Evening star., 1938-10-30
America Supports
Defense Program
By OWEN L. SCOTT.

President Roosevelt is enjoying the
highly unusual experience Of almost
unanimous approval for one Of his own
ideas. This experience is even more
unusual for the fact that the Presidents
idea will cost money and will involve
new taxes.
Mr.. Roosevelt has made up his mind
that the United States must get ready
to call any bluff that any other power
may make in this hemisphere. So far
as can be determined, this presidential
idea is shared by members of Congress,
by business leaders, by labor leaders
and by other individuals of almost all
shades of opinion.
Even now the United States is SPEND
ing more than q billion dollars each
year to prepare to defend its interests
In world In which force alone talks.
That amount will be increased sub
stantially by the new Congress. A
stronger Navy, an enlarged and better
armed Army and an air force the equal
Of any are contemplated.
This raises the question: Why has
armament taken on such sudden I'M
portance? What more Is needed than
this Nation already possesses to defend
the two Americas? Is it possible to
create an impregnable defensive posi-
ton in this hemisphere?
The first question is answered by the
changed situation confronting Great
Britain. Until now American naval pol
icy has assumed that the British Navy
would police the Atlantic while the
United States was policing the Pacific
with its Navy. But the British all at
once, with troubles to face in every
quarter of the world, are an uncertain
quantity.
At the same time there is the further
fact that Germany and Italy and Japan
are growing increasingly interested In
Latin America. If these or other ma
tions should pick fight with Brazil or
Paraguay or Mexico or Canada, or If
they should seek to stir up trouble in
the countries to the south, 1t might be
necessary to chase them out of the
American back yard.
Experience shows that none of these
totalitarian nations scares easily. The
United States would have to be pre-
pared to back up conversation with suf-
ficient gunpower to get action.
r.
Out Of that situation grows today's
defense problem.
In defense the American Navy plays
the chief role. Two cardinal policies
guide the Navy. One is that the strength
of a fleet should not be weakened by
division between two oceans. This now
may mean the gradual building of two
a1f -
the speed with which ships now can
move from ocean to ocean through the
Panama Canal. The other policy calls
for an offensive strategy once trouble
develops.
A common assumption is that the
American Navy, in the event Of action.
would scatter mines along the coast and
then steam up and down waiting for an
enemy to try to break through.
Naval bases far out in the Pacific,
with Hawaii as the chief point, and
bases in the Caribbean provide the
American Navy with jumping of places
from which to engage any foreign feet
far from this country's shores. The
problem now is to strengthen and to add
to those bases and to build up sufficient
ship strength to keep any probable
enemy busy far out at sea.
How large Navy may be needed for
that purpose depends on possible enc
mics. In that connection the planners
are not able to overlook the fact of an
agreement between Germany and Italy
and Japan, all of whom are in the
process Of building new empires, nor
can they discount the fact that all of
these countries are stirring around in
Latin America.
At the present time, based upon fig
ures supplied by the Navy Department,
the comparative strength of the United
States German and Italian Navies in
ships built and building and of the
japanese Navy in ships actually built
is as follows:
U. S. Japan. Germany. Italy
Battleships 19 10 10 8
Aircraft
carriers 6 6 2
Cruisers 80 Al 13 q