Evening star., 1940-08-18

of the axis, the United States finds it
self today in a position which has no
parallel in history. This is the view Of
Army and Navy leaders, men upon whom
rests the responsibility Of guiding the
country through the tortuous channels
created by years of undecided and hap
hazard policies. They dolefully insist
that the situation is critical.
The United States is alone today.
Friends we have few. Enemies aplenty.
Years Of wishful thinking have retarded
the rearmament program of this country
to point where today we must impro-
wise a national defense. A frightened
Congress is appropriating billions; every
thing that the heads of the Navy and
the Army are asking for is being granted.
But, like Great Britain's up to 1899, our
military preparations look imposing only
on paper. There are tens Of thousands
of planes, dozens of motorized divisions
and hundreds Of thousands Of tons of
new warships in the making. Hundreds
of thousands of men probably will be
conscripted between now and the end Of
the year.
All that sounds like real business and
1t would be, if the nations which we con-
slider our potential antagonists did not
have any more weapons and men already
in fighting trim and il they were not
continuing their military preparations on
an even larger and more efficient scale
than our own.
Must Use Every Resource.
Under the most auspicious circum-
stances we cannot hope to have imme-
diately more than 100000 trained men
Regular Army, National Guards and Re-
serves. These would form the combat
Army and, according to the War Depart
ment, this service" or striking Army is
in pretty good shape so far as training is
concerned 1t is on the way to becoming
fairly well equipped. But in order to
provide the necessary war parapher-
MALTA of this initial group we must use
every available resource at our disposal.
The next batch of men who may be
called under the prospective draft law
must wait until the factories can deliver
the necessary fighting implements; how
long that may take nobody can quite say.
1t all depends on the speed of Govern
ment arsenals and the enthusiasm of
private industry.
The fleet is given good rating, off,
cially. But 1t is totally insufficient to
cope with the two potential emergencies:
Japan and the Atlantic coast of South
America. Ships are not built overnight.
1t will take from two and half to four
years to build the fleet appropriated for
of the United States need not neces-
sarily permit us so much time 1t would
be sporting but illogical from the mill
tare point of view.
But there seems to be- at the present
time. determination on the part of the
administration to quarantine the West
ern Hemisphere from the economic and
political influence of the totalitarians.
For the time being the 20 Latin-Ameri-
can republics-0r to be correct the pre-.
sent governments of those republics
are subscribing to this point Of view of
the administration. How long they will
subscribe is a debatable question The
high officials of the State Department
hold out the results of the Havana Con-
ference as a tangible proof that this
country can count on the complete CO.
operation of her sister republics.
Skeptics See "Larder Love-"
But there are skeptics who say that
the attitude of at least some of these
republics is "larder love" They can OBJ
tain vast credits in this country while
the war continues in Europe and, IN
any event. they cannot sell anything to
the hungry Europeans because of the
British blockade. But just watch these
republics-say the skeptics-hop on the
German-Italian bandwagon as soon as
the British Navy is no longer in a posi-
ton to interfere with economic inter-
course between the two shores of the
Atlantic
Both of these points of view are spec
ulative. 1t is probable that the Central
and South American governments would
prefer to maintain the status quo In
their respective countries. Furthermore.
in the event of an uprising caused by
totalitarian sympathizers, the present
personnel would stand a good chance
of losing their jobs. Hence their willing
ness to cooperate with the United States
to keep the insidious propaganda of the
fifth columns out of their respective
republics. The measures taken by the
American Government, including the