NOT WITH A BANG BUT A WHIMPER

In his speech to the Western Hemisphere last Saturday, President Roosevelt stated his foreign policy. It is America's settled policy, he said, to give Britain all possible aid. He stripped it of all technicalities, leaving no one in doubt as to his feelings. Last year Congress also cleared up all doubt on the war situation. The Neutrality Act was passed as a result of the great feeling in this country against our entering the war. In order to see how these two facts have affected each other it is necessary to go back to last, summer.

In late August of this year the President saw fit to send fifty destroyers to England in exchange for a few naval bases. The destroyers have made their journey and have forgotten. Whether the barter was constitutional has never been settled upon by any branch of the government except the executive. The Congress, supposedly the representative body of the nation, had to accept the trade. Mr. Roosevelt seemed to ignore the Neutrality Law which definitely states that the United States is a neutral nation and will not give any military aid to a warring country. Congress passed this act and Congress had the vote of the people behind it. The boats were only the first step towards a great movement of a steady stream of ships, aircraft and possibly men to the English. One man has given this military aid to England and no one has made the effort to check him.

His definition of all possible aid must include war materials and war implements. The latest dispatch from Washington forecasts the gift of the flying fortresses to Winston Churchill and his government: The first step has been taken and the second is being contemplated. How many more are on the fire? With the initial step comes the acceptance of all succeeding ones.

Within the next year we may go to war. If we do, it may not be an act of the whole people working through their elected representatives, but probably by just this sort of indirect extralegal route.