OCR Text |
Show 6P MllNGT0N To nil intents nnd purposes, rmnklin D. Roosevelt's third term TesWent of the United States has already begun. His Inauguration Inaugura-tion on January 20th will be a Lre formality, for he will have even larger majority of superiors sup-eriors in the house of represen- (ive and about as good a orkiug majority In the senate as he has had for the past two years. Therefore, the expectation here is that the course and policies under un-der which the Administration has been pursuing will continue unchanged, un-changed, except that in some matters mat-ters of international understand-inss understand-inss the president will feel more tree to act, since no election complications com-plications will arise from anything be does. It is probable that some changes may be made in the cabinet. The usual custom is for each member of the cabinet to submit his resignation resig-nation when a president suceeds himself, and he may or may not be reappointed. Secretary Ickes of the Interior deparmeut was the first to tender bis resignation as of January 20. The expectation is that one of the changes will be the department of labor. Whether Secretary Stimson will remain at the head of the war department Is doubtful. The cu rent gossip la that Mr. noose-v.'lt noose-v.'lt Is making P11ss0a In the dlrec t on of Louis Johnson, who was as-si. as-si. slant secretary of war under Mr Woo, ring, and resigned after Mr Woodrlng was forced out. Slroiifr OpposKlon The major change In the Wash-Ington Wash-Ington picture, however, as most observers see It, is the fact that for the first time since .Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt took office there is a strong opposition, whose existence can-not can-not be overlooked, under leadership leader-ship which has proved its power to lead. That Mr. Wlllkie will work with the Administration to further every essential measure of national defense goes without saying. say-ing. There is no apparent ground however, for talk about his becoming becom-ing a part of the Administration He would sacrifice the leadership which his almost-successful opposing op-posing candidacy conferred upon him and become a yes-man instead of the head of the opposition party. par-ty. How close the election was Is being realized as the figures are studied by statistical analysts A change of one vote in a hundred in ten critical states, or a total of less than half a million votes out of 50 million, would have put Mr. Willkle in the White House Realizing this fact, and contemplation contem-plation of the election map which shows the solid block of trans-Mississippi trans-Mississippi farm states in the Republican Re-publican column, is considered here as likely to have a distinctly conservative influence upon domestic do-mestic policies. The important policies, however, how-ever, are those relating to international inter-national affairs. The determination determina-tion to give every possible aid to the British short of sending our fighting forces overseas has been strengthened by the result of the election. Those closest to the inside in-side of the state department minds look to see an early break in diplomatic dip-lomatic relations between this country and Germany, and some measure of defiance of Germany's efforts to keep our ships off the seas in the belligerent zone, such as was shown by President Wilson in the two years of American neutrality neu-trality before we entered the first World War. Resentment Considerable resentment is felt over Germany's refusal to guarantee guaran-tee safe passage to an American ship to bring some 1,200 American Ameri-can citizens from the British Isles, though Italy agreed not to molest such a ship. It was incidents like that which finally brought the United States into war in 1917. There was no slightest sign of hesitation, now, in official encouragement encour-agement of the supplying of arms, i munitions, planes and ships to the British. The expectation is that perhaps 20, maybe more, of our biggest and best fighting planes, the famous fam-ous "flying fortresses," will be on their way across the Atlantic before be-fore Christmas. The British government gov-ernment is buying all the available avail-able merchant shipping in this country which our own navy does not want and has placed orders for 120 new cargo ships to be built in American shipyards as speedily as possible. In the meantime, the United States government itself faces the problem of finding a great deal more money, by borrowing or by taxation or both, than the present statutes provide for. When Secretary Sec-retary Morgenthau of the treasury said a couple of days after election elec-tion "We have only just begun to rearm," he said a mouthful. To carry out the defense program already started "and generally agreed upon will call, Mr. Morgenthau Mor-genthau said, for an increase in the national debt to at least 60 billion dollars and perhaps even more. Policy Established The Hull policy of strengthening strengthen-ing the ties between the nations of North and South America is regarded now in Washington as so firmly established, as a permanent per-manent national principle, that the whole defense program calls for material enlargement. Recognition Recog-nition that we have taken on the job of defending everything from Cape Horn to Greenland is only now beginning to be cosidered in terms of cost. The delicate task of avoiding wounding the sensibilities of Latin-Americans while at the same time lending them a helping hand is one which Secretary Hull would be glad to relinquish, gossips say, to anybody but his logical successor, suc-cessor, Under-Secretary Sumner Welles. There is a whisper circulating that the President himself, may take exclusive charge of foreign relations and delegate domestic executive authority to Vice-President Wallace. It's anybody's guess. We shall be in a position to take a further view of what we should do with victory when we get it. British Prime Minister Churchill. Many uses are predicted for the new glass which has the flexibility of rubber. It will be advisable to remove the goldfish, though, before be-fore punting the bowl. America is still the land of promise, pro-mise, except every four years as now when it is in the plural. Epitaph: Stupid Sam has gone from hence he pulled a shotgun through a fence. A clever new way for women to test their manners. Judith T. Chase, well-known quiz expert, presents an adroit questionnaire that shrows your rating as a social success or a drawing-room dud. Don't miss this amusingly illustrated feature in The American Amer-ican Weekly, the magazine distributed dis-tributed with next week's Los Angeles Examiner. adv. Add hapless victims of the new warfare: A girl child, born in a Suffolk village during a nazi air rade, has been christened Bombas-tine. Bombas-tine. An eastern psychologist finds that short, thick, rotund persons are of an easily adjustable nature. Not in the football stadium we frequent.- o A Hollywood producer believes the clearest screen diction comes from the mouths of child stars. If the silver spoon is first removed, re-moved, it helps. |