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Show NATIONAL AFFAIRS r Reviewed by CARTER FIELD Wheeler's attack on aid to Britain not considered likely to make converts . . . Votes in Congress ' on British aid shoiv very few willing to shut off military supplies. (Bell Syndicate WNU Service.) WASHINGTON. The latest controversy con-troversy between President Roosevelt Roose-velt and Sen. Burton K. Wheeler of Montana goes to the very nub of the whole aid-to-Britain issue. Wheeler attacked the administration for giving giv-ing virtually all the good fighting planes and bombing planes to Brit- ain, and thus depriving the united States national defense of this vital equipment The President took the- position that this sort of publicity must be very good news for Hitler, though he did not explain whether he .meant this was good news because Hitler then would know that the volume vol-ume of plane deliveries deliv-eries we were making mak-ing to Britain was the best we were able to do at this time, or whether it would please Hitler to know that the Burton K. Wheeler United States was stripping its own defenses. Be that as it may, the point goes much deeper. The point is that if one accepts the position so long held by the President and by Wendell L. Willkie, that every blow Britain strikes is helping the United States to the extent that it weakens Germany, Ger-many, then obviously the sound sensible sen-sible thing for the United States to do is to give Britain everything possible, pos-sible, not because we like Britain, but because in a way the British are fighting our battle. A considerable proportion ot the people of this country approve this position, and from the results of recent re-cent polls, an overwhelming majority majori-ty want to help Britain all we can. In view of this obvious position of the President it would seem that Senator Wheeler is guilty of muddying muddy-ing the water when he says that not most but all the fighting planes we produce are being sent to Britain. 'CONVERTS' UNLIKELY It seems to be a rather oblique attack to single out an obvious part of a policy as being cockeyed if one hopes to win any converts from the other side. Of course there is no such hope. The minds of the great majority of Americans are pretty well set on this whole thing. Either they believe be-lieve in aiding Britain or they do not. If they believe in aiding Britain, Brit-ain, the individual sections or pieces of the aiding program are not important. im-portant. If we are going to help Britain, obviously we had better mafee sure that Britain is not beaten, beat-en, so the more we can aid the better bet-ter for us in the long run. ... Congressmen Agree On Principle of Aid Winston Churchill's reference to Wendell Willkie as the head of the "great Republican party" in the recent re-cent presidential election in the United States was gall and wormwood worm-wood to the Republicans in the house and senate who took a far different dif-ferent attitude on the aid-Britain bill. But, just as the pro-Nazis had no place to go in the presidential campaign, cam-paign, so those who would leap upon Churchill's picture of both great parties par-ties in the United States being as one to help Britain as a gross misrepresentation mis-representation are again in a very bad strategic position. It is rather obvious that if the Nazi propagandists pick and choose among the utterances of opponents of the aid-Britain bill, both in the house and in the senate, they can find plenty of comfort. They can show the German people, rather convincingly, that America is torn to pieces over this issue. VOTES MORE IMPORTANT But when it comes to the VOTES taken in the house of representatives, representa-tives, that is something else again. For instance, while a strong minority minori-ty voted against final passage of the bill in the house, virtually every one of those house members had voted FOR an amendment which would have authorized a loan to Britain of $2,000,(00,000 as a substitute! sub-stitute! In short from the record of votes rather than speeches, it would seem that the only real issue dividing the house of representatives, and therefore there-fore presumably the American people, peo-ple, is the METHOD of aiding Britain. Brit-ain. Bear in mind that no one who raised his voice in favor of a loan of dollars as against lending equipment equip-ment ever suggested the slightest hope that these dollars would ever be repaid! The notion of all these supplies being repaid in kind AFTER peace has returned is one calculated to bring the strongest of protests from any international trade expert. Not to mention anyone worrying about unemployment in this country after the war. |