Evening star., 1941-10-10
A leouI Fiction

The logic OF the President request
for revision of the Neutrality Act, so
far as it goes, is beyond the reach of
any valid criticism.
In his message to Congress, Mr..
Roosevelt asked specifically for
amendment of the law to permit the
arming of American merchant ships.
This, he said, must be done now.
Beyond that, the President made
clear his belief in the imperative
need of lifting restrictions which
prevent American vessels from en-
tering defined war zones, but this is
to be left for later action. Congress,
presumably for reasons of political
strategy, is not asked to make both
changes at one time, despite the fact
that the arguments in favor of the
first are just as persuasive with re-
gard to the second. Instead, the
problem-the whole problem-iS to
be tackled in piecemeal fashion,
while the days and weeks which
might be used by us to greater ad-
vantage are permitted to slip away.
To put it another way, this Nation,
despite the utter gravity of the hour,
has not yet reached the point where
it is willing to cast off the paralyzing
effects of an invalid policy, although
the policy itself, for all practical pur-
poses, has been discarded in its en-
tirety.
The Neutrality Act was predicated
on two assumptions, both of which
were unSound. We believed, in the
first place, that a formal legislative
proclamation of American neutrality
In advance of hostilities would tend
to discourage the making of war by
others, and, second, that if war
should come despite this effort, we
could take shelter from its conse-
quences behind the fictitious barrier
OF legislated neutrality.
But the invalidity of these beliefs
soon became self-evident. There can
be but small doubt that the effort
TO isolate the United States from the
rest of the world actually gave aid
and comfort to the war makers, and
there can be no doubt whatsoever
that our day dream OF permanent
neutrality was shattered when the
first gun was fired.
As Hitler'S ambitious plans for
world conquest began to take shape
we were compelled by the funda-
mental motive Of self-preservation to
reform our policy. Step by step, we
have progressed from the repeal of
the arms embargo down through the
enactment Of the leaSe-lend legisla-
ton, until now it is idle to talk Of
American neutrality. We have cast
of neutrality because, in our own in
terest, we could not remain neutral,
but we have not fully accepted the
Self-impoSed obligations of our new
status, whatever one may choose to
call it.
In this new role, we are committed
by formal congressional action and
by express announcements of the
President To a policy of "all out" aid
TO Britain and her allies But we
have not yet reached the point where
we are willing to call upon every re-
source at our command to implement
that policy, and this is shown to be
true by the timid, STEP -by-step ap-
proach to the problem of throwing
of the shackles of the Neutrality Act
The war which is sweeping to a
climax on the continent of Europe,
however, is not going to wait upon
American indecision and hesitation.
Time, If we would but make full use
OF 1t, operates now in our favor. But
we cannot afford to assume that the
advantages of today will not slip
through our fingers if we refuse to
grasp them. The great question still
remains unanswered: Will we exert
our full strength before it is too late?