The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-10-25
! BEHIND l THE SCENJES WASHINGTON AN RoDeGgV DUTcHgR-t The Democrat Washington
 Correspondent Growth Of Incipient War
 Psychology In
 Washington

Washington, Oct. 26-It Is inter- esting to watch the growth of an in- cipient war psychology in Washing ton. In fact, 1t Is SO interesting to some persons who are especially sen- sitive on the subject of war that 1t gives them cold chills.
 No one thinks we are really go- Ing to war, of course. But so many of both the best and most indiffer- ent minds here are talking about what 1t would be like if we did, that 1t would be holding out on the reader not to mention 1t.
 Tn no time at all, Washington high and low--has come to be teem- ing with people who turn out to be military-naval strategists of the most articulate order.
 ImaginatiOns Run Riot
 Senator M. M. Logan of Kentucky, who ranks well up on the Senate Military Affairs Committee, propos- es e naval blockade of Japan which he thinks would make the Japanese behave. For one such suggestion made publicly Washington corres- pondent can hear hundred in pri- vate. l Roosevelt, with his warning let no one imagine that America will escape and his advocacy of cole lcctive quarantine" against ag- gressor nations, started all this.
 He left the imagination free to roam the distance between an ad- monitory shake of the finger ct Ja- pan and positive military naval acc ton in 6 preventive war"
 He can have no complaint as to the inactivity of local imaginat tons, including those of men in the high- CT official rungS.
 Military and naval men natural ly, in view of their function, speak In terms of action. But they're far from the only ones who can tell you how long lt would take to develop an effective bombing base In Alaska. About . year, if you want to kn0w.)
 And of course the pacifist groups are indulging in more war talk than anyone, since they consider 1t their job to warn everybody that ditching the neutrality act Is our first step toward international conflict.
 What F. D. R. Said in '23
 MT. Roosevelt, c peaceful man, has reminded the country that he learn- cd Q lot as assistant secretary of the navy before, during and after the World War.
 The most definite thing he ever wrote about Japan, following this period in which ho was "falrly close to world events" was in . magazine article in 1893. In this article he sought to discourage what he said was rather . com mon idea among both Japanese and Americans-that their two countries inevitably some day would go to war.
 Roosevelt then made no bones about the fact that the Navy and Army agreed that the United States VOultlAk GNGh 1lOlo ViiG EAhhPpAleb against Japan without c navy twice jas large as hers. Technical improve ments in navies, he said, made 1t progressively harder to operate them far from home shores.
 Today one hears protection of the Philippines would require Q navy thrice the size of Japan's.
 Roosevelt asked his readers to imagine war as . case of "Japan and United States, four or five thousand miles apart, making faces at each other across . nO.man's water as broad aS the Pacific"
 The Nine Power Treaty and Jap- ans promise therein to respect Chi- nese sovereignty were then hailed by the future President as one Of the most excellent reasons for scout- ing the "inevitability" theory. All of which, although proving nothing, makes interesting reading today when, as Logan says, dealing with foreign nations at war is c matter of Improvisation from day to day"
 Mir. Roosevelt. seated at the pic ano, expects to do the improviSing. Copyright, 1887, NEA Service, Incl