Word: britten
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...happened last week. Representative Fred Albert Britten of Illinois, chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee of the House, took it upon himself to cable Premier Stanley Baldwin of Great Britain and suggest that a select committee from the House of Commons meet with the Britten committee, "preferably in Canada after March 4," for "friendly discussion" about applying the much-vexed principle of seapower equality between the U. S. and Britain to all warships unaffected by the Washington treaty of 1922. When Secretary Kellogg heard about it he as good as called Mr. Britten a fool. "I refer...
...Britten's reply to Secretary Kellogg was: i) that he had not contravened the President's power over foreign policy, since he did not seek to change a U. S. policy but to further the policy of Anglo-American naval equality long-since laid down; 2) that the Constitution charges Congress to provide, maintain and regulate the Army & Navy, and 3) that he had not violated the Logan Act since the subject for discussion was neither a "dispute" nor a "controversy." "My proposal has to do with peace," Mr. Britten observed...
Many a political pundit, especially the editorial writers of Eastern newspapers, expressed horror at Mr. Britten's "amazing indiscretion." They tartly accused him of publicity-seeking. They said he was trying to show off because he had just become chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee. They reminded people that he was the Congressman who wangled the Army-Navy football game out of the East and onto Soldier Field, Chicago, two years ago-a "publicity stunt" if ever there was one. Moreover Mr. Britten had been notoriously a Big Navy man. His volte face could only be meant...
...such criticism Mr. Britten might have replied that 1) he had long loomed as large on the Naval Affairs Committee as its last chairman, the late Representative Butler of Pennsylvania; 2) that publicity-seeking is not necessarily reprehensible, depending entirely on what you seek to promote, yourself or a good idea, and 3) that one is not necessarily a Big Navy man out of sheer blood-thirst, that Big Navy men might gladly become Little Navy men if all other Big Navy men would join them...
Fred Albert Britten is the Navy Department's best friend, the admirals' right arm. His predecessor, as chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee, the late Thomas S. Butler of Pennsylvania, was a Quaker. Many a grizzled seadog suspected (wrongly) that Mr. Butler's faith tempered his ardor for a Big Navy. Mr. Britten, who learned about pugilism, hard-boiled politics and the contracting business in San Francisco and Chicago, has endeared himself to all U. S. sailors by years of pounding the table for more guns, more cruisers, more Navy. In the coming session he will pound...