Thursday, July 13, 1939
The Gold Hill News. Gold Hill. Oregon
a
W E E K LY NEWS AN ALYSIS B Y JOSEPH W . LaBINE
New Government Lending Plan
Will hit Trouble, Say Experts;
Strikes Spending Key for 1940
(E D IT O R ’S N O T E — When opinions a re expressed la these columns, they
a re those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.)
_____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ R elejs ed by W estern N ew sp aper U nion. ________________________
POLITICS:
Looking to 1940
“.4
veor a«» wAen
(Ae /'resident tent
his hMiW.OOO.AW /endspend atessafS »0
congress, I said it was /»it» putting a <Ain
plaster on a cancer. This plan now is
just anotAer lAin p latte r."
What looks like a shin plaster to
North Carolina’s Sen. Josiah W. Bai
ley looks to dubious V. S. business
men as a timely reiteration of the
politico-economic philosophy Presi
dent Roosevelt expounded before
congress last January 4, namely,
that “government investment” in U.
S. financial stability should not
merely be an emergency stop gap,
but a long-range standard policy.
The new plan:
Government agencies would issue
extra-budgetary federal-guaranteed
securities for financing self-liquidat
ing projects. Special U. S. authori-
SENATOR BAILEY
Shin p la ster for a cancer.
ties would loan a total of $3,860,000,-
000 within periods ranging from two
to seven years, the total program to
be divided as follows:
Non-federal public work»
like bridge». hospitals
and waterworks .................1350.000,000
Toll roads, express
highways, city by
passes. etc.............................. 750.000.000
Railroad equipment to be
leased to c a rr ie r s ............... 500.000.000
Rural electrification
expansion .............................. *60.000.000
Farm tenancy p ro g ra m ........ 500.000,000
Increase in U. S. Housing
Authority's borrowing
power
.................................. 800.000.000
Loans to foreign nations
to purchase U. S.
surpluses ............................ 500.000,000
crats point out that the new lending
plan provides $870,000,000 to be
spent next year; with FHA’s new
lending power ($800,000,000), with
the emergency relief appropriation
($1,735,000,000) and record agricul
tural subsidies ($1,000,000,000) the
coming fiscal year will bring ex
penditures of $4,405,000,000 as a pre
lude to the campaign and election.
However sincere the President’s in
tentions for recovery, the political
connection is inescapable and leads
many observers to believe Mr.
Roosevelt will positively seek a third
term.
Finance. Fears of orthodox U. S.
financiers went unnoticed in the del
uge of political comment. Among
the fears:
<L It was recalled that even Brain-
truster Adolf Berle Jr., assistant
secretary of state, recently said
such lending methods must eventu
ally lead to government absorption
of the country’s most productive
plants.
C. Mr. Roosevelt's insistence that the
so-called “self liquidating” bonds be
taxable brought investigation which
revealed many projects are self-
sustaining by so close a margin that
to tax the bonds would make them
a losing investment.
<L Loans to municipalities will be
blocked in many cases by local laws
and state regulations covering mu
nicipal indebtedness. Most large cit
ies, moreover, have already reached
their debt limit.
C Since the Johnson act forbids new
loans to nations already indebted to
the U. S., only South America and
Scandinavian countries could use the
$500,000,000 trade - boosting loan.
Financiers fear a loss here, since
there is no method to force collec
tion short of war.
<L Leasing of equipment to rail
roads would, it is alleged, be an un
satisfactory substitute for the reme
dial legislation necessary to place
U. S. carriers back on their feet.
Restoration of rail prosperity is r»
garded as far preferable.
FRANCE:
Lesson
When French Foreign Minister
Georges Bonnet signed a mutual as
sistance pact with Turkish Ambas
sador Suad Davaz, Italo-German ag
gression into the eastern Mediter
ranean seemed effectively stymied.
Moreover, for Signor Benito Musso
lini it was an object lesson in gen
tlemanly behavior. Results: (1) Tur
key is wooed away from the Rome-
While Senate Majority Leader Al- Berlin axis; (2) Anglo-French war
ben Barkley assured reporters the time control of the strategic Darda
measure would pass immediately, nelles makes German invasion of
political wiseacres took great pains
to make an undiluted election issue
of it. Almost universally overlooked
was the White House's violent re
treat from the costly, ineffectual
pump-priming methods it has tried
before, which consisted not of loans
but straight spending. Also over
looked was the small size of a seven-
year $3,860,000,000 program com
pared with $20,678,000,000 the New
Deal spent on recovery and relief
from 1933 to 1938. Nevertheless
TURKEY’S GAIN
ft pays to b e a gentlem an.
many a vital hole and many a politi
cal portent could be read from the the Balkans less likely; (3) pro-Nazi
measure :
is isolated; (4) Turkey’s
Politics. With 10,000,000 still un Bulgaria
neighbor, Russia, should now be
employed and national income about big
to enter a military
$12,000,000,000 under the "ideal” of more willing
with Britain.
$80,000,000,000 a year, the adminis agreement
Mussolini’s object lesson was that
tration will obviously seek to per Turkey
won the strategic Republic
petuate itself in 1940 by stimulating
of
Hatay
(Syrian Alexandretta) in
a temporary recovery as in 1938. Re
publicans and conservative Demo- return. Though the transfer was
probably illegal in League of Na
tions’ eyes, under whose mandate
France ruled it, Turkey neverthe
less gained by negotiation what Italy
has been unable to gain by threat.
REAR ADM. HARRY YARNELL
Stubborn Frenchmen still refuse to
A pop-eyed Japanese consul
in Shanghai received an unex bow before Mussolini's demands for
pectedly brusque message recent Suez canal rights, the Addis Ababa-
Djibouti railroad and Italian minor*
ly for transmittal
ity rights in Tunisia.
said that the
American navy
NAVY:
will go “wherev
er necessary” to
Speed-Up
protect American
Fiscal year’s start July 1 means
citizens and that
new funds for new work in most
it expects no in
U. S. government departments. Big
terference from
gest appropriations for the 1939-40
Japan, who has
fiscal year cover rearmament, and
been trying to
before July has passed into history
shove Occidentals
the navy will be well under way
out of the Orient.
with three new jobs:
The message
Bases. Costing $65,000,000 are 12
came from Rear Admiral Harry
plane
and submarine bases for
E. Yarnell, spare native of Inde
pendence, Iowa, director of which congress has appropriated
America’s Asiatic fleet and un $31,621,000 to handle the first year’s
work. Outlying bases will be at San
official Far Eastern diplomatic
Juan, Puerto Rico; Kaneohe and
representative since October,
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; Sitka and
1936. It was almost the parting
shot of a man who has won virtu Kodiak, Alaska; Midway island;
ally all disputes with Japan grow Johnston island and Palmyra island
in the western Pacific. Continental
ing out of the Chinese war. For
bases will be at Pensacola and Jack
Mr. Yarnell, who meantime has
sonville, Fla., and Tongue Point,
won the admiration and even the
respect of Japan, will reach stat Ore.
Ships. Early June found 75 war
utory retirement age in July.
Veteran of the Spanish-Ameri ships under construction, the pro
gram running ahead of last year.
can war, Philippine insurrection,
Boxer campaign, Vera Cruz occu Meanwhile 24 new ships are being
rushed, including two 45,000-ton “su
pation and World war (where he
commanded the U. S. S. Nash per” battleships. All will be laid
in 1940 and will cost about
ville), his most difficult assign down
$350,000,000.
ment is the present one. He will
Planes. Effective immediately the
be succeeded by Rear Admiral
Thomas C. Hart, possibly return "speed-up” policy will be applied to
500 new airships, whose completion
ing to his prairie home after a
during the 1939-40 fiscal year wiU
job well done.
bring the navy’s total to 2,132.
HEADLINERS
Shall We Send Our Youth to War ?
By
H E R B E R T
H O O V E R
that wur. We had been directly
attacked But, more important,
I believed we could bring the
endless slaughter to an end. I
believed that with our singleness
of pur;M>se we could impose an
enlightened pence; that we could
make it a war to end war. I be
lieved we could make the world
sufe for the spread of human
liberty. If experience has nny
value to nations, there nre in the
wrecking of these hopes a thou
sand reasons why we should
never attempt It oguin.
The Former President of
United States Answers a
Question That Is on
Everybody’s Lips.
<C«a4*n*»4 Fram
•( th*
A m e r ic a » M a g a a la e By S p e c ia l A r r a n g e -
m e n l)
HE American people
are today tense with
anxiety lest they be led
into another great war.
And some of our people
seem to be accepting glib
talk of war as if it were
something more good than
evil. Truly many years have
already gone by since we
ceased to feed boys to the
cannon. It seems difficult to
believe that only about one-
third of the living American
people are qjd enough to re
member the World war well.
We have urgent need today
to recall the realities of mod
ern war. And we have des
perate need to take into our
national thinking the gigan
tic yet invisible forces behind
war which are again moving
in Europe.
I am perhaps one of the
few living Americans who
had full opportunity to see in
timately the moving tragedy
of the World war from its
beginnings down through the
long years which have not
yet ended. I saw it not only
in its visible ghastliness, but
I lived with the invisible
forces which moved in its
causes and its consequences.
I am perhaps justified in re
calling that experience.
T
Before the war 1 knew Europe
—Russia, Germany, France,
Italy, and England—fairly inti
mately, not as a tourist but as a
part of their workaday life.
I was drafted in 1914 to pre
serve the lives of ten millions of
people in Belgium and northern
France who had been overrun
by the German armies. Here
was a service that by common
consent was a sort of semiofficial
state. It covered not alone food,
but the economic life of these
people. It operated within the
lines of a hostile army and
moved through the blockade of a
hostile navy. In that service I
moved constantly in and out be
hind the trenches on both sides
of tfie conflict. I witnessed the
misery and backwash from war
in their most hideous forms. My
duties required that I meet con
stantly with high military and
civil officials in England, Ger
many, France, and the neutral
countries in contact with the in
visible forces behind the war.
When America joined in the
war I was asked by President
Wilson to return to America to
become a member of our Amer
ican war council and to adminis
ter the food supplies of our coun
try and for our Allies.
At the Armistice I was drafted
back to Europe to direct activi
ties of the Allied and associated
governments to defeat unparal
leled famine and pestilence, to
restore economic life among both
the victors and the vanquished.
In this service I spread an or
ganization of thousands of Amer
ican men and women over 23 na
tions—many of them boiling with
revolution. Our job was not
alone the extension of a hand of
kindness. Its purpose was to se
cure order out of which peace
could be made.
Constant dealing with those
many peoples and their officials
brought a flood of knowledge of
the political, economic, and so
cial currents which sprang from
the war.
I did not participate in making
the peace. I was daily called up
on for advice and information.
And I observed its disastrous
course. Subsequently, during a
period of eight years in cabinet
position I dealt with the troubled
seas of unceasing political and
economic storms the world over.
As President I dealt unceasing
ly to bring about reduction of
arms, economic readjustment,
and peace.
A year ago I spent some
months in Europe with unique
opportunity to discuss its prob
lems with leaders in 14 nations.
That is 20 years of opportunity
to observe European peoples and
their leaders, with all the forces
of good and evil in which they
live, and to relate them to our
American scene. The search
light of this experience can well
be turned upon some phases of
the present scene.
What War Really Is.
First, let me say something
from this experience of what war
really is. Those who lived in it,
4
Prayer for Real Peace.
H ERBERT HOOVER
(From the drawing by Clarence Mattel.)
and our American boys who
fought in it, dislike to recall its
terribleness. We dwell today
upon its glories—the courage, the
heroism, the greatness of spirit
in men. I myself, should like to
forget all else. But today, with
the world driving recklessly into
it again, there is much we must
not forget. Amid the afterglow
of glory and legend we forget
the filth, the stench, the death,
of the trenches. We forget the
dumb grief of mothers, wives and
children. We forget the unend
ing blight cast upon the world by
the sacrifice of the flower of
every race.
I was one of but few civilians
who saw something of the Battle
of the Somme. In the distant
view were the unending trenches
filled with a million and a half
men. Here and there, like ants,
they advanced under the thunder
and belching volcanoes from 10,-
000 guns. Their lives were
thrown away until half a million
had died. Passing close by were
unending lines of men plodding
along the right side of the road
to the front, not with drums and
bands, but with saddened resig
nation. Down the left side came
the unending lines of wounded
men, staggering among unending
Stretchers and ambulances. Do
you think one can forget that?
And it was but one battle of a
hundred.
Ten million men died or were
maimed for life in that war.
There were millions who died
unknown and unmarked. Yet
there are miles of unending
crosses in a thousand cemeteries.
The great monument to the dead
at Ypres carries the names of
150,000 Englishmen who died on
but a small segment of the front.
Theirs was an inspiring heroism
for all time. But how much
greater a world it would be to
day if that heroism and that
character could have lived.
Humanity Suffers.
And there was another side no
less dreadful. I hesitate to re
call even to my own mind the
nightmares of roads filled for
long miles with old men, young
women, and little children drop
ping of fatigue and hunger as
they fled in terror from burning
villages and oncoming armies.
And over Europe these were not
just a few thousands, but over
the long years that scene was
enacted in millions.
And there was the ruthless kill
ing of civilians, executed by fil
ing squads who justified their
acts, not by processes of justice,
but on mere suspicion of trans
gression of the laws of war. Still
worse was the killing of men,
women, and even children to
project terror and cringing sub
mission. To the winds went
every sense of justice. To the
winds went every sense of de
cency. To the winds went every
sense of tolerance. To the winds
went every sense of mercy. The
purpose of every army is to win.
They are r»at put together for
afternoon teas. They are not
made up to bring good cheer or .
justice or tolerance. They are
made up of men sent out to kill
or be killed. Whatever the the
ory, the act that wins is justi
fied in war.
And there were the terrors of
the air. In a score of air raids I
saw the terror of women and
children flocking to the cellars,
frantically, to escape from an
unseen enemy.
Starving Women and Children.
In another even more dreadful
sense I saw inhuman policies of
war. That was the determina
tion on both sides to bring sub
jection by starvation. The food
blockade by the Allied govern
ments on the one side, and the
ruthless submarine warfare by
the Central powers on the other,
had this as its major purpose.
Both sides professed that it was
not their purpose to starve wom
en and children. But it is an idiot
who thinks soldiers ever starve.
It was women and children who
died of starvation. It was they
who died of the disease which
came from short food supplies,
not in hundreds of thousands, but
in millions.
And after the Armistice came
famine and pestilence, in which
millions perished and other mil
lions grew up stunted in mind
and body. That is war. Let us
not forget.
We were actually at the front
in this war for only a few months,
but it cost us the lives of 130,000
men. It has placed 470,000 per
sons on the national pension list
already. It has cost us 40 bil
lions of dollars. And that rep
resents more than just dollars.
Today we have a quarter to a
third of the American people be
low a decent standard of living.
If that 40 billions of wealth had
remained in America, these peo
ple would not be in this plight. A
large segment of our people have
already been impoverished for a
quarter of a century. And the
end is not yet.
We may need to go to war
again. But that war should be
on this hemisphere alone and in
the defense of our firesides or our
honor. For that alone should we
pay the price.
The endless books tell us how
the Great War originated. They
do not agree. But some salient
facts do stand out that are per
tinent today. It began by a quar
rel between three dictators—the
czar of Russia and the emperors
of Germany and Austria. They
were competing for “power."
France, a democracy, was
dragged in because, out of fear
of the dictators of Germany and
Austria, ahe, a democracy, had
made a military alliance with
the czar. The British democracy
was drawn in partly out of ideal
ism to defend liberty, but also
partly to save its trade and its
possessions from too great a
concentration of "power" on the
continent. We finally Joined in
the war wholly out of idealism.
I dodge no responsibility. I
reluctantly joined in the almost
unanimous view of our country
men that America must go into
When President Wilson arrived
in Paris, the common people uf
the world were praying for a
real peace. There were good men
there, und there were high aspir
ations. But there were ulso con
centrated there the invisible
forces of nge-old hute und greed.
Mr. Wilson met n determination
to crush the enemy in a Curthug-
inian peace. He met the sinister
demands for power. He met a
greed for possession of world re
sources. Above all, he met with
the pressures of populations und
the unsolvable problems of Eu
ropean boundaries und economic
life. He worked valiantly to com-
but the evil forces. He spread
Ameri an idealism ut the peace
table. He argued und cried out
for reason and Justice—not be
cause he felt that mankind must
turn its face to the future and
its back on the past. When Ger
mans blame him, little do they
know what Germany would huve
looked like had it not been for
Woodrow Wilson.
To Mr. Wilson I criticized bit
terly the provisions of the peace
treuties before they were signed.
I felt that instead of healing the
wounds of the world they would
spread disaster over a genera
tion. I have before me a memo
randum that I gave to Mr. Wilson
two i.u ,,,tii., b c li'ic the treaties
were signed, urging their lack of
vision and the dungers to Amer
ica. He won some victories for
sanity. He helped some nations
to freedom. He hoped that, with
time for hate and avarice to cool,
the League of Nations could re
construct the failures of the
treaty.
Americans will yet be proud of
that American who fought a fight
for righteousness although tie par
tially lost. But he provec that
American idealism and American
ignorance of the invisible forces
in Europe can only confuse the
grim necessities of European
peace.
What is happening today? Eu
rope is suffering repeated earth
quake shocks from the fault of
the Treaty of Versailles.
But, beyond all this which ia
obvious, something else is mov
ing. Europe is again engaged in
a hideous conflict for power.
Stripped to its bones, today the
quarrel is much the same. Dic
tators in Germany and Italy rise
to power on opposition to Com
munism, launched into their peo
ples by the dictator of Russia.
Again the dictators nre in con
flict for power. Again France, a
democracy, tics herself to the dic
tatorship in Russia. England be
comes endangered should the dic
tators of Germany and Italy over
whelm France. And thus again
begins this dreadful treadmill.
What is proposed? That we join
to stop inevitable movements and
readjustments of peoples; that we
engage in ideological wars. Who
will pay for it in blood and treas
ure? Our children.
The time may come when we
could arbitrate the quarrels
which arise in that game at some
point before shooting begins. But
if we sit in the game we shall
never be arbitrator and we may
be drawn into the shooting.
My sympathies are with the
democracies. But the- democra
cies of Western Europe have the
resources to defend themselves.
They comprise great empires of
hundreds of millions of people
with all the resources needed to
secure their defense. Whether
they preserve their democracies
is a question of their own will.
•<
x
X
America’s Service.
America can be of service to
the world. We can hold up the
standards of decency in the world.
We should hold that the basis
of international relations should
not be force, but should be law
and free agreement.
The greatest immediate service
that we can render is to join in
economic co-operation with other
nations to relieve the economic
pressures which are driving the
world constantly to instability. A
great part of these pressures for
war are economic. The greatest
healing force that could come to
the world is prosperity. There is
a vast field for American action
which is free from political en
tanglements. We should resume
the conferences which were start
ed under such good auspices by
our country in 1932.
But, far beyond that, we can
hold the light of liberty alight on
this continent. That is the great
est service we can give to civ
ilization.
(B «U a «a 4 t»y W estern N ew sp aper U n io n .I
X