Evening star., 1940-02-12

house referred to was in Duff
position taken by the President in
his sharp speech to the delegates at
the White House Saturday. He had
condemned Soviet Russia for inva-
sion of Finland, and delivered lee
ture against communism to the as
sembled youth.
The delegates in Departmental
Auditorium were silent last night
when Mrs. Roosevelt assured them
that Il don't think for minute
that the President would do one
thing that he thought would bring
us into war, because he knows what
war is like"
Refuses to Take Up Arms.
But they leaped to their feet
in frenzied ovation for sharp
spoken Ravni Patel, member of
the National Congress of India,
when he declared that many youths
who otherwise follow the President
"also say quite frankly that they
will not follow even Franklin Delano
Roosevelt into a war"
Still smarting under the fatherly
rebuke which the President gave
them, they whooped approval of
replies to Mr. Roosevelt's remark
that a youth organizations resolu-
ton against loans to Finland was
'twaddle."
The Presidents wife, asking that
no one either clap or hiss until she
had finished, answered written Ques-
tions-the first from her second
cousin, Archibald Roosevelt, jr., of
the Republican Roosevelts.
To his inquiry whether the con-
gress should pass a resolution favor
ing Finland, Mrs. Roosevelt said:
mo, I don't think you should go
on record for anything you don't
believe in" To Archibald, she add
ed: II also have sympathy for Fin
land"
Mrs. Roosevelt said that "our
sympathies as a free people should
be with Finland" She declared that
she agreed with the Congress in its
sympathy for China and Spain, but
she said, II also have sympathies
with Finland"
One of young Roosevelt's COL
leagues, Stephen Macarthur, ,jr.,
Young Democrat of Kearney, N. j.,
was elected from the meeting for
the second time in three days when
he attempted to introduce the Fin
nish resolution
Mrs. Roosevelt made no set speech
but devoted about As minutes to an
swering in straightforward man
ner a stack of written questions that
had been passed up to her from the
floor.
The audience gave respectful at
tention to the woman who had
helped the congress in many ways,
had attended sessions before, but
was telling the delegates to their
faces that they might be wrong on
some of their own conclusions.
Views on Neutrality.
Asked whether she thought the
Neutrality Act should be invoked
as to the present European bellige-
rents, she said:
1.-THE Neutrality Act has never
been invoked for an undeclared
war (and the present war was un-
declared, she reminded) except In
the case of Spain, and that was
because Congress passed a bill with
the intent that we should not take
part on one side or the other in
Spain." Failure to invoke the Neu-
trality Act in the Sino-Japanese
war, she said. had been to the ad-
vantage of China because China
needed many things that Japan
did not"
Why had the administration cut
the budget for social legislation? ?
she was asked.
'I'll tell you why" she replied
Have you heard people in your home
community say they would like to
pay less taxes and see the deficit re-
duced? If you have not, the reason
is you have been listening to people
who were a little more in need OF
Government help than other people
There must be great group Of peo-
pie who wish taxes to go down, and
who think some of the things for
which taxes are paid could I've re-
| duced."
THE President is a kind of sales
man to Congress. If you are trying
to sell something, you try to sell
something they (Congresses) want
or you are likely to get turned down
Congress cut the budget even lower
which shows that you people have
not been busy in your communities
because Congress responds to you"