The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1940-06-06
Economic +. /. F.
eM9hAsA

L HC udIIOIl ID ciIlUdIhiIS VII q VIC
fense program unprecedented in its
time history. But, as the COM
mentators are pointing, out, there, is
more to national defense than simply
appropriating. money for ships and
planes and tanks and soldiers: No mat
ter how great a nations resources, an
adequate defense structure cannot be
created overnight. And when a nation
has long been accustomed to the ways
of peace, it is an extremely difficult
thing to adapt it to the ways of war
The defense program involves many
questions, some as yet unanswered
First and by far the most important
question is simply this: What are we
going to defend? A military estab-
lishment sufficient to guard our terri
torial borders is one thing-a military
establishment adequate to guard the
Philippines, northern South America
Greenland, the British West Indies
and other far flung places, is obviously
another. That question cannot be fully
answered until it becomes completely
clear who is going to be the winner in
the European war. If the Allies win,
we will have little to fear If Germany
wins (and it is apparent that our
whole pending defense plan is based
upon that grim possibility the fate
of the great British fleet will be the
thing in which the United States has
the most vital interest. Should that
fleet fall into the hands of the dicta-
tors, our position will be dangerous in
deed. For, we do not possess a two
ocean navy. Ours, say the experts, is
good enough to protect us in either
the Pacific or the Atlantic, but not in
both. And it would take many years to
build a two-ocean fleet. That explains
the widespread hope that if the Allies
lose, the British fleet will be either
scuttled or, better yet, sent to Canada,
where it could work in cooperation
with ours.
Another question involves the role
of labor in national defense. The
columnists have been almost unani-
nous in saying that strikes and similar
difficulties cannot be allowed to throw
the proverbial monkey wrench into the
defense machine. There is a strong
movement to revise present laws gov
erning the number of hours a man can
work. 1t takes skilled and willing
hands to make the many things a
modern army must have, and many be-
lieve that we have none too many of
them. Most of the unemployed are in
the unskilled category. In some fields
notably machine tool work, there is
a definite shortage of good men.
How can industry be geared to arms
production? Certainly our factories
are not ready for that-they have
been built to naa4e-kha instruments of
peace, not the weapons of destral ltion
Tremendous readjustment in methods
will be necessary. There must be flaw
less coordination in, production, trans
port and assembly. Industrial leaders
are working overtime now to bring
this about, but it cannot be done in a
hurry.
Finally, the commentators say, there
must be better coordination in govern
ment. We can no longer afford to have
overlapping bureaus, divided respon-
sibility, pickering and jealously be-
tween officials. There can be no un-
necessary waste of time and resources
One thing seems certain-the course
of the Federal government, no matter
who is elected president next Novem-
ber, will be very different than in the
past. Practically all the observers are
convinced that domestic reforms
will largely be shelved, and that the
"left-wing" element in government
will be eased out of the picture. 1t will
be necessary to discard or defer many
of the New Deal detectives, they say
even if Mr.. Roosevelt runs and wins
again. In brief, it is felt in almost all
circles that the government must in
the future follow relatively conserva-
tive course.
The bloody events of the past two
months, curiously enough, seem to
have reduced almost to the vanishing
point the chance of our going to wal
in Europe. There are too many dan
gers confronting us here to take q
chance on sending our warships and
men abroad This country does not
want war and will not start war. But
the whole country is wondering if anc
when war will come to US.
X X X
The Republican party is in a diff
|cult position, politically speaking
With national attention focused or
foreign affairs and foreign policy, its
leaders feel that campaign wagec
on domestic issues would produce little
but yawns from the electorate.
On top of that, the leaders seem to
have been unable to find any important
bones to pick with the Administrations
present foreign and defense policies