Show ECONOMIC highlights industrial news review president Roosevel ts recent appointment of an economics defense ioard board is generally regarded is proof of the administrations intention to wage economic war against the axis on a big scale th the e board is headed by vice president preside nt wallace and its other members are the secretaries of state war navy treasury commerce and agriculture 1 and the attorney genera I 1 I 1 the important position of bf executive I 1 se secretary detary has been given to W W a professor of economics at prin princeton ceto and a former economist ifor for the federal reserve board I 1 economic warfare will mean the use of all this count rys vast res burces to advance the cause of the democracies and to oppose the purposes of the dictatorships A start has been made in id the case cae of japan the administration is is obviously prepared to squeeze the little island empire to the limit our present far eastern policy says in effect that if japan will call off her current program of conquest we we will con continue tintie to buyher silk and sell her the raw materials she so sorely needs while if japan insists on going ahead in the east she need expect nothing else from us than ruthless economic sanctions and possibly a naval war when it comes to germany our technique must of course be different we have had almost no trade with the reich since them the war began battleground of the trade war fare in this case will be latin america despite all our past efforts germany is still a big factor in many countries south of the rio grande job ahead is to destroy germanas germanys geri Germ danys anys latin american influence L and disrupt her plans for bartering her manufactured goods for south gouth americas raw materials at the moment it looks as if most of south america is ready to play along with this government uncle same loved without res cr er down south but thinking south americans regard him as a far better friend than herr hitler in the case of south american countries which hesitate to adapt their economic and military policies to ours polite threats of trade penalties and even military pressure may be used this governments government is dead certain that south america must be saved for the democratic cause if the war is to be won and it will not hesitate to lo do anything possible to keep south america ill line complete sellout sell out to ici hit ler will also fa form the afie basis for U S action few willbe vall be surprised it american marines marines eventually take over martinique Manti and other fre french nah islands in this hemisphere and ancl it if vichy goes ahead with her plans for a joint french german defense of strategic dakar many expect that we will have to send our navy in to do the talking for us control of dakar means control over trade routes and military positions which are vital to this hr hemisphere mis from a naval point of view dakar is a fairly tough nut to crack but our think it could be done with dispatch dussias Rus sias entry into the european war in the opinion of most has made our early participation unlike ly for the time being at least least there is nothing for us to do but send materials abroad if the te am flag does go into battle it is much more likely to t be in the pacific than in europe |