The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1941-04-24
Economic . .
~MrhAhA
Happenings That Affect the Dinner
Pals, Dividend Checks and Tax
Bills of Every Individual. National
and international Problems Insep-
arabic from Local Welfare.

and international Problems lnSep
arabic from Local Welfare.
The attention of most people is now
lcentered on the Balkans, where Ger
many and Britain are fighting what
may prove to be one of the decisive
actions Of the war. But in offcia
circles, the problem of the Atlantic
lremains uppermost in mind. Hitler
cannot win the war unless he car
conquer the British Isles. American
lpolicy is to provide England with
levery possible weapon in an attempt
to prevent that ominous possibility
And all of the weapons needed, with
the exception of large bombers, must
be transported by ships across three
Thousand miles of blue water, much
of which is infested with Nazi sub
marines and suface raiders. Even if
we reduce German claims of Allied
shipping destruction by one-third to
|onehalf, it is evident that the British
merchant fleet is being rapidly cut
down.
There are two possible solutions to
this problem. One is for this country
to build enough ships to offset British
losses. But even if that could be done
which experts doubt, it would not stop
the loss Of tremendous amounts of
material. A cannon or a fighting
plane or load of food which sinks
hnnnath hn
hull, is of no service to anyone. The
solution remaining is to eliminate the
cause of destruction.
This was the theme Of recent and
remarkable radio address by Rear
Admiral Emory S. Land, chairman of
the Maritime Commission. This was
a speech of such Importance that. ac-
cording to an Associated Press writer,
''it could hardly have been delivered
on his own responsibility alone" Ad-
miral Land said time may prove that
combined American and British ship
building is unable to keep up with
losses. The wiser course, he said, is
not to pin hopes on providing suffci-
ent requirements, but to stamp out
Germany's submarines. BY basing our
shipping aid to England, he added,
"solely on supplying her with more
and more and more ships, we are
merely adding more fuel to the fire
Are there not number of ways Of
solving this problem by attempting to
put out the fire."
The between -the-lines reader will
find a great deal of grave food for
thought in this. In Washington today
the feeling is that it will be but a
matter of time, and probably short
time at that, before we are conveying
British merchant shipping. Our viz
tual annexation-trff> t.ssgs1enland for mill
tary purposes indicates the way the
wind blows. Greenland offers poten-
tial naval and air bases to patrol and
control d vast Atlantic area. Then,
some think, it will not be much long
er before our fighting craft, surface,
undersea and air, may have to be used
to ferret out and destroy U-boat sup
ply and rest stations. As everyone
knows, the British navy just isn't big
enough to control all the seas where
British interests exist. 1t is no secret
that British strategists are confident
that we will help, as part of our all
out aid program.
Big question is, How far can we so
before Hitler declares war on us? No
one but Hitler himself can answer
that. 1t is believed that Hitler would
think twice before forcing state of
war between the Reich and the L.
s., for the obvious reason that the war
declaration would be at once followed
by Executive and Congressional acts
to speed up our arms production to a
point beyond that possible when we
are at peace. Some even think that
there could be actual shooting be-
tween {. S. and German ships with
out complete severance of diplo-
matte relations.
All Of this, however, belongs in
the realm Of speculation, and the fu-
ture will supply the answers. Next
step is likely TO be passage Of a law
under which the President can buy
and turn over to the British, the Axis
and Danish ships recently seized un-
der little known 1917 statute max
ing sabotage Of any vessel in Amcri-
can waters a felony. The White House
has been completely mum 50 far as
talking about conveying is concerned,
a oil fnt ;,,l-