Evening star. [volume], November 16, 1939, Page A-11, Image 11

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

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U. S. Puts
Rights Aside
In Shipping
Pressure Seen
Causing Surrender
On Transfers
By DAVID LAWRENCE.
TJnrefuted misconceptions of what
constitutes the "spirit” of neutrality
have won another victory over the
assertion of simple American rights
which for dec
ades have been
the traditional
policy of the
United States
Government.
P r e sident
Roosevelt and
Secretary Hull,
disturbed by the
possibility that
at the next ses
sion of Congress
they might face
partisan amend
ments to the re^
centlv adopted
neutrality law. David Lawrm«.
have agreed not to permit Ameri
can ships hereafter to transfer their
registry to the Panama flag, even
though it is permitted by inter
national law as well as domestic
law.
At first the President was inclined
to follow the law and not the in
cipient waves of criticism and
stand on the historic position which
the Government has always fol
lowed in the past, but again the
cry has been raised that to pro
tect America's own lawful interests
might “drag us into the war.”
Instead of vigorously refuting that
proposition by pointing out that
America undertakes no responsibili
ties whatsoever when an American
owned vessel flies a neutral foreign
flag, the Department of State, which
knows the precedents even better
than the President, insisted that
the’ transfers would be misunder
stood. Such a policy merely means
that right after right will be sur
rendered whenever a hue and cry
Is heard that some particular action
might involve diplomatic discus
sions with foreign governments.
Awkward Precedents Seen.
The material losses involved by
policy of the administration may
or may not be large today, but the
breakdown of its own faith in in
ternational law and rights on the
high seas will constitute an im
portant precedent for the future and
will embarrass other governments
which attempt to stand by neutral
rights in the world. The theory
is gradually being built up that a
belligerent government can do as
it pleases and even cause domestic
policy to be substantially modified
for fear of offending the belligerent.
Some idea of the distance to
Which the American Government
now has retreated may be derived
from a reading of a host of pre
cedents. Not only have American
citizens had the right to do as they
please with their own ships so far
as transferring to other flags is
concerned, but they even have had
the right to buy or lease or charter
ships from belligerents and carry on
trade.
“The right of Americans to buy
foreign-built vessels and to carry
on commerce with them is clear and
undoubted’’ wrote Secretary of
State Evarts as far back as 1879.
Even further back, when Henry
Clay was Secretary of State in 1827,
the United States Government
said:
"If vessels have been built In
the United States and afterward'
sold to one of the belligerents and
converted into vessels of xvar, our
citizens engaged in that species of
manufacture have been equally
ready to build and sell vessels to
other belligerents.
Compensation Not Unreasonable.
“During the state of war between
two nations the commercial in
dustry and pursuits of a neutral na
tion are often materially injured.
If the neutral finds some compen
sation in a new species of industry
which the necessities of the bel
ligerents stimulate or bring into
activity, it cannot be deemed very
unreasonable that he should avail
himself of that compensation, pro
vided he confines himself within
the line of entire impartiality and
Violates no rule of public law.
“Shipbuilding is a great branch
of American manufactures, in which
the citizens of the United States
may lawfully employ their capital
and industry. When built, they may
seek a market for the article in
foreign ports as well as their own.
“To require the citizens of a
neutral power to abstain from the
exercise of their incontestable right
to dispose of the property, which
they may have in an unarmed ship
to a belligerent, would in effect be
to demand that they should cease
to have any commerce or to employ
any navigation in their intercourse
With a belligerent.
“It can hardly be expected that
the neutral should submit to a
universal cessation of his trade be
cause by possibility some of the
subjects of it may be acquired in
a regular course of business by a
belligerent and may aid him in
his efforts against an enemy.”
In other words, Americans could
until this week not only transfer
their ships legally to a belligerent
flag and ownership, but it also has
been consistently held that lawful
transfers of ships may even be made
to a neutral by a belligerent. In
the present instance, the American
Government is in effect going so
far as to say that an American ship
cannot be transferred to the flag
of another neutral power, and its
only reason for prohibiting it is
that the “spirit” of neutrality calls
for such action. But on this basis
all commerce with belligerents could
be stopped, and this was precisely
the argument of the minority in
Congress for the retention of the
embargo on arms last month.
May Plague Shipping.
To force American citizens by
statute to stop using their own ships
was unprecedented in itself, but to
object now when they seek to save
their properties from bankruptcy by
putting them under the protection
of another neutral government is
to build up precedents that will
plague American shipping interests
for decades to come. If there really
were a remote chance that transfer
of registry might actually involve
America in war, the action might
be defended as plausible, but almost
everyone who has followed mari
time controversies in the past knows
that ships with transferred registry
carrying cargoes to belligerents are j
•ubject to capture anyway and that ]
• A
seized ships do not constitute a cause
of war.
Politics has driven the admin
istration into a corner. Political
expediency alone has prompted the
decision to abandon historic Ameri
can rights and to be governed here
after not so much by the "spirit”
.of neutrality, but by the aggressive
spirit of a Republican partisan
group bent on putting the admin
istration on the defensive in the
1940 campaigfi.
(Reproduction rights reserved.)
Knocks Out Self
CAMBRIDGE. Mass., Nov. 16 (A>).
—A friend spoke to Bill Daniels of
Wilson, N. C., Harvard third-year
medical student, just as he landed
a mighty blow on the gymnasium
punching bag.
Daniels turned, and the rebound
ing bag caught him full on the chin.
Unconscious, Daniels was taken
to a hospital, where X-rays disclosed
a sprained back.
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The Capital Parade
Another New Deal-Utilities Battle Possible
Over Expanding Facilities for War-Time Needs
By JOSEPH ALSOP and ROBERT KINTNER.
In a quietly simmering controversy over national defense power needs,
there is a chance for another New Deal vs. power business battle on a
T. V. A. scale. At the controversy s heart is a disagreement over whether
existing power facilities are adequate to meet possible wartime require
ments.
Power policy is the chief remaining preoccupation of the New Deal
group in the administration. Through the National Power Policy Com
mittee, of which Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes is chairman,
the New Dealers are urging the utilities companies to accept Government
aid in building new equipment. The utilities companies, fearful of a
Trojan horse, are nervously arguing that their equipment is quite good
enough already, thank you.
The curious thing is that the New Dealers, whose greatest pleasure
used to be a good rough-and-tumble THANKS haEdi n :x
scrap with a few utilities executives, BUT WE DONiNEED
are extremely anxious to settle it
the controversy amicably. They say i
that, having signed and sealed a L
peace with the utilities after the I
capture of the Tennessee Valley, I1
they do not wish to go to war again. I
The utilities executives, on the other {
hand, privately accuse the New
Dealers of attempting to infringe f
the T. V. A. peace terms, which
ctuiea ior no iuriner governmental encroacnments in uie power Dusiness.
Tangled Tale
The controversy’s history is laughably typical of the course of Gov
ernment-business relations. Last fall, when national defense became a
pressing problem, the President named a National Defense Power Com
mittee under Assistant Secretary of War Louis Johnson. Johnson called
in Wendell L. Willkie. Edward Groesbeck, Floyd Carlisle and several other
great men in the power business. Several inspirational rallies were held,
but tangible results were inconspicuous. Then a few weeks ago, the
National Defense Power Committee’s duties were transferred to the
National Power Policy Committe, which has always been the spearhead
of the New Deal’s aggressive power program.
The National Defense Power Committee's chief labor was a survey
finding national power facilities “woefully lacking.’’ On looking into the
problem, the National Power Policy Committee confirmed its predeces
sor’s conclusions. Worst bottle-necks, according to the committee, were
^he lack of production capacity in certain strategic localities and the al
most complete absence of high tension transmission lines hooking the
great existing systems together. The committee decided there was
room for additional expenditures by the utilities of about $200,000,000 above
normal. The Government, it suggested, ought to put over $300,000,000
into the high tension hook-up lines (which bring no profit to the private
systems) and into expansion of T. V. A., utilization of the St. Lawrence
and other special projects. The question immediately arose as to who
was to have the management of the Government-financed lines and
production plants.
Acting Secretary of the Navy Charles Edison, urged on by conserva
tive advisers, complicated matters by suggesting that all Government in
vestment ought to take the form of subsidies to the utilities companies.
To the members of the National Power Policy Committee, this was sheer
heresy. They voted down Edison and arranged to attempt a deal with
the utilities companies.
'Fear the Greeks'
Meanwhile the leaders of the power business, suspicious of their an
cient enemies, had three unpleasant thoughts: (1) That another Gov
ernment power program like T. V. A. was being disguised as national
aeiense; «) mat. me i\ew ueaiers
also were trying to cloak a new
spending-lending program in a
handsome garment; and (3) that
the new high tension lines would
a give the Government a grip on such
g;- great intra-State utilities companies
— as Public Service of New Jersey,
Consolidated Edison and Niagara
1 Hudson. For all these reasons, the
utilities leaders are thinking of dig
__x a i i i j ± i ; iu.
— m - 51115 1/iiv.ti vwo 111 wiling viiv
New Dealers they are Greeks bearing gifts. They have already declared
that the supposed lack of power facilities is strictly imaginary.
The controversy would certainly end in a grand public row, if it were
not for its most striking feature—the New Dealers’ desire for a friendly
settlement. They have adopted a principle which seems wise, that peace
time needs should be met by the utilities, wartime needs by the Govern
ment. They may make a deal on this basis. Pending the outcome, their
good intentions are another sign of the new spirit invading the Govern
ment-business relationship.
iReleased by the North American Newspaper Alliance, Inc.)
I %ma*ice of t/cmd Crofted 5
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CTHE optnions of the writers on this page are their own, not
-1, necessarily The Star’s. Such opinions are presented in The
Star’s effort to give all sides of questions of interest to its
readers, although such 'opinions may be contradictory among
themselves and directly opposed to The Star's.
The Political Mill
Some New Dealers Talk of Place for Roosevelt
Outside Presidency in Next Administration
By G. GOULD LINCOLN.
It is cheering news to anti-third k
term Democrats—and to the bevy of i
Democratic presidential possibilities i
—that “some of the New Dealers” i
are talking about a cabinet job for i
President Roosevelt in the next ad- <
ministration. The suggestion is -
tentatively put forth, so tentatively i
as to be described as coming from j
the realm of fantasy.
In the same realm, why not con- k
sider a retention of the Democratic 1
ticket which won in 1932 and 1936, '
only with the ’
order reversed.
The third term ;
issue would then
be out of the
window — the
real issue which,
whether they ad
mit it or not, is
frightening the
Democrats to
day. Mr. Gar
ner would be
running for a
first term as
President, and
Mr. Roosevelt for
a first term as G. Gould Lincoln.
Vice President.
This would keep Mr. Roosevelt in
public life. It would certainly keep
him in the next administration—if ■
it is to be Democratic. As president
of the Senate he would be in a posi
tion to wield very considerable in
fluence—just as Mr. Garner has
done as presiding officer of the Up
per House. Mr. Roosevelt could
then attend cabinet meetings, just
as Mr. Garner does now.
There Are Obstacles.
The difficulty, as frankly admit
ted by certain members of the New
Deal inner circle, of having Mr.
Roosevelt in official position in the
next administration lies in the fact
that his successor might and prob
ably would be overshadowed. Fur
thermore, if Mr. Roosevelt should
give advice to his successor and his
successor should ignore the advice it
might not be a pleasant situation
for the former President.
When Mr. Roosevelt became Gov
ernor of New York, after the 1928
elections, he succeeded Alfred E.
Smith, who had been a presidential
candidate that year and who had
persuaded Mr. Roosevelt to seek the
governorship of the Empire State.
Mr. Smith had been an outstanding
Governor of New York. He had
been as much an idol to the people
of the State as has Mr. Roosevelt
been to the people of the United
States as Chief Executive. It was
perhaps natural that Mr. Smith
might expect to be asked for advice
from his successor as Governor and
that he should give it. Mr. Roose
velt, however, had his own ideas
about being Governor and Mr. Smith
got a cold shoulder in Albany. Nor
was Mr. Smith appointed to a new
job in the New York State govern
ment. Obviously it would take a
very tactful and perhaps submissive
President to deal with Mr. Roose
velt as a member of the cabinet
after 1940.
~ | - =
However, if Mr. Roosevelt should
ecome Vice President he would have
i niche all his own by virtue of
•lection by the people. Further
nore, he would have a Job removed
rom the executive branch of the
jovernment. That Mr. Roosevelt
vould run for Vice President next
'ear, however, seems Just as im
irobable as that any President who
nay be elected would appoint Mr.
toosevelt to his cabinet. He would
>e a glutton for trouble if he did.
‘lor is it likely that Mr. Roosevelt
vould accept a cabinet office—either
is Secretary of the Navy or as
secretary of State.
One Place Appropriate, However.
There is one office outside the
sxecutive branch of the Govern*
nent, however, to which a former
’resident might, with entire dig
nity, be appointed. Indeed, a for
ner President did fill it not many
pears ago. That is the office of
Chief Justice of the United States,
rhe present Chief Justice, Charles
Evans Hughes, was in 1916 a can
iidate for President. Mr. Hughes,
ike President Roosevelt, served in
;he past as Governor of New York.
There has been no indication
-hat Mr. Hughes intends to retire
rom the office of Chief Justice. He
ms served and is serving with great
listinction and any suggestion that
le intended to leave the bench
vould be a signal for wide regret
hroughout the country. It seems
n the cards, however, that the next
’resident of the United States,
vhoever he may be, will, in due
:ourse, have one or more appoint
nents to make to the Supreme
Court.
Mr. Roosevelt is a lawyer. It is
;rue that he has not practiced law
ictively for a long time. But he
ms had much to do with writing
,aws and administering them for
-he last 11 years, first as Governor of
Mew York and then as President of
the United States. Some of the
ippointees to the court in the past
rave no immediate active practice of
;he law back of them. The late Wil
liam Howard Taft, who became
Chief Justice several years after he
had been President, had been a
teacher of law at Yale University
Defore he took his seat on the bench.
\nd for years before Mr. Taft be
came President he had been con
nected with the Government serv
ice. as Governor General of the
Philippines and as Secretary of
War.
rhree Others Not in Active Practice.
More recently. Associate Justice
Black left the Senate to go on the
Dench and Associate Justice Doug
las the chairmanship of the Securi
ties and Exchange Commission.
Before his appointment to the S. E.
C. Mr. Douglas had been a pro
fessor of law at Yale.
Two and a half years ago Mr.
Roosevelt set out to make over the
Supreme Court, holding that it was
still living in the “horse and buggy”
lays. The court had handed down
decisions which struck at the New
Deal laws—outlawing both the N.
R. A. and the old A. A. A. The Pres
ident sent to Congress a proposal
and a bill to enlarge the member
ship of the court so that its views
might become more liberal. The
reaction in the country to the meth
od proposed by Mr. Roosevelt was
bad. The bill was dubbed a “court
packing measure.” It died.
But Mr. Roosev'elt’s determina
tion to remake the court did not
die. Since then he has had oppor
tunity to make four appointments
to fill vacancies—one short of a ma
jority of the entire court. And to
day he has still another vacancy to
! All. due to the death of Associate
Justice Pierce Butler. So the
court In large part has been made
over. Mr. Roosevelt’s own appoint
ment to the court would malce the
revamping complete.
That Mr. Roosevelt would be con
tent in a judicial capacity is en
tirely another matter. He will be 59
years old when he leaves the White
House in January, 1941. if he leaves.
The atmosphere of the Supreme
Court is vastly different from that
of the White House.
- "1
We, the People
Side-Line Work is Intensified to Bring
Real 'Continental Solidarity'
By JAY FRANKLIN.
While the State Department Is taking the bows and smiles for being
a good neighbor in the Western Hemisphere, there is a lot of hard and
knotty work being done on the side lines to make “continental solidarity”
a two-way street.
Thus, yesterday marked the opening of the sessions of a technical
committee at Washington, growing out of the decisions of last October's
conference at Panama. This committee—a State Department show—is
supposed to work out ways and means for cushioning the shocks of the
w«u w mac iasaaaaaaca cc aAiu
currencies of the American repub
lics.
A week before, Secretary of
State Hull convened at Washington
a distinguished group of American
educators to strengthen the aca
demic and cultural ties between the
. Colossus of the North and the Latin
, American peoples and, if the plans
of the department's division of cul
final T*a1o finna ttmrlr mif a e nlnnnnrl
by Dr. Ben M. Cherrington, its chief, we shall have Latin culture dripping
from our eyebrows before the spring offensives (if any) on the western
front.
Sandwiched in between these two efforts was a conference of Amer
ican shipping and travel agencies sponsored by the Department of Com
merce. This aimed at the diversion of American tourist expenditures
from Europe to South America. Last year, for example, our tourists spent
only $12,000,000 in South and Central America, as compared with $135,
000,000 in Europe. Since the war and the neutrality bill dyked the tourist
trade eastward, the Commerce Department hopes to canalize some extra
millions to the south.
Conference at Guatemala
In the meantime, far off in a diplomatic pigeonhole, a less adver
tised conference is being held at Guatemala City. This is a Treasury
effort, under Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Herbert E. Gaston. Mr.
Gaston is being aided by Lawrence Duggan, chief of the State Depart
ment’s division of American republics; Joseph P. Cotton, Jr., assistant
to the Secretary of the Treasury; Howard H. Tewksbury, Commercial
Attache of the American Legation to Guatemala; Simon G. Hanson,
Treasury economic analyst; Emilio G. Collado, principal divisional
assistant of the State Department, and Orvis A. Schmidt, Treasury
assistant economic analyst.
And what is our Treasury doing in the tropics?
Hush! The delicately worded purpose of this gathering—which was
suggested at the Lima Pan-American Conference last year—is to “discuss
technical subjects of mutual interest.”
Background of Talks
What this really means is that we are trying to open up pan-American
trade and investment opportunities, while the European war is raging,
beginning with Central America. We are particularly anxious to crack the
have been set up In Guatemala and
other American republics in recent /
years. V
And in the background there is f'
the hope of forestalling any repeti
tion of the Mexican oil expropria- c
tions and any gone-to-glory ached- S,
ules of taxation on American capital, Ti
such as United Fruit, etc.
Guatemala Is a good test tube
for this effort since American inter
ests noja aoout .>o,uuu,uoo worth or Guatemalan bonds and since we have
investments of about $50,000,000 in the country’s plantations and railroads.
The drain of gold, brought by the depression, caused Guatemala to protect
itself by a rigid control of foreign exchange, with the result that American
investors hesitate to put their funds in a position whence neither principal
nor interest is allowed to depart. The Treasury hopes to work out an
arrangement similar to the Brazilian agreement of July, 1937, by which
Secretary Morgenthau arranged to sell Brazil up to $60,000,000 in American
gold in order to end the Brazilian exchange control, which was strangling
American-Brazilian trade.
(Released by the North American Newspaper Alliance, Inc.)
Headline Folk
And What
They Do
Spaak, 'Gypsy' Smith
And Olson Change
Militant Stands
By LEMUEL F. PARTON.
Three Salvationists in the news to
day are not sure that the “way of
salvation is free,” and all are for
Joining people, rather than fighting
them. They are
Paul - Henri
Spaak, foreign
minister of Bel
gium, “Gypsy”
(Rodney) Smith,
the evangelist,
and Gov. Cul
bert L. Olson of
California. A11
have been mili
tant and all now
seek under
standing.
Paul - Henri
Spaak was a
_ , _ , _ rebel in his early
Paol-Henri huk. youth pubUsh.
ing a revolutionary weekly, L’Ac
tion Socialiste. As Belgium's first
Socialist Premier, and later for
eign misister, he shifted toward the
right. He restates Socialism in
terms of co-operation rather than
mass domination and seeks the in
clusion of all Christian churches in
a new affirmation of faith in de
mocracy and a collective endeavor
to “adapt Democratic institutions
to modern realities.” More perti
nent to immediate issues, he con
fers at the border with the Dutch
foreign minister. E. N. Van Kleffens,
to fend off the Nazi juggernaut.
Gypsy Smith, a full-blooded Ro
many gypsy, born under a horn
beam tree in England 78 years ago,
is the world’s most famous evan
gelist, now preaching in New York.
He, too, turns from militancy to
persuasion. He says he has given
up “scolding and frightening” peo
ple. On this, his 35th visit to New
York, he preaches “live and hope.”
For 60 years he has carried a
clothespin as a symbol of his per
sonal salvation. He and his father
made clothespins. An old lady
bought some and gave him a Bible.
He was 18 years old then, had never
slept under a roof and was unable
to read, but he taught himself with
the Bible. He is a small, spruce,
compact man, with broad shoulders
and the general look of a successful
businessman. He thinks the great
evangelists, Dwight L. Moody and.
Charles G. Finney, helped to end
other depressions and that way out
of this one is the path of a new
faith for the multitude.
Gov. Olson of California was once
one of our more passionately con
vinced economic Salvationists. Once
backing the $30 Thursday scheme,
then rejecting it, he now shades
down to a modest $50 a month for
California old people.
I The State's first Democratic Gov
ernor in 45 years, he has veered
considerably right since his election
a year ago. It was in 1935 that
he took the play away from Upton
Sinclair, California’s most illustrious
Salvationist, and he also took along
Mr. Sinclair's epic movement.
(Releaeed by Conjclidated Neva Feature*.)
IRVINS.COBB SAYS:
* “Thanks for
the memories ’
Nr
WHEN you Pabst people put the silk
Blue Ribbon back on the Pabst
9
bottle, you did millions of us old-timers, a
mighty fine turn.
“Because you call to our minds a whole
stream of golden memories—memories of
the good times we used to enjoy over
glasses of as satisfying a beer as ever was
brewed or, I reckon, ever will be brewed.
“You make us hink of happy hours at
i fish fries and barbecues and picnics and in
| the home, where your most delectable and
always dependable product was the favorite
refreshment; and we think of glamorous
. evenings at Rector’s and Delmonico’s—of
oyster suppers and bubbling welsh rarebits
and silver chafing dishes and mugs of cold,
_ clear Pabst.
“Accordingly we have welcomed the news
that again the silk Blue Ribbon, like a badge
of honor, is on the Pabst bottle, to remind
us of those pleasant by-gone days, and to
be a renewed guarantee of solace and com
fort through the years and generations to
come—THE BEER OF GOOD CHEER.
“So once more, thanks for the memories.
And thanks, too, for the certainty that the
silk Blue Ribbon will continue to be a
proof and a pledge of high excellence
in the quality; a symbol to show that
when we call for Pabst we’ll know
exactly what we’re getting—a brew
WITH A GREAT PAST, A BREW
WITH A GREAT FUTURE.”
Gratefully yours,
I l .1
*■■«■■* f.