·op · rAMERICA UNITED STATES <tilngrcssional Record. PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF _THE_.76~ CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION: .Appendix Which of the New Deal Measures Should I Have Voted Against? EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. JOHN A. MARTIN OF COLORADO IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Tuesday, January· 3, 1939 ARTICLE FROM THE COLORADO SPRINGS NEWS OF MAY 13, 1938, AND RADIO ADDRESS BY HON. JOHN A. MARTIN, OF COLORADO, ON NOVEMBER 4, 1938 Mr. MARTIN of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, under leave granted by the House, I submit for the RECORD a radio talk made by me over station KVOR, Colorado Springs, Colo., in my congressional district, on Friday evening, November 4, 1938, immediately following a national broadcast by the President, and repeated over station KGIW, Alamosa, Colo., in my district, on November 5, 1938. Under the same leave, I submit and prefa.ce my radio talk with an editorial from the Colorado Springs News, in which the editor, Mr. John M. Green, meets the charge that I was a "rubber stamp" by showing that I was an advocate of the social and economic philosophy of the New Deal years before the term "New Deal" was coined. MARTIN NO RUBBER STAMP [From the Colorado Springs News of May 13, 1938) JoHN A. MARTIN, of Pueblo, in recent years an attorney, but proud of earlier affiliations with both the newspaper and the railroad industries, in the latter of which he was a heavy-shoveling fireman, will seek reelection as Congressman from the Third Congressional District. We don't think there's any doubt of it. Mr. MARTIN is a Democrat--a progressive Democrat, a Roosevelt Democrat. Dispatches from Washington state that ''MARTIN has indicated he will run as a '100 percent new dealer.'" His record, he said, "is too completely on the side of the administration to do anything else." We imagine that pretty well tells the story. For Congressman JoHN A. MARTIN has been and is a new dealer. In his representation in Congress of the people of his districtsouthern and southeastern Colorado, including El Paso Countyhe has been consistent in his support of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his policies. Some of his constituents don't like that. Others do. But upon one thing all should be able to agree, whether they are political friends or enemies of the Congressman. That is, he has shot straight as he has seen it. And despite the consistency of his support of administration policies, he is far from what is now being charged to many of such consistency. In brief, he is no rubber stamp. Not in any sense of the word. For JoHN A. MARTIN always has stood on his own feet and always has done· his own thinking. To that e'Xtent he is a rugged individualist. If time and tide have found JoHN MARTIN supporting the New Deal faithfully, consistently, it is because the plain-speaking, hardhitting Puebloan is a leader, not a follower in New Deal philosophy. He is a New Dealer himself, has been for many a year past, will be for many a year to come. So, whether you like JoHN MARTIN and his political philosophies or you don't, it is well to keep in mind one thing : They are his very own. He is not compromising with himself when he supports the New Deal. He is furthering his own convictions. And that isn't rubber stamping in any possible interpretation of the phrase. My radio address is as follows: WHICH OF THE NEW DEAL MEASURES SHOULD I HAVE VOTED AGAINST? Friends and fellow citizens in Colorado Springs and El Paso County, it is a big assignment for a mere Congressman to follow the President on the air; vastly more diffi.cult than following him in Congress, for doing which an element in the Third Congressional District is demanding my defeat next Tuesday. They say this district should be represented by a man who will assert his independence and exercise his own judgment, instead of following the leadership of the President. Now, how would this be done? The only way I know is by opposing the President, by fight~ng him. And in order to assert his independence and exercise his judgment, what would he fight the President on? It has been a big program with many major acts, the greatest in the history of Congress. It has taken a big program to pull this country out of the wreckage in which Franklin D. Roosevelt found it on March 4, 1933. It must have been on some of these measures, and on which the President was wrong, that I should have asserted my independence and opposed my judgment to his and voted against him. Surely they would not ask me to oppose him when he was right. Now; let us take a run over the record and see where he was wrong and when I should have opposed him: Was it the legislation empowering the President to break the strangle hold of the gold-standard dollar on the economic throat of the Nation? I voted for that. The Supreme Court has sustained it. On March 4, 1933, the dollar was worth $1.75 in all other commodities. A dollar could buy $1.75 worth of anything else. Under the authority given him by Congress the President cut it 40 percent. As a part of the process he raised gold from $22 .67 per ounce to $35, and silver from 27 to 77 cents, pulling the mining camps of the West out of the graveyard. It was predicted that the devaluation of the dollar would result in ruinous inflation and destroy the value of the American dollar. Six years have passed and it is the soundest dollar in the world. Why not? We have twelve billions in gold, more than half the monetary gold of the world, and it is ours, and nearly three billions in silver. That ought to make a good backlog 3 I 1- ; APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD I have received this week over 25,000 letters and telegrams regarding the lifting of the Spanish embargo. It is physically impossible tor me to reply to all of these communications. Several weeks ago I took a definite position against lifting the Spanish embargo, because I feel the policy declared 2 years ago is impartial .and more likely to keep us out of war than any different policy which we might adopt at this time. Congress was wise in passing the neutrality btll, which prohibits the shipment of arms, ammunition, and implements of war to belligerent states. I believe the President should long ago have found a state of war to exist between China and Japan, which he had full power to do, so that :Qlunitions might not be shipped either to Japan or China. The neutrality law intends that we shall not manufacture munitions for foreign wars. It provides, further, that in case of war, nations must come to this country and pay for all articles other th.an munitions to be shipped abroad before they are shipped. Its purpose is to reduce the chances of our becoming involved, and I believe it will assist greatly the accomplishment of that purpose. It is in accord in spirit with the whole policy of American neutrality for 150 years. But now it is suggested that the whole world is different. It is said that distances are so short we cannot possibly a void being involved in a general war. I don't believe it. I think if we are sufficiently determined not to become involved, we can stay out. We learned our lesson in 1917. We learned that modern war defeats its own purposes. A war to preserve democracy resulted in the destruction of more democracies than it preserved. We may go in on the side of France and England because they are democracies and find before we are through that they are CommUnist or Fascist. Not only that, a war, whether to preserve democracy or otherwise. would almost certainly destroy democracy in the United States. We have moved far toward totalitarian government already. The additional powers sought by the President in case of war, the nationalization of all industry and all capital and all labor, already proposed in bills before Congress, would create a Socialist dictatorship which it would be impossible to dissolve when the war ended. . The United States is in. a fortunate position, a se~fishly fortunate position, if you please. In Europe races are so mingled that no one can draw boundaries without leaving minorities which are a peri>etual source of friction. In the end a war seems unfortunately probable-a war likely to destroy in a few short years the civilization which Europe has taken centuries to build. In that war the United States need not and sh.all not be involved. We have an isolated location, and it is still isolated in spite of all the improvements in air transportation. The best military authorities say that we can defend ourselves, and the Caribbean Sea south of us, if we maintain an adequate navy and an attendant air force. During any war we can be self-su.tficient. This very position makes it less likely that any nation would wish to attack us. There Js a general illusion that we see in Germany and Italy forceS which threaten to overwhelm England and France and march on to attack the United States. But this is surely an imaginary fear at the present time. There is no reason to believe that Germany and Italy could defeat England and France in any protracted war. It is hard to see what they would gain even after a successful war by an attack on- the United States. Certainly the physical strength of our position would make any nations hesitate, no matter how strong they might be. The picture presented this evening by Senator PITTMAN simply will not bear the analysis of calm examination. . . It is natural that the sympathy of our people should be strongly aroused when they see what is going - on under the totalitarian governments. Perhaps the President should tell them what we think of them, especially as the day seems to have passed when nations go to war because others call them unpleasant names. But the great majority of the people are determined that those sympathies do not lead us into overt acts of embargo, blockade, or economic sanctions. Considering the attitude which the President has taken, it seems essential that Congress shall strengthen the neutrality bill rather than repeal it. It seems essential that the President shall not have discretion to take sides in foreign wars, or impose sanctions against those n.ations which he might find to be aggressor nations. It seems wise not to repeal the Johnson Act, as is now being suggested, and to maintain a policy of lending as little money as possible abroad, for foreign loans today are certainly made precarious by the possib111ty of war and likely to stimulate tempora-rily a production of exportable goods which cannot be sustained. Congress is the body upon which is conferred by the Constitution power to declare war, It should not permit the Executive to go so far toward war, without consulting Congress, that Congress and the people no longer have the power to prevent war. I do not say that some special situation may not arise 1n the future under which it may seem desirable to go to war as the first step in an effective defense. But if such a situation ever arises it should be undertaken deliberately, after a thorough public discussion by the people and by Congress as the representatives chosen by the people. Many justifiable criticisms can be made of the Neutrality Act, and of any special type of neutrality. But the horrors of modern war are so great, its futility is so evident, its effect on democracy itself so destructive, that almost any alternative is more to be desired. The J>e9ple of the United States are overwhelmingly in favor of keeping out of other people's affairs, no matter what their individual sympathies may be for or against those· people. They will not support armaments required to carry out any such policy as that suggested in the President's message and supported by Senator PrrrMAN. 263 Foreign Relations EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. ROBERT R. REYNOLDS OF NORTH CAROLINA IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES Tuesday, January 24 (legislative day of Tuesday, January 17). 1939 RADIO ADDRESS BY HON. ROBERT R. REYNOLDS, OF NORTH CAROLINA Mr. REYNOLDS. Mr. President, today at the Carlton Hotel was held the annual meeting of the Coalition of the Patriotic Societies representing about 123 patriqtic American societies. At today's meeting I delivered an address and was afforded the use of a Nation-Wide hook-up on the National Broadcasting Co. The title of my address was "Uncle Sam Should Keep His Nose Out of the Internal Affairs of Other Nations."- I ask unanimous consent that that address be printed in its complete form in the Appendix of the REcoRD. There being no objection, the address was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows: Ladies and gentlemen of · the radio audience, President Roosevelt repeatedly stated that he hates war. We all hate war. You hate war and I hate war. The American people are unquestionably · against the United States participating in another world war, or any war. The question before us today is ho·w to stay out of war. I am very happy indeed to be provided the opportunity of asserting that the best and only means by which we may successfully avert war and stay out of war is to keep our skirts clear of any foreign entanglements and participate in no foreign embroilments In other words, the best way for us to insure ourselves against becoming again involved in another world war is to keep our nose out ·o f other nations' business. · The illustrious Father of his Country"; George Washington, expressed this- idea in the form of one of the greatest questions ever asked the Nation: "Why leave our own to stand on foreign ground?" That really is the best advice that I can give to you, the American people. I. am happy to be able to advise you that in my opinion the great majority of the American people know that I am right when I say that it is none of our business what sort of governments the peoples of Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan, or the peoples of any other nations of the world choose for themselves. What right h:ave we to tell the German people, or any peoples, under what sort of government they should live? What right have we to criticize the people · of Italy for the sort of government they choose to live under? Or what right have we to demand that this or that country have the sort of government that we would choose for them. Why that holier-than-thou attitude which would superimpose our governmental dress on the nations of the world? We are all against war because we recognize that our brief participation in the World War, which lasted from April 6, 1917, to November 11, 1918, has to date cost the American taxpayers more than $69,000,000,000, and before we will have finished liquidating the debts incurred as a result of that brief participation in the World War the American taxpayers Will have paid out more than $100,000,000,000. We went into the World War with the idea of saving Christianity and democracy. Have we accomplished either? We went into the World War with the idea of ending all wars. Have we been successful? We went into the World War with the idea of saving Great Britain and France and her allies from annihilation at the hands of the Central Powers. We went into the World War believing at the time that if we did lend a helping hand to those nations that were on the brink of defeat that they, Great Britain and France particularly, would be grateful for our aid. Have they shown any appreciation? Appreciation, my friends. is pretty much limited to anticipation of favors. At the close of the World War the United States had under arms and in uniform more than 4,400,000 men, established at tremendous expenditure of energy and money. At the end of that war the Allies were indebted to Uncle Sam to the extent of about $22,000,000,000. Uncle Sam, being the big-hearted man that we bave always found him to be, forthwith cut that indebtedness in half and virtually gave to the Allies $11 ,000,000,000. Of the $11,000,000,000 remaining they have never liquidated the interest. much less the principal, and perhaps never will. Nor have they, the Allies, in the slightest degree evidenced any appreciation of our having saved their hides. Gratitude is no virtue among nations. We know that the World War. which we had hoped would end all wars. has not been successful in ending war. Within the past 3 ~as 264 APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD years more than 3,000,000 combatants and noncombatants, innoare to be severed with any country, it should be wit h Mexico an d cent children, defenseless women, and frail old men have been Russia, and if diplomatic relations are to be severed with Germany slaughtered in Spain, Ethiopia, and China. In addition thereto, we they should certainly be severed with Italy, because Italy is perknow that the persecution of the minorities in Russia alone has secuting the same racial minorities as are being persecuted iri Germany. brought about the death, the murder of anywhere from four to seven million Ukrainians in that portion of the Soviet Union lying So let's be consistent, but above all, let's stay out of war. east of Ppland and north of. Odessa, on the Black Sea. As for saving My friends, the spirit of hate is sweeping the world. L~t us not Christianity, we know that the churches in Russia have been closed, become enmeshed in this spirit of hate. Why should we be that religious ceremonies are forbidden, that thousands of priests taught to hate our fellow man? What Christian doctrine can and followers of the gospel have been brutally murdered; that in induce hate? Does it not usually arise from ignorance? Mexico, our sister Republic to the south of us beyond the banks of I wish to say again that in order to stay out of war we must the Rio Grande, communism likewise has run rampant, that priests keep our nose out of other nations' businesses. Let's attend to our own business. have been murdered, that nuns have been attacked, and that the places of worship have been closed. Turning to the peninsula of Let's put our own house in order before we tell ot her nations of the world that theirs need dusting. Europe, in Spain we find that the same religious persecution, the same destruction of churches, the same murder of priests, and the . Let us abandon the attempt to clothe other peoples with our same attack upon nuns has taken place as likewise -transpired in political dress and habiliments, for democracy was tailor-made for the American people. both Russia and Mexico. I am against war. - Let us abandon attempting to pass Sunday blue laws policing You are against war. the political morals of the governments qf the world. The 130,000,000 people of America do not want war . . Let us stop criticizing the political habits of the 2,000,000,000 I repeat that the best way for us to stay out of war is to keep our people of the world until we have at least had time to wash nose out of other nation's business. behind our own ears. I condemn, I do not condone, I view with horror the persecution What we should do is to open our eyes and put our ears to of .t he minorities which the press reports is being carried on in Gerthe ground and ascertain the changes which are taking place many. My heart is in sympathy with the minorities of any country so rapidly over the face of the earth. upon which persecution is being practiced: I look with horror upon Germany is making tremendous headway economically by way the slaughters in Spain, where more than 1,000,000 people have been of trade penetrations throughout the world, and particularly in killed since the outbreak of the revolution there in July of 1936. the Balkans. She has made strides across. the Atlantic in her I am appalled and horrified when I bring myself into realization penetrations of Latin-American countries, notably in Brazil, Guaof the fact that almost 2,000,000 people, Chinese and Japanese, temala, and Salvador. have been killed during the present undeclared war in Asia, and · We must meet the world problems with which we are confronted I am particularly sorry for the women and the children and the today, particularly as relates to world trade. It won't do us any aged. . . _ good to hate, particularly as it relates to trade. It won't do us But my first thoughts .are for the American people and my first any good to h ate Germany, who is making such prenomenal progsympathies are with the American people. Yes, my sympathies, . ress in her trade penetrations, nor will it do us any good to hate my deepest sympathies are with the persecuted minorities of Gerany other country that is making efforts to outstride us in this many, and the persecuted mi11orities of other countries, but I am direction. What we must do is to ascertain ·the ·best manner and not willing to have the Unite_d States go to war over the minor-:~eans by which we can outstride and outdo commercially Gerities of any country of the -world. ' ' many and those nations that are providing us with the greatest We must reflect upon this. You must decide. competition in world trade. If the minorities in Germany are being persecuted and I have ~ Instead of meddling with the internal affairs of other nations, I no doubt but what they are being persecuted, that is not sum.:. think from now on we should attend to our own business, keep to cient cause for the United States to break off its diplomatic relabur own "knitting," and attempt to prpvide employment for the tions or to go to war, becatise those constituting the minorities in ten to twelve million God-fearing men and women who are walkGermany are not American citizens. So if they are not American ing the streets ill-fed, ill-clothed, and Ul-sheltered. citizens then why should we imperil the safety of the 130,000,000 Recently it was reported by an international committee that people of the United States of America by incurring the enmity of 70 percent of the world's unemployment is to be found here in our the 80,000,000 people of Germany and crystallizing their hatred own United States. of us? My friends, tomorrow, with all its great promises and poor perSay what you please, there is a radical distinction between the formances, would not hold one-half the heartaches for these, our peoples of Germany and the Government of Germany. unemployed and indigent, if . you, the American people, with your I ask what have the people of Germany done to the people of profound sympathy and understanding, start the the slogan "Our the United States that should warrant resentment, and after all, people and our country first." what has the Government of Germany done to warrant our severing diplomatic relations with them? It must be admitted that we have virtually severed diplomatic relations with Germany on account of their treatment of minorThe Government and Banking ities and on that account alone. Now, if we are going to be consistent we must of necessity sever relations with Mexico. EXTENSION OF REMARKS As a matter of fact, there is more reason why we should sever our diplomatic relations with Mexico than there was for our sevOF ering diplomatic relations with Germany. Below the Rio Grande there reside 20,000,000 of our neighpors, constituting the population of Mexico, and there anarchy rules. OF INDIANA It is a government of anarchy. They :fly the red and black :flag of revolution. The workers international is a hymn of hate against IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES all foreigners, including Americans. They teach hatred in _their schools. They broadcast it. They Tuesday, January 24 <legiSlative day of Tuesday, January 17>. print it in their press. Fact of the matter is neither private prop1939 . erty nor individual investment is safe. Human life is worthless. There they are purging the country of all foreign capital by assassinations and by wholesale confiscations. They have closed. ADDRESS BY MARRINER S. ECCLES, DECEMBER 1, 1938 their churches, murdered priests, assassinated nuns, confiscated farm lands belonging to Americans, and stolen oil wells dug by American capital. When th~ Mexicans confiscated the oil fields Mr. MINTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to belonging to Britain, John Bull immediately severed diplomatic have printed in the Appendix of the RECORD an address on relations with them. When the Mexicans confiscated oil lands the Government and Banking, delivered by Marriner S. belonging to Uncle Sam we closed our eyes to these confiscations, murders, and assassinations. If we are to be consistent, it follows Eccles, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal that we should sever diplomatic relations with Mexico, Spain, Reserve System, before the New York Chapter of the AmeriJapan, Russia, and Italy, as well as with Germany. Why? Becan Institute of Banking in New York City, December 1, 1938. cause in Spain the churches have been closed and murder is everywhere~ In Asia the Japanese are _ carrying on an unholy There being no objection, the address was ordered to be conquest and murdering millions; in Italy the minorities are being printed in the RECORD, as follows: persecuted, and they are the same racial minorities that are being We are accustomed to hearing so much criticism of our economic persecuted in Germany, while in addition thereto the Italians in and. political system that we sometimes forget what has been their unholy conquest of Ethiopia murdered hundreds of thousands accomplished under it. Yet no other form of human association of defenseless Abyssinians, and last but not least-there is Russia. and endeavor has produced .the benefits to all classes of people Russia owes the American Government, according to my recolthat have resulted from this system of representative government lection, around $600,000,000. They have· closed the churches, murand of private enterprise under which individual initiative, in the dered priests, assaulted nuns. They are sending propagandists to creation of new inventions and the production of new material this country to destroy our form of government. They murdered comforts and all of the countless things that go to make life millions in the Ukraine in 1933 and 1934. If diplomatic relations HON. SHERMAN MINTON
