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Show National Topics Interpreted J by William Bruckart Washington. The senate has started another investigation. It has determined to Inquiry go on a fishing exit ex-it cl !. pedition into the May Shock leyerai lndustrles that manufacture things that are used In making war. There will be a long-drawn-out Inquiry; there will be seizure of papers and there will be smearing, some Justified and some unjustified, of leaders In the shipbuilding, munitions and aircraft industries. It is liable to be a nasty thing before it Is concluded and a report made to the senate. There was no noise about passage pass-age of the resolution which was proposed pro-posed by Senators Nye of North Dakota and Vandeuberg of Michigan. Michi-gan. The resolution creates a special spe-cial committee which already has begun work. Its passage actually was noted In the ' newspapers that I saw with no more display than a couple of paragraphs. But the proposition ought to be among those to which attention is closely directed. di-rected. Unless the bulk of the observers ob-servers is wrong, the investigation that the Nye-Vandenberg resolution started is going to have a far-reach- I aftermath of dragging the Dnlted States Into war. These Japanese assertions, or Inferences, In-ferences, that "white hands" must stay out of China are not reassuring. reassur-ing. The Inability of the Europeans to get together In a solution of their own problems is also disconcerting. It cannot be doubted that some of the foreign nations are sitting atop of a powder keg. It is just possible that the Nye-Vandenberg resolution may strike a match above the powder, pow-der, as well as serving to embarrass and delay efforts of the various Industries In-dustries to get production expanded that more employment will result. General Johnson and his NRA has come Into more trouble. The National Na-tional Recovery MoreTrouble Board of Review, for NRA a detnclie(3 group responsible only to the President, has written a report re-port of findings In several cases where small plants have complained about the effect of the codes. And the report of the board, headed by Clarence Darrow of Chicago, the famed attorney, is a scathing denunciation de-nunciation of some of the code pro- visions. In fact, some members of the review board take the position that the codes have permitted the great Industries to grind the smaller small-er ones, the little fellows, to a commercial com-mercial death. The President's views of the report re-port are not known at this, time, but it has leaked out that Mr. Roosevelt Is willing to have the review re-view board call a spade a spade. Knowledge of his attitude came through devious channels. There was rumor around Washington that the President was going to try to kill off the board by withholding funds from It. The board was the idea of some of the senators, anyway, any-way, and it was believed the President Presi-dent felt none too warmly toward it. Yet it has now been established that the President is going to uphold up-hold the hand of the board, notwithstanding notwith-standing extreme pressure that Is coming from NRA quarters to get rid of It. In some Washington offices there is a very definite belief that Mr. Roosevelt is entirely willing to let General Johnson retire. Genera Johnson's bombastic style of speech and his "crack-down" threats have not been so well received in many places and there Is opinion available avail-able that the general ought to fade out of the NRA. Mr. Roosevelt can't fire him. That would be a dangerous danger-ous thing to do from a political standpoint. It does seem, however, that a change Is coming. 6 lug effect both In domestic affairs of the United States and in the international in-ternational field. One of the reasons why It Is so Important to give thought to the investigation is the particular time at which it arrives among the window win-dow displays of government activities. activi-ties. It hardly need be stated here that International relations are strained in many parts of the world. There is nothing on the horizon to Indicate that they will improve. Strained relations, if they continue, lead inevitably to war, and I reported re-ported to you several months ago that some nations are headed in that direction If the information our government has is correct. It Is naturally to be expected then that overt acts on the part of some of the disturbed powers are going to follow, and the disclosures which the Nye-Vandenberg committee are prepared to make will help the International In-ternational situation not one bit. Indeed, there is no reason to believe be-lieve otherwise than that the impending im-pending disclosures will complicate the situation and create more hatred and suspicion. In other words, as I see It, the disclosures are more than likely to hasten that which seems inevitable, namely, war in several parts of the world. Senator Pope of Idaho, temporary chairman of the committee, told me that the country Is likely to be shocked "when it learns the ramifications ramifi-cations of the situation," referring to the operations of the shipbuilding, shipbuild-ing, aircraft and munitions eom- pames. While he did not say so, I drew the Inference from his remarks re-marks that he believes there has been collusion of some kind or other among some of those industrial indus-trial leaders In order to engender ill will among nations already suspicious sus-picious of each other. "We are going to find out how many American shells are going to be used to kill American soldiers later," said Senator Pope, And so we are off on another crashing, smashing, bull - in the-china the-china closet type Bad Time of inquiry. All of for Fishing 1,3 remember the famous investigation investiga-tion of shipbuilding activities at the Geneva armament conference. The committee smeared one William Shearer when Shearer was serving as agent for several of the shipbuilding ship-building concerns. None was sure when that Investigation started where It would lead. The same can be said of the current Inquiry. To my way of thinking, however, the Inquiry is much more Important In the effect It will have upon inter- With all of this war talk hither and yon, I inquired from the War department and Army found that rough-Distribution rough-Distribution '-v one-third of our army forces are garrisoned outside of the United States. The latest official tabulation tabula-tion shows the army as having 12,156 officers, 8S5 warrant officers, and 123,459 enlisted men, including around 11,000 Philippine Scouts. Of these 2,200 officers, 140 warrant officers offi-cers and 35,036 enlisted men are on posts outside of continental United States. The matter of the location of our army personnel is pertinent at this " time, too, because of the possibility that the United States government sooner or later will grant Independence Independ-ence to the Filipinos. I hope it is later, rather than sooner, for I hear so much discussion of dangers that appear certain to develop if the Filipinos Filip-inos become a nation unto themselves. them-selves. The consensus seems to be that the natives will be able to govern gov-ern themselves, but whether they can protect themselves is another matter. The United States has an armv national relations than in the smearing smear-ing of men and corporations. Frankly, Frank-ly, the opinions I have formed after many conversations with men and women of sound judgment is that this is an exceedingly bad time for such a fishing expedition. Any disclosure dis-closure of relations between a munitions muni-tions company and a foreign nation Is going to be seized upon by that nation's neighbors as evidence and there will be blood In the eye In a hurry. I hope my observations and conclusions con-clusions will not be taken as condoning con-doning any crookedness. My point Is that business relations between a private corporation and Its customer cus-tomer should be allowed some degree de-gree of secrecy so long as they are not contrary to public good. Governments Gov-ernments are going to buy munitions; muni-tions; they are going to buy aircraft, air-craft, and they are going to' have ships built. The question naturally follows, then, whether It Is proper or improper for an American plant to sell something It makes to a foreign for-eign nation even If it knows they are to be used in fighllng. I can see where those commodities ought not to be sold for use against America but our government buys such sup' Plies constanlly and buys them from American makers. If other governments govern-ments can buy them here, I fall to see why they should not be allowed to do so unless such sales have the strength of 553 officers, 01 warrant officers and 4,064 enlisted men in the Philippines, In addition to the Philippine Scouts who number 6" officers and 6,308 enlisted men" That Is quite a force and an Influence against any Ideas that foreign powers pow-ers must overcome before they seize the Philippines. It should be mentioned that the force and influence influ-ence existent there also Includes some rather important American Kunhoats and a naval base Pearl Harbor, which undoubtedly Is the defense key. So no bloodthirsty foreign statesmen are going after ie little Islands as long as our forces are there. There Is an International phase to he considered at this time, one that is not as apparent as it Is real I refer to the tangled skein of clreum-dances clreum-dances resulting from (he Japanese declarations of a right to Influence Chinese affairs and to use force If "'-cessary. That threat-and ' It cannot be called by any other name -is notice to Russia and to all o the Wesfern powers, the I!,0, Mates Included, that the Japanese program of terriforlal expansion Is Kolng forward. It may be that nu-nv Powers will be involved before Tapaneseslatesmei, are made to , ",'rsf1"1''. ''ot -lainlv It Is t " tmmlnwhleh ,o consider withdraw al from the Philippines |
