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Show by JameS Preston Mail reaching U. S. Senators and congressmen in Washington indicates that many people are slow to realize what this nation laces in coming months. Perhaps naturally, constituents who write in from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and some Gulf states are pretty well aware of ihe dangers involved in being an "arsenal for democracy." But many inland states reflect, belief that the job can be done in an off-hand manner. What general policy the United States adopts is, in the minds of most legislators, no longer a question. ques-tion. That, they say, has been decided de-cided in the British aid bill and other legislation. The only issue, as a great majority of the solons see it, is how the nation carries out its declared policy. Some legislators ' and military experts see a "shooting war" only a few months away. Others think the shooting can be avoided. But virtually none believes that the whole nation is aware of the troublous trou-blous shoals ahead. Voters who write in usually fall into several well-defined groups. Those who want to see Hitler defeated de-feated at any cost, those who still think the war is none of our business, busi-ness, those who say we should preserve pre-serve "social gains" even if it means becoming a German pro- introduced which for "defense" purposes would let congress and the federal government, take over this state function. Every plan, every proposal, which congress rejected in comparatively com-paratively normal times is now being dressed up in a uniform, and its supporters are saying: "Look! We must pass this to speed defense!" de-fense!" That tendency worries the legislators, leg-islators, particularly those who think that instead of trying new things we should make workable those lows already on the statute books. Another thing which concerns con-cerns them is belief expressed by some constituents thajt the job of building and maintaining defense is easy. To counteract that belief, new facts slowly are being made public, pub-lic, to show that tanks and planes and guns can't be built overnight and by a few men. For instance, it took 15 months to build one plant, install the proper pro-per machines, train the workers, and turn out a million shells. It will take only 60 days for the next million. vince, and those who insist we must get up a totalitarian form of government matching Hitler's. Of course, as most solons see it, there is a middle way. But the majority are worried by fear lest this country, in supply resistance to a dictatorship, destroy the very thing it is seeking to preserve. What it gets around to is this: The "planners" are still in Washington. Wash-ington. The general tendency of congress recently has been to avoid experiments and theories. So the planners have changed tactics. Instead In-stead of advocating their proposals for the "general welfare" they now urge them as "defense" necessities. necessi-ties. One example will suffice. Many states have long conducted safety inspections of boilers. By and large they have done a pretty good job. Few boiler explosions are heard of. Yet now a bill has been Another example is this: A huge, five-ton multiple spindle bar machine woud have to work constantly two and a half days to turn out enough bullet cores to keep one machine gun firing for a single hour. Already, the nation's plants are humming at top speed. Contracts have been placed with them for about 13 billions worth of defense goods. But not including what will develop later this year or in years to follow, congress has approved or is in the process of voting more than $42 billion nearly three and a half times as much. Tfhe job grows jigger daily. Most patriotic legislators hope it won't be interfered with by demands de-mands for new experiments, or by demands for maintenance of "social" "so-cial" gains no matter what the cost. The current congressional fear is put this way by Rep. Sumners of Texas, who is regarded by his colleagues as one of the soundest legislators in Washington: "We're repeating the mistakes of France. I warn you, the boys in uniform won't knock off at 5 o'clock. They'll stand the night watches.". |