Evening star., 1941-12-25

anti-Axis nations IN what Mr..
Churchill described to newspaper
men Tuesday as a rivalry In mutual
hefpfulness.
The first formal step toward elm
ination OF the lease-lend principle
already has been taken In the
economic agreement between the
United States and Canada, an
nounced Tuesday. Canada never
liked device and from the beginning
sought to keep 1t out of American
Canadian dealings. To the limited
extent that it has applied to them,
Canadians here say, lease-lend has
resulted chiefly in hopelessly COM
plicated welter of cross bookkeeping.
Would Synchronize Resources.
The aim of the new American
Canadian arrangement is syn
chronization of materials, productive
machinery and man power so all in
elusive as to completely remove
what President Roosevelt once
termed "the silly old dollar sign"
from relationships between these
two countries.
Bookkeeping difficulties and re-
sultant delays between the United
States and Canada have been mild
compared with the similar red tape
entanglements affecting shipments
to Great Britain and other overseas
nations. In light of the common
dangers that their nations now face,
Messrs. Roosevelt and Churchill GER
tainly would be remiss If they failed
to clear away all financial involve
ments even remotely impeding sup
ply of needed materials to the
fighting fronts.
Designed for Post Situation.
But lease-lend Is passing pri-
marily because it never was any
thing more than a circumlocution
necessitated by Americas position
of non-belligerent participation in
war against the Axis. 1t was de-
signed by Mr.. Roosevelt, first, to
avoid repetition of the still un-
ended wrangle over World War debts
and, second, to short-circuit ex-
isting legal restrictions and often
congressional opposition to his pro-
gram for all-out material aid to
Britain and other anti-AXis nations.
In first broaching the plan in a
press conference on December II,
1910, Mr.. Roosevelt was completely
frank. Gliding newspapermen for
writing about supplying cash or
credit to Great Britain, the Presi-
dent declared that it was "banal"
to talk of repeating the johnson Act
(forbidding loans to defaulted World
War debtors) or the cash and carry
limitations of the Neutrality Act.
1t was almost equally banal, he
said, to talk of financial gifts to
Great Britain; that he doubted very
much the power of either himself or
Congress to make such a gift of
taxpayers money.
1t was at this point that Mr..
Roosevelt said the all-essential need
was to remove the silly old dollar
sign from the whole situation.
Everybody agreed, he said, that the
best defense of the United States
Is British success. Therefore, it was
important for us to do everything
possible to cause Britain to win.
Recalls 1914 Argument.
Then the President proceeded to
argue that no war ever was lost
through lack Of money. He re-
called that he rode from Maine to
Washington with group of leading
bankers on the Bar Harbor express
In August, 1914, just after the World
War began. The bankers contended,
he said. that there was not enough
money in the world to run a war
for six months. He himself took
issue with this view and made sew
eral bets. One banker bet him even
money that the war would not last
three months; another, two to one
that it would not last six months.
Not only did he win these bets, the
President said, but the war went
on more than four years and then
ended because Germany was de-
feated and physically exhausted
cash, or lack of cash, did not greatly
affect the course Of either group of
combatants.
If Mr.. Roosevelt was contemp-
tuous of financial considerations
the dollar sigma year ago, he GER
tainly is much more so under the
conditions he confronts today. And
in Mr.. Churchill he probably has
found the same bent of mind. 1t
would be hard to find two statesmen
whose careers have been less
touched by conmercialism. Both
were born country gentlemen.
About Twoscore Nations
Even as concerns the 81 zoo, ,000,-
900 worth Of lease-lend shipments,
shown in President Roosevelt's
latest report up to November 80, very
little apparently had been accom-
plished as respects repayment. The
report declared that 80 countries
and the British Empire had been
made eligible to lease-lend help
on the ground that they were vital
to the defense of the United States" J"
Besides Britain and its dominions,
the list included Argentina, Bolivia,
Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia,
Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Re-
public, Ecuador, Egypt, Ell Saliva
dor Free France, Greece, Guatemala,
Haiti, Honduras, Iceland, Mexico,
The Netherlands, Nicaragua, Nor
Wy. Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Po-