The Natinal Emergency --- What It Should Mean
The Natinal Emergency --- What It Should Mean Elmer Davis Says: Send U.S. Ships, Planes, Flyers to Britain Now ¦•"»¦ (Mr. Davis noted news commentator and author, has recently returned...
...The President might decide that the British Islands themselves are 'bases for attack upon the Americas...
...Anything 'e8S *^an tnat's ""^ enough...
...but he lags far behind reality...
...The morale of the British is superb and their courage is beyond praise...
...The proclamation of an unlimited national emergency, as well as the tenor and content of the President's address, will rally the nation in this crisis...
...They do not resemble the ordinary conquerors, bad as those were...
...If once their situation became desperate,' they might crack before we could make up our minds to act or take effective steps to help them...
...I have in mind an instance of over 200,000 kilowatts in eastern Iowa .that has been lagging for official approval and could be rapidly advanced to meet the intense needs of a huge production area in Iowa and Illinois, including the U. S. arsenal at Rock Island...
...Readers of The New Leader are acquainted with the hierarchy of the advance guard: Coughlin, Pelley, McWilliams, Winrod, Dilling, Cameron, and a dozen others...
...T'HE British Government has done as good a job as it can * in the circumstances...
...Here are a few ~ suggestions: 1. Penalize all public utterances, either written or spoken, designed to create a popular feeling against religious or racial minorities...
...and less than enough is little better than nothing at all...
...With the national emergency now officially in existence, no one can fail to do his share...
...This argument is without substance...
...And the second is that the United States must seize the initiative...
...4. Constructing huge government steam plants in large industrial areas, and tying them in with private systems...
...And very shrewdly and wisely he asserted that America—that is the President—and not Hitler will be the judge of what defensive action we may need to take anywhere in the world...
...Labor's significant contribution is to assure maximum production and superlative quality by continuous operation and conscientious performance of work...
...This abjective can best be attained by avoiding strikes, resorting to negotiation, conciliation, and, if need be, voluntary arbitration...
...But it is even more dangerous, in time of crisis to grant a free rein to the enemies of democracy...
...He is forced to reduce his standard of life to the subsistence level or lower...
...and that means that American democracy, as we have known it throughout our history, will be through...
...The cooperatives are still your best answer...
...When a nation is at war, many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will, not be endured so long as men fight, and that no court could regard them as protected by any constitutional right...
...Public Must Crack Down on High Prices ll/E may as well make up our minds that prices are going " up and going up plenty* Shortage of materials, government aid to farmers, higher wages—each will play its part...
...To beat Hitler, we are going to have to do more than we grt doing now, and do it just as soon as we can...
...Steadily and regularly the British Government has gone to women, in able and dignified advertisements, teaching them how to get the most out of every food shilling...
...his labor organization is destroyed...
...We cannot defend ourselves when the enemy strikes at the Atlantic seaboard...
...could be -reinforced not only by American planes but by American dyers...
...Provision should be made so that they can ultimately be taken .over by a comprenVnsive federal system of generation and transmission...
...It might even impose a certain discretion on some gentlemen who have been addressing mass meetings with veiled suggestions of insurrection and coup d'etat...
...The material is sent out to every newspaper in the country, but if they use any of it, it's on page . 26 -in small type...
...he might.act accordingly...
...For the present, labor need not sacrifice any of the gains it has achieved in recent years, such as improved working conditions, social and labor legislation, or the betterment of general standards...
...One fact is that America is in mortal danger of having real isolation forced upon her...
...Justice Holmes...
...We are still taking^half measures against an enemy whose victories have been scored by taking double measures...
...David J. Saposs Says,: Labor JobyIs Top Production, Ousting of Provocateurs T^HE President's statesmanlike talk has contributed ma-* terially towards clarifying the issues and problems presented by the World War...
...We must attack the Axis powers wherever a favorable opportunity presents, not to meet Hitler's aggression, but to deprive him of the advantage of calling the next move...
...It calls attention to the incontrovertible fact that the totalitarians, irrespective of race, color or geographic location, are a standing menace to our democratic way of life...
...Ships, Planes, Flyers to Britain Now ¦•"»¦ (Mr...
...The lines might.be constructed through federal agencies...
...It is not a question of "outlawing strikes...
...It was called and run by the Kremlin...
...it would cut down the wanton loss of ships and munitions and food and fighting power that is still going on...
...The defense industries are full of German and Communist agents, skilled mechanics who are engaged in industrial sabotage...
...We answer him "om our hearts...
...otherwise we shall fall under suspicion of the unpardonable sin of hitting soft...
...CPEOIFICALLY, what shall we do...
...acquired under the democratic way of life are taken away from him...
...He can order our armed forces, withqut...
...like St...
...and those who know how much is- at stake in the present conflict must not be lulled into a sense of security by the President's brave words...
...When we become reconciled to this fact, we shall?be prepared to plan intelligently for defense...
...but our failure to pledge them our more active support is a gambler's folly...
...a. declaration of war, to checkmate German expansion in the Atlantic...
...We have established naval bases from the North Atlantic to the equator...
...That was a dangerous sign...
...They would deliver power to the private electric systems as well as directly to industries...
...Other social and economic gains that he has...
...Because the only thing that in the long run will keep prices down in a war set-up is popular action...
...Thus fet^we have quibbled and compromised...
...The current argument against an active declaration" of war rests mainly on the assumption that we are doing all that lies within our power now...
...If that miracle takes place in the near future, the war against Hitler will be mcrre than half won...
...It might mean more than that...
...We shall not rest, nor shall our fork feSt our hands unt51 Hit,er and aH he st»nds _ . ~*Te-been driven from the earth in our generation la° forever...
...Of course...
...I ABOR has a twofold function in assuring the success of *"* our defense program...
...to war when the first shot is fired...
...The American defense of Iceland at this moment would be far more important than the fortification of nearer bases for a remote eventuality which the defeat of Hitler would remove...
...it would notify the nation that our primary and paramount business is to beat Hitler...
...Lewis Mumford Urges United States Attack Axis Armies Now TPHE President's speech pleased both the isolationists and * the gKj^ps that have been working for more active participation in the war...
...Pressing for needed rate reductions...
...Instead of waiting till every branch of our military services is fully prepared before we strike, we must strike at orice with whatever force we ran command, in order to be fully prepared...
...It's tough, because all their work has accented quality rather than price...
...DUT the implications of his speech raise other questions as well, just as important, if not more so, than the military Problems...
...From Louis Waldman "T'HE American people have now heard the call they have been waiting for...
...In most localities, especially in the industrial areas of the East, prevailing electric rates are high: they are a hindrance to defense progress...
...We are at war...
...In his general outline the President brought out three facts, and he did it very clearly...
...It is a question of proximity and degree...
...They can be '•sily mediated...
...it would make possible various kinds of preventive action that are difficult if not impossible now...
...But their resistance and our preparations will count for nothing unless we are ready to fight, and unless we have the moral courage V) declare our .intentions openly and put all our heart and strength behind them...
...If the United States were in the war, we could not -only take over the task of convoy and patrol without subterfuge...
...He can have able watchdogs *'on the look-ou^, he can try to get more money and more people in the Food and Drag Administration and the Federal Trade Commission...
...It matters not whether it be German Nazism, Italian Fascism, Japanese Greater Asiaism, or Russian Communism—all possess the same vicious antidemocratic qualities...
...And it will be fired...
...It is always dangerous to tamper with the Bill of Rights...
...J To prepare a defense against armed forces is not enough...
...We can take all bases which might be osed to attack this hemisphere—the Azores, the Cane Verde Wands, Dakar...
...7. Rigid supervision of all Axis agents on diplomatic passport...
...And they will do so not merely in a straight economic action, but in a psychological sense...
...It will go down as a mere gesture if America ultimately fails to defeat HitleTism...
...Onry action will bring home to our countrymen a full realization of the need of action...
...Nothing can now be allowed to stand in the way of greater and greater production and of the total mobilization of our resources for national defense and aid to Britain...
...only the nation that attacks first has the odds on its side...
...Let's get them out now...
...Then, of course, there is the bare possibility that this curious speech was made with the knowledge, which the public does not possess, that peacefeelers on both sides are in the air...
...For should Britain lose, the America we know and love will also lose...
...An extra year or two of time has been bought by too many nations at the cost of eventual disaster, for us to be encouraged to repeat their mistake...
...He may be ahead of the American people in his sense of what must be done, though the Gallup polls do not now indicate this to be a fact...
...Goodness knows...
...Roosevelt has the habit of following big talk with little actions: he has only at this late date begun to give our preparations for war the pressure they should have been subjected to a whole year ago...
...they do not constitute a complete program for internal defense...
...The Vultee strike was not a strike by American labor...
...Apart from effective planning and organization, this depends upon adequate and cheap electric power...
...To do so we must impose new Hnrfta-tions upon the civil rights of speech and assembly...
...5. Facilitating the extension of public organization...
...It is madness to take that risk...
...The other fact is that in this struggle there can be no inch thing as passive defense...
...Now, there are two factors that are all-important in the present situation...
...It's even teaching them how to cook— and let me tell you that, in England, that means a great change...
...but what I believe jbouid now be done, whether by executive or Congressional jetton, is whatever may be necessary to beat Hitler...
...We face a "clear and present danger...
...Such construction can be accomplished through special federal agencies provided under the emergency situation...
...to land on French beaches and try to light its way across, Europe...
...The first is that we must make sure that Britain will, at all costs, continue fighting until we are ready to put forward a maximum military effort...
...The help we have given them is insignificant compared with the help they have given us...
...Up to now it has put a ceiling on cotton staples and it has saved the housewife one cent a year on her pepper...
...From Frank Kingdon' T^B Presidenfhas spoken as a clear-sighted leader of a brave people...
...Leon Henderson's price work can be— should be—coordinated with'these groups...
...2. Soeeding up the development and extension of the federal and other public hydro electric projects...
...Germany cannot beat our industrial plant, if America is united and aroused and led...
...Are these suggestions dangerous...
...They cannot be isolated or confined to one nation or one continent...
...VNLY «ne act will guarantee the continued resistance of the British Commonwealth of Nations, no matter what the temporary odds against it...
...But belligerency would mean that we were ready to do 1 whatever nhght be Required...
...we could at once shaTe the tasks and the dangers of our democratic allies on every ocean...
...What'll the manufacturer or processor do...
...A declaration of a national emergency, without the President's having the strength to cut off relations with the Axis powers, betrrajrs an alarming ineptitude for action...
...He may order convoys to protect our aid to Britain...
...These are the questions in every informed American's mind.I If Roosevelt will really implement his powers and his own' sincere and clear desire to root out totalitarianism in this world, then Hitler will not win...
...And above all...
...To postpone action until the situation becomes desperate is only to hasten that desperate moment, and to play into the hands of the appeasers in both England America if and when that moment comes...
...In^ giving himself unlimited emergency powers, he can do any number of things...
...But more interesting are the President's implications...
...But if these things are not done—if the fellow-travelers are not driven out of public life and their miasmatic influence everywhere kiled, if labor is not helped to rid itself of the Stalinazi curse, if the honest, non-profiteering industrialists are not given their head to go ahead and produce —then Hitler is most likely to win this war for the simple reason that Britain cannot hold out indefinitely...
...Step-ups and regional adjustments can be attained by: 1. Tying in as promptly as possible the important power systems, especially in sections of the country where defense production-requires uninterrupted power supplies...
...There should be federal encouragement of municipalizatiop, especially in the larger cities where aefense activities are foremost...
...IDO not know precisely what powers the declaration of : emergency confers on the President...
...Washington has to compete with the advertisers, and the only way to do it is by paying for space in the periodicals and for time on the air...
...Non-belligerency, lid, short of war, makes sense if it is enough to beat Hitler...
...We must act quickly, effectively, aggressively...
...The doctrine of the Civil Libertines that, under the guise of "liberal" convictions, fellow-travelers should be allowed to sabotage our spiritual unity, plays more than anything else into the hands of the totalitarian propagandists...
...Keep your eye on what they're doing and you'll find ways to help them along...
...Honest strikes by American labor are not dangerous...
...We can defend ourselves only aggressively...
...and above all...
...The advance gstard of Nazism fights with words—words designed to pave the way for goose-stepping legions...
...In short, the President can wage undeclared war on Germany—in a military sense...
...Belligerency would probably not.mean much military action, -unless the Japanese went out on a limb...
...What are we waiting for—a miracle...
...The individual woiker, on the other hand, automatically becomes a slave...
...While under totalitarianism capital loses its freedom, the individual businessman may continue to enjoy most of his comforts and considerable freedom...
...Above all, it would put American production on a war footing...
...Only men of competence and character, in whom this country abounds, and not careerists and opportunists can lick Hitler...
...We^ire organizing a civilian defense program...
...Roy Tozier Outlines 8-Point Plan to Curb U.S...
...FINALLY, will the Administration face the fact that quite * a few of the white-haired boys of the New Deal are incompetent and confused, and lacking in character, and some of them cannot rid themselves of their Stalinoid background...
...able conflict between freedom and tyranny, between "amenity and cruelty, between America and Nazi wmany...
...Not all totalitarian soldiers carry guns...
...Benjamin Stolberg Says: Emergency Useless Unless Foreign Agents Are Ousted *T*HE President's address of May 27, as important to * America as was Lincoln's first inaugural address, had a eurious quality about it...
...Suppose there's a top price set on fish or cheese—or cotton...
...These are merely suggestions...
...Labor's stake in this historic and tragic crisis is as great as that of any other social group...
...It would mean that American warships would help British warships see to it that the supplies we are manufacturing for Britain really get there (our Atlantic patrol is useful, but other measures would be mere useful...
...The only miracle that will save us is the courage to take the initiative and lead the counter-attack against the Nazi barbarians...
...We must defend ourselves wherever the exigencies of this, world struggle demand...
...Specially good is the work of the Federal Trade Commission and that of the new Food and Drug Administration (in the Federal Security Agency...
...Such central plants would make mass power available at the very low cost of about five mills per kilowatt hour...
...The very ability to make such a decision, without the immediate threat of Britain's downfall, would count as a capital moral victory for democracy: no small achievement...
...It was general in its positive statements, but specific in its implications...
...bat that begins to seem doubtful...
...Our right to do so—in fact, our duty to do so—was stated year* ago by that great liberal...
...If so, the fact if not the details should be made known to the public...
...and that is an open declaration of war by the United States against the Axis powers...
...If we shrink from the final encounter, if we attempt to eame ourselves out of responsibility, if we slide into the war instead of facing it openly, we only prolong the agony of war and postpone indefinitely the possibility of victory...
...8. Require all meetings to admit members of the working press...
...This immediate participation they cannot envisage...
...3. Require all anti-democratic organizations to reveal sources of-income...
...Not merely vfould the American navy relieve the British fleet of some of its back-breaking load...
...Helen Woodward Says...
...In times of tfcis conflict, he has called us to ttion, united action in a high cause...
...2. Prohibit' the distribution of Nazi and Communist propaganda through the mails...
...It isn't fair to judge yet, or even to guess what it will do But, look at what will happen...
...Large additions are quickly available at Niagara, subject to joint action by Canada and the United States...
...Already power shortages have appeared in sections of the country where defense activities are pressing...
...J~ ^ If we are to defend our democratic order against these internal enemies, we most exercise some control over their words and actions...
...The totalitarians aim to destroy our entire civilization...
...There are three government bureaus that are doing a good job of getting you better quality in your goods, and more honest claims in your^advertisefnehts...
...Indeed, in as rich a country as ours, it should be possible even during this great emergency to raise the standards of the lower income groups...
...T'HE President can do little...
...and <we could use our fleet as a weapon of maneuvers, instead of wasting its potentialities as a mere weapon of passive defense in the Pacific...
...it would mean that the R.A.F...
...One would think our government had learned nothing from the fate of the Dutch, the Belgians, and the French...
...These, too, are enemies—more formidable, perhaps, then 16 panzer divisions...
...it would annul the menace of the vengeful Darlan and his French navy...
...They reassure the people that their government is committed to the task of defeating totalitarianism, and is determined to do it as soon as possible...
...In one of his moat famous decisions he wrote: "The question in evt>ry case is ^whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent...
...A German "victory in the Battle of the Atlantic means that the United States and Canada will inevitably be faced in time by four and a half hostile totalitarian hemispheres, including South America...
...And we are at war...
...We have appropriated billions of dollars to equip and train an army...
...Davis noted news commentator and author, has recently returned from England...
...We will be no more irrevocably committee...
...and we are acting tardily against an enemy who has always jumped first...
...John Bauer Urges Government Operation of All Power Projects THE national emergency declared by President Roosevelt last week requires speeding up defense production to a maximum...
...3. Constructing additions tb pr^ent private power systems...
...It will be a great speech if the President implements his implications...
...Roosevelt's admirable words of defi-*^ ance, the United States has not yet broken off diplomatic relations with the Axis powers, nor have we rid our country of the army of spies, saboteurs, agents of the Gestapo, and "commercial representatives" who have long been "legally" active here, with or without diplomatic immunity...
...The time and place will be determined by Adolf Hitler...
...This applies to such existing systems as TVA and Bonneville, but also to long-considered and deferred projects...
...It must strive for maximum production and it must develop a superlative vigilance...
...Likewise, labor must be constantly on the alert against subversive elements within its ranks who are planted there to cripple our defense program by disrupting and slowing down production by fomenting unnecessary strikes, unduly prolonging justifiable strikes, and indulging in various forms of sabotage...
...There are many other important hydro projects whose authorization and development could be expedited...
...Each one's task within his ability is clear...
...In a world of doubt and chaos, pa has given us a courageous and enlightening leader-el'M has m*de P*nin underlying and irrecon...
...On that point, every one should read Hanson Baldwin's magnificent study, "United We Stand...
...Will the Administration <ret rid of the fellow-travelers in the Administration...
...4. Prohibit the use of uniforms and ban military drill by private organizations...
...Inasmuch as the private holding company systems are in the course of readjustment under the requirements of the federal Holding Company Act, in many instances public acquisition and operation of the electric properties would facilitate national planning,- extension and coordination of power resources, and reduction in costs...
...One could not form an immediate reaction, at least I couldn't...
...Will the Administration face the well-known fact that the CIO is controlled, in its bottle necks, by the Communist "Party...
...The third fact ii that America must defend the freedom of the seas everywhere at, all costs...
...In the long run, you'll have to do your own price picketing...
...for in this war...
...In other words, labor—like other social groups —must develop a highly critical tolerance and be constantly vigilant for fifth columnist activities...
...Fascists' Civil Liberties IT is both futile and dangerous to try to fool ourselves * about the matter...
...5. Prohibit solicitation of funds to be sent to the Axis powers and their allies...
...I can name quite a few of them...
...Leon Henderson's department (Office of Price Administration) is working away, and it may do, a good job...
...There may be reasons, diplomatic or military, known to the administration but unknown to the rest of us, which make a declaration of war inadvisable at this time...
...Our Department of Agriculture has been doing the same thing for years—but who sees it...
...Like all momentous speeches by leaders who have it in their power to affect history at the crossroads, this speech will have to be judged by the deeds which follow it...
...What is danererous are strikes not by bona fide American labor, but those called by the Stalinazi agents...
...It is barely possible that the speech was soft in its outline, but displayed the bit stick in its implications, because Britain feels that she cannot win the war without our immediate participation...
...Provisions should be made'jfor federal financing if needed, also for assistance in engineering and construction so as to expedite development and keep costs to a minimum...
...Will the Administration protect American labor from having its defense efforts sabotaged by Moscow, which is Hitler's most important Axis partner...
...His freedom in selecting jobs is either restricted or entirely done away with...
...r\ESPITE all of Mr...
...Does this mean that he will Permit'defense organization to be tightened and to render it <fi|cient by delegating authority to the ablest men available, without regard to whether or not they have criticized the Administration in the past...
...But the Middle West wants money for its wheat and butter, and California thinks that fruit and can:.od goods are going to run short, and the East thinks that a few cents extra on a shirt isn't going to hurt anybody...
...But then, no one need doubt that the Administration is anxious to do that...
...When a man's pay envelope contains a couple of dollars more, or when Tommy has his first job in four years, or when the farmer's getting a nice price for bis corn . . . well, none of them is in a mood to worry about the five cents extra for butter or the one cent extra for milk...
...To be sure, Mr...
...He now has almost dictatorial powers, as he should have—industrially, economically, financially—to en-*M« us to defeat Hitlerism...
...but if we had to do serious fighting, it would be fighting that we should have to do sooner or' later anyway, and our prospects of victory would be considerably better with the British Empire fighting at oar side...
...Perhaps they point the direction...
...Lower the quality, of course...
...Indeed, in many-respects labor has more at stake than capital...
...nobody need take seriously Lindbergh's bogy of a new A.E.P...
...Thanks to the courage and endurance of the British people and their equally brave comrades from the cpnquered countries, we have had a chance, which we have seised far too sluggishly and paOively, to push our re-armament and get ready for active fighting...
...Among other things, it is reaching the public through paid advertising . . . and .the public— there as well as here—has formed the habit of being educated by the advertisements...
...Lawrence, ' which should be promptly provided for by Congress, and then carried to completion as rapidly as possible...
...and we may have to do different kinds of things...
...Cape Verde Islands, and Dakar, it would be worth while to draw "part of our Pacific fleet into the Atlantic...
...6. Frovide for federal censorship of such foreign-made films as "ISieg im Westen" and "Der Feldzug in Polen...
...To achieve the immediate occupation of the Azores, the...
Vol. 24 • June 1941 • No. 23
