The McDowell times. [volume] (Keystone, W. Va.) 1904-1941, 1941-01-24

br0tpn hair,
Borne like popor on the summer air :"
WASHINGTON. II heard that
sweet, simple song the night after
the President delivered his message
on the state Of the Union. 1t wasn't
a summer day. The Washington
monument was a cold pillar in the
sunlight, the Potomac a sheet of
shimmering metal beyond bare
trees. But that song, its beauty born
Of the suffering of Stephen Foster;
the symbolic monument, and the
echoing memory of the solemn voice
OF the President blended together to
make an unforgettable moment in
which I suddenly seemed to see
changing America, a nation step
ping forward on q new and unknown
road.
the Presidents close advisors be-
lieved that he saw. growing out of
the war in Europe, a new role for
the United States, the role of world
leadership. Each days develop
ments seem to confirm the belief
that such Is the part Mr.. Roosevelt
expects the nation to play and that
II he can he will direct us in that
path, the path he mapped in his
two recent speeches.
The America which produced
JEANNE with the light brown hair"
had disappeared even before Ad-
miral Dewey blazed the way to en-
pire for America In Manila bay. The
last vestiges Of American provincial
INN were trampled into the. Ynudzo6
France by 1000, 600 pairs Of AIneri-
can boots. We thought, and some
Of US fervently hoped for q while we
were going to leave Europe to her
own devices, after 1919, forget, II
we could the white crosses we left
there and tend our own fireside.
Isolationist Sentiment Weakens.
We have tried for a year to stuff
up our ears at the roar of the Stukas
but each explosion over Europe
sounds nearer. The majority of let
ters which I receive are still very
much against any step which would
lead us into war but the congress-
men coming in for the new session
report weakening Of the isolation
list feeling.
One thing was clear when the
President delivered his message to
the joint session Of congress on jan
uary 6. Although many minds there
did not meet his, though much de.
bate was to follow, 1t was plain that
his plan to make America an ar
senal for the democracies had ma
jority support, that step by step he
was doing the leading and step by
step congress was following.
/ watched the session from the
floor of the house of representative
for radio has a little room at the
side of the chamber to the left OF
the rostrum.
There was long silence when the
President was announced. The au-
dience rose and stood with hardly a
whisper. Finally the President APP
peared at the entrance just to the
right Of the speakers desk and
walked slowly up the ramp between
his aide and a secret service man.
Then came the applause punctured
with only few of the shrill "rebel
yells." And throughout the speech,
with few exceptions, the handicap
ping came only when the President
emphasized a passage.
FOreshadows New Role.
But to me, the significant lines, the
ones indicating that the President
was foreshadowing this new part he
felt America must play, were these:
"In the future days which we
seek to make secure, we look
forward to a world founded upon
four essential human freedoms.
THE first is freedom of speech
and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS in
the world
THE third is freedom from
want, which, translated into
world terms, means economic
Understandings which will Sc
cure TO every nation a healthy
peacetime life for its inhabitants
everywhere in the world"
Reading them over now in cold
type they don't have quite the same
effect. But perhaps you recall. IL
you heard the broadcast, how he
emphasized, climactically, the
phrase everywhere in the world"
1t was plain his concern did not
stop at our own frontiers, but "ev-
erywhere in the world"
Then he went on to describe his
new order" quite as specifically as