Evening star., 1940-03-20

things Of vital Importance and, fever
or no fever, he could restrain him.
self no longer from telling the world
IN his customary way what the
American Government is doing.
Thus the President set at rest the
rumors that America was selling to
Britain and France airplanes which
had military devices needed for our
own air force. He showed how i'm
portant it was for American air.
plane production to be built up for
defense purposes and pointed out
that the allies wanted to buy only
effective planes and America was
supplying them and at the same
time increasing her own plant ca
pacity three times over. AS for
secrets, he said they were few and
were, of course, protected
Mr.. Roosevelt took occasion to
deny at the same press conference
that he had ever said that Postmas-
ter General Farley's religion was a
bar to the latter's vice presidential
candidacy. The President had had
only one press conference prior to
this week and had not had an op-
portunlty before to discuss the pub
lshed article relating to Mr.. Farley.
Friends of the Postmaster General
are very happy today that the Presi-
dent took notice of the episode and
expressed his concurrence in the
words of the address of Mr.. Farley
last Saturday night, in which a plea
for religious tolerance in politics was
made
Reminder of Dictatorship.
But the most important action
taken by the President was his
manner of handling the news from
overseas about the conferences be-
tween Hitler and Mussolini. Mr..
Roosevelt made it clear that no.
body knoWs-neither the President
OF the United States nor the Pope
at Rome, nor any other govern
ment-just what Hitler and Musso-
1ini talked about. This was but a
gentle way of reminding the Ameri-
can people of what autocracy and
relationships really mean when the
heads of two governments, without
consulting any other governments,
or, indeed, their own people, can
make decisions of vital consequence
to peace or war.
incidentally, the formal statement
issued by Undersecretary Welles at
Rome was in itself significant and
must have been ordered by the
President. Mr.. Welles declared
that he had not received any peace
offers from any neutral or belliger-
ent government and that his mis-
sion was fact finding.
This is in line with what has been
understood from the beginning of
the Welles mission, namely, that the
UnderSecretary would bring back
the information and facts and then
Mr.. Roosevelt would decide whether
the report warranted the making
Of any mediation proposals.
Economic Damage of Rumors.
The fact that the White House,
earlier in the day, saw fit to indi-
cate to the neWspapermen that the
chances of peace were neither en-
HANGED nor diminished by the dis
cussions of Hitler and Mussolini, so
far as this Government was aware,
doubtless has a bearing on the I'M
settlement in the security markets
this week arising out of peace
rumors.
1t is recognized here that much
economic damage can be done by
rumors of peace that seem to have
an official sanction. Also the
American Government does not wish
to be placed in the position of either
advancing or retarding the peace
movement until it is ready to take
some definite action. If Mr.. Welles,
on piecing together his informa-
ton, can suggest peace basis, it
will be after considerable discussion
at this end on his return, before any
such mediation offer is made, and
then possibly the events in which
Hitler and Mussolini are now en-
gagged may alter the whole timing
OF Americas peace efforts.
Concerned Over Meeting.
The President is plainly con-
cerned, if not uneasy, about the
Hitler -Mussolini meeting at the
Brenner Pass. While Mr. Welles
saw Foreign Minister Ciano at Rome
and had an opportunity to get