MR ROOSEVELT’S REFLECTION.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 November 1940, Page 4

MR ROOSEVELT’S REFLECTION.

JN British and Allied countries, Air Roosevelt’s election for a third term as President of the United States will be welcomed unreservedly. The best possible assurance is thus given that' the American democracy will continue to present an uncompromising front to the totalitarian dictatorships and to make its material resources freely available, in aid short of war, to Britain. Both Presidential candidates, it is true, were pledged to this policy, but while there is no doubt that Aly. Roosevelt can be relied upon to carry his pledge into effect, it is by no means clear that Air AVillkie would have been in a position to do the same. While bis personal integrity and sincerity need not be questioned, it is a material fact that a number of his principal political associates were until recently isolationists of the deepest dye. Like his Republican opponent, Air Roosevelt is pledged to do everything in his power to keep the United States out of the war, but it may now be assumed confidently that he carries a majority of his countrymen with him in his cleareyed perception of the truth that the decisive extirpation of totalitarian aggression is as vital to the future safety of the United States as to that of other free nations. Had Air AVillkie been installed at the White House it is at least possible that he might have been subjected to powerful pressure from commercial and other interests demanding a compromise peace with the dictators.

In electing Mr Roosevelt for a third term, the American people have broken a time-honoured and cherished tradition. The event is without precedent and so much the more on that, account stands out as an impressive demonstration of faith in a tried and trusted leader and in the policy he has shaped. The personal tribute to Mr Rooseevlt is altogether remarkable. He was opposed not only by those who are of another political faith than his own and by various dissident and dissatisfied elements, but by members of his own party who maintained that a departure from the tradition under which a President, is limited to two terms could never in any circumstances be .justified. Whatever may be thought of Mr Roosevelt’s election eve allegation that he was being opposed by an unholy alliance, the body of his declared opponents certainly included astonishingly incongruous elements—for example the Wall Street financial interests and Mr John L. Lewis, leader of the militant Congress of Industrial Organisations. The American Presidential election of 1940 seems likely to be remembered as one in which a majority of the nation, in a time of great anxiety and amid many distractions, demonstrated its ability to distinguish between essentials and nonessentials and subordinated all other considerations to that of securing a continuance of effective and dependable leadership.