Show Bruc Bru karts charts washington digest U S national defense program needs careful study by public president Roosevel ts stab in the back speech causes nation to consider carefully any preparedness su suggestions or Alili military tary policies by WILLIAM BRUCKART service national press bid washington D C washington there are many persons throughout the country who are growing more and more disturbed not to say alarmed at the dangers inherent in the administrations so called defense program more and more persons are asking aloud for something in the way of an explanation and more and more one meets with situations and conditions in the defense program that cause doubts to arise the climax to this circumstance appears to have developed with the speech which president roosevelt made at the university of virginia the pronouncement that has come to be known as the charlottesville speech early in june from the words uttered there by the president of the united states has come a wide division division of opinion on the course our nation is being guided unless I 1 am incapable of reading signs we will hear reverberations of that speech for weeks to come and it is not strange that people everywhere should talk about that s speech 1 it was remarkable some folks said it was amazing but however you wish to characterize it 1 I SENATOR from neutrals to non belligerents there can be no doubt that mr roosevelt spoke with great depth of feeling when he described dictator mussolini almost personally as a man who stabbed his neighbor france in the back nor can anyone doubt that the president spoke the mind of a vast majority of the american people they feel that way about cowardly decision to join with his bloodthirsty axis partner hitler but it is not a question of how you feel or how I 1 feel as individuals mr roosevelt is president of the united states As such it is difficult if not utterly impossible to separate himself as an individual from the presidency of a great nation and if it were pos possible sible millions of persons throughout the world still would regard whatever he says as the statement of the president and therefore the statement of the united states as a nation there is a difference presidents official statement carries much importance so regard it as an official view there can be no distinction thus it becomes a matter of grave importance the head of a nation that is officially neutral as between the allies and the dictators has uttered words that place the united states formally on the side of the allies and he did it without approval of congress the congress it is to be remembered is the body authorized by the constitution to declare war aad and congress has taken no such decision the presidents charlottesville declarations therefore can be termed unwise at the best and probably will be subjected to much more virulent descriptions before the year is out now another phase of the defense preparations that is causing concern I 1 refer to the policy of supplying government owned war stocks for use of the allies it happens that the united states signed and the senate of the united states ratified what is called the hague convention this is an agreement among nations of all the world which aich sets down certain terms and rights and obligations called international law article 6 of the hague convention states the supply in any manner directly or indirectly by a neutral power to a belligerent power of warships ammunition or war materials of any kind whatever is is forbidden policy short of war has official fical Of approval it is to be recalled moreover that the president has consistently stated that the united states must do everything short of war to aid the allies in their struggle that policy has been put forward officially so many times that it seems to occasion no surprise any more it ought to cause surprise however because it is not the pronouncement of a neutral nation senator of michigan accurately described the picture when he said the other day that president Roosevel ts policies had taken us out of the role of neutrals and have made of us a non bellig erent nation on the allied side the michigan senator had no quarrel with building up a real defense program and he wanted to see that done but senator like many others fears there are things being done that may sooner or later be held to be an act of war and when that happens in we go whether we are ready or not and the united states has very little at this stage of the game with which to fight my own feeling is that the national government can give freedom to its citizens to help the allies in any direction that they see fit or are able to help but the united states as a nation and mr roosevelt as president must be careful of where the whole people are led these things that I 1 have mentioned and countless others each constitutes a half step many half steps even taken slowly will take us brink and then it is ever so easy to topple off stop hitler movement Is another serious problem another situation ought to ae be discussed because it is part and parcel of the whole problem every day and almost in every way we hear or read statements by persons of official position as well as thousands of self appointed saviors of the nation that all of this defense preparation all of these vast expenditures tures all of the emergency actions are necessary and warranted because hitler must be stopped before he gets over here I 1 bellve believe there is something like 99 per cent of the citizens of this country who look upon hitler as the greatest criminal of the ages they hope that his power can somehow be wrested from him and that his physical body can be made to stand the tortures of the damned on the i other hand a and nd while still holding that hatred of the man mainly responsible Pon sible for the deluge of blood is it not better to use comman sense in making preparations for the eventualities that some of the leaders now profess to see it strikes me that common sense if allowed to rule over the hysteria that has been promoted in this country would pro duce results in way of a national defense structure which all agree we require from many persons who have seen the carnage of the current war anufrom and from many others wh who 0 are familiar with the lives and living conditions of europeans I 1 have become convinced that whether hitler wins or loses or whether there is a stalemate the insane leader of the german reich will face a far greater problem than any he be hiis has met in battle it will be the condition of stark and real famine and pestilence it will come after the war just as surely as night follows day all of europe rope will be involved and the price of war will be paid my information is that this year of untended crops this year of destruction of men is leaving germany especially and most of the others as well without a semblance of a storehouse of food the fighting men were withdrawn from production early More moreover oyer food rationing started in this war war in its first weeks whereas it was not used in the first world war until late in the second year and then to a less degree than now there is the machine that will stop hitler from coming over here and it will be effective I 1 repeat therefore that we can prepare to defend ourselves but we need not be hysterical about it we can extend aid to the allies as individuals who are the friends of the french and the british but we must not be involved in the fight as I 1 fear some of the present policies will do we can be realists and recognize that our shores sometime may be attacked and our cities bombed but I 1 still hold an unshakable conviction that president roose belts policies are likely to get us into a war that is not our war if they go on unrestrained lets do our job atheme and try to get our own people well fed before we try to save the world for democracy |