In 1934 New York. President Roosevelt signed the Johnson Act which prohibits in the United States the. underwriting of the securities of nations which have defaulted in their debts to the American Government. On May 1, 1937, he signed the Neuttality Act whereby Congress delegate ed to him the power to forbid the export of arms and munitions to belligerents, and, if necessary, to prohibit practically all American trade with belligerents.
This Neutrality Act is dangerous, if not unworkable. In practice it may put a peaceful democracy at the mercy of an attacking totalitarian state. It may, as similar legislation has done in the past, so cripple American trade as to bring on a depression, American authorities in international law pointed out the perils and follies in the proposal and advised against its enactment into law. But Congress passed the measure almost without dissent. As to the Johnson Act, its purpose is obvious.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.