WILLKIE FOR PRESIDENT. Of the many former Roosevelt supporters who have bolted from the President’s ranks as he chases an unprecedented third term, the most prominent of all is -- Wendell Willkie. An article in Current History points out that Willkie himself actively supported F.D.R.’s first presidential bid, donating $150 to the Roosevelt campaign. Willkie showed good judgement then, as he does now in seeking to replace the President.
Castigated by his enemies as a cynical manipulator and a would-be Caesar, Franklin D. Roosevelt has in fact been a pretty good chief executive and an able administrator whose best-known reforms, such as Social Security, are today endorsed by forward-thinking Republicans and Democrats alike. Most importantly, President Roosevelt saw better than most Americans the dangers of a Nazi victory in the European war and moved as aggressively as he dared to get the U.S. behind the democracies. But contrary to the argument of New Dealers this campaign season, that does not make him indispensable. It’s critical that in this year of unprecedented world crisis that the U.S. stay true to the wise ways of our forefathers. The third-term tradition is indeed a wise one. It periodically renews our democratic faith with a solemn promise -- that America continues to be governed by laws, not by men.
President Roosevelt has served ably, but it is time for him to respect that tradition and step aside in favor of other men -- such as Wendell Willkie. "If you want a good, shrewd, able business man to unscramble the tax and business situation," said former Democratic presidential nominee Alfred E. Smith several months ago, "there’s Wendell Willkie." He is a first-rate utility executive who upholds the rights of unions, a man whose straightforward talk and keen business sense make him better equipped than anyone in the current Administration to clear away the bottlenecks in U.S. preparedness plans. Willkie supports the military draft and all aid to Britain short of war. He proposes not to demolish the New Deal, but to rescue it from its friends -- those who believe the only way to administer programs is through "domination of the legislature, the courts, and the people by big government." He counts many friends in both parties, and his flexibility can be summed up in one of his observations -- "The greatest joy in life is to keep one’s thoughts uncontrolled by formulas."
Certainly one can reject the base insults hurled at Roosevelt by the isolationists ("Warmonger!" "Dictator!") and still oppose giving him a third term. The principle is so much greater than any individual’s views of this President. As minister and author Norman Vincent Peale writes, "I would not vote for my own brother for a third term. No man or men have immunity to the corrosion of power upon their souls." That alone is a very great reason to vote for Wendell Willkie in 1940. Thankfully, we have many other reasons to give him our enthusiastic support.
SEVEN WEEKS OF BOMBING. Frank R. Kelley writes a fairly typical bombing-roundup in Monday's New York Herald Tribune -- "minor attacks" by scattered German formations on southeast England, a "usual nightly alarm" for London, and "vigorous action" by the R.A.F. against Hamburg and Nazi-held invasion ports. As the Nazi bombing campaign reaches the seven-week mark, Britain’s official casualty figures are remarkably low so far -- 8,365 killed, 12,252 injured. The majority of those killed so far have been women, and four-fifths of the total Londoners. Yet lest one get the idea that the Germans have quieted their bombing campaign, the current issue of Time reports it’s merely a change in strategy, with an eye toward random strikes and terror tactics --
"Big bombers and dive bombers stopped flying over Britain almost entirely. In their place went fast light bombers and fighting planes fitted up with racks for a few medium bombs. These droned over high, in small but incessant waves. They made air-raid alarms last longer than ever, interrupting civilian life and preying upon morale more persistently than ever. Bombs were dropped more indiscriminately than ever, yet sometimes with more wickedly calculated aim. For every now and then a lone pilot would cut his motor, glide daringly down and plant his load in a thoroughfare crowded with pedestrians going to work, on a cathedral, a university, a hospital, a railroad station. The Germans called these the ‘trip-hammer’ blows of ‘total air war.’ The British admitted it was the most thoroughgoing treatment they had yet received."
CRUX OF THE WAR DUE NEXT APRIL? Edwin L. James writes in Sunday’s New York Times that the invasion of Britain is definitely off for now, but we won’t know until at least next April whether Britain can turn the tide or not --
"While the long Winter nights bring the British an advantage which they may be expected to use and while the immensity of their target enables them to use the element of surprise to greater extent than can the Germans, it is not to be expected that they can perform any miracle which would cause the collapse of Germany this Winter....On the other hand, the Germans will not be able to starve out Britain in the next six months. Despite sinkings, the British merchant marine is just as large now as at the beginning of hostilities and perhaps a bit larger. This all points to next Spring as being the period of determining interest. If by April 1 the Germans have kept up their torture of London and if during the Winter the British shall have inflicted heavier damage on Berlin, the situation will be shaping up for a real struggle next year. As things stand now, Hitler may appear to have an advantage. He has been enormously successful in 1940 and, despite the liability he has in Italy, seems in a very strong position. However, the British have shown that they can take it....John Bull is still going strong."
Mr. James is also far more optimistic than I that "Britain cannot be defeated in the Mediterranean or in the Orient; Britain must be defeated in Britain." A Britain deprived of links to the vital regions of her Empire is a perilously weakened Britain, and if this winter brings Nazi victories in the Near East, Suez, and Gibraltar, the British may well face 1941 in as bad a shape as they were in during the early days of this past summer, if not worse.
ITALIAN BOMBERS OVER THE PERSIAN GULF. Allen Raymond reports in Monday’s New York Herald Tribune on a "spectacular" though militarily insignificant gesture by Mussolini’s air force -- Italian heavy bombers have raided oil works on the Island of Bahrein in the Persian Gulf, after a flight of 2,800 miles from Milan. Significantly, the targets hit by Italy’s bombs are owned by a pair of U.S. oil companies, Standard Oil of California and the Texas Company. The Fascists claim the raid caused "enormous fires visible at a great distance." On the other hand, a Standard Oil spokesman says a water pipe and an oil pipe were slightly damaged, with no injuries. The oilman's version is probably much closer to the truth.
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