Tt Is significant that one of the first nels of the President after his triumphant re-election was to speed his way to the Buenos Aires Pan American Conference, despite the work which was piling up on his desk at home and despite a trouble-ome. maritime strike. in which he was being pressed to intervene. The President could have sent y good will message to the Conference from his White House study. He undertook a 14,000-mile Journey to dramaize the appeal he Intended to make. The Pan-American Conference acted as & sounding-board which carried his words above the whir of the munitions factories to the farthest corners of the earth.
The President's desire that the United States should contribute its full quota to the cause of world peace is hampered by the present Neutrality Act. It expires in May and already the controversy has begun to rage over the permanent act which will replace it. At present Administrations hands are tied and the enormous moral force of American disapproval cannot be brought to bear against an aggressor nation. "Any bans or embargoes which' America Imposes must apply to all belligerents alike, aggressor and victim, outlaw nation and sanctionist powers, Moreover raw materials, such as coal, fron and all, cannot be embetgoed, only actual' munitions and instruments' of war.
The President is anxious for the new aet to permit him to discriminate and to impose embargoes against the aggressor nation which do not apply particularly popular agency, the Lea sue of Nations, decides who is the aggressor could be avoided by the universal adoption of the American to the victim of aggression. The difficulty that an outside "and not definition of aggressor—the nation which sends its armed forces into the territory of another power.
Senatorial Groups Opposed Opposed to this view of the Administration are two powerful groups of Senators. One group headed by Senctors Hiram Johnson and Borah fare advocates of the Freedom of the seas and hold that America should ive up none of her maritime rights. She should adopt her traditional policy of trading with all nations, war of no war, and if prevented by force from doing so contrary to the accepted principles of pre-League in" ternational law, should reserve full ight to claim "damages from the offending government.
The opposition of this group forced the abandonment, in. the present neutrality act, of any embargo on raw materials, To have forbidden the export of, say, all would have done unnecessary harm to American producers and would have involved the, United States in international controversy. "If the United States remains ready to sell to all comers then she will find it easy to remain neutral, "Instead of selling to all customers in case of war the United "States should refuse to sell to any of them." says an equally powerful Senatorial block headed by Senators Gerald Nye and Champ Clark. To sell to every nation will simply multiply the pos sibilities of becoming involved in the onfllet. America can remain economically_self-sume lent even if every nation in Europe becomes, in some way, involved in the conflict.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.