| OCR Text |
Show ARMS SALE. BAW 'PEACE' TO 'MWDEWBERiai AM D WAR' TO COMliPILCS7 SHL1TE FI2IIT RECEIVED OVER OJHp f.CT Opposing Speakers Cite , Perils of Conflict to America By BONALD G. VAN TINE WASHINGTON, Oct 4 (UP) Senator Arthur H. Vanden-berf Vanden-berf (R Mich.), renewing the attack on President Roosevelt's arms embargo repeal program, declared today that It the United' Unit-ed' States becomes "an arsenal" for one belligerent It Will become be-come "a target for the other." . "In my' opinion,"., he told the senate, "this Is the road that may lead us to war and I will not vol-untarily vol-untarily take It" Vandenberg, candidate for the 1940 Republican presidential nomination, nom-ination, followed Senator Tom Connelly D, Texas), who spoke for the administration . bllL t They disagreed squarely on the fundamental Issue In this debate-how debate-how best to keep America out of the war. Points War Danger Connelly said that the danger lies not in embargo repeat but la the present law; that unless the law Is changed the V. 8. "will be brought to the brink of war, perhaps per-haps plunged Into Its dark and cruel depths." He argued that this Is so because the present act permits per-mits American ships to go to belligerent bel-ligerent ports with all manner of material, aside from arms, and these ships are open to attack. Connelly also contended that the embargo encourages aggressor nations na-tions and that Its repeal "Is accessary acces-sary It the U. S. Is to assume, a position of legal and real neutrality." neu-trality." Vandenberg and Connelly, both members of the foreign relations committee, shared the oratory In the second day of debate on the administration's proposal to substitute sub-stitute a title-and-carry plan for the present ban on arms sales to belligerents. They delivered prepared pre-pared addresses before galleries that again overflowed. Wet Our War ' Vandenberg, Joining Connelly In the hope that the country can keep out pf war, said that "it Is not . our war, despite our devotion to democracy," and that "it need not It should not become our war." (Oootlow Pm foil (Coiaaui Five) TARMS EMBARGO , FIGHT REHEVED tcmllssil Tnm Pse Om He submitted th following "nutshell" "nut-shell" summary of th isolationists' position: . -We are guided by th one, single, hard-headed thought that to repeal the arms embargo is to strike down a great, Indispensable, Insulating defense against our Involvement In-volvement In this war. "Th repeal, though labeled otherwise. Is in It essence a deliberately de-liberately unneutral act which may too easily be th forerunner of others when one th habit starts. Th substitution of so-called 'cash-and-carry' as respects munitions muni-tions is the Inauguration of relatively rela-tively dangerous and complicating factors which seriously hamper If they do not finally destroy our detachment Oppeaea Repeal "We are guided by th one, single, sin-gle, hard-headed thought that th retention of the arms embargo cannot possibly involve us in any of thes compromising factors; that repeal la not relatively the surest road to peace; that it may finally be th road to war. "I oppose repeal because I believe be-lieve repeal makes us relatively " BWsRS?ffeS)4S) y'fe4Aa"hVeasSflBj4rjtr leaves us relatively immune." Vandenberg asked his col-leagues: col-leagues: "Why speculate at allt Why take a chance? Any speculation with American destiny is fraught with peril In such fluxing hours aa those which now curs a distraught dis-traught world." He expressed complete agreement agree-ment with Mr. Roosevelt's view that the neutrality issue transcends any thought of domestic politics, and said that "to prostitute the peace of America to politic would be sheer treason." But he added that "the adjournment of partisanship partisan-ship In such a moment does not require the abdication of independent independ-ent judgments.' Assails Wa Profits' Th Mfiatne termed the nrn- posed title-and -carry plan a "cash register suggestion," designed to "mend our faltering economy" by reaching for war profits "behind a shield of technical but highly transparent and fictitious neutrality." neutral-ity." He told th aenat that before American soldiers fired a shot In th World war, ."the spoils of our Joint victory had been pre-pledged In sordid, secret treaties concerning concern-ing which neither our people nor even eur congress knew a single thing." "It was a "shell game In more than one meaning of th phrase," he said. "Let's remember that my countrymen!" ; , , . r, . . Feints War Results Vandenberg said that If the country coun-try entered the present war, It could expect two results: 1 We would get such a regimentation regi-mentation of our own Uvea and livelihoods, 20 minutes after we entered the war, that th bill of rights would need a gas mask and Individual liberty of action would swiftly become a mocking memory. "3 W would com out of th victory with an Infinitely pyramided pyra-mided debt" that might stagger toward to-ward f 100.000,000.000 and "never could be carried or repaid." "Pleas God that we shall not be led astray I" he cried. Under a "cash-and-carry" program, pro-gram, he said, one of two things happens: "Either we invite th war Into our 'front yard,' so to speak, three miles off shore, or we try, by dictum, to extend the limit (as by the present Pan-American declaration! and proceed to quarrel quar-rel with these belligerents as to precisely where the 'kill' may start" Questions wisdom The former." he added, "Is too close for comfort and th latter Is too controversial to be safe." He contended that the "cash" eventually would give way to "loans," and the country would find itself back "in the panic of 1919." Refusal of congress to repeal re-peal the arms embargo, he said, "may temporarily be harder on our cash registers, but it will be easier upon our permanent stabilities stabili-ties and certainly It will be easier upon our sons." "America," Vandenberg concluded, conclud-ed, "la free from the darkness and the horror of war. It Is In no spirit of exultation that we thus note our Incomparable blessings. "It la in a spirit of deepest and most sympathetic pity that we contemplate the fate of others particularly In brave but prostrate Poland. "But It must also be In a spirit of grim determination that w 'shall preserve our insulation to the last honorable degree." Connelly charged that th p recent rec-ent law, prohibiting shipment of war materials but allowing U. S. vessels to transport other materials mate-rials to belligerents, would Involve th United State directly In European Euro-pean hostilities. He said U. S. ships would be sunk and the history his-tory of the World war repeated. He said that those such aa Senator Sena-tor William E. Borah (R, Idaho) who contend that repeal of the arm embargo would Involve the country In war have built their argument upon a false premise. He said that they "seek to frighten fright-en the people late accepting their bold and baseless statement" Th tall, drawling Texan, who fulfill the sightseers' vision of how a senator ought I look with his Windsor tie. curly hair and broad-brimmed hat was the second sec-ond speaker for the administration administra-tion in the senate battle over proposed pro-posed neutrality law revision to substitute a title-end -carry program pro-gram for th embargo of arms sales to belligerents. . |
