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Show Neutrality Hard Row to Hoe ' : By PRESTON GROVER WASHINGTON Not In a long time have certain members of congress been so much caught In a mill of their own making as In the case of the so called neutrality neutral-ity act. Just now It Is especially painful pain-ful te membera like Senator Nye ef North Dakota who are dia-tressed dia-tressed over how the act has Injured In-jured loyalist Spain, but ara hauled another way by their original orig-inal wish to keen tha Ualted ' designed to prevent any groups 1 from gaining a profit from a foreign for-eign war, thus avoiding any financial fi-nancial Intereat In It which would need U. S protection. Ths neutrality act originally did not apply to civil wars, but the alarming prospect that Spain might become tha starting place for a new World war excited congress con-gress to enact a special resolution as soon as It cams into session in January. 1MT. It prohibited ahip-ment ahip-ment of arms and munitions to sither side in Spain. Later the reaular neutrality act waa amend. when foreign war breaks out and threatens the peace and security of ths United States, the president presi-dent must proclaim the fact, whereupon the arms embargo goes ln(o effect The special act covering Spain did net give the president such leeway. It simply prohibited shipment of arms to Spain. Both the neutrality act and ths apecial act covering Spain, however, how-ever, permit the president to lift the embargo when he finds that the shipment of arms would not States entirely out of the struggles Of foreign powers. Thus they were more than pleased when Henry L. Stlmson, formsr secretary of state (under Hoover), advanced a plan which offered them an "out" even if It left their original principles somewhat some-what tangled. , Fundamentally ths neutrality act is baaed on the auppoaition that the country cannot trust a president in his conduct ef foreign for-eign affairs. It hsd Its origin in Investigations of the munitions committee, which Nye headed. Several committee members came to ths conclusion that President Wilson was bam boosted into leading lead-ing the United States inta war en the side of the allies by the machinations of bankers and munitions mu-nitions makers. Eliminates 'Pressure' Danger No president, they asserted, csn withstand such tremendous pressure. pres-sure. So the neutrality act waa ed to Include civil ware. ' It developed after that that the real problem In Spain, so far as the United States was concerned, was the fact, that Italy and Germany Ger-many were supplying munitions to Insurgents while loyalist 8 pain, a friendly government recognised by the U. S., had only inadequate aupplies. What waa most painful to neutrality neu-trality advocates was the fact that the winning side wss favored by totalitarian states whose ideology is so sharply at conflict with democracy in tha U. 8. That made Nye and associates willing te overlook their earlier Insistence on an attitude of hands-off hands-off -no-matter-what-happena. They advocated legislation specifically lifting the embargo, Stlmeen's Finn And thsn Stlmson suggested that such legislation was really not nececssary. Here Is ths situation: situa-tion: The neutrality act provides that jeope.ro.ize me peace 01 me united States. A year ago tha president said the situation was such that hs could not act and that any change would have to come through congress. Now Stlmson advances ths suggestion sug-gestion that It Is not the shipment ' of arms to Spain that endangers ths peace of the United 8tates, but the real danger is the embargo which helps the totalitarian foes ef' loyalist Spain to win. Moreover, More-over, he warned (aa warnings have been issued before) that it was setting a bad precedent to re-fuse re-fuse to ahip arms to a friendly atate trying te put down a rebellion. re-bellion. His interpretation would shift to the president the responsibility for lifting the Spanish embargo. And the neutrality group favored his Interpretation. Quits aside from all this, it now might be asked who is putting ths heat on the president ths bankers and munitions makers or others f |
