• U.S.

THE PRESIDENCY: The President Speaks

8 minute read
TIME

The little oval room was hot. The score of frail, wobbly, gilt chairs were jammed close together on the deep scarlet carpet, to the left of the plain, dark wooden desk.

Perspiring gently, the audience sat still, in some nervousness. In the front row, not grinning, was big, jug-eared Cinemactor Clark Gable, in a chalk-stripe grey suit; his wife, Carole Lombard, in a funnel-like black hat with a veil, a simple black afternoon dress; Secretary of State Cordell Hull, white-faced, as sombre as his dark suit; and the President’s mother, Sara Roosevelt, in a grey-blue evening gown.

Behind sat Cabinet members and wives, Kentucky’s Senator Barkley.

On the desk, its top drilled for microphone wires, were seven microphones, two glasses of water, two new sharp pencils, a notepad, an open package of Camels.

The President came in five minutes before the broadcast, on his small rubber-tired wheel chair, pushed by George Fields, assistant to Prettyman, the President’s valet. Mr. Roosevelt, in a dark blue serge suit, a black bow tie, was in high good humor. In the room’s warmth he mopped his big, tanned face from time to time with a large white handkerchief.

At 9:30 p.m. more than 500 radio stations in the U. S. were tuned to his desk.

Short-wave stations stood by, set to throw his words over the world. Attendance at movies dropped sharply. In barrooms, farmhouses, trains, planes and ships, people waited, listening. His words might mark a turning point in history.

The President spoke in simple terms, clearly, gravely. He addressed himself to the task of stating the U. S. position in the present crisis, the aims of his Administration, the duties of citizens now. He was deliberately trying to lead the nation as he had led it in 1933.

He began his 15th fireside chat by describing the audience he had spoken to on his first: “the great mass of American people.” That description was evidently much on his mind, for more than once he talked down to his audience as he answered the questions men had been asking.

How great is the danger? Mr. Roosevelt said: “Never before since Jamestown and Plymouth Rock has our American civilization been in such danger as now.” Who is the enemy? The President pointed to the tripartite agreement of the Axis powers—Germany, Italy & Japan—in “the threat that if the United States interfered with or blocked … a program aimed at world control—they would unite in ultimate action against the United States.” What is the Nazi program? He said: “. . . To dominate all life and thought in their own country … to enslave the whole of Europe … to use the resources of Europe to dominate the rest of the world.” The President had begun by declaring that his aim was to keep the U. S. out of war, to the third generation. Now he reminded his countrymen that “the Axis not merely admits but proclaims that there can be no ultimate peace between their philosophy of government and our philosophy. …” And in all the speech Mr. Roosevelt was careful to lay down no guarantee that the U. S. can stay out of the war; instead, he said that the course of aid to Britain offered only the “least risk,” the “greatest hope” of staying out.

Why not try for a negotiated peace? This question, a big one to answer, had been clearly raised last week by isolationists. Said Mr. Roosevelt: “The United States has no right or reason to encourage talk of peace, until the day shall come when there is a clear intention on the part of the aggressor nations to abandon all thought of dominating or conquering the world. . . .”

He had listed the enemies: Germany, Italy, Japan. Now came the U. S. supporters: Britain, Greece, China, and—in a significant lone paragraph, this sentence —”In the Pacific is our Fleet.”

Why is this war a concern of the U. S.? “If Great Britain goes down … all of us in the Americas would be living at the point of a gun. … To survive in such a world, we would have to convert ourselves permanently into a militaristic power. . . .” Even if Britain falls, will not the U. S. be safe between its oceans? “At one point between Africa and Brazil the distance is less than from Washington to Denver.”

Why should the Axis powers attack this Hemisphere? “This is the same dangerous . . . wishful thinking which has destroyed … so many conquered peoples. . . . The vast resources and wealth of this Hemisphere constitute the most tempting loot in all the world.”

Should the U. S. become friends with the Axis? “Americans never can and never will do that. . . . No nation can appease the Nazis. No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it. There can be no appeasement with ruthlessness. … A nation can have peace with the Nazis only at the price of total surrender.” He described the Nazi regime in language stripped of both sentiment and profanity: “. . . In their background the concentration camp and the servants of God in chains. . . . Shootings and chains and concentration camps are not simply the transient tools but the very altars of modern dictatorships. They may talk of a ‘new order’ . . . but what they have in mind is but a revival of the oldest and the worst tyranny. In that there is no liberty, no religion, no hope.

“The proposed ‘new order’ is … an unholy alliance … to dominate and enslave the human race.” On the basis of that description he reached his primary point: “The British people are conducting an active war against this unholy alliance. Our own future security is greatly dependent on the outcome of that fight. Our ability to ‘keep out of war’ is going to be affected by that outcome.

“… I make the direct statement to the American people that there is far less chance of the United States getting into war, if we do all we can now to support the nations defending themselves against attack by the Axis than if we acquiesce in their defeat, submit tamely to an Axis victory, and wait our turn to be the object of attack. . . .” Thus Franklin Roosevelt said that the war is “our” war.

What’s to be done? Arm, more and faster—more planes, tanks, guns, freighters, more speed.

To those who shake their heads over the lateness of the hour, he said succinctly: “It will never be earlier. Tomorrow will be later than today.” He categorically denied that the Administration wanted or intended to go to war, said there was absolutely no intention of sending another A. E. F.

To fears that aid-to-Britain would mean involvement, he cited the neutrality of Sweden, Russia and other neighbors who are aiding Germany.

From this position (described by Columnist Raymond Clapper as “war one degree removed from direct hostilities”) he turned to the U. S. problem.

Of the nation as a whole, he demanded “great effort,” and—for the first time—”great sacrifice.” He pledged again the retention of social gains. “I would ask no one to defend a democracy which in turn would not defend everyone in the nation against want and privation.” To labor he said bluntly that the nation “has a right to expect” a responsible attitude; to both labor and management he said bluntly that there must be neither strikes nor lockouts, that the nation “expects and insists” on settlement of differences “by voluntary or legal means.” Since all present efforts “are not enough,” he warned the U. S. to “discard the notion of ‘business as usual.'” Required now would be immediate expansion of defense industries; required soon might be rationing of consumer and luxury goods.

To the fear that sending vast quantities of munitions abroad would strip the U. S. of its own defense armament he said that decisions on what should be sent and what kept were military decisions.

He concluded in clear outline. The function of the U. S.: “We must be the great arsenal of democracy.” The depth of the crisis: “For us this is an emergency as serious as war itself.” The will of the U. S.: “No dictator, no combination of dictators, will weaken that determination by threats of how they will construe that determination.” The outcome: “I believe that the Axis powers are not going to win this war. I base that belief on the latest and best information.” His own course: “As President of the United States I call for that national effort. I call for it in the name of this nation which we love and honor and which we are privileged and proud to serve.”

Around the radios of the world people relaxed; some lit cigarets and had a highball; some prayed and went to bed. The President had laid down a solid foundation for the vast superstructure of concrete demands he must soon make. He had promised little but hope; he was preparing to ask everything but blood. On Jan. 6 he would tell the Congress his specific legislative program. Next day he would send Congress the budget expected to be $17,000,000,000 (roughly $10,000,000,000 for defense, $7,000,000,000 for ordinary expenditures). And on Jan. 20 he would be inaugurated for another four years—a period of potentialities beyond dreams.

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