Show bruc Brit harts charta washington digest repeal P I 1 bill would extend credit to belligerents buying in U S danger of getting into same mess over war debts that followed world war added authority given president in bill carries potential danger by WILLIAM BRUCKART service national press balg washington D C washington As the full dress debate of the so called neutrality bill continues in the senate numerous phases and angles and incidents have cropped up and demanded attention it Is easy for one side to say that the thing must be accepted by the senate and the tha house and the country without so much as a crossed it t or a dotted 1 I 1 and it is equally easy for the oppositionists to say that thai we should have none of it at all the truth is neither side Is completely correct and mr john Q public must remember that ahat in forming his own conclusions the bill that was reported by the senate committee on foreign relations I 1 believe must be accepted as a sincere effort sixteen of the twenty three members of the committee believed it or op believed it should have a chance to be discussed fully and freely there was no division along the lines of democrats or republicans seven senators voted against sending the bill to the senate because they are opposed to repeal of the embargo against shipments of arms to any beHig belligerent erent powers while president roosevelt and the majority members of the senate committee want to get rid of the embargo publication of the text of the bill however shows some provisions that have gone tar far to load the guns of those who want to keep an arms embargo in fores force some of the members of the group opposing repeal were sufficiently wrought up to accuse the administration mr roosevelt secretary of state hull and others of having misled the country in telling what they think ought to be dofie by way of legislation to keep the country out of war it Is a condition of 01 bad temper and it is likely to cause damage all around nevertheless until the ithe senate writ ing the bill all of the discussion was whether to repeal the arms embargo since publication of the bill it Is shown that not only is repeal of the embargo sought but per gal ss be given for extension of ere credit dit to those belligerent nations that want to buy here many object to giving president extreme power another section of the bill that was not well advertised in advance Is a section giving president roosevelt additional authority during threats of war it allows the president to define combat areas and to forbid american ships and amerlean american citizens from going into those zones that provision Is highly provocative for there are many who believe no ought to be cloth clothed edwith with such extreme power I 1 doubt that it ever will be misused or abused yet it has that possible danger within it having such potential danger the section is being vigorously opposed by men just as anxious to keep the nation out of war as those who say that only repeal of thearis th the earms arms embargo will keep us from being embroiled in Eu ropes mess debate has made it if appear thus tar far atlease at least that the original cash and carry sections constitute a strong bulwark against our entanglement but there surely is ground for objection to that thai part which was added that part which will give buying nations 90 days in which to pay A buying nation can come to our shores load down manof man ships and go away with in do 90 days and say at the end awe we have not the money to pay of 01 course it will not be as raw as that thal the purchasers did that during the World waro also and we are htiu waiting ifor dor those nations nation to pay more than on those debts I 1 am the only correspondent spon dent to report every one of the conferences with foreign nations when the united states tried to get some tangible basis of payment worked out and since that time I 1 havo have had ha d little faith in any of their promises the cash and carry section of the current till bill with its 90 day provision therefore strikes me as nothing more nor less than a breaking down of the law that sena tor johnson ot of california forced through the congress some years ago the californian fought until begot a statute that barred any nation from getting new credit here if it still owed on its world war debt so called neutrality bill shows Mis ickes iches can be made it probably is an impossibility to legislate a nation into being neutral it Is like legislating people into being good if they want to be good or it if they want to be bad they probably will be just that way regardless of what kind of a law the brain tr usters in a legislative body put together iop ther and in the instance at hand the so called neutrality bill there Is ample evidence of a f mistakes that can be and are being made friends of the program of em cm bargo repeal mistakenly assume that substitution of the c cash sh and nd carry provisions will let us rest in peace it ii 11 perfect they say opposition sentiment can see only hosts of marching men and ships chips carrying warriors over seas if th there re la Is repeal therefore neither ze side Is giving really serious attention to the vision in event it shall be accepted eventually and the bill become law that is a grave mistake that lack of consideration of details ot of tills this phase is a great mistake cabbe can be proved by the shudders of business interests when sharp eyes and analytical minds mindi d discovered covered Is what the section as written by the committee commit iee would do to corame commerce c e in this part of the world protests filed by shipping and air transport companies serve as an example actually BS as originally presented the cash and carry sections would have kept many businesses from dealing further with british and french possessions in the caribbean sea they would have halted buying and selling in some quarters of south america like the tha galanas Gu lanas air lines from the united states could not have stopped there regular north and south american ship schedules would have been disrupted well vell the committee made hasty changes but it remains to be seen whether even these will work in practice I 1 the trouble is that no one man or group of men c can a n v visualize I 1 su a I 1 1 z 0 a all I 1 of the possible contingencies and consequences sequences of a piece offar of far reaching and rigid legislation none ought to claim that it has hag been done but claims to that effect are being advanced and ballyhooed ballyhoo ed monroe doctrine must be given consideration now it might be said that these phases of the problem are matters that concern only business interests and big business interests at t that such unfortunately is not the case since every one of those po points of difficulty lie lh in the western hemisphere consideration must be given to the application of th the e monroe doctrine our trade with nations and possessions inthe in the western hemisphere therefore Js Is considerably sider ably diff different erent than with great britain and france themselves yet with all of the close commercial ties with those possessions with due recollection of the principles of the Monroe doctrine there remains the fact that congress under the urge of the administration administrational As is seeking to legislate neutrality a neutrality that works one yay way with the parent faient nation and another way with the colonies the children of the belligerent nation it is quite evident indeed that whatever law is finally enacted will contain many imperfections some loopholes loophole s and some dangerous principles it should be said to president Roosevel ts credit that thus far he has not openly put the pressure on his congressional leaders for passage of the bill without changes membership of the two parties in congress Is widely split perhaps that Is why white house force cannot be used effectively true some of the administration anti democrats have predicted that the president will get both feet into the situation before action is had but that has not happened yet pan american conference does a worthwhile worth while job while all of these things have been going on in washington the sessions of the conference at panama city ought not be overlooked the representatives of our own and our neighbor republics did a good jop job jn in arranging for operative cooperative co action to keep the war caraway Na away from our shores and in euro europe T e where it started it always Is possible for best intentions to go haywire but surely there is credit due to mr roosevelt and them the department of state for the leadership exerted in getting all of the South and central american folks around a single table if nothing more happened than a free discussion of the potential dangers that exist the meeting would have been worth while more did happen however and the understandings der standings that were reached stripped of high sounding words mean that active governments govern menis in the western hemisphere are going to work and act together further the conferences can be said to have produced a feeling that thai none of the smaller republics and so called republics 1 need tear fear any of the others in the meantime however it is distressing to witness newspapers everywhere relegating important domestic news facts about our home folks and home problems to inside pages one of the washington papers the other day had seven columns of war kar news on its front pages that seems to me to be bringing the war here when we dont want it |