Evening star., 1939-04-14
President Pledges Force to Save
Freedom ofWestern Hemisphere:
Britain Drawing Soviet Into Bloc
u. S. Will Resist
Any Economic
Pressure

President Roosevelt today warned
the world that every resource of
force and economic support of the
United States is available to defend
the sovereign freedom of the Amer
lean nations.
Delivered before the Governing
Board Of the Pan-American Union
in ceremony at the Hall of Ma
tions in its building here, Mr.. Roose-
velt's words were broadcast by short
wave radio to South and Central
America and to Europe, and by
regulation radio to Canada and the
United States.
Relatively brief, the address en-
bodied its message of American soli-
darity in the following two para
graphs:
THE American peace which we
celebrate today has no quality of
weakness in it. We are prepared to
maintain it, and to defend it to the
fullest extent of our strength,
matching force to force if any at
tempt is made to subvert our in
stitutions, or to impair the inde-
pendence of any one of our group.
Should the method of attack be
that of economic pressure, pledge
that my own country will also give
economic support. so that no Ameri-
can nation need surrender any frac-
ton of its sovereign freedom to
maintain its economic welfare This
Is the spirit of the Declaration of
Lima: The solidarity of the Con-
tinent"
Sees Oceans Narrowed.
That the interest of the American
nations in world affairs must be an
increasingly active one was empha-
sized by the President in reminder
that I'VE know now that the de-
velopment of the next generation
will so narrow the oceans sepa-
rating us from the Old World. that
our customs and our actions are
necessarily involved with hers.
Beyond question, within scant
few years air fleets will cross the
ocean as easily as today they cross
the closed European seas. Economic
functioning of the world becomes
increasingly unit; no interruption
Of it anywhere can fail, in the fu-
ture, to disrupt economic life every
where"
With both the House and Senate
engrossed in considering what to do
about neutrality legislation. the
Presidents remarks today were STU
died with particular care by men,
bers of Congress. Yesterdays ses-
sion of the Senate was marked by a
fsre-up of criticism for the militant
foreign policy remarks of admins
tration officials.
Contrasts Diplomatic Methods.
Throughout his address, Mr..
Roosevelt delineated clearly the con-
trast in Western Hemisphere meth
DDS of peaceful and cooperative
diplomacy, as balanced against
those which constrain European ma
tions toward perpetual welfare"
I'VE hold our conferences not as
result of wars he said, but as
the result of our will to peace"
In furthering his contrast, he re-
called the free agreements among
the American nations, including
Canada, to act jointly in averting
any threat of war in this hemis-
phere, guarantees not of war but
of peace" Yet comparable actions
among European nations, he pointed
out. inevitably and Immediately are
stigmatiZed as efforts to threaten,
to encircle and to imprison.
Pledges designed to prevent ag-
gression," he continued, accom-
panied by the open doors of trade
and intercourse and bound together
by common will to cooperate peace
fully make warfare between us as
outworn and useless as the weapons
Of the Stone Age. We may proudly
boast that we have begun to realize
in pan American relations what civ
ilization in intercourse between
countries really means.
IF that process can be successful
here is it too much to hope that a
similar intellectual and spiritual
process may succeed elsewhere? Do
we really have to assume that ma
tions can find no better methods of
(Ceo ANANFTDITAN poro A1I