Evening star., 1941-01-20

DaNio Lawrence. p o + m the
President has in mind for this, an
unprecedented third term, is the
anxiety of the American people as
to whether America will soon be
an active belligerent or remain as
an ally of Britain without the firing
OF shot.
The political mind wants to cele-
brate today-there are here all the
trappings and tinsel of previous
celebrations of inauguration day
But the national mood is one of
grave and sober reflection and un-
easiness. This in turn makes inaug-
uratlon day, 1941, strangely unlike
any other that has preceded with
the possible exception of March 5,
1917, when, because Inauguration day
itself fell on a Sunday, President
Wilson took the oath on both days.
Though war was growing closer
and closer to us in March, 1917,
the hope of preventing it, and March
4, 1917, ended one of the most
exaSperating filibusters in the his
tory of the United States. Mr.. Will
son had proposed that Congress
give him power to arm Americas s
marine attacks by the German
Navy could be Warded off and yet
America could keep herself detached
from active participation in the
war as an ally of Britain.
Baked Presidents Plan.
An isolationist group baked the
Presidents plan for armed neu-
trality,' as he called it, and while
he lambasted the II "willful men"
in the Senate who frustrated his
plan he unheSitatingly called an
extra session. But by the time it
was convened further violations of
American rights on the high seas
had occurred and Mr.. Wilson felt
that he had no course left but to
recognize that Germany had in fact
begun war against the United States
by these attacks.
The incident is worth recalling
because today Congress is in session
and has before it a bill which
another Democratic President is
sponsoring with the idea that it
will avoid American participation
in the war. Again the opponents
are saying it will involve us in war
and make us a full-fedged belliger-
ent, and again the answer does not
lie in Congress but in the decisions
nf tho CORN
There was no spirit of gayety or
celebration at the Inauguration of
Mr.. Wilson for the second time in
March, 1917, and there is none today
except in outward appearance as
the politicians and those who were
active in the campaign come here
for the customary bit of party exul-
tation.
What makes the present not un-
like the past is that the defeated
candidate, Wendell Willkie, who
polled 22,000,000 votes, is standing
on inauguration day beside the
triumphant candidate who polled
27,000.000
Hughes Joined President.
The man who has the task today
of administering the oath of Office
Charles Evans Hughes, the Chief
Justice of the United States-Was
the defeated candidate in 1916 and
by the time war came in April, 1917,
ne, too, was standing four-Square
beside the President of the United
States pledging his aid in the war.
War and rumors of American en-
try into the war and a debate of
transcendent interest are again In
the forefront of national attention.
Will few weeks see the die cast
for war? Or will Congress back up
the President this time and give
him the program that he thinks
will help Britain win and thus keep
America out of the war?
The cleavages Of opinion are
sharp and bitter Impatience with
an opposing point of view is to be
found on both sides of the contro-
verSy here. One group advises
caution and SCOTS at the idea of a
Nazi invasion. Another group points
to Norway and Belgium and Hol-