| Show I GENERAL j y HUGH HueH S j JOHNSON L J Jour PLY 4 I thU ri y en Washington D C SELF CO CONTRADICTION The proponents of the lease lend bill are arc certainly talk talking talking ing themselves Into a position of self contradiction which it may take theIr I 1 to explain The ex eC on required may not be merely lack of logIc logIc-It logic it may be of why they helped to ru n their coun country country country try by using their official positions to dign fy statements that from a private cut cit zen wouldn t stand two minutes cross examination before a Justice of the peat Secretary who began by trying without consulting public opinion at all alJ to divert our war sup pl pI es to France where Hitler got gottl gotti gottl tl ti em says that if l we do not pass that bill Britain will have to stop fighting Secretary Stimson also urging this particular bill says that It must pass at once because If Brita n stops fighting we are subject to attack Mr s argument Is that they haven t any dollars left Tha That t mayor may or may not be so and probably isn San 1 t but If the secretary means that they have nothing whIch they can pledge as collateral it certainly is not not so-not so not by billions There is considerable apprehensIOn m In Canada that If it we begin giving our manufactures away to Brita n Canada will lose a lot of business The British have to pay Canad an industry also British industry not notto notto notto to mention all the other nations of the Brut Brit sh Commonwealth and the whole of the rest of the world Only Uncle Sam is rushing out aga n to gIve away well hIs his well let s call them when innards when even the assocIatIOn of Brit sh nat ons give not the fue rs o 0 K fa failing a franker and more cred ble statement of this finan financial coal problem most of us are will rig ng to give England money outright to buy our just share of aid to her and to the fue precise and extent extent and not one inch mch than further further than it really utes to American defense We want congress to control these at ons ens for the defense of Britain Just Justas justas justas as it must control ons for the defense of America The lease lend bill doesn t do that It authorizes the Pres dent alone to tomake tomake tomake make buy and g ve ye Britain mat mated ed billions worth of our resources w consulting congress If therefore as Secretary Mon Mor has said it is only a ques question question tion of dollars for Britain no argument argument argument ment is left for tor the much wIder powers of the fue lease lend b 11 Other official opinions tha that t Great Brita n can lick Germany on the continent with our aid that l if Great Britain doesn t Germany wIll 1 ck us aren t worth the paper on which they are written or orthe orthe orthe the breath with which they are spoken Modern war Is too unpredictable There is only one rule for forus us-a us a burning lesson of this terrible age Arm for tor impregnable Amer AmerIcan Amerlean scan Ican defense Rely on no other na nation on bon on nothing but the strength of our own resources and the courage ingenuity patriotism and devotion of our own people DEFENSE AUTHORITY Secretary Stimson says that one reason for lor bum s rushing the in discredited lease lend bin bill is that it will cure the dis disorder disorder order which has existed for nearly two years m in the manufacture of munitions His point is that the PresIdent must purchase all supplies for tor our several defense departments and also for any allies because other otherwIse otherwise otherwise wIse they would compete with each other raise prices and create con confusIon confusion confusion fusIon Whatever confusion has existed IS not traceable to any lack of ex executive executive authority Up to the middle muddle of last year our government had no plans whatever for adequate defense and then in a moment of panic dumped indigestible uble Ible billions of dollars of totally un unco unco unco co orders into the lap of an unwarned industry It is due also to the long and inexcusable lag lagin in 10 setting up any single authorized and intelligent control That ham t been done yet It was not because government had not been warned by the voice of intense and highly successful ex experience B M Baruch warned it over and over again as to precisely what was wrong and what was necessary necessary essary to cure it To use the excuse that Mr SUm Stimson son thus advanced for the passage gratuitous of this totalitarian this bill bill this thus tous American assumption of responsibility for tor the world wide conduct of thus this is war war is either a confession of ignorance or it is an attempt to frIghten thus this nation into such an abandonment of democratic and con processes as Is neIther necessary nor cor desirable The second and only other point of Mr Stinson s argument is that the barter process of lend lease ease lendor or otherwise dispose of our weapons is more flexible than the advancement of credit or cashMore cashMore cash cashMore More flexible for whom Money and credit were invented and over the ages have proved to be the most flexible of all methods of exchange of goods between na nations One of our chief com compla pIa against Hitler IS his design to substitute barter In kind for money transact ons The s testimony is self contra contradictory and astonishingly absurd 11 |
