Evening star., 1941-01-12
lmplementing q Policy


unlimited powers to implement our
national policy of bulWarking Amer
lean security by giving maximum
assistance to those democracieS al
ready at war with totalitarian ag-
gressorS should come as something
of shock to many people, including
some of those who have most vigOr-
ously advocated, in theory, the very
steps which the President now pro-
poses to translate into accomplished
fact.
This reluctance to take the decisive
action contemplated by the so-called
leG Se-lend bill which has been sub
mitted to Congress is a wholly nat
ural product of our failure, as
people, to grasp the full implications
for us Of the revolutionary move
ment which has developed so swiftly
into a war to the end between the
totalitarian and the democratic SyS-
TENS. AS a Nation, we have never
quite kept pace with the realities OF
the conflict.
When the war started we resolved
to be neutral, both in law and in
fact, not foreseeing that the ramifica-
tions of the struggle eventually
would involve and endanger our own
vital interests Then, as the threat
to our security became more evident,
we gradually turned from a policy
of literal neutrality to that of aid
ing Britain by methods short Of
war" Our difficulty in taking that
step was exomplified by the flying of
combat planes manufactured in this
country for the British to the Cana
dian border, and then pushing them
across the line to waiting Canadian
pilots in a piouS effort to preserve
a paper neutrality which even then
had been invalidated by forces be-
yond our control.
From this transitory stage we soon
came to full acceptance of the doc
trine of aid short of war, but still
without clear comprehension of its
significance. For months after
abandoning an untenable neutrality,
we clung to the comforting belief
that it was for us to decide what
might and what might not constitute
aid short of war, failing to under
stand that in the final analysis that
determination would be made by
Hitler and his associates in the en-
circling hostile alliance which has
been thrown around us. Only now
is the Nation as a whole beginning
to grasp the fact that we cannot
extend effective aid to Britain and
the other embattled democracieS
without incurring the risk that at
some point the totalitarian states
may elect to treat the rendering of
effective assistance as an act of war.
Yet this is a fact which we must
face, and face in the light of the
only alternative, which is to reverse
our national policy and give up all
thought of extending real aid to
Britain, China and Greece.
In effect, the President in sub
hitting the lease-Iend bill to Con-
gress, asks the Nation to abandon
any thought of an about-face and to
dedicate itself unreServedly to the
policy which has been laid down
with the overwhelming approval of
public opinion. He asks for an end
to the confusion of thought which
has impaired our productive effort to
q point where defense leaders have
found it necessary to plead belatedly
with American industry to perform
the impossible" because of the "ter-
rible urgency" of the military situa-
ton. In short, the President asks,
first, for mature acceptance of the
fact that the Nation is in a perilous
position-one from which there is no
asSuredly safe escape-and, second
for full authority and freedom to
pursue a course which, under exist
ing circumstances, clearly offers the
greatest promise of real security for
ourselves with the least ultimate risk
of direct involvement in the war.
Opposition to the granting of the
powers sought by the President falls
generally into two categories.
The first ground of objection is
that he seeks authority to take steps
which might increase the risk of war,
while the second is that no president
of democracy should be endowed
with the great powers for which Mr..
Roosevelt asks.
.. Obviously, the first objection over
looks the fact that while we may be
forced into war in any event, the best
insurance against that danger is to
extend aid to the British and their
allies in kinds and quantities calcu-
lated to enable them to win. There
are no two ways about this matter.
We must either make up our minds
to do everything in our power to see
our friends through to victory or re-
sign ourselves to being isolated in a
hostile world. Half-hearted measures