The Wanganui Chronicle TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1939. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT RETREATS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 31, 7 February 1939, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1939. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT RETREATS

Q.XCE again President Roosevelt has eaten his words. He lias denied that he placed America's frontiers in France. Unfortunately for him, this time, the records of his speech appear to he so strongly established that it is impossible for the statement to be set down as a mistake.

It is unfortunately true that President Roosevelt’s recent public life has been characterised by a blowing hot and blowing cold alternatively, resulting in a confusion in the minds of the public of America and of his admirers in other countries. His statement which he recently denied, however, while sounding as though he really meant to stand by the democracies, only indicated a willingness to trade with them in the event of a great war breaking out. The trading is to be done on a strictly “cash and on delivery” principle, the delivery to be made in the United .States.

Such a trading basis would undoubtedly give to America the profits of war, and to the countries with whom she traded the advantage of being able to draw upon America for supplies. In order that such trade shall be forthcoming, President Roosevelt realises that some preliminary understanding must be arrived at in times of peace, or before actual belligerent activity has broken out. It appears that the President has gone a very long way in providing the British and French Governments with information concerning America’s own armaments because he believes that by so doing he will be using foreign orders to place his country’s munitions supply on an extended basis. In acting thus he is undoubtedly serving American interests. It must also be remembered by American apprisers of Roosevelt’s actions that. America is likely to be very seriously embarrassed in the event of a major European war. American exports to the United Kingdom market alone, are of very great importance to the American economy, because that market provides American industry with a large number of orders. A war which went adversely for America’s European customers would cut off from America a very important market, causing widespread unemployment superimposed upon the large-scale employment which exists to-day within the borders of the United States. The discontent which exists in America to-day is so deep that it would be impossible to forecast what a large addition to the ranks of the unemployed would mean. Informed opinion actually fears a strong anti-social movement if largescale additions are made to the existing ranks of the unemployed. America, then, could hardly contemplate a war on the European Continent with indifference, nor could a “detached view be taken of the conflagration. In order to fill the loss of peace-time business it would be essential to have war-time business as an alternative, or for America to go down into the depths of adversity.

America’s experience during the last Great War had its profitable side, but it was by no means altogether enviable. There were times when the American munitions-supplying factories were perilously close to being empty edifices, and it cannot be denied that the nearness of such conditions influenced American opinion very considerably during the last, war period. Although the economic effects of the Great War were longer delayed in America than elsewhere, they have not yet ceased to operate. President Roosevelt realises that despite his New Deal efforts, America would be very much better without the profits of another war, and that the best way of securing the continuance of peace is to range America alongside of England and France. Isolationist sentiment, however, is still exceedingly strong, and Roosevelt has no desire to follow in the footsteps of Woodrow Wilson, his predecessor as a Democrat President. While, therefore, straining at the leash as far as he can go, be continues to retreat so as not to be faced with the issue of American interventionism or isolationism. It may not be a dignified nor inspiring spectacle, but because of the condition of the public mind in America to-day it is probable that no other course is open to him.