Evening star., 1940-06-25

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leadership do to meet the threats?
1t Is fact today, well known by
the heads of every other govern
ment in the world, and belatedly
coming to the knowledge of the peo-
pie of this Nation, that we are trag-
ically unprepared. We are, too woe
fully weak to give the Allies that
material assistance this Nation
wants to give them. We are sadly
wanting in the state of our defenses
of this hemisphere.
The Army chief of staff and the
chief Of the air force have testified
to this serious lack Of modern equip
ment for our defense. They have
specifically stated that we lack al
most entirely the mechanical means
vital to our security.
AS this news swept across The
country, the President went on the
radio and in an extremely clever
but dangerously deceptive man
ner Jumped together the equipment
that was ION hand" and "on ORDER
In an effort to smooth over the fail
ure to fulfill the trust that the
American people placed in his ad-
ministration. The cold facts are
that In many instances the totals
the President gave ION hand" and
"on order" were about one fifth ION
hand" and four-fift ION order "
and those orders sadly DELAYED in
their fulfillment.
Even then he tried to give the
American people the impression that
they need not sacrifice, that they
could move along with shrug of
the shoulders and that he would
take care of things ION order"
He first placed some of the
bungling members of his admins
tration in charge of the vital prob
lem of production.
No Unified Command
For Defense Production.
We can be thankful today that
the overwhelming demand of the
people drove him, begrudgingly, to
turn some portions of the task over
to tried and experienced men of in
dustry who gladly stepped forward
to aid their country. But he has
still failed to put a single competent
experienced man in charge of the
entire job of production for defense.
He insists upon maintaining an un-
wieldly board of seven, with himself
in charge. No man, fulfilling the
responsibilities of the position of the
presidency, can in addition direct
the diverse and highly important
work Of this committee.
This failure to understand execu-
tive responsibility and coordination.
and the primary rules of production
and OF getting job done, has been
one OF the greatest weaknesses of
this administration. 1t Is terrific
indictment that for many crucial
months the important War Depart
ment has been disrupted by tragic
conflict of authority, with Secre-
tary OF War and an Assistant Secre-
tary, hardly on speaking terms with
one another, each comforting with
the President, each playing his
favorites within the department.
And during the same crisis the Navy
Department has been adrift with
out a real head, first headed by q
man physically unable to carry on
his task, and then by a Secretary
who was submerged in q political
campaign for the governorship of
one OF our States. BY the politically
timed appointment on the eve of
this convention of two men of our
party to these two cabinet posts
the President made an eleventh. hour
confession of failure in his national
defense administration. We are
pleased that the prospect of our
convention caused this sudden i'm
provement over New Deal in
competence, and it is only regrettable
that we cannot change the entire
cabinet and the man who heads 1t
with equal abruptness.
The most dangerous example of
the wrong way to prepare was the
startling proposal of the President
last week that all boys and girls in
this country between the ages of
18 and 20 be compelled by the Goy-
ernment to enter Federal training
camps.
That was the method of Hitler
and Mussolini and Stain. 1t is not