The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1941-09-17
By "UNCENSORED"


In discussing the attack on the
Greer at his press conference, Presi-
dent Roosevelt was reminded of an
allegory. Once upon time, he said,
some country children were on the
way to school and some unidentified
person fired on them from the bushes.
The father of the children felt that
there was nothing to do about it
not even search the bushes-because
the children had not been hit. But
the school-teacher decided that some
thing should be done, so he searched
the bushes.
The President identified himself as
the school-teacher but he did not say
who the other characters WERE No
doubt the innocent and unsuspecting
little school children were the boys
on the destroyer Greer. The timid
papa, it may be assumed, was an zap
peaser." The Presidents allegory is
worth completing. For the school
was run by school board-which
was congress. And it happened that
teacher, without even having asked
the school board, was sending the
children through bushes in which
there were unidentified persons with
guns. So teacher, instead of the
school board, was running the school,
and almost everybody lived happily
ever after.
Teacher VS.. School Board
AS of Sept 6, the Greer incident
did not seem to be the prelude to an
immediate declaration of war between
the U. S. and Germany. The U. S.
public was singularly unexcited and
nobody who was still thinking with
the brain rather than the pulse was
able to figure out how open war could
benefit either party. But there was
no doubt that the Greer incident was
another step-the most dangerous one
to date And what is worth noting
is the fact that the incident could not
have happened without series of
personal acts taken on the sole initia-
tive of the President of the United
States.
The occupation of Iceland was
clearly one more device for providing
conveys without calling them con-
voys. The last occasion when the |
President asked congress to pass on a
major aspect of U. S. foreign policy |
was the vote on H. r. 1776. During |
the debate on this bill administration |
assurances were freely given that it |
did not mean conveys. One Of the |
few successful amendments to the bill |
provided that nothing in this act |
shall be construed to authorize or per-
nit the authorization of conveying
vessels by naval vessels of the United |
States" (Section 3D.. At the time
the amendment was added cynics
pointed out that while it did not au-
thorize conveys in positive sense,
it left unaffected the Presidents sup
posed powers to order conveys as
Commander-in-C Chief of the armed
forces. But the meaning of congress
was plain. 1t deliberately specified
that the extension of aid to the allies
was not to mean the use of U. S.
armed forces to get it to them.
buI DIS SOOu DIS lie Ulll was SlSucu
the President proceeded to build
u. S-protected bridge across the At
lantic. On April 10, the President
announced his protectorate over
Greenland The occupation of Ice
land followed Hundreds of U. S.
technicians were sent to Northern Ire
land to construct base-presumably
for the British. Gwen the destroyers-
for-bases deal, the object of which
received general support in congress,
was accomplished by executive action
alone.)
In other words, the fact that us. {
destroyer was ID in the German war