| Show EEN N and HEAR HEA N NATIONAL CAPITAL by carter fi field v eld FAMOUS washington correspondent washington american admirals band and naval aviators of course are nil all hoping that great britain and italy will not become involved in a war but lf if they do they will be watching ath w th great interest to see how mus terrific air force comes out with the superior british navy britaina Brit ains attempt regarded ns as certain if she keeps on her present course to blockade italy and close the suez canal will as surely be followed by attempts by the italian air force to bomb the british fleet out of the water I 1 which Is highly interesting to gen AVII Ilam matchell Ml Ali and naval aviators on the one hand and practically all Amerl american crin admirals on the other since shortly after the european war athey they have been fighting this question of how important the air force was band and primarily whether a battleship can an live against an air attack in force 1 mitchells part in this wordy iter Is chiefly remembered because he refused to recognize any limitations on n his public utterances it win wilt be recalled that lie he was finally court war mar and convicted in 19 5 after he had ad denounced the high command ns as guilty of treason hardly anybody could be found to agree with that word treason whether they agreed with Ml on the idea that battleships were obsolete or not but on the main points of the fl lit A great many military aviators both army and navy agreed absolutely i with matchell Itchell Ml Al always recognizing that lie he purposely made his attacks as as possible so as to attract public attention naval aviators in particular how lever ever have been gagged ever since by j ithe the mechanics of the navys promotion system every so often a board of senior off officers leers considers the list of officers of various ranks it picks out ithone those it considers eligible for promo ilon all promotions are made from this list the selection board Is changed every time but if an officer Is passed over twice norm normally he might just as well give up lie ile will not be promoted ills car carberis eerIs ruined why they are mum now remember that dually tu ally all the admirals believe in and regard airplanes for the most part as me mere re adjuncts and remember that a given percentage of younger officers in any grade must be passed over in the selection processes and it becomes clear why very few young aviation enthusiasts abts in the navy speak their minds in public they cannot afford to antagonize the nien inen who will be passing on their eligibility for promotion but if worst comes to worst in the mediterranean the ability of the airplane and the submarine to crush the surface ships will be demonstrated beyond tiny any power of argument or the old battleships so dear to the admirals will vindicate their falth faith in it incidentally if the admirals win it will be just too bad for lint their contention has always been bee n that the airplane ali plane was splendid for scouting and annoying the enemy much as the cavalry used to be in civil war days when job jeb stuart raided all the way around the federal army aimy which was highly spectacular and profitable in captured supplies but did not change the character of the war very much after everything else Is swept away any in the fighting the admirals contend the battleships will still be floating and still able to hurl destruction deal ing broadsides broad brond sides their musts masts will have been torn away by bombs dropped by planes their hulls will be leaking in various compartments from torpedoes tired fired by submarines but they will still be on the job and and here Is the ahe brunt of their argument nothing not hIngl else will if they are right italy will bealock be blockaded the suez will be closed mussolini will be unable to send supplies to his african legions if they are wrong nobody knows what the answer will be always assuming that in the early clashes the tremendously superior perlor Bu italian air force crushes tie the british air force cotton a trouble maker cotton Is apt to produce tense diplomatic situations again with fears that the united states may be forced into a world war just as it did in the early days of the 1014 conflict it will be far more important than wheat for the simple reason that the united states this year has no wheat of consequence bosell to sell in fact it will probably buy some from canada copper may be the runner up to cotton as a trouble maker thus curiously enough effecting a possible combination of the west and south in another political alliance this situation Is far more serious than the news from washington or anywhere else has indicated it Is glossed over the word sanctions in reports from geneva paris and london stripped of diplomatic language consider just what it will ivill mean if france as washington expects goes along with britain la in applying league sanctions to italy it means nothing else but a virtual blockade of italy not just for goods declared to be contraband dfwar of war but everything it means that the united states even in its own ships could not send a pound of cotton pr a piece ot of machinery or a basket of food to naples and genoa it means means that every american ship traversing the Nedi mediterranean would be crossing a war zone with nil all the possibilities that act involves which presents a very tough nut for president roosevelt to crack E ill or way lie moves mores means trouble either foreign or domestic save that he has made it clear he has no intention of seeking to put the united states in the league of nations president roosevelt has stuck rather closely to the woodrow wilson policies two of these were freedom of the alie seas and international cooperation for the preservation of peace on the last of course wilson was willing to go the whole way ue he opposed a senate reservation to article X saying that article was the heart of the covenant of the league article X was the one which promised that every long league gue member would woul d contribute armed forces to enforce league decisions it Is still a part of the leannie covenant I 1 may have to choose but the point Is that roosevelt Koo sevelt will be forced to choose un unless less the italo ethiopian Ethl situation clears up most unexpectedly between two of those policies lie ile may choose freedom of the ses seas nud fadd insist on americas right to trade with italy even if the league proclaims a blockade under the guise of sanctions or he may choose cooperation to preserve peace the first would lead to an extremely dangerous international situation it might easily involve the united states in war even the contention that we had the right to trade with italy would put this country in ID a curious and difficult diplomatic hole for it would be contended by league members that their action would force peace very shortly that italy could not possibly continue her aggressive war if blockaded cut off not only from supplies from abroad but from supplying her forces waging the war hence that the action of the united states would be the one thing that made possible the continuance of the war the world Is so anxious io to avert to take the other course would cause vast resentment among those anxious to see the price of cotton boosted and the surplus of cotton which has been hanging aver over the market since the hoover days soldat bold at a profit it if this seems unlikely one has only to remember 1915 great britain put cotton on the black list she knew it was being used to make explosives but even before this official act she was interfering with shipments so senator hoke sm smith th of georg a made a long prepared speech coming very close to demanding war against britain on the side of germany it was in reply to this that senator henry cabot lodge referring to the lusitania commented that a dead baby floating on the water Is a more poignant sight to me than an unsold bale of cotton no new taxes president roosevelt has definitely decided that there are to be no new taxes until after election there are two motives for the recent budget statement attacking critics and saying there Is no need for new taxes 1 politics the president has learned of the increasing tax consciousness ness of the ordinary citizen and of concern even by farmers as aa to where the money would be coming from to finance the new deal heis he Is niso also concerned about the worry of business over tax prospects for ex dimple he has been told that one consideration holding back investment in new enterprises Is the play safe attitude of rich men who are not willing to gamble when the government promises to take so large a proportion of the profit if they win but does not help on losses if they lose change in the income tax laws which permit deduction of oly 2000 for net losses in one year Is part of this 2 soldier bonus the president laid great emphasis on the point that this happy situation of no more taxes despite gloomy prophesies by critics ran can be attal attained ned only it if there are no new expenditures he was hitting directly at the soldier bonus and at courts which wilt will pass on the processing taxes ile he can play both reasons at the same time in january when the bonus comes up in congress by using the tax consciousness of the people as an argument to congress not to override his certain veto of bonus legislation present study of the available figures indicates that the president js Is holding out about halt a billion doll dollars irs which will be ba unused on july I 1 next and as congress provided for the aTal availability of the he four billion dollar fund for two years this half billion can bemused an the fiscal year beginning on that Aate date but nobody thinks this will be enough for that fiscal year experts all agree that no upturn of business witti lri reason Is going to absorb all the ilie three and a half million an men who ore are to be on work relief projects renee hence there bupt be another worl work re 6 Ilef appropriation copyright ervick |
