Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1941. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S WAY.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 October 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1941. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S WAY.

TT has been the peculiar fortune of President Roosevelt to be accused by American isolationists of attempting to stampede his country into war and, particularly of late, to be accused by a large and growing section of his countrymen of shoving inexcusable deliberation in face of Nazi aggression. As to the last-mentioned aspect of the situation, a Washington message received yesterday described the President’s Navy Day speech as an effort to place himself again in the leadership of t le country on the question of America’s part in the war. It was added that the American capital had been buzzing during the week over a belief that the President’s advisers had induced him to take a hesitant course on revision of the Neutrality Act, “giving Mr Wendell Willkie an extraordinary opportunity to demonstrate clearly that popular sentiment is far ahead of the Administration on the cpiestion.” Tn fact, Air Roosevelt spoke of the revision of the Neutrality Act, by the elimination, of what he called “hamstringing provisions” as the course of honesty and realism. He said also: “We wished to avoid shooting, hut the shooting has started”— in other words he declared that the United States was already in the war and nothing more uncompromising surely could be desired than his further declaration: — The forward march of Hitlerism can be stopped and will be stopped. Very simply and very bluntly, we are pledged to pull our own oar in the destruction of Hitlerism, and when we have helped to end the curse of Hitlerism we shall help to establish a new peace which will give to decent people everywhere a better chance to live and prosper in security, in freedom and in faith. These words and their context seem to give little enough ground for any suggestion that President Roosevelt is waiting to be shown by the American people the way in which he should go. In Axis countries his Navy Day speech appears to have been interpreted as making war between the Axis and the United States inevitable. An official spokesman in Rome—the jackal in this case presumably speaking for his master —has said that the Axis will attack United States convoys as soon as they enter the war zones and thereby bring America into the war. That no doubt, indicates accurately the stage to which events have been carried. Though it comes from Washington, the statement that the President’s latest speech was an effort to place himself again in the leadership of the country on the question of America’s part in the war rests on a rather obvious misreading of the facts. It is true that Mr Roosevelt has been in no haste to commit himself to this or that act of policy opening the way to American participation in the war, but history may be expected to credit him with having done more than any other man to build up and consolidate the growing mass of American public opinion which holds that the United States must use its full powers in destroying Hitlerism if American democracy is to be made secure. Over and over again, Mr Roosevelt has set impressively before his countrymen the choice they are bound to make between the kind of world they want to live in and the kind of world Hitler and his hordes would impose upon them. It is true that the President has shown himself in no haste io carry his policy to its logical conclusion, but the determining factor has been the development of American public opinion. If it is true now, as it seems to be, that President Roosevelt is assured of overwhelming public support in a policy directed resolutely to the destruction of Nazism, it is equally true that not many months ago the ruling desire of a very great majority of the people of the United States was to keep out of the war. One thing now demonstrated is that President Roosevelt, besides being endowed with the qualities that enable him to give his country noble leadership, is an astute tactician. He undoubtedly has in a measure waited for the development of public opinion, but even in the time of waiting he lias done much to arouse and awaken his countrymen and so to lay firm foundations for the resolute and uncompromising policy laid down in his Navy Day speech.