The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1939-10-12

Roosevelt, in his address at the
opening of the special session OF
Congress which is considering his
proposal to repeal the embargo
against the sale of weapons and
ammunition to any nation at war,
appealed to the Senators and Re-
representatives., and inferentlally
to the people of the nation, to ap-
proach the subject in non-partl-
san spirit. The nation must stand
as a unit, he said, in its efforts to
keep the United States out of the
European war.
On that last part of his appeal,
that the country should be of a
single mind about keeping out of
war, his message struck a respon-
sive chord. And there is doubt in
the mind of any experienced OBJ
server in Washington that if there
were general agreement that the
Presidents program would keep
the country out of war, Congress
would &C a long way, almost I'M
animously, to back him up. But
there is no such general agree
ment, either in Congress or out
side of it.
There is no way of checking up
on the partisan affiliations of
nearly a million voters who have
written letters to their represen-
tatives in Congress urging action
one way or the other on the Neu-
trality Act lin the past few weeks.
The vast majority of the letters
oppose the Presidents plan. But
how many of them are Republi-
cans and how many Democrats
nobody knows, and whether they
are motivated by sincere belief
in the matter, or by a partisan
desire to block anything which
Mr.. Roosevelt advocates, none can
tell.
In Washington, however, it is
easier to draw conclusions. SEN
ators and Representatives, with
few exceptions, are paying slight
heed to the Presidents appeal for
"the adjournment of partisan
ship" so long as the present Euro
pean crisis lasts.
Party Lineup
The battle against the repeal of
the arms embargo is so definite
ly battle of Republicans against
Democrats that it has had the eff
feet, among other things, of
bringing back into support of the
Administration many Democrats
who have been opponents of the
President in most of his recent
program, including Alfred E.
Smith. Even venerable Senator
Carter Glass, of Virginia, whose
feud with Mr.. Roosevelt has been
of more than six years duration,
is back again in the same fold
with such New Dealers as Sena-
tors Pepper, of Florida, and Bilbo
Of Mississippi. Senators Pat Har-
rison, Harry Byrd and Cotton
Ed'' Smith, Of South Carolina, al
so are back. The fight therefore,
is distinctly a party battle, each
side believing that its victory will
its party's chances Of
n the 1910 Presidential
election.
That, and not neutrality in any
real sense, is the actual issue. The
wheel-horses of the battle on the
side are Senators
Arthur Vandenberg Of Michigan,
Hiram Johnson of California,
Borah of Idaho and Nye of North
Dakota.
That the Republicans intend to
take the fullest political advant-
age of the neutrality debates is
undisputed1 The belief here is
that the member of that party
who will gain the greatest per-
sonal political advantage is Sena-
tor Vandenberg. Mr.. Vanden-
berg is an avowed candidate for
the Presidency, as he was in 1886.
He has been sounding the slogan:
keep America out of War" for
many months, and has gained a
much larger popular following
than he had year ago, by his re-
petition of that warning. Vanden-
berg's chances for the Republican
nomination seem to Washington
politicians to be better than ever.
Polls of public opinion still show
District Attorney Thomas E. De-
wey of New York in first place,
but with Vandenberg gaining, and
far ahead of Senator Taft.