REMAKE OR BREAK?

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 8, 10 July 1939, Page 8

REMAKE OR BREAK?

If the Roosevelt Administration cannot remake the Neutrality Act, the Administration may be tempted to break it. Repeal in toto, instead of amendment in detail, is now suggested by the "New York Times" and by the "Herald-Tribune" of New York, as a line of expediency. If Administration amendments to tlie Neutrality Act are defeated or held up in the Senate either by direct voting or by delay, the existing embargo against export of arms and ammunition cannot be removed by that long-drawn-out process, nor can clauses be added in accord with the Roosevelt policy. But if the whole ship is sunk, then the objectionable cargo (embargo) will disappear at

the same time. This newspaper advice implies that the President is a modified Samson who can break his bonds if he cannot dictate their character. There is no doubt that the Nazis will find much pleasure in the prospect of the President's policy being held up by delaying tactics on the part of a Senate minority— pleasure in the resultant damage to "the peace front," and pleasure in democracy's exhibition, through representative institutions, of its incapacity for action, contrasting with dictatorship's ruthless fiats. I