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Show THE BATTLE OF WASHINGTON: Real Neutrality Issue Is Aid .to Allies might hold that It was not binding. bind-ing. In placing his problem before be-fore the president Mr. Rivers suggested that it might be advisable ad-visable to seek a constitutional amendment eliminating the anti-third anti-third term provision rather than to leave the question to a court Privately he hoped to draw out F. D. R. on his own 1940 plans, apparently believing that if the president could defy tradition, it would be most excellent precedent prece-dent for a mere governor. "Why bother about the formal ity of a constitutional amendment?" amend-ment?" responded F. D. R. "Look at what the United States senate sen-ate did. It didn't worry about the constitution when it seated Senator Rush Holt several months before he was old enough to be eligible." Mr. Roosevelt apparently feels that if the legislative leg-islative branch shows no squeam-ishness squeam-ishness with respect to constitutional constitu-tional inhibitions, there Is no reason rea-son why the executive should be too punctilious. (Copyright 1939, McClure Syndicate.) ' By BRUCE CATTON WASHINGTON The real question at stake to the fight over revision of the neutrality law Is both simpler and more profound than the general trend of argument so far haa revealed It to be. Basically, t hi Just this: Ia this country going to decide now, once and tor all, that the most important thing la to as Hitler beaten or la It going to decide that the most important thing la to stay at peace even If that may mean having to swallow swal-low a Hitler victory over England En-gland and Francef Underneath ail of the window dressing, that is what is at stake. The struggle over repeal of the arma embargo haa become a symbol. Boiled down, what it symbolizes 1 do we take aides, or don't we? The one driving force behind the effort to remove the arma embargo la a conviction that this country cannot afford to stand by and aee Hitler win. as admtoasrrnlUa Meawalt That conviction rests on the belief that the world Just won't be big enough. In the long run, to hold both democracy and the totalitarian Idea. Because of that belief, this administration ia not now neutral. It wants to help England and France, and that ia why it wants the arma embargo lifted. And since the actual, concrete effect of lifting the embargo at less Important Im-portant than ita symbolic effect, the administration In the Pltt-maa Pltt-maa revision to the Bloom bill ia willing to consent to practically practi-cally any stiffening of the present pres-ent law If only the embargo clause can be lifted. It ought to be added that the revisionists are entirely sincere In saying that they do not believe be-lieve that lifting the embargo , ' will lead to war. There la no 1 ' need to doubt that the administration adminis-tration mean what it says when It announces that It proposes to keep the country at peace. But It la equally true that the Editor's aetet "The Battle of Wsahlagt " 4be flcht ka eeagress evee repeal of arms smarts Is aa real as aay ward war ka Eurcpe. Das-suselag Das-suselag evenly the tbiaars that are aaM privately la Wasainrtoa fflelal circles, Bruce Ctttoa has wrlttea a frank survey mt the Issaea which are developing frsea the 1 peers bat violently sp- PQsMtxl thfeVaHeVel M awsWsT shBast to keep the U. 8. at peace. The accompanying column Is the first ef a aamber ef speeeal e3spatee.es tm which ttca explains this esec flleC reason for trying to get the embargo em-bargo lifted ia a desire to exert America's Influence againet Hitler. Hit-ler. The administration wants to see Hitler beaten. That ia the basic fact that underlies all of the talk about "true neutral- ity." and the like. On the other hand, there are the isolationists. Like the administration, they are centering all of their attention atten-tion on the arma embargo itself. The fact that the Plttman revisions revi-sions give them practically everything but the embargo leaves them cold. For the conviction con-viction which holds tbem together to-gether Is the convictioei that the one Important thing for America Is to stay at peace that the calamity ca-lamity of going to war la so much greater than the calamity of a Hitler victory that the latter lat-ter ought to be naked rather than the former. And the bitterness of the fight now being waged can't be understood un-derstood unless you understand the thing which many men in Washington are saying privatelybut private-lybut which few say in public. pub-lic. These private opinions boll down to this: That because the arms embargo em-bargo does symbolize so much beyond its actual content we are liable to commit ourselves to something we can't back out of If we repeal It It that Is, we have an administration that wholeheartedly wants Hitler beaten, and If we repeal the arma embargo in order to make Hitler's defeat more likely, then the die Is cast and we are in for It whenever something beyond mere repeal of the arma embargo em-bargo ia necessary to keep Germany Ger-many from winning. That argument goes beyond everything else in explaining the laolationsu' tenacity. It weighs more with them even than the prospect that repealing the embargo em-bargo might build up a war boom which would "automatically" draw us in as the 1918 war boom la supposed to have done. Such a boom could easily develop under un-der the present law. In materials other than munitions. Indeed, the Plttman revisions are tighter In this respect than the existing law. But the embargo clause la the crux of It not because of Its actual, concrete effect but because be-cause of the implications which are becoming bound up In the whole fight over the proposal to repeal It Added to which there Is the steadily growing feeling among the isolationists that a definite and conscious current to put this nation into the war Is now In motion. Next: The paeaiaeaad ef the |