Show BRITISH aid into law under the eyes of watchful photographers tog raphers president roosevelt wielded st alc pens made the british old bill called by its opponents the lend spend give bill and then turned in his chair and told newsmen meri he would ask for as the initial appropriation under the measure while this announcement struck with bombshell bomb shell force as the great cst american peacetime peace pence time appropriation request in history the congress apparently was willing to go ahead and match the presidents desire for speed with some action of its own this was evident when the bill returned from senate to house with an even dozen amendments attached representative martin of massachusetts minority leader jumped to his feet pleaded for unity and for action and received a most unusual tribute from his colleagues ile he received what is known as a standing ovation from the entire house the lower branch of the congress responded to this brief talk by voting to 71 to accept the changes put in by the upper house bouse then vice president wallace and speaker sam rayburn put their penned signatures to the printed measure and of it went to the president hardly had it become law and within an hour after the president had asked for the seven billens bil lons statisticians were busy trying to tell the public what this amount meant in purchased goods and services one of these put it this way it would equal a strip of 10 bills reaching avi 2 times around the world it would buy empire state buildings at 50 million each or it would build borough Trl bridges at or dread at or 2350 submarines light tanks 00 fo four ur motor bombers also would pay the entire cost of public education in the U S tor for three years or provide a 50 U S bond for every man woman and child thus given a visual picture of what the sum meant it was figured that the first job would bo be for the president to provide for england as much as possible under the law ot of the existing military and naval equipment up to the limit set in the bill it was pointed out that this amount would come out of the seven billion total for as soon as say of aid had been sent from existing equipment the army or navy would be reimbursed that amount and would then be able to purchase replacements the rest of the will go into purchase contracts for eventual aid to britain greece or or other nations which are opposing nazi aggression gres sion these contractual obligations must be on the dotted line by aw but can be carried out through 1048 |