Evening star. [volume], March 15, 1937, Page A-2, Image 2

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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Students and Professors
From Universities Will
Gather at C. U.
Students and professors from lead
ing law colleges in this part of the
country will gather in Washington
Saturday for the third annual Eastern
Jaw Students Conference at Catholic
University. The movement was
launched two years ago with a similar
gathering at the University of Penn
svivania and met last year at New
York University.
The conference will offer an oppor
tunity for discussion of the effect
changing conditions have on legal
practice and leadership. Well known
speakers are scheduled to take part in
ihe conference, which will include
topics concerning the lawyer's status
and problems of law, “with particular
reference to moral and spiritual values
in an era of scientific and economic
change.”
Students and faculty members of all
law schools and others interested in
legal questions are invited to attend.
The conference will convene at 10
a m„ with a welcome by Dr. James J.
Hayden, in charge of Catholic Uni
versity Law School. Rev. W. Brooke
Stabler, chaplain of the Unievrsity of
Pennsylvania, will outline the pur
poses of the conference. John S.
Bradway, professor of law at Duke
University, will discuss “Justice for
the Poor." and Joseph H. Beale, who
has been connected with Harvard
law School for many years, will take
os his topic. “Have Judges andLawyers
Retained Their Traditional Prestige?”
The afternoon session will assemble
at 3:30 pm., w'ith the following speak
ers on other subjects: Robert T. Mc
Cracken, chairman of Committee on
Legal Ethics. American Bar Associa
tion; Dean Herbert F. Goodrich, Uni
verv of Pennsylvania Law School;
Prof. William Douglas of Yale Law
School, Joseph Keenan, Assistant At
torney General, and Judge W. Calvin
Chestnut, lecturer at University of
Maryland Law School.
The evening session will start at
* 30, with James M. Landis, chairman
of ihe Securities and Exchange Com
mission. and Prof. Walter B Kennedy
of Fordham Law School as the prin
cipal speakers.
The morning and afternoon sessions
will be in the auditorium of the
music building. The evening meeting
will be in McMahon Hall. After the
morning session the visitors will be
taken on a sightseeing trip.
Re m i ngton-Rand
< Continued Prom First. Page t
resumption of power over the lives of
men and shocking in its concept of the
status of the modern industrial
worker ”
'•Rutblessness" Charged.
The board summed up its review of
the strike in long hearings with these
words:
"Prom ihe thousands of pages of
testimony in this proceeding there may
be distilled two very plain facts: The
unwavering refusal of the respondent
• Remington Rand) to bargain col
lectively with its employes, and the
cold, deliberate ruthlessness with
which it fought the strike which its
refusal to bargain had precipitated.”
Its order included instructions that
the company re-employ those who
•ost their jobs because of the strike,
cischarging new employes if nectr
£no prying the train fare of cud
employes sad their families to fue
owns wane the first jobs were avail
able.
In connection with the order as to
train fares the board said the com
pany had closed its Norwood plant,
opened a new one In Elmira, N. Y.,
and curtailed operations in the Mid
dletown and Syracuse plants.
Representatives of the unions in
volved said the decision was “just
what we expected.” William Rip
berger, district business agent for the
International Association of Machin
ists, said at Cincinnati the ruling did
not surprise him “in any way what
ever.”
An appeal from a Labor Board rul
ing may be taken to a circuit court
of appeals by seeking an order set
ting the ruling aside. It also may
be resisted by injunction proceedings
in district courts.
Rand Asked to Parley.
The board's decision followed closely
*n invitation from Secretary of Labor
Perkins to Rand to meet her here
Thursday to consider renewal of
negotiations with an A. F. of L. union.
A companv official said Rand would be
glad to talk with her.
John P. Frey, president of the
A. F. of L, Metal Trades Depart
ment, Saturday had criticized the
Social Security Board for awarding
ihe S57,500 contract to Remington
Rand
X Ins ";a? followed bv Altmeyer's
*■’ atcmsnt mat Frey v. as “correct in
bis uncrislanuing tnat it is me policy
of tne Social Security Beard to avoid
making purchases from the Reming
ton Rand Co., sc long as it engages
in practices,” charged by the Labor
Board.
“As regards the contract for pho
tographic records,” the Board chair
man said, “The Social Security Board
was advised by its technicians and
Its lawyers that Federal regulations
governing purchases it had no other
choice in the matter.
‘However, the Social Security Board
has directed that the entire question
be reconsidered for purposes of de
termining whether any other course
is now open to the board.”
in its 100-page decision, the board
said that if the provisions of the
Wagner national labor relations act
“ever required justification, one need
ro no further than the fact in this
case.” it added:
Over 6,000 employes, with their
families and dependents, are subjected
to the miseries of a prolonged strike,
the people of six communities experi
ence the economic hardships that in
evitably result when an accustomed
source of income is suddenly with
drawn, these same communities are
turned into warring camps and un
reasoning hatreds are created that lead
to abuses alien to a sane civilization—
*11 because the respondent refused to
recognize the rights of 6,000 em
ployes.”
The board's decision also directed
the Remington-Rand Co.:
To withdraw recognition from the
Tlion, Remington Rand Employes’ As
sociation and the Middletown Rem
ington Rand Employes’ Association.
To bargain collectively with the
Remington Rand Joint Protective
<
W ashington
Wayside
Tales
Random Observations
of Interesting Events
and Things.
SHHHH!
A FRIEND who keeps an eye
on the strange things that
appear in public documents
of an official nature whis
pers the tale of one that ought to
be pretty surprising to Secretary of
State Cordell Hull.
The document was a birth cer
tificate. It recounted the seventh
addition to a family (new baby to
you), a not very odd fact until you
read the line on which the home
address was supposed to be stated.
When she got that far, our informant
scarcely could believe her eyes. There
it was, however, in black and white,
that the family lived in “The Base
ment, State Department.”
An infelicitous mix-up in business
and residence addresses it might turn
out to be if foreign powers wanted
to talk behind their hands about us.
* * * *
DATED.
A young father about town who
rather fancies himself as a night
outer is watching his step on
dance floors with a deep feeling
of concern today.
His sardonic little flower of a
daughter was hostess at c dance
for 70 other juveniles the other
night and the proud parent thought
it would be in order to have the
first dance with her.
“Sorry," she said, “but this one
is taken. Besides you had better
just dance with the old folks.”
* * * *
MATRIARCHY.
'I HE Government, like sailing ships
and airplanes, is feminine.
We know because one of our opera
tives picked up a telephone in a
Federal building the other day and
asked the operator to connect him
with the Government switchboard.
A sweet voice answered.
“Is this 'Government’?” our oper
ator asked.
“Yes.” floated back the dulcet tone.
“This is she.”
k
CRIME.
WHEN it stopped snowing yesterday
afternoon there was laid bare
a crime which some motorist evi
dently thought the white flakes would
hide.
The man parked his car on a down
town street. That was all right, only
after he backed into the place he evi
dently noticed a no-parking sign next
to his rear fender. So he simply
rolled the sign up to the front of the
car, went away happy in the thought
Nature would cover up for him.
But Nature didn't. It immediately
stopped snowing and left a glaring
imprint at the spot where the sign
belonged, and a tell-tale mark of the
path along which it had been moved.
P. S.—Weather was too nasty to
permit going down to see if he got a
ticket.
* * * *■
SIGN.
T.'itr&s o. iv.vv&ry :-t row i i
c6.otTiL.is a p/ice of IS lsjU? for
s.iirts.
It cuuws, iuoutevcr, a nUwctl extra
for "stiff bosoms."
* * *
REHEARSAL.
^ DRAMA behind the scenes was
enacted at the Justice Depart
ment the night before Attorney Gen
eral Cummings testified before the
Senate Judiciary Committee on the
President's court reorganization pro
gram.
About the time that other Govern
ment officials were quitting their of
fices for the day, Cummings summoned
to his inner office a group of assist
ants. Seated at his desk, as though
he were addressing the Senate com
mitee, Cummings rehearsed, word for
word, the testimony he was to offer
on Capitol Hill the next morning.
Then he asked for criticism.
The session lasted nearly all night.
Several of the group left about 4:15
a m., the remainder at 5:30 a m. Cum
mins; rent heme for * nap 3ho'tly
alter.
* * sfc >
QUOTED.
JT IS not often that scripture is in
voked by youthful thespians in ex
pressing gratitude to critics of their
art. That is why it seems worthy of
report that Grace and Helen Rogers,
here last week with an amateur pro
duction, wired a Junior drama re-1
porter:
‘‘God loveth a cheerful giver. So
do we.”
Board of the District Council Office
Equipment Workers (the A. F. of L.
union) as exclusive representative of
production and maintenance employes.
To post notices to this effect in all
those plants.
To reinstate with back pay employes
individually discharged allegedly be
cause of union activity.
COMPANY OFFICIAL SILENT.
BUFFALO, N. Y., March J5 (jP).—
Officials of Remington Rand, Inc., had
no oomment today on the National La
bor Relations Board’s order to the
company to take back 4,000 employes.
An executive said James H. Rand,
jr., president, was in Florida, On
Thursday he is scheduled to confer
with Secretary of Labor Frances Per
kins in Washington.
“We have no statement,” a com
pany official said.
Rev. John P. Boland, regional di
rector of the Labor Board, and a prin
cipal figure in the efforts to bring
about a settlement in the Remington
Rand case, issued a statement saying
he was “hopeful” that the company
would comply with the order.
*
IS
Supreme Court Refuses to
Review Other Cases In
volving Act.
BY JOHN H. CLINE.
The Supreme Court began a two
week recess today after a brief session
in which it refused to review eight
cases involving the Wagner labor re
lations act and one concerning the
old-age benefit sections of the Fed
eral social security act.
-The justices announced one deci
sion in a case Involving a New York
tax dispute, but withheld their ruling
in the Washington State minimum
wage case and the five Wagner act
controversies now pending before the
court.
The New York tax case was inter
esting principally because the 7-2 ma
jority opinion denying the right of the
Federal Government to tax the salary
of the chief engineer of the Bureau of
Water Supply of New York City,
brought forth a vigorous dissenting
opinion in which Justice Roberts,
identified with the so-called conserv
ative members of the bench, and
Justice Brandeis, one of the liberals,
concurred.
Refusal Arouses Speculation.
The refusal of the court to review
the eight cases attacking the Wagner
act aroused some speculation, but it
was generally believed the justices felt
that all legal questions Involved in
these controversies are covered in the
five cases now awaiting final decision.
The suits were filed by industrial and
manufacturing concerns in various
sections of the country.
The attacks on the old-age benefit
provision of the social security act was
filed by Norman C. Norman of New
York City. He lost In the District
Court and appealed directly to the Su
preme Court without waiting for a de
cision from the Circuit Court of Ap
peals. It is the custom of the Su
preme Court not to review any case
until it has gone through the Court of
Appeals.
Had Norman won in the District
Court, the situation would be anal
agous to one of the “evils” in the
judicial system which President
Roosevelt seeks to correct in his court
bill by authorizing a direct appeal
to the Supreme Court tn cases where
lower court decisions invalidate Fed
eral laws.
In another action today the court
granted to Texas the right to file a
bill of complaint against three other
States in an effort to determine for
taxing purposes the legal domicile of
the wealthy Edward H. R. Green at
the time of his death last June.
Ruling in Green Case.
A previous Texas motion was denied
because the justices decided the State
had failed to show, as a basis of its
complaint, that it would be unable to
collect an inhertance tax from the
Green estate, without going outside
Texas to collect It, even if the court
found that he was domiciled in Texas.
Green was the son of Hetty Green.
The new Texas petition set forth in
support of its contention that tang
ible property of Green in Texas was
valued at only *6.000, while the in
heritanc tax liability was estimated
at *5.326.544.
The State also argued that if New
Yoi*k, Massachusetts and Florida—
w'hich also claimed Green as a legal
resident—succeeded In collecting the
taxes first, there would remain an in
sufficient amount to satisfy the Texas
claim.
A ruling on the pending Wagner
cases was not generally expected to
day, but many believe the justices may
prepare their decision during the two
week recess and annovnce it when,
ibiv reconvene March 29.
Court
<Continued From First Page i
bility still was being discussed at the
Capitol.
Getting ready for resumption of ad
ministration testimony. Chairman
Ashurst said the Judiciary Committee
appeared about equally divided on the
Roosevelt bill.
Unless a break in this line-up oc
curs or compromise is resorted to,
the administration leadership may
have difficulty in getting the measure
to the Senate floor.
Some committee members were get
ting restive over the prospects of
long hearings. Ashurst took the posi
tion that the bill’s chances would be
better with the passage of time.
Wheeler had been scheduled to
lead off for the opposition today.
He asked a delay, however, to gather
fresh information. Under the new
arrangement, the opponents will begin
testifying next Monday.
Ashurst invited 14 deans of law
schools and professors of constitu
tional law to record their support for
judiciary reorganization.
The group included James M.
Landis, who will head the Harvard
Law School after leaving the chair
manship of the Securities Commission;
Dean Charles E. Clark of the Yale
l av; School; D*an L. K. Garrison, of
t ne Wisconsin 1 iy School, and Profs.
Edward s, Corbin of Fiinc'ton and
Charles G. Haines, cf tne University
of Southern California.
Senator Glass, Democrat, of Vir
ginia, will deliver a radio address
against the Roosevelt bill on March
29. it will be his second major
broadcast speech, the first having
been in support of President Roose
velt’s candidacy in 1932,
SEVEN DENIED MISTRIAL
IN RESTAURANT CASE
By the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, March 15—A mistrial
for the seven remaining defendants in
the $2,000,000-a-year restaurant racket
trial was denied today by the presiding
justice, Philip J. McCook.
Because of illness, the eighth de
fendant, Charles B. Baum, official of
a waiters’ union, was granted a mis
trial Saturday. Baum’s name had
been mentioned rarely in eight weeks
of testimony.
Attorney Arthur H. Schwartz, argu
ing for the remaining defendants, con
tended that the jury, discharged from
considering the case of Baum, was not
qualified to sit in judgment on the
other seven because their cases were
joined.
Schwartz’s motion was denied with
out comment. His particular client,
Paul N. Coulcher, another union offi
cial, then was called to the stand, and
he denied that he ever was put on the
pay roll of “Lindy’s," famous Broad
way restaurant, for *150 a month by
the proprietor, Leo Lindemann, who
testified to that effect previously.
Lindermann said the restaurant paid
Coulcher to avoid bbor troubles.
Ill With Flu
QUEEN MARIE.
Marie
_
i Continued From First Page 1
Austria, at Castle Sonnberg, her resi
dence near Vienna, said the latest re
port she had received was sufficiently
favorable for her not to plan to go
to Bucharest immediately.)
King Carol and his sister, the
Queen Mother Marie of Yugoslavia,
were in the sick room most of the
time, however, the member of the
household said.
The Yugoslavian Queen hurried to
her mother from Belgrade immedi
ately upon learning of her illness,
leaving her own son. young King
Peter, whom she had just nursed
through sn attack of influenza.
The opera, at which she was taken
ill; her writing and charities have
filled the Queen dowager's life dur
ing the last few years.
She has not participated in Balkan
politics since her son returned to the
throne of Rumania, but the condi
tions of the peninsula remained one
of her first interests.
At ner villa near the capital she
has been reliving many of Hie stirring
adventures of her life in the writing
of her memoirs.
Although her Winier has been quiet,
it has been filled with work. Quite
often, she once admitted, she spent
12 hours a day at her desk.
Corresponds with Americans.
Part of the time was devoted to a
large correspondence with American
friends, many of them made on her
five-week tour of the United States
in 1926, when she was royally feted
from coast to coast.
Relations between Queen Marie and
King Carol apparently have been good
I recently, although they frequently
have been reported strained.
The Dowager Queen never has given
up hope of a reconciliation between
her Son and the Princess Helen of
Greece. They were divorced in 1928
after being married seven years.
The royal houses of Rumania and
Greece were doubly linked in two of
the marriages that led to Marie’s often
being called ‘ Queen Mother of the
Balkins.”
Her eldest daughter, Elizabeth, mar
ried King George II of Greece in
1921. They were divorced in 1935.
Wives Put Autos First.
CHICAGO, 111. UP''.—Chicago house
wives were asked by the College of
Commerce, De Paul University, "what
the famly plans to buy next?”
Answers from 10,512 women put au
tomobiles at the top of the list, two to
one ahead of insurance, which was
second choice.
Native of Milwaukee Had
Been Resident of D. C.
20 Years.
Walter C. Blakeslee, 61, of 3335
Tennyson street, a construction super
intendent associated with the Inter
national Harvester Co., died yesterday
at Emergency Hospital.
A resident of Washington for 20
years, Mr. Blakeslee was born near
Milwaukee, and moved to Chicago
when a young man. He became asso
ciated there with the International
Harvester Co. He supervised the
building of the Bladensburg road
branch of the company’s office here.
His widow, Mrs. Caroline Blakeslee,
survives, as do two sons, Newton and
Lieut. E. W. Blakeslee, and two
daughters, Mrs. Sarah Jane Speight
and Miss Caroline Blakeslee.
Funeral services will be held Wed
nesday at his former home. Burial
has not as yet been arranged.
PLANS MOVE TO QUASH
TOWNSEND SENTENCE
Bj ihe Associated Press.
Representative Hoffman, Republican,
of Michigan, said today he would urge
the House to recommend suspension of
the sentence imposed on Dr. F. E.
Townsend for walking out on a House
Investigating Committee.
The founder of the Townsend old
age pension movement was sentenced
to 30 days in jail and fined $100 in
District Court last week after being
found guilty of contempt of the House.
An appeal was taken.
"The House again established its
right to command witnesses to testify
before its committees in the Townsend
conviction.” Hoffman naid ‘T can *««
no gain in forcing him to meet the
sentence. The Townsend movement
itself is dead.'
Windsor to See
Mrs. Simpson
Soon, Is Report
By ihe Associated Press
IXDNDON, March 15.—The Duke of
Windsor is planning a trip to France
beginning next week to meet Mrs.
Wallis Warfield Simpson, advices
reaching London from a trustworthy
Austrian source said today.
The informant said arrangements
were being made for a reunion in or
near Paris between the former King
of England and the woman for whom
he gave up the throne.
This trip, this source said, probabiv
w'ould be announced as a three or
four dav Easter excursion” from the
Knzesfeld. Austria, estate of Baron
Rothschild, his haven since he de
parted England.
The former King still plans to marry
Mrs. Simpson in Vienna about April
27 or May 1, it was said.
His brother, the Duke of Kent, per
suaded him any change would only
arouse additional publicity.
It Is expected the usual Austrian
period for publication of the banns
would be considerably shortened for
the duke.
He was reliably reported to have
withheld making arrangements for r
residence for himself and his bride
pending a discussion on the subject
with Mrs. Simpson.
I Gcast Guard Assigns Officer?
to Watch Over tt hale Killing
- «,
New Work Under Treaty
to Be Inaugurated
About May 1.
BV PHILIP H. LOVE.
‘ Thar she blows!”
The traditional cry of the whaling
fleets is going to play an increasingly
important part in the work of the
Coast Guard, beginning about May 1.
For the first time since its estab
lishment in 1790, the Coast Guard is
assigning officers to all American
whaling ships to see that the oil-pro
ducing mammals are killed only In
accordance with the regulations laid
down by the Seventy-fourth Congress.
The first Coast Guardsman to be
ordered to whaling duty is Lieut. J.
D. Craik. now a junior grade officer
of the cutler Northland, working out
of Seattle. He was chosen from ap
proximately 50 applicants—many of
them undoubtedly inspired, Coast
Guard officials concede, by the aura
of romance which has surrounded the
whaling industry for centuries.
Nothing Romantic in Whaling.
But, according to Comdr. W. N.
Derby, onerations officer of the Coast
Guard, there is nothing semantic—
or even pleasant—about wmllng,
' As a matter of fac1,” Ccmcir. Derby
declared today, ‘-wnaiing i.: cne cf tne
most unpleasant joos imaginable. ‘Ti
calls for the hardest kind of work on
crowded boats reeking with the odor
of blubber for six mc.iths or so at a
stretch, with no opportunity to get
anywhere near land.”
The Coast Guard ssued a call for
volunteers for whaling duty last Mon
day, after the American Whaling Co.
of New York had been granted the
first license issued under the so
called ‘ whaling treaty act" of last
May 1.
Coast Guard officials were frankly
surprised to receive so many applica
tions, several of which—even more
surprisingly—came from married men.
Craik was chosen, it was explained,
because he is ‘'intelligent, healthy and
single.”
Craik, whose home is in Andover,
Mass., will sail from New York the
latter part of April for the Indian
Ocean “whaling grounds,” where he
will supervise the work of the 8,000
ton “factory” vessel Prango and its
four “killer” boats until some time in
November.
Personnel Norwegian.
The personnel of the expedition will
be composed largely of Norwegians,
and one of Craik’s first duties prob
ably will be to acquire at least a
rudimentary knowledge of their lan
guage. In addi‘-ion to seeing that
none of the Government regulations
are violated in the killing and process
ing of humpback whales, Craik will
make motion pictures and gather suf
ficient data to enable the Coast Guard
to get out an illustrated pamphlet
on the whaling industry. He will keep
in touch with headquarters here by
radio*
B
_LIEUT. J. D. CRAIK._
So old an industry is whaling that
there is no record of its beginning.
It is known, however, that it was fol
lowed by the Northmen as early as
the nlneth century, and the probability
tr mat whales which rose to breathe
in ,oe ns..row wa.'r lanes among
."re1 ic 3..e were ai-teekstf by ne
i&jfimc?.
Tne EngiLii iug*. up wiiaiirig in the
eleventh century, and tne Basques in
the thirteenth. At first, whalers
worked from specially-built towers on
shore, arming themselves with har
poons and lances and putting out in
boats only after a lookout had shouted
the equivalent of the English "Thar
she blows 1”
Modern whaling is different, how
ever. Now most whaling fleets con
sist of a large factory ship and several
comparatively small killer boats—the
latter for shooting and towing the
mammals, the former for rendering
them into oil, meal, guano and other
products.
wairn lor spouunt.
Cruising whalers watch for spout
ing—caused by hot air being forced
from the whales’ lungs after long
periods of holding their breath—and
then rush to the attack with Sven
Poyn guns. Prom the guns are fired
100-pound harpoons about 4 feet long,
the heads of which are exploded by
time-fuses three seconds after strik
ing. About a foot behind the heads
are four hinged barbs, which open
out in the body of the whale.
The law under which the Coast
Guard has added the policing of the
whaling ■ industry to its activities was
enacted to give effect to a treaty
signed by the United States and
more than a score of other nations
in March, 1932, as a result of a con
ference at Geneva. Designed as a
conservation measure, the law is to
be enforced jointly by both the Coast
Guard and the Customs Bureau.
Other Coast Guard officers will be
assigned to whaling duty as soon as
the remaining American concerns en
gaged in tlM industry procure licenses.
“ ' ---r
Tryst With Divorcee Admitted
By Cable in Wife’s Slaying
Apartment Evidence
Gathered by Ohio
Police.
BACKGROUND—
Mrs. Rose Cable died last Thurs
day night an hour after being
struck in the neck by a shot fired
through the window of her hand
some home at Canton, Ohio. The
woman was prominent in church
and social circles.
By th» Associated Press,
CANTON, Ohio, March 15—Detec
tive Capt. Elmer E. Clark announced
today Deuber S. Cable, Canton con
tractor, had told of his companionship
with a 45-year-old divorcee held for
questioning by authorities investigat
ing the shotgun slaying of Cable’s
socially prominent wife.
Included in Cable's account, Capt.
Clark said, was a statement that he
had shared an apartment in Akron
with the woman, who today was held
in Jail.
It was In this apartment, police de
clared, that Prosecutor A. C. L. Bar
thelmeh reported the finding of evi
dence which he said pointed to a
• jealousy motive” In the slaying, and
the possibility that a ‘‘hired assassin”
fired into a window of the Cables’
home last Thursday night, the shotgun
blast which fatally wounded Mrs.
Cable.
The woman, Barthelmeh said, had
admitted using the apartment for
trysts. She denied any knowledge of
the slaying, he said.
Formal action by the prosecutor’s
office was being withheld, investigators
said, pending the funeral of Mrs.
Cable this afternoon.
Police kept under guard a coupe
which two high school girls ‘posi
tively identified" as a motor car which
eight times circled the block in which
the Cables’ house is situated the night
of the killing.
Investigators reported Elden Yost,
12, had found last Friday on Lake
Cable road, about 5 miles from the
Cable home, a shotgun shell of a type
that may have been used in the slay
MRS. CABLE.
_ D. S. CABLE.
ing. The youth told his father about
the discovery yesterday.
Pittman Bill9 Voted in Senate,
Applies Cash-Carry Principle
Neutrality Resolution Provides for
%/
Mandatory Steps in Case of War
to Keep V. S. at Peace.
(This is the second of a series of articles summarizing the back
ground and nature of efforts to define by legislation the neutrality
policy of the United States, with particular reference to the House and
Senate neutrality bills >
BY JOHN C. HENRY.
With the embargo provisions of the
present neutrality law due to expire
on May 1 of this year and with the
threat of war ominously close in the
background of tangled European poli
tics, congressional leaders were quick
to sense the public sentiment In favor
of new efforts to legislate the Nation
along pathways of peace.
They realized, also, the existence of
a very determined and extremely elo
quent bloc of members, particularly in
the Senate, who were prepared to fight
to the last filibuster to force passage
of new legislation designed to keep us
out of war,
The result has been the introduc
tion In both Senate and House of
neutrality measures sponsored by the
( hairmen of the respective foreign af
faire committees, but with neither pro
oostl hearing a tual indorsement of
tne White iiouse or otale Depart
ment.
Action came first, and in the more
extreme manner, from the Senate
where the so-called Pittman bill was
passed after a few short hours of de
bate on March 3 by a convincing vote
of 63-6.
Goes Beyond Previous Law.
Still somewhat short of the ultimate
objectives of the neutrality bloc, com
posed principally of members of the
old Senate Munitions Committee, the
Pittman measure does go beyond any
previous law in establishing rigid
rules of conduct for the executive
branch of the Government in time
of war.
Essentially, the Pittman resolution
contains the following major pro
visions:
Mandatory embargo against sale or
shipment of implements of war to any
belligerent nation or faction in a civil
strife of such size as to imperil the
peace of the United States if we trade
in such implements.
Mandatory embargo against all
loans and credits to belligerents ex
cept that the President may, in his
discretion, permit such short-term
credits as are used normally in peace
time.
Mandatory prohibition of American
citizens traveling on vessels or planes
of belligerent;, unless in accordance
wi'h rules to be made by ih; President.
Mandatory prohibition of arming
American meicnant ship- trading witn
belligerents, and tne banning of armed
merchantmen as well as submarines of
belligerents from American ports.
Cash-and-Carry Principle.
Of greater significance, however,
and the subject of most controversy,
Is the insertion of a new section which
applies the so-called cash-and-carry
principle.
Designated as section 2, the new sec
tion first extends the presidential em
bargo powers to "articles or materials
in addition to arms, ammunition and
implements of war” and provides that
"it shall thereafter be unlawful for
any American vessel or aircraft to
carry such articles or materials to any
belligerent country.” Application of
this provision is left within the discre
tion of the President in so far as he
may deem such an embargo “neces
sary to promote the security or pre
serve the peace of neutrality of the
United States or to protect the lives
and commerce of nationals of the
United States.”
Furthermore, the extension of the
embargo to "additional articles” has
to do only with the carriage of those
articles in American vessels, leaving to
foreign vessels the right to “come and
get the stuff,” as explained by Assist
ant Secretary of State Moore before
the Senate committee.
Following closely upon this dis
cretionary part of section 2 comes the
mandatory provision that it shall
automatically be unlawful after a
state of war is found and proclaimed
"to export or transport to any bellig
erent country * • * any articles or
materials whatever until all right,
title, and interest therein shall have
been transferred to some foreign
government, agency, institution, as
sociation. partnership, corporation or
national.”
With the floating of securities arxl
the extension of credit to belligerents
prohibited by the act in its present
form the above mandatory provision
will force a “cash and carry” policy
on nations seeking war supplies here.
It was upon this section, particu
larly in its mandatory provision, that
critics of the Pittman bill have been
most outspoken.
Speaking during Senate debate on
the bill, Senator Hiram Johnson of
California termed the resolution "an
attempt, by a policy of scuttle and
run, to take the profits out of war
and shirk the responsibilities.”
The principal benefit, he continues,
y/ill accrue to the nation best able
to pav for our taw materials and
best equipped to transport tnem.
That the mandatory provisions of
the Pittman measure met resistance
within his own committee is shown
in one instance by the remarks of
Senator Thomas of Utah, who had a
discretionary bill before the commit
tee.
“Discretion,” Senator Thomas said,
“is very much stronger in actual
practice than a mandatory principle.
Under a straight out-and-out man
date the President must wait for
events or eventualities before he can
act. Persons who are standing for
mandatory legislation because they
think it is stronger than discretionary
are actually forgetful of the ordinary
processes."
In spite of these objections, the
Senate folowed the course mapped
out by Senator Pittman. On the
House side, however, a considerably
more flexible bill has been sponsored
ana reported by Representative Mc
Reynolds of Tennessee, chairman of
the Foreign Relations Committee.
Some of the differences between this
proposal and the Pittman bill will
be outlined tomorrow.
PICKENS IS NAMED
Alexandrian to Be Chief of Naval
Ordnance Bureau.
President Roosevelt nominated c'io
* an ew C. Picaens today to to* tn.ef
of the Naval Bureau of Oianance,
Wilh tns r*r.a of rear admiral.
Picxens, whose Lome Is Alexandria,
Va., will serve for a four-year term
beginning next June 17. He succeeds
Rear Admiral H. R. Stark.
Congress in Brief
TODAY.
Senate:
Considers Andrew Mellon’s offer of
notional art museum.
Appropriations Committee meets to
approve Treasury-Post Office appro
priation bill.
House:
Considers minor legislation.
Agriculture Subcommittee studies
sugar tax proposal.
TOMORROW.
Senate:
May take up Treasury-Post Office j
appropriation bill.
Judiciary Committee resumes hear
ings on President’s court bill.
Post Office and Post Roads Com
mittee meets on routine business at
11 a.m.
House:
Resumes consideration of neutrality
bill.
Territories Committee meets 10:30
a.m.
Public Lands Committee meets
10:30 a.m.
Appropriations Subcommittees, con
sidering War, Agricuture and Interior
supply bills, resume hearings, 10:30
a.m.
Special Subcommittee of District
Committee begins hearings on barber
control bill, 10 am.
Harvard President Hails
Senate Repeal Vote in Let
ter on Judiciary Proposal.
In a protest against the President’*
court proposal, President James B.
Conant of Harvard University toriav
prefaced his open letters to the two
Massachusetts Senators, Walsh and
Bodge, with reference to the District s
“red rider.”
“The recent action of the Senate
in repealing the red rider is a welcome
sign that the wave of Intolerance which
marked the passage of cchers’ oath
bills in many States is beginning to
subside,” he wrote.
“But many of us who have been In
terested in combatting tins threat to
freedom are now alarmed by the pro
posed change in the Supreme Court.
To us, it appears contrary to the spirit
of a free democratic country; it points
the way for an interference with the
judiciary which might eventually jeop
ardize the liberties guaranteed under
the Bill of Rights.”
Conant’s critleism of the court plan
constituted his first ublic statement
of a political nature since he assumed
the presidency of Harvard, President
Roosevelt's alma mater, nearly four
years ago. Condemning the proposal
as “dangerous in the extreme,” he
wrote further to Walsh and Bodge
both of whom are declared opponents
of the plan:
“My opposition to the President's
proposal is based primarily on one
point. The administration intends to
bring about what seems to most lav
men a constitutional change without
a special appeal to the country—»n
appeal which might have been *ub
mitted to the voters a lew months ago.
“If the precedent is once estab
lished that a party in powe. can 'pack’
the court, admittedly to affect de
cisions on the constitutionality of acts
of Congress, how long will it be be
fore some administration will ‘park’
the court to affect decisions on the
issue of liberty itself?”
Conant made clear that his pro
test was not based on opposition to
New Deal legislation or sympathy
with the trend of Supreme Court de
cisions since it began deciding the
validity of New Deal laws.
“Personally,” he said, “I should
wish to live under the present Consti
tution as written, but as interpreted
by a minority of the present court.
Some measures should be devised to
alter the existing situation. Even the
proposal now before the Senate, if
cast as a constitutional amendment
(thereby fixing the size of the court ),
might be defensible. But for a party
in power to attempt to rush through
a change of this nature by act of
Congress without submitting the issue
to the country seems to me dangerous
in the extreme "
The court, Conant wrote In ex
plaining his position, “has served to
protect the fundamental principles of
a free country—freedom of speech
and assembly.”
Spain
i Continued From First Page >
50.000 men, were concentrated on the
Guadalajara front. One of those
divisions was reported to have partici
pated in the recent battle of Malaga,
captured by the insurgents.
In was disclosed that government
airplanes had dropped photographs
of Italian prisoners over the enemy
lines. On the reverse side of each
picture was an appeal in Italian urg
ing soldiers in the insurgent ranks to
desert to the government side, as
scrtlng prisoners v.cre r.ell treated
and v eil *cc.
Government officers said Itiilin
prisoners had toid questioners tnat
many In the insurgent ranks were
only ordinary workers who had en
listed in Italy because of the unem
ployment situation.
Further South and West on the
Jarama front, the insurgents were
reported engaged in a strong attack
on Morata de Tajuna, important for
tified town west of the Madrid-Valen
cia highway.
But defense officers said the attack ■
failed.
Three insurgent deserters from the
Majadahonda sector northwest of Ma
drid arrived with a story of the exe
cution of 20 men who plotted to blow
up a powder magazine belonging to
Italian troops.
They told government officials that
Spanish soldiers on the insurgent
side resented the presence of the Ital
ians in the civil war.
FRANCO ORDERS ADVANCE
Co-eidinated Drives on Two From*
Are Planned.
NAVALCARNERO. Spain. March
35.—Gen. Francisco Franco ordered a
general advance all along the Jarama
front southeast of Madrid today In a
drive co-ordinated with a new push
against the beleaguered capital from
the Guadalajara sector on the north
east.
The inouvgent forces cn the Ja.iir
front smashed tmongn Lie gomame:
hnse to ta'. e uo positions “ m tu
nearer the uajuna Rivet.
At the came time, on the Guada
lajara front, dispatches reported, s.
series of desperate government coun
ter-attacks had been driven back in
heavy fighting.
The simultaneous action centered
around the Tajuna River Valley, the
"groove" along which the insurgent
flying columns have orders to close
Madrid’s vital corridor to the sea.
More than 200 government dead
were counted on the Jarama battle
field, insurgent commanders said.
Ten government planes were report
ed brought down by Insurgent squad
rons before the assault was unleashed
against the Jarama defenses.
Seven of the emshed planes, the
insurgent airmen reported, were Amer
ican-made Curtiss craft and the other
three were Russian.
CHARGES TO BE AIRED.
Neutrality Group to Study Claims
of Loyalist Government.
I.ONDON, March 15 f/P).—Spanish
government charges that Italian troops
are bolstering besieging forces of
Madrid were expected today to get an
airing before the 27-nation Neutrality
Committee this week.
Pablo Azcarate y Florez, Ambassa
dor of the Valencia government, urged
the British foreign office to press tor
immediate committee consideration of
the allegations contained in notes
handed both to the foreign office and
the League of Nations.
Italo-German squadrons, the notes ■
charged, "under the pretext of guard*
ing the coast," planned to attack
Barcelona and Valencia while Italian
troops closed in on Madrid.