Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-10-03
New Deal Politics in Defense Hit by WiLkie at Cleveland
Republican Charges Administration Has Nation Exposed
To Here S ext Ohio Speech

stroyed we may use the other.
To get those locks will take six
years.
And of course eventually we
need a two-ocean Navy. But that
objective will take seven years.
And besides that, there are not
even any paper plans available
to local officials instructing them
how to protect the public from
air raid damage to water works,
gas mains, or sewage. In those
matters so vital to health and
life we are as unprepared as IL
Adolf Hitler had never existed.
That we should be exposed to
air attacks may sound improb-
able, but my authority is the
third-term candidate, who de-
scribed the danger wildly some
months ago in a radio talk.
The plain fact is that we are
late. We are terribly late. And
when I consider how terribly late
we are, how confused, how de-
void of plan or accomplishment,
I cannot believe that the Amer
lean people will dare to entrust
their welfare for another four
years to the present administra-
ton. 1t Is claimed on behalf Of
this administration that it saw
more clearly than any one else
what the course of events was to
be. But If it saw it all SO clear
ly. why are we in this terrible
plight?
New Deal Crushed Hope Of
Stability in London Conference.
In 1898 Adolf Hitler rose to
power. That was also the year
that the New Deal took ONCE.
But 1888 was the year when the
New Deal crushed the London
Economic Conference, thereby
destroying the last hope Of finan-
cial stability for the Democratic
world. And In 1887, when the
democracies had succeeded in
recovering somewhat from world
wide depression and instability,
the New Deal launched an at
tack against commodity prices.
against American business and
against the Supreme Court. The
result was a violent depression In
this country at the exact time
when our prosperity might have
strengthened the other democra-
cies and enabled them to resist
the advance of Hitler.
The New Dealers could see
Hitler advancing. What steps did
they take to protect us?
In 1929, when there was no
Adolf Hitler and Europe was at
peace, 81 per cent Of total Gov
eminent expenses were for de-
tense. But in 1896. when Hitler
was rising to power, we spent
only 8 per cent of our money on
defense-the lowest percentage in
modern history. In 1898. the year
Of Munich, We spent only IA per
cent on defense. In 1889, the year
Of the outbreak of war, we spent
only minus IS per cent.
On the basis Of the information
that he gets from the State De-
partment and the Army and Navy,
the present third-term candidate
was able to predict the war a year
ago last June, four months before
it started. But three months
later, in August, he had done
nothing about it.
Administration Plays Politics
With the Country's Preparedness.
At that time the acting secre-
taries Of War and Navy urged
him to put into immediate opera
ton detailed plans for the pro-
curement of military supplies,
especially powder, guns, and air
planes. They pointed out that
some items took as long as one,
two, or even three years to OBJ
tain, and that in many cases the
capacity to produce them did not
even exist.
The result of this pressure was
the War Resources Board, with
Edward Stettinius as chairman.
Now this board correspondent
closely with the type of board
that the War Department had
planned for just such an emer-
gency That plan is not secret.
1t is called the industrial mobili-
cation plan of 1899.
That plan was the result of
more than Is years of study as
required by the national defense
act of 1920. 1t had been developed
out of congressional hearings and
with the advice of the most COM
petent and experienced men in
the country, including men now
dead, who had learned to solve the
problems of industrial mobiliza-
ton in the last World War.
1t Is safe to say that no demo-