Show dispelling THE FOG by charles michelson according to the anti adminis press and those columnists who are hostile to the roosevelt Koo sevelt policies the dominant thought of the country is not on whether there will be peace or war in europe or what is required to effect a business upturn but what is important is to convince the people that the president is always wrong he sent a message to the european dictators the other day suggesting an international conference as an effort to relieve the world of the fear of a universal war the purpose immediately aimed at being the guarantee by agreement of peace for ten years during this time all international controversies could be discussed discuss sd and perhaps composed around the council table he was promptly accused byone by one branch of his poli foes of involving us in foreign entanglements entangle ments particularly by hiss his offer to transmit to the go governments verri the dictators reply to the request that they give assurance that their armed forces will not invade the territories of independent nations extreme pacifists paci fists even hail the preparedness program as provocative of war sentiment mr hamilton fish who classify as a pacifist insists that the presides president t is trying to create a war hysteria mr fish being the republic leader in the house of representatives so we have the president being a war monger because ho he suggests ls 9 a truce of t ten e n or twenty div five e years if he sent such a message sage we would undoubtedly have heard from congressman fisli fis and various others of the appos opposition 1 that he was letting tile the world including us drift into war without any effort to prevent it with all europe lining up into two op position camps mobilizing armies and making every other possible preparation for hostilities our own people are arc naturally exercised at the possibility of a great war ev ery cry newspaper in the country has had nothing but war news on its front pages for months every large business is taking laced of tile the possible eventuality in arranging its deals we are arc engaging in improving and increasing all out armed forces on tile the sea in tile army and in the air from these circumstances it might be deduced that the citizens ol of the united states were consider irig the possibility if not the likelihood 0 of a beginning of the shooting but to judge by the comments of the a n t i administration columnists i particularly par ticul aily those cater catering in g to republican newspapers it was a great shock when president roosevelt olt mentioned on leaving warm springs that lie he would return in the fall unless there was a war it appears to these commentators that the chief executive ot of our country should make believe that he is oblivious to a possibility of which the entire world is cognizant senator bridges of new alamp hampshire among others was much disturbed d is at the presidents utterance and took him to task for it en cn the senate floor incidentally a presidential boon is incubating in senator bridges behalf ex president hoover is likewise very much distressed at the presidents course but though ho he has made speeches on the subject and his name appears over magazine articles on the subject there is no clue in all these words to what lie he would really like the president to do or what he would do under existing conditions if he were in the white house neutrality is another vital topic en n which the president is being arraigned the present neutrality law is not working as ar americans rie ricans think it should be working and there are numerous movements to define our policy in regard to what should be done in the event of war or in the face of a threat of yar war in regard to our dermitt per permitting mitt ing or preventing the belligerent nations from buying supplies gup plies over here so the president is being assailed because a french representative was permitted on a test flight on a plane the property of an airplane manufacturing company which was dickering with france for the sale of a large number of these planes of course even the critics are forced to concede reluctantly that there was nothing illegal about the presence here of this french official they simply wanted to convey the impression im i to the public that it was illegal without actually saying so the existing neutrality law is commonly recognized as a sincere effort to keep america out of armed controversies in which it rightly lightly has no part yet no one contends that it has worked out well in the case of current or recent wars yet when it is proposed to give the president some authority to differentiate in these purchases or to put it bluntly to be able to avoid selling supplies to aggressor nations either i in n europe or asia he is accused ol cul seeking war making powers presumably this country krow if i anvar var comes who will be our friends and who our foes it might not be high diplomacy but it is certainly common sense to avoid furnishing possible enemies wit the he materials and the weapons with which to fight us if happily the war clouds blow over and the world settles down to something approaching what it was before herr hitler started his annexation of whatever he thought would be ba useful it can make no difference that certain nations have been permitted access to our products while others were refused of 01 course there is the question of entangling alliances that terrifying phrase is in nearly every newspaper well it was an entangling alliance when president jefferson notified france that if she did not sell us louisiana we might marry the british fleet those were real entanglements entangle ments nothing of the sort is involved when we say to nations that we are willing to trade with any nation that can come to our markets and undertake their own deliveries nobody thought of using the phrase when italy was buying american mules for us use ewhen when she was gobbling abyssinia or when japan w was as I 1 purchasing supplies 1 ies that she needed for the thel setting up of Manchu kuo |