Show washington diget digest i r armament manufacturers reali realize ze plant expansion carries risks reduced Alili military tary appropriations would spell ruin U S foreign policy unparalleled german war claims appear unsound by CARTER FIELD released by western newspaper ne union washington it is fairly simple for the government to commandeer any existing plant which it may deem necessary for the national defense program and the owners of which are unwilling to operate cooperate co cp but it is a bit difficult for the government amt to commandeer a plant for which the blueprints have not even been drawn yet the ONLY fact behind the amazing public misconception of this whole picture of the alleged bo bogging down of the national defense program which is blamed on greedy would be war profiteers concerns PROPOSED plants not EXISTING plants and the truth even about that is that there is very little delaying on the part of concerns which the government wants to take war contracts dozens of big concerns are risking the shirts of their stockholders by constructing new plants for the manufacture of airplane engines airplane propellers and whatnot without knowing what the prices will be without knowing what profits they will be allowed and at the risk of having stark and idle plants on their hands two or three years hence right now there seems to be danger the public is aroused to it and is behind the appropriating of billions for national defense war rages in europe and there is eager demand tor for all sorts of war supplies but who can tell what the picture will be even next summer much less three years from now nowa disarmament might follow peace in europe for example there might be not only peace but the sort of disarmament agreement for which the statesmen of the early were striving a situation in which no nation would build another fighting s ship ip or fighting plane a tank or a big gun for a considerable period of years at the moment this seems farfetched but consider the arguments which those who will be advocating this course will have should there be peace a couple of years from now every nation in the world will be so deeply in debt that there will be serious doubt that they can ever pay the interest on it A moments thought about the present british debt and the rate at which it is being increased will show that this is not a totally impossible pie picture taxation will be grinding not only in europe but in the united states whether we get into the war or not for we are rapidly reaching a total of debt which will require heavy taxation merely to pay the governments annual interest bill expansion of plants requires real nerve so beyond any question when peace does come there is going to be a tremendous demand on the part of the taxpayers to cut down on military appropriations if this can be done safely and it will wilf appeal to a number of statesmen then as it did in 1921 to bring about disarmament by treaties boiled down that is why manufacturers rs OUGHT to be worried about amortization and that is why the public should really be appreciating the nerve of those companies which are building bew plants because the government wants them to do it without waiting to find out about profits and whether the tax collectors will leave them anything with which to pay for the new plants put another way without knowing whether they will ever get back 10 cents on the dollar of their new investments incidentally president roosevelt is NOT responsible for these attacks on business but certain senators and representatives have been showing either very poor logic or rather contemptible politics U J S foreign policy Is unique in history there may be some parallel in history for the course now being followed by the united states government ern ment and the open expressions of so many nonofficial american speakers and editors but researchers seem unable to find it for example the various moves which have been made in defiance of neutrality moves which very obviously have the approval of a considerable sid erable majority some of the polls estimate it as more than 60 per cent of the american r people eople I 1 and yet which run absolutely counter to the supposed desire of a very large majority of the people to keep out of war putting it bluntly and und diplo mati cally it would appear that nothing this country may do is likely either to get it into the war or keep it out that decision it would appear from all the known facts will be made for us not by us it will be made by adolf hitler to put it another way this country has already done so many things obviously hostile to germany and designed to aid her enemies that it if there were any purpose to be served hitler might feel himself justified in declaring war against the united states acts have approval of majority all of which would seem to make the arguments ot of the isolationists rather technical we are committing acts which in other times would be branded as acts of war for example the original idea of a neutrality patrol which justified the re commissioning of the world war destroyers for example the repeal of the arms embargo while a war was actually in progress for example the more recent virtual alliance with canada which is at war with germany and this is topped oft off with the delivery to the british of the 50 destroyers st tr with guns and ammunition am mun aboard which has long be been en predicted in these dispatches consider co n also the fact that a joint british t and american committee will select the precise sites for the new military and air bases in british possessions and all this in the midst 0 of a presidential campaign with the candidates of both major parties actually approving the results accomplished even it if the opposition objects to the manner in which they are done and with minorities in both parties very unhappy but unable politically to do anything german war claims require discounting nearly every news commentator is constantly telling the public that there is no way of being sure what is happening in europe behind the veil of censorship naturally there is is no denying the truth of this frequently repeated statement but there are certain things which simply MUST be so the main point is as this is written that the nazis have not yet conquered britain no censor censorship sh p could hide that it if it were already an accomplished fact it is a matter of simple arithmetic now that so muc much h time has elapsed since the heavy air fighting over britain began that the german claims simply could not have been anything like accurate because their exaggeration is obvious this does not mean that the british are winning certainly the british censorship prevents our getting an accurate picture of that for example it may well be that the nazi bombing of britain is succeeding in destroying british airplane and munitions works we do not know we only know that the british it contend that so far the bombings have not accomplished anything in slowing down the british war production prime minister winston churchill told the house of commons several weeks ago that british airplane production plus what they were bringing in was now equal to german airplane production he did not deny that the germans still had great superiority in number of fighting and bombing planes but predicted that this superiority would decline from then on As long as the british can keep on fighting in the air it is obvious that the germans are not accomplishing shing their real objective |