The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1940-06-13

By STAFF WRITER)

WASHINGTON.-Nearlytw two
thirds of the people of the United
States think this country will be
attacked by Germany if Hitler il
victorious over France and Eng
land. That is the summary o.
not want this country to be in
es here.
Nine-tenths of the people d.
public sentiment as carefully
volved in war it can be avoided
but want to give every aid "shor
of war" to the Allies.
With that sort of public sentl
ment squirting it on, the Govern
ment is developing war pro
gram which, except for sending
an expeditionary force over seas
gives the impression to those who
remember the activities here In
1918, that we are getting right
into a war.
Under a statute of 1916, never
repealed, the President has set
UP a Council of National Defense,
consisting of six members of his
Cabinet, the Secretaries of War,
Navy, Commerce, Interior, Agrl-
culture and Labor. Under the law
as it stands, those six are respon-
sible for seeing to it that the ma
ton gets ready to fight if it has
to.
The law, however, permits the
appointment of an Advisory Com
mission of industrialists, finan-
ciers, business men and others.
President Wilson appointed such
a Commission, which could not
get anything done because the
sole authority rested in members
of the Cabinet. He solved the
problem by putting one man,
Bernard M. Branch, at the head
and making him solely respon-
sible.
Advisory Commission Appointed
President Roosevelt has ap-
pointed an Advisory Commission
to his new Council on National
Defense. It consists of Edwards Il.
Stettinius, Jr., chairman OF the
U. c. Steel Corporation; William
S. Knudsen, president of Gener-
al Motors; Ralph Budd, president
of the Burlington railroad; Sid
new Hillman, head of the Anal
gamated Clothing Workers Union
and vice-president of the CLIO;
Chester c. Davis of the Federal
Reserve Board; Leon Henderson
of the Securities and Exchange
Commission, and Miss Harriet
Elliott, political science Dean OF
the w. c. of w. N. G:
Washington is wondering how
efficient the. new Council and
it's. Advisory Commission Will
turn out to be. Nobody questions
the ability of Mr.. Stettinlus to
see that raw materials: are. made
available when and where they
are needed, or of Mr.. Knudsen to
get trucks, tanks, airplanes and
other war materials manutactur-
ed. or Mr.. Budd's ability to CO.
ordinate the transportation sys--
TENS of the nation. But con-
fidence in the other four men,
bers of the Commission is some
what dimmed by the fact that
they are political appointments
and are not known to have any
particular business or industrial
ability.
The President has assured the
business men whom he has NAM
ed to the Commission that they
will not have to take orders from
any Cabinet officer, but will re-
port directly to him. MIR. Roose-
welt, incidentally, is showing
physical signs of fatigue and
strain such as have not been ap-
parent before.
No Clear Plan
There is no question about the
determination to build up Ameri-
can defenses as speedily as pos
sible, but no clear, complete plan
has yet become apparent. The
best aid we can give to the Al
lies seems to be airplanes, and
some 1900 war planes out of T.
700 ordered have been delivered
to England and France since the
first of the year.
How fast American factories
can build fighting planes, con-
sidering the amount of labor re-
quired for their high-power, high
speed engines, is a debated CUES
ton. The airplane manufacturers
who have been called to Washing
ton say it will take four years,
with present facilities, to produce
the $4,000 planes for which the
President called. Henry Ford
says that he can turn out 1000
planes a day after six months