to. They won't want to often. They won't beat him | often unless he presses the issue on | them. They want to recover party eolidarity if they can and preserve it. | But the Democratic Senators want party solidarity on one condition only. | ‘They want party solidarity with them- | eelves in eontrol, and with the Presi- dent tacitly acknowledging they are in control. | ‘What has nccurred is a fight for the eontrol of the Democratic party. The key to control is the next Democratic nomination for the presidency. The | concrete question was (and is) which | side will name the Democratic nominee for President in 1940. Will it be Mr. | Roosevelt, wishing to nominate some | one of his choice, or renominate him-‘ eelf? Or will it be the other wing of | the party, wishing to nominate some | orthodox Democrat? In the struggle the Democratic Senators opposed to the President have won the first big | battle, won it decisively. I find myself using constantly a eumbersome phrase, “Democratic Sen- | ators opposed to the President”; or the even more cumbersome one, “Demo- cratic Senators who opposed the Presi- dent's court proposal.” Why do I not use a simpuler term, “anti-Roosevelt Democrats™? I do not use it because the Senators in question do not call themselves that. They shrink from the term. Again and again during the fight on the President’s court meas- | tre Democratic Senators about make a speech against the measure were careful to begin by saying, in ef- | fect. “I regard Mr. Rooseveit as a great | President, and it is with profound re- gret I say I cannot follow him on his court measure.” Some Fiction Hidden. In this attitude there is some fiction. | The Democratic Senators opposing the President know he is the symbol of the headship of the party. They | know too that fust because he is President, he receives a ocertain amount of loyalty, additional to what | €0es to him because of his personality. They fear that if they attacked the President personally they would alien- ate Democratic voters. In time, of course, as 1940 approaches, the Dem- ocrats opposed to the President will not resent being called “anti-Roose- velt Democrats”—they will walcome it. In the struggle between President Roosevelt and the independent Dem- ocrats in Congress, Mr. Roosevelt in the near future will force the fighting. He lost the first battle, a decisive one. To recover ground he must take the initiative. The independent Democrats who won the court battle will not force the fighting. On the contrary they wish now, for the time being. to move a little closer toward friendliness with | the President. Having got far away | from the President in the court battle, and thereby having shocked some | Democratic voters, they wish to re- | assure those voters. In the first important issue in the | Senate after the court battle was end- | ed. many of the independent Demo- | crats preferred to be conspicuous on | the President’s side. The roll-call | was on the wage-and-hour bill, Just | | because that roll-call came so soon after the court battle is the principal reason the wage-and-hour measure | won. 1If all the Demacratic Senators had voted as they felt about that measure, it would have lost. But they wanted to avoid subjecting the Presi- | | dent to a second defeat so soon after | the first. After a little while they | won't feel that way. Roosevelt Still Confident. The President is confident he has the people with him, confident of | the magic of his voice and personality. | Besides, he thinks he is right. He | thinks the economic and social forces | at work in the world fight on his side. He thinks his measures are impera- tively necessary. He will go forward with them, asking Congress to enact them. And he will ask Congress to | re-enact some of his measures that | | were invalidated by the Supreme | Court. Notably he will almost cer-| tainly ask Congress to re-enact an- | other triple-A. Finally, in all prob- | ability, he again will ask Congress to enact his court measure or one similar | to 1t. for a remade court is essential to the President’s program. | The President's coming moves are | | related to the economic condition of | the country. Two things are happen- ing which do not jibe with each | other and which bring danger. The prices of farm crops are going down— | and at the same time wages are going | up. The declining prices of farm products are what the President will | take notice of and act upon. He does not want wages to come down—on the contrary he is determined to keep | wages up and even higher than they now are. Consequently, he will try to bring prices of farm products up to a parity. What I am saving here about | the President's course is speculation. | Substantially equivalent things have! been said by the President himself in press conferences. “I Told You So” Prices. | Starting with the lowering prices of farm products, the President will say, in effect: “I told you so; I told you this would happen. I told you at the time the Supreme Court held triple A unconstitutional, and also N. R, A." The President will go on to say that in order to halt the falling prices of crops, he wants Congress to pass an- other triple A, substantially identical | with the first. And then a little later | he will say, once more, that he must | have the change which he wanted in | the courts. To put it more broadly. the Presi- dent, since 1933, has set up & number of economic stilts. Because some of them are about to break down, he must set up still other ones. Some of these stilts, present ones or future ones, are so clearly unconstitutional that the present Supreme Court would invali- date them unanimously, as it did N. R. A. And Mr. Roosevelt will be | obliged to say that he must have a court them. What the independent Democrats wish to know is, What will Mr. Roose- velt do when the 1940 election comes | around? Possibly they might find a clue in something Mr. Roosevelt said to Congress in.his annual message of | January 3, 1936. On that occasion he said: | . . . we (the Roosevelt sdmxms-‘ tration) have built up new instru- | ments of public power. In the hands of a people’s government this power is | wholesome and proper. But in the | which would not invalidate nomic autocracy, such power would | provide shackles for the liberties of the peopde.” | If Mr. Roosevelt were to project that | into 1940 we might imagine him say- ing that the independent Democrats must not be permitted to nominate the presidential candidate, because they | would nominate a “political puppet of An economic aristocracy.” He might | say that the only person safely to be | entrusted with the new instruments | of public power is the man who made the instruments, Mr. Roosevelt him- self, (Copyright, 1927.) Clean Japanese Are Indignant At Penny Jump in Daily Bath Price By the Associated Press. TOKIO. —1It will cost proletariat Japan one Japanese penny more every day to keep clean unless the public can shout down the bAth houses own- ers who have announced & jump in prices at public bath houses from 5 to 6 sen because of the mounting cost of living here. (A sen is about one-third of an American cent.) Indignant delegations are calling on the 3,000 bath house owners of ‘Tokio with the demand that the pro- posed raise, recently authorized by the Metropolitan Police Board, be can- celed, but so far their protests have been unavailing. The public bath house is one of the most characteristic institutions of Japan. Every Japanese, except those absolutely penniless, must have a boil- ing hot bath daily in order to enjoy life, yet only the comparatively wealthy can afford their own private baths. As a result, every few blocks in the cities of the empire” & public bath house will be found. Divided into two great compart- ments, one for women and the other for men, the public bath house is more truly the poor man’s club than ever was the saloon in America. Many of them provide chess boards and other forms of amusement for their patrons. The bath room consists of a great pool of water almost at the boiling places his clothes in a convenient basket, and then thoroughly souses himself by dipping water from the pool. After soaping and rinsing in the same manner, he steps into the pool of very hot water and reclines there luxuriously until his skin re- sembles that of a lobster ready for the table. Emerging, he “drys” himself with |a diminutive towel, and sallies forth for the day's work or the night's rest, perspiring at every pore. Curiously enough, colds are mever caught from this type of amateur Turkish bath, and physicians declare it to be a healthy practice. Cigarettes and postage rates have gone up to meet the huge budget of Japan's army and navy and the pub- lic has taken the price hike with very little grumbling, but when it comes to paying a penny more every day merely to keep clean, the Japanese feel that things are going too far. — A Decorations Told of Traits. Prussia’s famed Frederick the Great had the honor of once entertaining the great French philosopher, Voltaire, and impishly had Voitaire'’s bed room redecorated with apes, foxes, peacocks, parrots and jackdaws as the scheme of decoration, to remind the philosopher he was as ugly as an ape, proud as a peacock, vain as & parrot, sly as & fox point. The patron enters, strips and and as garrulous as a jackdaw, T “Streamlining” Hits the Arm HE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON D. C. AUGUST 15 1937—PART TWO. . Tests in Texas This Fall to Determine Feasibility of New Divisional Organization. BY JOSEPH S. EDGERTON. STREAMLINED” Army In- fantry division one-third the strength of the World War division, but capable of hold- ing the same length of battle line, in which the infantrymen will ride, not walk, to war, now is being organ- ized in Texas as a laboratory for the- ories on reorganization of the Army which have been in process of evolu- tion ever since the Armistice. The new division will have no bri- gade organizations. It will have two “brigadier generals"—a misnomer, since they no longer will be in com- mand of brigades. One of them will be & combat adviser to the division commander, & sort of combat ““trouble- shooter.” Divested of the burden of commanding a brigade, he will be available for service at any point of trouble. He may command the divi- sion advance or a flanking or envel- | oping movement; the two regiments in the battle line or the one in the reserve, or the reorganized field ar- tillery regiment. i will be commander of the service of supply of the division, which will be The other “brigadier” | entirely separated from the combat | units. Every horse and mule will disappear from the new division, which will be equipped with approximately 1,500 mo- tor vehicles of all types—sufficient to carry every man in the division to the combat zone and then to supply the division while it is in the line. There | will be no cavalry with the division, | Rocorves one of the principal Sume but there will be an entirely new rec- onnaissance squadron, composed of a swift, armored scout car and three motor cycle platoons. Semi-Automatic Rifies. Semi-automatic rifles will replace | the time-honored single-shot rifles of | the infantry and the new division, with its total of 673 officers and 12, 839 enlisted men—at full war strength —will develop the full fire power of the | Wy World War division of more than 28,- | 000 officers and men. For years the Army has been a work on the creation of the new divi- sion—a reorganization made neces- sary by the development of new rapid- firing weapons and dependable, fast, motorized equipment. year ago, after a pooling of opinion on | general of the present 2d Division and | PAPY- More than a | the part of all of the officers of the | Army, a tentative divisional organiza- tion along the new lines was created on paper. streamlined division” has been the basis of war problems and studies in the Army's service schools. For a year this “paper, | | stations. | Antonio was chosen because of | given tion of the Infantry division is neces- sary because of rapid advances in weapons and mechanization, just as it has been necessary in the Cavalry. The reorganized 2d Division, it is anticipated, will be able to utilize to the utmost the advantages of motor- ization, mechanization and increased fire power “Two stressed,” primary objectives were the War Department ex- plained. “Every facility was to be to increasing the strategical and tactical mobility of the Army and also mechanical power was to be utilized to the greatest possible extent in order to economize in manpower.” “The new division is & marked de- parture in several directions from that which we now have. One of the main | purposes which actuated its formation was the desire to remove from all organizations the so-called gent” duties and supplv. Instead of being prepared at the expense of large | numbers of men and a great volume of material to be all things unto them- selves, in the future all arms and serv- | ices must trust one another to per- Maj. Gen. Jumes K. Parsons, who will command an experi- mental division in Teras this Fall, which in maneuvers will test new theories of organization of combat units. About September 15 they will be assembled at Fort Sam Hous- ton. The date was selectea so as not chaplains, a Signal Corps detac of 16 officers and 278 men extra Medical ment and an Corps detachment of to interfere with the Summer training ' 29 officers and 176 men of the National Guard and Organized mer duties of the Regular Army. San probability of good weather there during the month or more of tests. There are two Infantry regiments of the present 2d Division at Fort Sam Houston, the 9th and 23d. The other two are at Fort Francis Warren, and will not be called into ac- tion. Instead, a third provisional regiment will be built up from troops at Mexican border posts. Command the so stabilized and | necessary, Most of the units, except the In- | fantry regiments. are to be at war strength. The Infantry regiment is its capabilities are £0 well known that it was not thought for the purposes of the tests, to build them up to war strength. The Infantry regiments of the new division, however, will be changed in some respects. They will be complete- Iy motorized. except for the rifle com- panies, and transportation will be pro- | vided even for these companies. ex- | cept within the actual baftle zone. of the new division’ wil go to May, | The regiments will not include feld Gen. James K. Parsons. commanding | 'r2ins & band, nor a Howitzer com- of Fort Sam Houston, In addition to some 2400 troops from the border posts, there will be service troops and equipment which will supply Signal Corps units. The presant Field Artillery regiment with each Infantry division is com- | posed of three battalions, providing one for each brigade and one for re- serve. That for the “streamlined” Now, after the most thorough pos- | 2d Division will be composed of four sible study of every phase of the prob- lem, a new division is being created to undergo the acid test of actual field service. Created around the 2d Divi- | hands of political puppets of an eco- | sion, at Fort Sam Houston, Tex., it | o i will be brought, in all essential details, to war strength by assignment of | troops from all parts of the country. about September 15, this new division —a division which would startle and bewilder the World War officer by its thoroughgoing departure from virtually all of the fundamentals of organiza- tion he knew—will serve as a fleld laboratory for tests which may result in complete reorganization of the Army, National Guard and Organized Reserve. The test will include a 600- mile “march,” on wheels, by the divi- sion, from its base at at Fort Sam Houston,¥near San Antonio, to Min- eral Wells, Tex., and return. Triangle Instead of Square. Behind the trial organization of the 2d Division is a long story of the need | of greater maneuverability of the com- bat troops. World War was a stabil- ized war, with little opportunity for maneuver. The primary aim of Army commanders in case of another wag would be to combine swift maneuver- ing ability with crushing fire power. The new division is designed for the greatest possible flexibility, coupled with tremendous striking force. Basis of the Wdtld War division was its four Infantry regiments of more than 4,000 officers and men each, com- posing two Infantry brigades. The two brigades formed a ‘“square,” one regiment of each brigade in line, the other in reserve. It was a formation intended to provide a powerful, sus- tained effort on a stabilized front. The “square” was the fundamental principle of the World War division. The fundamental principle of the new division is not a square, but a triangle. There are but three Infan- try regiments to the division—two for the line, one for the reserve. It lacks the sustained power of the square, but is vastly more maneuverable. Its bat- tle line is thinner, but by virtue of semi-automatic rifles and increased numbers of machine guns, its fire power is equal to that of the bulkier, more unwieldy division of the World War. Since July 1 the separate troop units which will be rolied together in the new 2d Division have been undere going preliminary training at homs [ i battalions of three batteries each, one for each Infantry regiment and one in reserve. The 2d Division Field Artillery will be a composite four- battalion regiment, built up to war strength from batteries of the 12th and 15th Field Artillery, at Houston; | the 82d at Fort Bliss, El Paso, and For more than a month, beginning | the 77th at Marfa, Tex. The new 2d Division will be com- posed of the following units, at ap- proximately the given strengths: Division headquarters, 16 officers, 26 enlisted men; signal company, 8 offi- cers, 197 men; reconnaissance squad- ron, 16 officers, 200 men; three In- fantry regiments, 285 officers, 7,086 men; one Field Artillery regiment, 119 officers, 2,400 men; an Engineer bat- tallion, 14 officers, 446 men, and service troops, 95 officers, 1,820 men. Service troops will include head- quarters and headquarters company, band, two quartermaster companies, one for service and one for mainte- nance; an ordnance company, a motor battalion and a medical battalion. There will be attached to the division | regiments of all 1rom | patant units, such as signal, engineer, | various parts of the United States—as | medical. qua 7 far distant as Fort Monmouth, N. J., | The service company will be combined with the headquarters com- pany. It is proposed to strip the combat possible non-com- quartermaster and ordnance units, and even the regimental band. These will be grouped together, where practicable, into a divisional pool, upon which the regiments may draw at! need. In event of battle, these units | may be reinforced from corps or Army | ols. Supply of the “streamlined” division, | it was explained, will be greatly sim- | plified and accelerated. Combat sup- | ply and baggage facilities will, as in | the past, remain with the division, | but the organization of the service | echelon will provide, through the | motor transport battalion, for the | supply of all ammunition and daily | supplies. Truck-Drawn Guns. The guns of the Field Artillery will | be truck drawn. Once in position, the trucks will be free to haul am- munition, troops or supplies. Field | kitchens also will be truck drawn. These trucks will be used, once the kitchens are in place, to haul food, troops or equipment. All trucks will be general-purpose units. In case of emergency any one of them could be used to snake a gun out of danger or to move a field kitchen or rush Infantry to a new position. How much of the reorganization will become permanent, officers of the Army will not venture to guess. They all believe that drastic reorganiza- Nazi Party Held Above Own Laws In Achievement of Its Objectives BY WALLACE R. DUELL. BERLIN, Germany.—A local boss of the Nazi party delivered recently a semi-public speech in which he at- tacked a fellow citizen, accused him of charging 9 per cent interest on loans and called him a “white Jew"— meaning, presumably, that the citizen was racially an “Aryan,” but a ter- rible fellow, anyway. The citizen was foolish enough to sue the party boss for damages. The suit was thrown out of court and, this folly thus speedily disposed of, the judges Went on to assert the principle that in the Third Reich there is no remedy in the law against anything the Nazis may do in pursuit of their aims. “The National Socialist party has & sovereignty of its own,” said Deutscie Rechtspfiege, an official legal jour- jnal, in comment on the court’s deci- sion, nd itself determines the oc- casions and the means which are necessary for the achievement of its objectives.” ‘These means may even be contrary | which case obviously there are no in- If the party approves such means the courts can have nothing further to say about them. “If the party, ir. virtue of its sov- ereign rights, approves or orders the employment of measures by political leaders which are in conflict with the laws of state and which involve in- fringemeng of the legal rights of the individual, such measures of the bearer of sovereignty cannot be reviewed by the organs of the state—for example, the courts—as to their legality, as. suming that it is a party matter which is involved; for example, realization of the party program,” the court said. Attacking a fellow citizen in a pub- lic meeting was in this case an act intended to further the realization of the party program, the court held, be- cause the attack was intended to help “break the bonds of interest,” one of the articles in the program. This arti- cle, incidentally, has now been offi- cially interpreted to mean that the bonds of interest are to be broken by the citisens’ giving up borrowing—in form their assigned functions. Command Unified. “In the proposed division, the Signal Corps furnish all signal communi- cations except that used for fire con- trol “The Ordnance Department will be responsible for ammunition supply to combat units ““The Artillery will be responsible for all artillery support, high explosives and chemical. “The size, organization and equip- ment of combat units will be such as will permit maximum fire power, max- imum tactical maneuverability, rapid strategical movement with reliable and rapid means of control during active operations of the combined arms. “The organization of component units of the different arms will be such as to permit ready creation of subordi- nate Infantry-Artillery combat teams, with a flexible organization of the service units which will permit the attachment of special groupings of services to such combat teams.” Acceleration of operation in open warfare, it was explained, requires that the number of command echelons be reduced to the minimum, that reconnaissance and security elements, motorized or or mechanized, be pro- vided for divisions; that the size of staffs, headquarters units and service units be no larger than needed for effective co-ordination of combat and administrative functions, and that the certainty and speed of communication be increased. For this reason, the brigade and infantry section within the divisions will be eliminated and headquarters units and service units | will be combined. Some Weapons to Be Pooled. Economy requires that weapons, services, personnel and equipment not always required, but needed only under certain contingencies, be pooled, it was explained. Such pools will include mechanized forces, notor transporta- tion, bands, reserves of supplies, in- cluding ammunition, replacements, reinforcing artillery, engineer, medical and quartermaster units. Due to the open warfare situation for which the organization is designed, an organic reconnaissance unit has been added. A new type of tricycle, with two rear driving wheels, is proposed for the reconnaissance squadron. It will carry agdriver and machine gunner. For the present motor cycles with side- cars will be employed. The squadron scout car will be armored to with- stand rifle and .30-caliber machine gun fire, and even glancing fire of .50-caliber guns. The new Garand semi-automatic shoulder rifle or & weapon of similar type is to replace the ordinary In- fantry rifle. ‘The purpose of the Texas tests, in brief, War Department officials sum- marized, is: “To test the organization of the proposed division and that of its component and attached units, to determine their suitability to execute division missions in accordance with modernized tactical doctrines of the Army. “To develop the technique of em- ploying a division and component and attached units organized under the new division set-up and to conduct practical experiments with a view to determining facts and recommenda- tions upon which the War Depart- ment can prescribe an organization best suited for the Army's purposes in modern warfare. “To determine if, and to what ex- tent, the proposed division is ma- terially better than the present di- vision organisation for war at an approximate strength of 322,000, or if the new division is better than the existing division of the unit now to the laws passed by the Naxis them- | terest bonds te be broken. selves, the court held in its decision. (Coprrisht, 1937.) 1n use were modernised, motorized and reduced in strength te 13,000 officers and men.” “contin- | D3 EUROPE’S CHIEFS SEEN AVOIDING RISK OF WAR Causes of Present Scare Abroad Are Both Varied and Contradictory, Says Noted British Journalist. The causes of the present Euro- pean war scare are analyzed here by a noted British journalist, who has just returned from a tour of Central and Western Europe. For several years he was head of the press department of the British foreign office. From 1910 to 1920 he was chief correspondent in the United States for the Times of London. Hs is the author of “As- pects of British Foreign Policy,” “The Frontiers of England” and other books. BY SIR ARTHUR WILLERT. ONDON—Except that the rest- | less ambitions of the dictator- ships lie behind them all, the causes of the present European war scare are varied and contradictory. In Germany, some people consider that the weakness of the foreign poli- cies of the democracies is the great danger because, together with the in- ternal difficulties of France, it may | tempt Berlin to a move which even | the most pacific of governments would have to meet with something stronger | than words. Inversely, one is told that Berlin is | ®o0 impressed with the growing military | might of England and with the way | in which Prench armaments are in- | creasing in spite of political and finan- cial embarrassments that it may at any time mage a coup in Czechoslo- vakia or somewhere while the going is still comparatively good In Italy, there is the same inter- mingling of superiority and inferiority complexes. People who ought to know what they are talking about say that, | in spite of all his propaganda about | the decadence of England, Signor Mussolini is really afraid that Eng- | land is trving to maneuver him intc A position in which he will have to | fight in order that she may then have her revenge on him for Ethiopia, and | that that is one of the reasons why | In pite of his abusive propaganda. he ‘ltm courts her from time to time | Economic Difficulties. | The economic difficulties of bott dictatorships contribute to the war| talk. In Milan. the industrial and | [ financial capital of Italv, I found a | very real fear lest his financial diffi- culties might drive the Duce to a desperate explosion, to & declaration of war against the Spanish govern- | ment, for instance. Paris. a few| weeks later. was agitated by the same possibility. Similar apprehensions in | regard to Herr Hitler are voiced in | Germany. Foreigners who have busi- | ness relations there testify to the existence of much worry and discon- tent as to the economic futurs and above all as to the feasibility of the plans for self-sufficiency which the government is trving to put through And on his return from Central Europe, the traveler finds that Paris and London, especially London, are As nervous as ever about the possi- bility of the Spanish war turning into a general war. Supporters of Foieign | | Secretary Eden’s non-intervention policy are never tired of telling one that, if the policy breaks down and all sides begin to take an untram- meled hand in Spain, then, indeed, | anvthing may happen. How much is there in all these apprehensions? Undoubtedly, the | situation is dangerous. It could not be otherwise with s0 much explosive | stuff about and all the standing prob- lems of Europe unsolved. the tradi- | tional incompatibilities of France and Germany unreconciled, the grievances and ambitions of Germany and Italy unsatisfied, economic nationalism im- peding recovery, and so on. But the general impression one brings back | from the Continent of Europe is that | the danger can very easily be over- estimated, that the current war scare | is, to some extent anyhow, due to a | misconception of what is fundamental and what is not in the affairs of thc old World. | War, generally speaking, is likely to come as the result of (1) some country being driven to fight by a desperate emergency, (2) the delib- erate policy of a country or group of | countries, (3) accident. | The desperate emergency most to be feared is, as has just been said, the economic one Everybody is agreed on that. One of the few things upon which all Europe is unanimous is that Secretary of State Hull has got hold of the right end of the sticik when he says the greatest threat to world peace is the continuance of the present economic nationalism. But that does not mean that the threat is imminent, that the stories, for in- sance, that Signor Mussolini may soon explode under economic pressure need be taken seriously I asked a friend and adviser of the Duce about them. “Of course,” hs said, “the economic situation is diffi- cult. But the idea that it is going to bring us to desperation for a very long time is ridiculous. Various fac- tors help us. Now that times ars better, the remittances from Italian emigrants in North and South Amer= ica are extremely useful. So is the growing tourist trade. Our armament program will give work for some years more. Ethiopia is absorbing labor rapidly because we are carrying out our huge program of road building and construction with Italian labor rather than with native labor. And if we do have to tighten our belts, we have an advantage over you and the Americans in a far lower standard of living. Our people can be kept going on much less than yours.” Full of Prosperous People. Nor did Germany, in spite of the grumbling, look like an economic crash. There, too, armaments and a low standard of Living No more than in Italy were signs of depression or hard times, in spite of the grumbling of the business world. Both countries seemed to be full of prosperous peopls on carefree holidays and their towna had lost the strained atmosphere of & few years ago As for a planned war or war from some accident, those two possibilities really go together, for, unless somee y wants war. the chances of an accident producing one are small. The comparison between what happened in 1914 after the murder of the Aus= trian archduke at Sarajevo and a year or two ago after the murder of the King of Yugoslavia at Marseilles proves that. Both crimes had all the makings of a European explodion. In 1914 the ex plosion came because some peopla wanted war. In 1934 nothing hape pened because nobody wanted war. In 193 e democracies are certainly as peaceful as ever, and. when one gets under the froth of their militant na- tionalism, there is good reason to be- lieve the dictatorships want to avoid war if they possibly can. In Germany the leaders of the army, whose influ- ence is very great indeed, are unie versally believed to be pacific. Being scientific iers, they have no delu- sions about the suicidal destructivenass of modern warfare. Herr Hitler is quoted as frequently saying that, though he proposes to make Germany the strongest country in Europe, he hopes to be able to do it by peaceful | methods. Mussolini a Realist. gnor Mussolini is just as much & as any one else. Nor can he be Judged by his inflammatory bombast. Ttalians are surprised when the out- side world takes it seriously. “Cannot vou realize.” they say, “that the Duce has to do that sort of thing. that we Italians need a continual display of violent verbal fireworks if we are to pull ourselves together? But nobody hopes more than we do that his visions of war and glory will remain visions." Last, but by no means least. the dic- tatorships, especially Germany, the dominating figure in their combina- tion, are d#ing too well by diplomacy, backed by bluff and bullying., to be seriously planning to change their technique and challenge their rivals on the battlefield. The object of that diplomatic game, as I have already aald, is, for Ger- S | many, the domination of Central and Eastern Europe and, for Italy, the Mediterranean. (Copyright, 1937, by the North America: Newspaper Allianee, Inc.) BY GASTON NERVAL. | HE United States Government is striving to get safe conduct from the Japanese and Chinese officials in North China for cit- izens of the United States it wants to evacuate from the war-torn zone. | The chairman of the Foreign Rela- tions Committee has informed the | Senate of some of the steps being | taken in that direction. adding that | it is the intention of the State De- partment to ask all United States citi- zens who do not feel secure under existing conditions to withdraw. Apart from the immediate and prac- tical results, the announcement has great significance from the point of view of international law, for it defi- nitely confirms one of the outstanding changes in the foreign policy of the United States in the past decade. It was only a few years ago, as stu- remember, that the United States Gov- ernment was insisting energetically upon the right to protect by force its nationals abroad. even if this meant the landing of Marines on for- eign shores and their becoming em- broiled in the domestic quarrels of other countries. Not only the lives, but the property as well, of United States citizens endangered by internal disturbances in some of the Caribbean nations were being assured the pro- tection of the armed forces of the United States. President Coolidge had proclaimed his famous theory of unlimited pro- tection, asserting that “the person and property of a citizen are a part of the general domain of the Nation, even when abroad.” The State Department, through one of its highest spokesmen, Reuben Clark, had admitted: “No na- tion, it would seem, has with more fre- quency than has this Government used its military forces for the purpose of occupying temporarily parts of for- eign countries in order to secure ade- | quate protection for its citizens and their property.” With little deviation, under Repub- lican and Democratic administration alike, that had been the almost tra- ditional attitude of the Washington statesmen, at least when the country where protection was alleged to be needed happened to be ome of the smaller Latin American republics. One Chief Executive of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. of “big stick” fame, had even gone 30 far dents of inter-American relations will | 2s to elaim that the armed forces of -this eountry should afford protection, s Warning to Americans in China Confirms Policy of Non-Protection in periods of civil war in some Carib- bean nation, not alone to United States lives and property, but to the nationals of the European powers whose governments were kept out by the Monroe Doctrine. Then, to the Secretaryship of State came a man. who, as mediator in a Nicaraguan civil war, had learned at first hand the resentment of Latin Americans at the presence of foreign troops, supposedly to protect foreizn lives and property and in complete disregard of the national sovereignty. Thus, when early in 1931 reports came of renewed rebel activities in the Republic of Nicaragua, and the need for outside protection was again in- voked, Secretary Stimson issued an epochal announcement The Government of the United States, he explained, could not under- take general protection of Americans throughout Nicaragua with American forces, for it was the exchusive task of the established Nicaraguan govern- ment to deal with rebel or bandit activities in the interior of the coun- try, and foreigners should not expect protection other than that afforded them by the Nicaraguan authorities. The Secretary recommended “all Americans who do not feel secure under the protection afforded them by the Nicaraguan government, through the Nicaraguan National Guard, to withdraw from the coun- try” and seek refuge in the vessels along the coast. “Those who remain,” he added, “do so at their own risk and must not expect American forces to be sent inland to their aid.” In spite of the protest of certain conservative and reactionary greups, Secretary Stimson insisted on this new attitude, and the following year, on the occasion of an alleged com- munistic uprising in El Salvador, he issued similar instructions to the rep- resentatives of the United States in that country. Later on, he applied the same principle to the Manchurian crisis, and even suggested that the other powers of the world accept and practice the same policy. True enough, without the existence of a world-wide economic depression, the change may not have been so easily accomplished, but the fact re- mains, without going into the real] forces behind it, that a new policy was thus inaugurated more in accord with the modern trends of interna- tional law and infinitely safer from the standpoint of the preservation of peace.