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Show National Topics Interpreted SL by William Bruckart jlffiMs National Press Eulldlns WmKlilnston, P. C. yJfpJJJJTj Washington. It was In the sultry days of the summer of 1014, It . . will be remera- Waitmg bered, that Arch-for Arch-for a Spark duke Ferdinand was laid low by an assassin's bullet In a remote province of Austria. At the time, the assassination was front-page news for most of the newspnpers but Its real Import was not generally gener-ally recognized. Nevertheless, from that Incident sprang the greatest war the world has ever known. - Within a few months of 22 years after the assassination at Sarajevo the world sees a situation In Europe where another such Incident would have consequences Just as violent. At the present time, ammunition dumps all over Europe are waiting for a spark to set them off. It may be an accidental spnrk or it may be a spark deliberately cast Into that powder keg. I do not mean to say that It will happen but I do wish to emphasize that at no time since the archduke's assassination has there been a field so fertile for the promotion pro-motion of a gigantic war as the may seem, and It undoubtedly does seem to many, that the dangers dan-gers Inherent In the European situation sit-uation at present are afar off. Bnt. It can be recalled that there were those In this country who. as late as 1016, said the European war was 3,000 miles away. Before It ended, however, 5,000,000 American boys and young men had heen drafted to be thrown Into that European cauldron. caul-dron. It may happen again. While there Is no Immediate possibility pos-sibility of the United States getting tangled up In the European political problems which spring from hostilities hostil-ities between Ethiopia and Italy, those who know history cannot fall to agree with the statement that It Is never too early to plan for preventing pre-venting war. For that reason, then, I believe almost every family In the United States has a stake, either directly or indirectly, In one of the problems with which congress must deal. This legislation Is known by the short and rather lndescriptlve title of the neutrality policy. It Is, Indeed, Just that, but the point I seek to make Is that the title does not convey by any manner or moans Its full importance or its full effect upon the lives of each of us. If a policy can be worked out, a policy that Is effective, obviously our chances for remaining out of any hostilities In Europe or in Asia for that matter are certainly much better. I do not know and I do not believe anybody can say accurately Uiat It Is possible to develop a neu trality policy that will be fool-proof; or that will guarantee to us the removal of possible entanglements. A year ago about this time, congress con-gress enacted a bill which was de-' de-' signed to prevent Keep Us the shipment of Out of War war materials to any belligerent nation or nations. It was mandatory. manda-tory. The President was directed by congress to lay an embargo against the shipment of arms, ammunition am-munition of war to any countries engaged In hostilities regardless of whether their claims were right or wrong. We have had some experience experi-ence with the force of that legislation legisla-tion already and It has not been without its embarrassing and difli-cult difli-cult phases. Now, however, it Is proposed to revamp that legislation legisla-tion which was admittedly of a temporary tem-porary character and Is due to expire ex-pire by limitation of law on February Febru-ary 29. Congress has been told rather definitely, I think, that this country wants to remain out of someone else's war. The President has the same Idea. So, Instead of allowing our citizens to run wild, ship anything nnd everything, make contracts with the countries now engaged In war or those that may be engaged later. It Is proposed pro-posed that we have a permanent policy embodying whatever principles princi-ples may be found wisest to protect us from onrselves nnd prevent ns from throwing ourselves again Into such a volcano of molten lava as anv present-day war would he. The problem is not ns simple as It appears on the surface. When congress enacted the present neutrality neu-trality legislation, it provided that the embargoes, w-hen and if laid, must apply to nil. It gave the President no discretionary power to determine whether we wanted to use these embargoes as a weapon against one nation while aiding an other. Mr. Roosevelt. In accepting the original legislafinn. shall publicly pub-licly that he believed that he should have such discretionary power. This was in line with the conclusions conclu-sions of the Deportment of Stale which necessarily must be the President's Pres-ident's adviser on matters of this kind. Congress was criticized In many quarters when it made the embargoes embar-goes applicable to all belligerents. Now. however. If we may judge from the word that conies to Washington, Washing-ton, sentiment oenis to be swing log In the other direction and there certainly is n considerable, if not a majority, suitiment for use of the mundatrrj provision ns distin- l guished from the extension of discretionary dis-cretionary authority to the President. Presi-dent. To say it another way, the sentiment appears to be In favor of making the embargoes applicable to all belligerent powers and not Just to one nation whose claims our government may believe to be unjust un-just - It Is safe to sny that before congress con-gress determines definitely wliat the permanent policy Expect Shaii be, there will Hot Debate be better debate. In examining the problems. It Is to be remembered that when thegovernment lays anembargo against all nations nt war it takes away possibilities of tremendous profit This profit accrues to those lndusries by which sustaining war materials are produced. Neutrality Neutral-ity legislation, therefore, may prove costly, not as costly as war, perhaps, per-haps, but nevertheless a costly action. ac-tion. Hence, there is no question that many lines of commerce and industry are going to be drawn Into the preliminaries of this decision. To explain how disturbing to certain cer-tain lines of Industry this thing can be, it Is only necessary to recall re-call events of the last month or so In connection with the sanctions proposed by the League of Nations. The league has tried to force the dictator, Mussolini, to withdraw from Africa by the use of embargoes, embar-goes, which Is what sanctions are. The league proceeded with considerable consid-erable vigor until It reached the question of oil. Immediately, shoes began to pinch and the feet that were pinched were In every country coun-try where oil is found, even our own. As a result, they have led the oil horse up to the watering trough from a half dozen different approaches ap-proaches but they have not yet been able to make him drink. Our own oil Interests have not been quiescent. qui-escent. If the league bans oil shipments ship-ments to Italy, the United States, which Is not a member of the league, obviously will do likewise. Profits of the oil companies and the hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of shareholders would be cut. Further, Mnssollnl bns announced publicly that Imposition of the embargo em-bargo upon oil would mean war. He did not say with whom he would go to war but the British and the French know and they are getting ready. The British have the entire home fleet In the Mediterranean at this time nnd the Blue Jackets aboard the British men of war have heen drilled thoroughly anew in the science of manning their big guns. So it Is seen how delicate this whole circumstance Is. It Is plain that when congress deals with the neutrality legislation, it is molding a pattern over which there will be undoubtedly an alignment among our citizens as sharply drawn as though it were a purely domestic question. There will be those, of course, who favor a permanent policy pol-icy which will make It mandatory upon the President to apply embargoes em-bargoes against shipments of anything any-thing usable In war and treat all nations engaged In war alike. There will be set off against this sentiment sen-timent those who think the Chief Executive should have discretionary power and that the government should not be placed In a strait-jacket strait-jacket from which It cannot extricate extri-cate Itself without congressional action. ac-tion. Whatever the conclusions may be and whatever form the new legislation leg-islation takes, It remains as one of the most important policies to come before congress In many moons. Whatever Is done necessarily will be a precedent toward which future generations will look ns time goes on whether civilization becomes more enlightened or not. The Treasury, operating on a fiscal fis-cal year ,that runs from July 1 to June 30. has Just Mast Cut passed the half-Cutgo half-Cutgo way Point In the enrrent 12-mnnth period. The figures show that Its receipts are lagging far behind the expenditures and demonstrates the necessity for cutting down the federal fed-eral outgo unless the nation desires to see its public debt go far beyond any total hitherto conceived. The official Treasury statement as of December 30 shows that the government gov-ernment has spent approximately j Sl.S50.000.000 more In the first six ' months of this fiscal year than It received In taxes and other revenue. rev-enue. In consequence of this deficit, the public debt Is now approximately $30,000,000,000. the highest point It i ever has reached and that total Is '. roughly two billion dollars higher than the public debt as It stood last ! July 1 when the present fijenl year began. j Since the expenditures were so much larger than the receipts, the ! Treasury has heen operatng on a I basis that, reduced to the minimum, shows an outgo of about $1.0i; for : every Sl.Oo collected in revenue ilur- j Ing the first half of the current year. Q Western NewBDe Dfr Un'on. |
