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Show From Defense to Offense Is a Tough Job for U. S. Enemy Must Be Kept From 'Breaking Through' While United Nations Build Up Overwhelming Superiority. By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, 1343 H Street, N-W, Washington, D. C. "Mr. President, there has been a good deal of comment lately to the effect that the American people are complacent about the way the war is going. Have you any comment, sir?" There was quiet in the oval office. of-fice. The hundred or so men and the three or four women representing represent-ing newspapers, press associations, radio networks and radio stations were quiet. The President leaned back, put his cigarette with its long holder in his mouth and let his eyes wander upward toward the great seal of the United States on the ceiling of his office in the White House. It was the day when the startling news that Singapore, the Gibraltar of the East, for the first time had felt the boot of the invader within its bastioned confines. We all realized that any comment the President might make would Indirectly reflect the seriousness of the whole Far Eastern situation. At last he answered, speaking slowly choosing his words and clearly, so that the rapidly moving pencils could get each word. I cannot quote him directly because be-cause that is forbidden. He answered an-swered that the complacency charge was partly just but that every day the people were becoming more realistic in their thinking. He said that they had begun to realize that this is a world-encircling war. Machinery of Defense Must Be Built Uo other 94 per cent came from the Axis. Now virtually all of the supply sup-ply of this essential material is cut off except what the United States can spare from the terrific demands our shipyards and arsenals are making. But without steel, Argentina's wheels would cease to run, public utilities would disintegrate, the country coun-try would be an easy prey to any subversive influence. And so, with a finely sharpened pencil, the experts in the BEW find some steel, recommend recom-mend to the War Production board that it be spared for the Argentine. Another example: We need rubber. rub-ber. There are plenty of rubber trees in South America. We can make some synthetic rubber in our laboratories, but we need natural rubber to mix with it. It takes more than money to get rubber out of those trees deep in the jungles of the Amazon. And imagination has been used. Imagination to realize that in order to get the labor to harvest the rubber, rub-ber, the half-starved, sickly Indians Indi-ans who provide this labor must be given better food, healthier surroundings, sur-roundings, conditions which win make them and others want to work to earn the money. The things which they can buy with the wages they earn must be made available. And so, hundreds of mosquito chasers chas-ers are already working to remove the malarial mosquito that makes life hazardous in the rubber jungles. Experts to help start dairy farms to provide vitamin-giving milk to build up the weakened bodies, are being dispatched to South America. Buy Defense Bonds 'Social' Conditions In Washington The war has created many serious social conditions in Washington. But one situation which few have noticed and which threatened for a time a minor revolution, I think I can predict, will shortly be greatly ameliorated. This is the tale Cand it's a bushy one). War required certain building operations op-erations on the White House grounds. Among other things the only one which I can discuss freely because of the censorship was the construction construc-tion of a little building which looked like a soft drink stand where the shivering detectives who help the extra ex-tra police who guard the great iron gate to the presidential grounds, can warm themselves. But there were other more expansive undertakings. This construction eonsiderably hampered ham-pered the activities of White House visitors. Also White House residents. resi-dents. One of the oldest retainers on this ancient estate is a trusted friend oi mine, head of a rather flighty clan, but himself a very responsible patriarch patri-arch who has given me many an important story. He is the Old Gray Squirrel who lives in the Elm. He, with most of his clan was virtually vir-tually dispossessed while the construction con-struction work I mentioned (or rather rath-er I am not allowed to mention) went on. Another old resident who lives or rather pursues his business just outside the White House fence and with whom the Old Gray Squirrel has a very close working arrangement, arrange-ment, had to move too. He is Steve. Steve runs a peanut stand. You may see the connection. Steve moved across Pennsylvania avenue to Lafayette park. The Old Gray Squirrel and his family followed. fol-lowed. Then trouble began. For the Old Gray Squirrel is a snob. He doesn't mix with common squirrels and Lafayette La-fayette park is full of them. They don't understand White House protocol. pro-tocol. They would push up to the head of the line and try to steal pea- And so we were told from the highest high-est source that we had learned already al-ready from the military who do not mince words, who do not indulge in wishful thinking that America must be content to accept reverses, must humbly accept the role of defense de-fense on all fronts until we have built the machinery of offense. It so happened that on the very day on which I heard the President speak these words I visited a tiny room in a cheap apartment house made over into offices. A busy beehive, bee-hive, the lobby was crowded with men with brief cases. I was reminded re-minded of the hectic days of 1933 when the Blue Eagle was spreading spread-ing its wings, when American business busi-ness was getting its first taste of regulation at the hands of the NRA. Then the emergency had forced even the most individualistic to toss aside the demands of rugged Individualism. Indi-vidualism. Today in the face of another emergency, emer-gency, business was once more facing fac-ing strict regulation. The men I saw in the lobby of this shabby building were exporters seeking licenses li-censes from the Board of Economic Warfare for not a dollar's worth of goods can leave this country now if the BEW doesn't want it to. But this is only one small function func-tion of the board. It has a hundred facets. And unlike our armies and our navy today it is waging offensive offen-sive warfare. It has launched a great offensive on the economic front. To look over the board's activities in a single day you might see listed projects to build a railroad in a foreign for-eign country, ' to weigh to the last ounce some strategic material that a foreign country produces, to survey sur-vey in accurate figures just how much of a certain product may be spared from America's own supply to turn over to another country in return for some valuable commodity commod-ity or service that we need to further fur-ther our war effort. Or, again, there might be a project to block the sources from which one of the enemy powers is replenishing its own supply. nuts from the donor's hand right out of the Old Gray Squirrel's mouth. This made trouble. For some days I thought murder would be committed. Mayhem was. In fact, one of the Lafayette crowds has lost his brush, a clean but undignified un-dignified operation although too close for comfort or beauty. But fortunately the workmen on the White House lawn have gone now. Soon Steve will take up his ancient post. Already the Old Gray Squirrel is scurrying back and forth across Pennsylvania avenue removing remov-ing the nuts he had carefully interred in-terred in the park to a safer and more exclusive burial place. Revolution Revo-lution has been averted. Argentina An Example For example: The United States needs the co-operation of Argentina, a country upon which the Nazis have lavished every favor possible, upon which they have used to the limit the persuasive power and dire threats of Herr Goebbels. The purpose pur-pose is to keep a close relationship between the man who pulls the strings in Buenos Aires and the men who direct the destinies of the Reich. Before war made an omelet of the world's trade, Argentina bought from America 6 per cent of all the steel she imported. Much of the |