Evening star., 1941-02-01

was a great to-do, with strategy
meetings" and so on.
Then, suddenly, as the hearings
began before the House Committee
on Foreign Relations there was an
incredible hush. Just as the Ger
man bombers gave London BREATH
ing spell, so did Mr. Wheeler cease
coming over every "a hours and
dropping verbal incendiary bombs
on public opinion.
At first, Washington thought 1t
must be the weather. Perhaps the
Senator had influenza. Perhaps he
was holding his fire until he could
see whether American morale had
cracked. Perhaps he intended to
muster all the forces of appease-
ment at the moment when the bill
reached the Senate floor, in order
to use freedom of debate to destroy
the freedom of debate in a full
dress filibuster.
None of these explanations seems
to be correct. According to an in
side check on Senatorial mail, the
tide OF public opinion turned sharply
to support of the aid-to-England
bill just about the time the House
hearings began. To Senator
| Wheeler, as leader of the forces
| seeking to defeat the measure, come
about 1000 letters a day, running
3-to-1 in support of his stand. But
to his colleague from Montana come
letters from citizens of Montana
which tell different story. Where
as, before the hearings, Murray's
| mail was also 3-to-1 against the
! bill, now it is running about 3-to-l
for the bill Much of the anti
administration mail represents left
wing c. l. o. sentiment modified
by John L. Lewis and more Of it
reflects the Father Coughlin crowds
/ determination to destroy the Brit
iSh Empire in order to avenge the
historic woes of Ireland Some Of
it also comes from openly pro-Na1
sources.
Many unkind things have been
said of Bounding Burt" but no one
has ever denied his ability to swallow
his own footprints.
For example, he was ore OF tte
foremost opponents Of Rocsevelt's
denomination at Chicago in 1917
and. with the support of John L.
Lewis, was dark, or family IL
Illuminated, horse candidate himself
for the presidency. But as the
primary elections rolled up the
monumental total of third-term DEL
egates, Mr.. Wheeler was still in the
neutral corner. Not even when the
Patterson ticket" in California
Of camouf1aged Wheeler delegates
was showed under by the New Deal
ers did Wheelers wounds show in
public He went along at Chicago
and allowed Jim FARLEY end jack
Garner to hold the banner In the
stop Roosevelt" fight.
Now, Senator Wheeler is faced
with evidence not only of growing
popular support for the aid-to-Eng-
land bill, without Gripping amend
ments, but with the reali-- ion that
the opposition to that ~ is COM
posed of the least reliable elements
in the country. Aside from the sim
cere pacifstS-of whom there are
plenty and VINO are genuinely re-
spected by the administration-the
only important groups in the anti
Roosevelt camp are the pro-Nazis,
the big business appeasers. the bit
ter-end Irish, the Communists and
the northern wing of the old Demo-
cratic stop Roosevelt" crowd. Sup
port from such a bunch is a tin
can tied to the political tail of anv
Senator who thinks of himself in
terms of Hail to the Chief"
So opinion of Capitol Hill is that
Senator Wheeler is backing dis
creetly away from his position Of
"all-out" opposition to the aid-to-
England bill and will be content with
making the record" as a critic Of
the measure and prophet Of war.
This would leave him in a position
to capitalize politically on a possible
wave Of reaction in 1914, when the
presidency again will fall into a
popular election.
(Released by Consolidated News Features,
TrNR