Manslaughter in Shanghai

First sentence of the first section of the Neutrality Act which Franklin Roosevelt signed last May says that when the President "shall find that there exists a state of War between or among two or more foreign States," he shall proclaim the fact, thus forbidding U. S. shipments to them of "arms, ammunition or implements of War," and require their other purchases to be on a cash and carry basis. Prime problem for Franklin Roosevelt last week was whether or not to "find" what looked, for the moment at least, considerably like the World's No. 1 War. By week's end he had not yet discovered it.

Although the great city of Shanghai became literally a battlefield of armies, although War left its calling card in the form of a shell which made a direct hit on the deck of a U. S. cruiser (see p. 18), the President had at least two handy excuses for not finding that a state of war existed in China. One was that neither China nor Japan had declared it. The other was, that, since diplomatic ties had not been cut, China and Japan could theoretically still act to end hostilities through their Ambassadors. Neither reason would have borne very close inspection. That the war being openly fought had not been openly acknowledged was largely due to the fact that both China and Japan wished to avoid forcing the President of the U. S. to clamp down an embargo that neither one, for different reasons, wanted.

A far better reason for Franklin Roosevelt not to regard as war the organized military manslaughter in Shanghai was that he well knew that prompt use of the patchwork Neutrality Act--drafted with an eye to wars in Europe--would do nothing to stop it, might well make matters worse. Furthermore, though in the long run Japan might need U. S. supplies more than China, the immediate effect of an embargo would be to the advantage of Japan, whose ships could still presumably conduct a "cash and carry" trade with the U. S.

What the President did last week was harder for him to explain than for the country to approve. It consisted of waiting to see which way the cat would jump. By week's end, Ambassador Robert W. Bingham was on his way back from England to Washington. And the chances were that, whether or not war was declared, the President might soon have to recognize it. Nonetheless, net result of the White House policy in not applying the Neutrality Act was to show the U. S. the vagueness of a law based on good intentions rather than a practical knowledge of the world. Clearly the most important word in that wordy document was the short verb "find" and the time when a President might find a war was as unpredictable as the time when a lesser man may find a collar button.

P: In a sheaf of nominations made just before Congress adjourned, the President appointed 63-year-old Mary Williams Dewson, director of the Democratic Party's women's division in both his campaigns, veteran New York welfare worker (who helped draft the Social Security Act, and attained further party favor by planting a kiss on Postmaster General Farley's brow at his testimonial banquet last winter), to the Social Security Board; 48-year-old Justin Miller of the Board of Tax Appeals, ardent advocate of the President's late Court Bill, to be associate justice of the U. S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia; 37-year-old Samuel Ordway Jr., fellow lawyer and Harvard-man who early exhibited his social consciousness with a lampooning novel called Little Codfish Cabot at Harvard, to the Civil Service Commission; 63-year-old Secretary Ickes to the 18th important post he holds beside his Cabinet post, Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administrator, in which he succeeds Director Ernest Gruening of the Division of Territories and Island Possessions, who had complained of overwork.

P: Unusually irritated was the President to have for signature a bill imposing $8,875,000 in additional taxes on the District of Columbia. Reason: Maryland's Senator Millard Tydings had affixed to it as a rider his Miller-Tydings Bill. Actually an amendment to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890, the bill permits manufacturers of branded and trademarked articles in interstate commerce to fix retail prices in the 42 States whose own laws sanction this procedure. Pushed by distillers fearful of a price-cutting war over the 400,000,000 gallons of bonded four-year-old whiskey they will soon have on their hands, the legislation was stopped in April after the President expressed his disfavor of any measures calculated to weaken antitrust laws or raise the cost of living. "This is the first instance during my term of office," crackled the President, "that this vicious practice of attaching unrelated riders to tax or appropriation bills has occurred. . . . . I have decided to sign the bill in the hope that it will not be as harmful as most people predict. . . ." The Department of Justice, caught by surprise, gloomed that the amendment would hamper its prosecution of several pending antitrust cases, including Aluminum Co. of America, Bristol-Myers Co. (drugs), Gillette Safety Razor Co., Seagram Distillers Corp.

P: "In large part because of my personal friendship for him," the President vetoed a house bill appropriating $500,000 toward a Will Rogers memorial monument at Claremore, Okla. "I believe," wrote Friend Roosevelt, "the Congress could devise a more appropriate means of perpetuating Will Rogers' memory which at the same time would be more in consonance with sound Federal practice."

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