MORE LOW BLOWS FROM THE DEMOCRATS. First it was FDR's running mate, Henry Wallace, declaring in a speech last month that Hitler wants a Republican victory in November. This week Governor Lehman of New York chimes in, painting the G.O.P. as the favored party of dictators everywhere. Emmet Crozier of the New York Herald Tribune quotes the Governor as telling the state Democratic convention -- "Nothing that could happen in the United States could give Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and the government of Japan more satisfaction than the defeat of the man who typifies to the whole world the kind of free, humane government which dictators despise -- Franklin D. Roosevelt." Wendell Willkie didn’t mince words in response, as well he shouldn’t, calling the governor’s comments "false, malicious, and subversive."
At least when Mr. Wallace accused Republicans in his Des Moines speech of fighting President Roosevelt at home "as Hitler fought him abroad," he was diplomatic enough to add, "I do not wish to imply that Republican leaders are willfully or consciously giving aid to Hitler." Governor Lehman couldn’t be bothered to do even that much. According to the Herald Tribune, Willkie has demanded such a clarification -- stating clearly that the governor did not intend to impute to the Republican candidate "any other attitude than that of a defender of democracy." Mr. Willkie should get that clarification. Now.
"I WANT TO BE A CAPTAIN, TOO." Gallup may be showing President Roosevelt leading Mr. Willkie by a margin of 55-45 and with a huge electoral-vote advantage, but Republicans have something to brighten their spirits -- the flap over the lightning-fast commission that the President’s son, Elliot Roosevelt, received last week as a captain in the air corps. A Wednesday Chicago Tribune story by William Strand points out that Elliot, who is draft age, will now not only be free from the threat of conscription, but will receive a swell desk job to boot, despite his complete lack of previous military experience. Mr. Strand reports that the news has sparked "a storm of protest from veterans’ organizations and civic groups throughout the country." One chamber of commerce in California has asked Elliott to resign "to avoid endangering the morale of the entire army draft."
The fuss has also inspired brisk sales of anti-Roosevelt buttons reading "I Want to Be a Captain," as well as some appropriately sarcastic letters to congressmen. "I have had several years of R.O.T.C. training and I am now a radio announcer," goes one letter. "Will I be permitted to obtain a reserve commission just like Elliott Roosevelt?" Another letter, sent to Secretary Stimson from a 49-year-old World War veteran, said, "I hereby apply for a commission as a major general in the United States army. I would suggest that, in line with the present policy of the administration, I be placed in charge of the chemical warfare service, since this is the branch of the army I know least about."
It’s way too early to hope this might be a turning point, but surely some veterans and young men facing the draft will be seriously questioning a vote for Roosevelt in the wake of such a naked display of favoritism.
WHAT WILL RUSSIA DO? Barnet Nover acknowledges in Wednesday's Washington Post that the German-Italian-Japanese alliance specifically declares that Soviet Russia’s status will not be challenged by the Axis. But he adds that "Russia cannot afford to ignore the fact that her most dangerous neighbors, east and west, are now formally allied," and reviews Stalin’s three choices on what to do about it --
"Generally speaking, [Russia]...can join the new combination; she can sit on the fence waiting for a favorable opportunity to throw her weight to one side or the other; or she can assume toward the German-Italian-Japanese combination an attitude of outright hostility. Under existing circumstances, the latter is the least likely of the three possibilities open to her. A victory of Germany and Italy in Europe and of Japan in Asia might well have perilous consequences to the Soviet Union.....At the same time, however, there is no immediate danger of a conclusive German-Italian triumph in Europe or a Japanese triumph in Asia. And the more Hitler exhausts Germany’s resources in attempting to destroy British resistance and the longer Japan extends herself in the Far East, the longer Russia will be safe....The second possibility – that Russia will actively join forces with the three-power combination – would also seem to be unlikely....The most likely course Stalin can be expected to pursue at this time is that of benevolent neutrality toward the Berlin bloc. He has little to gain by actively opposing it. He has nothing to gain by joining that bloc. He has much to gain by getting Germany, Italy, and Japan to extend themselves and steadily become weaker vis-a-vis Russia than they are today."
COULD THE U.S. HAVE APPEASED JAPAN? Also in Wednesday’s Washington Post, Ernest K. Lindley takes up the arguments put forth in the Chicago Tribune and elsewhere that the Roosevelt Administration is to blame for Japan’s turn toward the Axis. He points out that U.S. policy in the Far East has had its share of zigs and zags, and that current get-tough approach actually has a long and bipartisan pedigree --
"During 1929, under President Hoover and Secretary of State Stimson, we intervened in the dispute over the Chinese Eastern Railway, in what was then Manchuria, as if that were an area in which we had important rights. During 1931 and 1932, under the same management, we made ourselves the spearhead of opposition to Japanese expansion into Manchuria. We were brought to the verge of war with Japan over a territory in which our interests were negligible....After Roosevelt entered the White House, however, the custom of berating Japan in notes was suspended, and by 1936 the President was boasting privately that Japanese propaganda had turned away from the United States and toward Great Britain....In 1937, when the Japanese began to push into China proper, a new situation arose. We remonstrated, although we were careful not to get ahead of the British....With the passage of time, our hopes of the restoration of a moderate government in Japan have been disappointed. The trend has been the other way. Japan has set forth a claim to domination of all of the Far East – Manchukuo, China, and of Oceania, Indo-China, and Siam -- and probably also, in due time, the eastern part of Siberia and perhaps India as well."
Taking a swipe at the isolationist crowd, Mr. Lindley argues that this timeline proves Japan chose her course independently of Western influence -- "Could anyone except a gullible believer in bedtime stories believe that Japan promulgated these imperial ambitions because of anything that we said? They promulgated them and are carrying them out in spite of everything that we, and others, have said. Like other expanding imperial powers, they will not be checked until they are checked by force."
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