An Hour of Urgency

Five days after Franklin Roosevelt returned to his desk, the German Foreign Office intimated that continued peace between the Reich and the U. S. hung in the balance. A Nazi spokesman complained of U. S. "pinpricks." A warning to the U. S. came from the Rome press. The Axis, having for months ignored not only U. S. aid to Britain but the whole U. S. defense program designed to thwart its plans for world domination, had decided to try talking tough.

This change of tone suggested that perhaps Franklin Roosevelt had really touched the Axis' quick with his increasing and increasingly pointed measures to strengthen the Axis' great foe. It suggested even more strongly that the Axis had decided to take advantage of existing isolationist sentiment in the U. S. to divide and confuse the biggest "pluto-democracy," in order to slow up aid to Britain at a vital moment in the war.

The President in this hour of urgency had two ends in view. One was speed to meet a grim short-term deadline--the fair skies of spring in England, when Hitler may invade Britain. The other was to expand the whole U. S. economy into enormous productivity for the long-term struggle against a possibly victorious Axis --a project that was moving like a big river, so broad that the actual speed of the current was almost imperceptible.

Of these two ends, the first was more immediate. The President moved to answer criticisms of the Defense Commission, by a new organization. He turned laconic Commissioner William Knudsen into a pamphleteer to state the "terrible urgency." plead with the U. S. to "roll up their sleeves."

To London's vital outpost, the Ambassadorship to the Court of St. James's, he prepared to send no blundering politico but one of the ablest career diplomats in the Foreign Service, shrewd, handsome Norman Armour, now Ambassador to Argentina. Mr. Armour's record was a quick index to his ability: posts at Paris (twice). Petrograd, Brussels, The Hague, Montevideo, Rome. Tokyo, Port-au-Prince, Ottawa, Santiago. Buenos Aires, Washington.

But Mr. Roosevelt went further. He outlined in general terms an entirely new form of aid to Britain. At a press conference, after telling newsmen that there was "no news today." he held forth in monologue for 45 minutes. From it emerged the shape of his plan to aid Britain more directly without tangling in such political barbed wire as the Johnson and Neutrality Acts, for moves to amend either act would mean filiblustery months of debate in Congress while England was being bombed barren.

Mr. Roosevelt's plan was bold. First he dismissed the proposal (made both by Mrs. Roosevelt and by Alf M. Landon) that the U. S. give Britain cash outright. Proud Britons wouldn't welcome gifts, he said. Then he dismissed, as narrow-minded and banal, suggestions to change the Johnson & Neutrality Acts, then lend Britain money. After a brief backhand smash at people who think in traditional terms about finances, he outlined his plan: the U. S. will pay for all future British arms orders, will lease or mortgage war materials to Britain under a "gentlemen's agreement" whereby the British will repay in kind after the war. The British were now being told to go ahead, order all they need up to $3,000,000,000 worth, without worrying over their ability to pay or U. S. ability to deliver. Although legal means of carrying out this plan appeared still to be lacking, it was virtually a moral commitment made in advance.

Fact was that the U. S., in trying to aid Britain, was still producing more bottle necks per week than anything else. But Mr. Roosevelt announced that he would take off that aid "the silly, foolish dollar sign." He had prepared the public for whatever concrete legislation may be proposed. He was still working day & night with the only immediately effective U. S. weapons: dollars and diplomacy. The nation would soon become a gigantic arsenal. Preparedness was to be all-out preparedness. The Budget soon to go to Congress might be an Anglo-American budget. Whether or not it would ever be used to save England, the U. S. would forge a worthy weapon for democracy.

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