AMERICAN NAVY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21765, 3 April 1934, Page 9

AMERICAN NAVY

BUILDING SCHEME STRONG DENUNCIATION " WASTE OF PUBLIC FUNDS" OVERBURDENED TAXPAYER By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received April 2. 5.5 p.m.) NEW YORK, April 1 Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has issued a report in which lie vigorously condemns the armament movements in the uorld, particularly in the United States. " Congress is engaged again in creating a new and false impression of American public opinion," says Dr. Butler. " it is for the public opinion of the United States to make it plain —and that promptly—that it will not uphold the proposal to appropriate hundreds of millions of dollars for naval construction and armament. " This new, colossal waste of public funds at a time when every family ;n the land is striving to struggle to its feet, and every Government unit is plunged in a sea of debt, is nothing short of criminal waste of tho money cf the already overburdened taxpayer. Such, however, is the power of nuval armament in the lobbies in Washington." Dr. Butler is president of tha Columbia University, New York. Ho was born at Elizabeth, New Jersey, in April, 1862, and graduated at Columbia. A Republican in politics, he was a delegate to the National Convention in 1912. He was nominated for the Vice-Presidency and stood with Mr. Taft against Messrs. Wilson and Roosevelt, but tho Taft list sustained a ciushiug defeat. On the outbreak of the Great War Mr. Butler supported Mr. Wilson's policy of neutrality and objected to the raising of the American Legion, but in 19J6 ho was in favour of the United States going on the sido of the Allies. At the Republican National Convention in 1920 he secured 69 votes for nomination as President on tho first ballot, but theso gradually dwindled to two on tho last vote.

Dr. Butler lias done splendid work at Columbia University and he holds many honorary degrees and distinctions from universities and States all over the world. As trustee of the Carnegie Foundation, lie visited England, France and Germany in 1926, these countries having been allotted to him as part of a, vast scheme of investigation into tha aspirations and needs of the peoples of Kurope. On one occasion lie strongly criticised Mr. Hoover's statement that a strong navy would be a factor for the preservation of peace. " What sort of a mind or nature is it," he asked, " which can at this stage in the world's history deliberately find a basis for respect iu force, rather than in justice?" Dr. Butler is in favour of the revision of war debts. His books include " A World in Ferment " (1917), "The American as He Is," "Is America Worth Saving?" Building the American Nation," " The Meaning of Fducation " and " True and Falso Democracy." He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 jointly with 31 iss Jano Addams, a Chicago social worker.