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Show . 1 - i WEEKLY NEWS AALYS1S BY JOSEPH W. LaBIME Congress, Like Entire Nation Not Certain of 'Best' Course To Preserve U. S. Neutrality (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) Released by Western Newspaper Union. CONGRESS: Admonition "I have come back to Washington with an open mind. H hether I vote for repeal oj embargoes or retention of them, my vote . . . will be for the means which 1 believe best calculated to keep the United States out of war. That we must do." Illinois' Sen. Scott Lucas, a middle-of-the-road Democrat, was bold enough to admit -publicly what most of the nation's 531 legislators admitted ad-mitted only to themselves: That no man could stamp his foot and say there was only one way to keep the U. S. out of Europe's war. But a few who took their seats in Franklin Roosevelt's third special session (and the nation's twenty-fifth since 1797) were highly opinionated, 100 per cent positive that only the arms THE WAR: Words Guns still boomed at a nearby Polish outpost when Adolf Hitler rode triumphantly into Danzig. "We greet you . . . The city is decked for you," shouted Albert Forster, who is Der Fuehrer's latest Konrad Henlein. "I am happy to greet you, my faithful gauleiter," answered the man whose armies were even then wiping up the spilled blood of Poland. Po-land. Then he ' launched into a speech which the British ministry of information shortly called "full of the crass misstatements which usually fall from his (Hitler's) lips." Typical "misstatements": C "The Duce (Mussolini) made proposals pro-posals which Germany and-France accepted but Britain refused." C. "Poland chose war because the western powers stated that the German Ger-man army was worthless, that the German people were low in morale and that there was a breach between be-tween the German people and its leadership." C "Britain should be happy that Germany and Russia reached an agreement. They are now relieved of . . . uncertainty." Next day, as the New York stock market boomed in hopes of a . long war, Britain's Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain answered him: "Among the many misstatements ... I wish to refer ... to the statement that the French government govern-ment agreed to Italian mediation while His Majesty's government refused." re-fused." "Our purpose ... is to redeem Europe from perpetual and recurring recur-ring fear of German aggression. No threats will deter us or our French allies from this purpose." On the third day French Premier Edouard Daladier had his inning, tracing step-by-step every broken promise that litters Adolf Hitler's trail from the reaffirmation of Locarno Lo-carno to the rape of Poland. Then: "Germany already has prepared the dismemberment of France. Maps showing France amputated have been printed . . . But France has arisen . . . We will end the war only when we can ensure the security of France." In the East Completed was Russia's valiant "rescue" of 11,000,000 white Russians Rus-sians and Ukrainians (plus several million Poles) who were "left to their fate" when the Polish state col- ; 'ih it liwiiiiftli f N ' V When the President left the floor, so did 17 isolationists of the Borah-LaFollette-Nye-Clark school. Ringing Ring-ing in their ears was one presidential presiden-tial admonition: "Let no . . . group . . . assume exclusive protectorate over the future well-being of America Amer-ica . . . Let no group assume the exclusive label of the peace bloc. We all belong to it." After the 17 met, California's crusty Hiram Johnson made an announcement: an-nouncement: "We are ready to fight from hell to breakfast." ASIA: Mystery Amazingly brief was Japan's reaction re-action when the U. S. abrogated its 1911 trade treaty last summer. One reason was the immediate upsurge up-surge of interest in Europe's dogfight. dog-fight. But one thing led to another, Japan made peace with Russia, and British-French interests in the Orient Ori-ent were left to fall under Japanese influence. These problems settled, pugnacious Nippon dusted off the U. S. treaty abrogation, mixed it with America's decision to reinforce her Pacific garrisons, and concocted concoct-ed from these ingredients a puzzling puz-zling diplomatic issue. Something was in the air. On three successive days Tokyo newspapers news-papers carried what were obviously obvious-ly government-inspired editorials which said things like this: C. "Should the TJ. S. strengthen her present policy it can be supposed that Japan would be compelled to assert her right to existence." C. "Following the decreasing Anglo-French Anglo-French influence in the Far East . . . the U. S. is threatening to ' come forward and . . . protect its rights and interests in China, thus giving rise to a greater likelihood of Japanese-American friction." C. "Neither Japan nor the United States seeks war . . . We desire to judge the situation coolly . . ." Trying to figure out this uncalled-for uncalled-for war talk, the Chicago Daily News' A. T. Steele radioed from Tokyo that he thought the Japs were being prepared for "any future drastic American move." To others, oth-ers, it sounded like Tokyo was making mak-ing a propaganda buildup to justify anti-American moves in China. LABOR: Peace in Wartime Taking his eyes a moment from Europe's bloody picture show, Franklin Roosevelt glanced at domestic do-mestic affairs and suddenly realized that October is U. S. labor's big month. At Cincinnati the American Federation of Labor was ready to convene. John Lewis' Congress for Industrial Organization planned to meet in San Francisco October 10. But there was no sign of peace between be-tween these two warring factions, and internal warfare is bad business busi-ness in a time of world war. Soon, however, there were indications indi-cations the White House would move for peace, as it has done the past two years. The President conferred con-ferred with A. F. of L.'s Daniel 5 NETHERLANDS Ngerman troops! 7 centering here belgium) n 9 I Aachen PATH' OF I I GERMANY'S pf Z V-v. INVASION - INl914 ( I 4 LUXEMBOURG v BATTLE RAGES ILLINOIS' LUCAS Like many, he didn't know. embargo they pushed through congress con-gress three years ago could keep America neutral. Among these few were Idaho's Borah, North Dakota's Nye, Michigan's Vandenberg and Missouri's Clark. But national leaders, being merely mere-ly men, were confronted with the same confusion as the nation: The more they thought about arms embargo em-bargo vs. "cash and carry," the more they 'argued about straight international in-ternational law vs. specific neutrality neutral-ity legislation, the less positive they were about everything save one fact, that the U. S. must keep out of war. Day before congress opened, politics poli-tics found itself "adjourned" for 85 minutes. To the White House went Republicanism's 1936 standard bearers, bear-ers, Alf Landon and Col. Frank Knox, to talk with Franklin Roosevelt, Roose-velt, John Nance Garner and congressional con-gressional leaders of both stripes. Even the President was apparently confused, for there were rumors he had decided to supplement straight "cash and carry" (whereby belligerents bellig-erents could buy, pay for and haul away arms in their own ships: with old-fashioned international law. His thesis: One principle of international internation-al law never disputed is that belligerents bel-ligerents have the right to purchase anything they need in neutral countries. coun-tries. Only concrete results of the conference con-ference were the platitudes everyone every-one expected, announced by White House Secretary Steve Early: (1) "The conference with unanimous unani-mous thought discussed the primary objective of keeping the U. S. neutral neu-tral and at peace. (2) "There was complete accord that . . . the whole subject . . . be dealt with in a wholly nonpartisan non-partisan spirit." Next day, at 2 p. m., the assembled assem-bled houses of congress heard Mr. Roosevelt's recommendations: "Let those who seek to retain the present embargo position be wholly consistent and seek new legislation to cut off cloth and copper and meat and wheat and a thousand other articles ar-ticles from all the nations at war. "I seek a greater consistency through repeal of the embargo provisions pro-visions and a return to international law . . . I. give you my deep and unalterable conviction that by the repeal . . . the United States will more probably remain at peace than if the law remains as it stands today to-day . . . "May you, by your deeds show the world that we of the United States are one people, of one mind, one spirit, one clear resolution, walking before God in the light of the living." BELGIUM'S WORRY Will history be repeated? lapsed under Germany's invasion. Nazi and Soviet chiefs conferred in Moscow on Poland's new partition, presumably deciding to leave a small, hamstrung buffer state. Lithuania and Slovakia were each given a small slice of the Polish pie. But as war ebbed in Poland, other eastern nations grew fearful. Rumania's Ru-mania's neutrality was threatened outside and inside: (1) on the north by Russian-German proximity; (2) on the east by an expected Turkish-Russian pact which might close her Black sea outlet; (3) internally by violence, illustrated in the assassination, assas-sination, presumably by pro-Germans, of anti-Nazi Prime Minister Armand Calinescu. Meanwhile Der Fuehrer's fast-growing fast-growing eastern empire suffered growing pains. While millions of sullen Poles presented a constant threat of rebellion, London and Paris heard insistent reports of uprisings up-risings among Czechs and Austrians. In the West ' For the moment, fighting died down along the Saar front while both sides took time out to move up fresh troops. But France was fearful on two counts: (1) about 70 Nazi divisions were being moved from Poland to the western front; (2) Aachen, the town from which Germany jumped into Belgium in 1914, was evacuated of civilians and became a concentration point for Herr Hitler's troops. Was history about to be repeated? At Sea As the British airplane carrier Courageous went down, its 578 dead boosted Britain's sea toll to 761. Prime Minister Chamberlain reported report-ed 31 allied or neutral ships had been sunk by U-boats, also that the allies have sunk seven or eight German subs. Comparison: In April, 1917, peak month of the World war's sea fighting, average British tonnage loss per week was 127,000, or 39 ships. For the week ending September 19 in the present war, Britain lost 45,000 tons, or 13 ship. Biggest U. S. concern in the sea war: Several American cargoes had been confiscated by Britain; at least one American steamer, the Was.;o-ta, Was.;o-ta, had been stopped and searched by a German sub. MADAME PERKINS What can you do? Tobin, a leading advocate of labor unity. At his press conference he assured reporters he would address a message to the A. F. of L. convention, con-vention, and that "it would be a good guess" to say the message probably would mention peace. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins Per-kins also did a little campaigning. She told how both factions have asked representation on the new war resources board. Her quandry: If you appoint a representative of both factions, will they carry their fight into the board? Or can you appoint only one representative and say that he truly represents all labor la-bor without bringing protests from the other groups? MISCELLANY: Thanksgiving Because President Roosevelt proclaimed pro-claimed Thanksgiving on November 23. and because Gov. George A. Wilson Wil-son designated November 30, the Clayton county, Iowa, board of supervisors su-pervisors proclaimed a third date, November 16, "so as not to conflict with the dates set by the President and the governor." |