The President's Appeal

Northern Advocate, 8 January 1948, Page 2

The President's Appeal

Though it is to be feared his advice will not be needed until sheer necessity moves the nation. Presidem Truman’s “State of the Union Message” to the United States Congress should receive the close attention of political leaders and parties everywhere.

The President, recognising the vital importance of facilitating European recovery and providing weapons with which to fight domestic inflation, called on members of Congress to abandon party politics, despite the fact that national elections are not far distant.

Acquiescence in the President’s appeal may strain the patriotic spirit which animates the average man. but, as President Truman reiterates once again, the unsettled state of the world, which must react upon the United States, demands that Americans of all political colours should adopt an attitude of cooperation rather than competition in order that home and foreign policies may represent the sum total of all parties’ considered opinion. Harking back to the New Deal, which inspired the Democrats’ poliev upon which the party was defeated by the Repuolicans at the last election, President Truman stressed the peril of inflation which is already assuming dangerous proportions in the United States.

Inflation, he said, is undermining the living standards of millions of families, sending housing costs • to fantastic heights and bringing schools and hospitals into financial distress.

Worst of all, the President added, inflation held the threat of another depression, and proved the desperate need for his anti-inflation programme, which the Republicans rejected. The President may or may not be right in speaking as he has done, but there can be no question that there is imperative need for the United States to take stock of economic conditions as they exist todav, especially in view of the recognised fact that without American aid the restoration of Europe cannot be expected, and unless restoration is effected without delay, the creation of conditions conducive to the spread of Communism is inevitable. A domestically unsound United States would obviously be unable to lend the helping hand which Europe requires so urgently. There is accordingly a clamant call for the cooperation of the American people, through their political leaders, in every movement calculated to stabilise the domestic position of the nation in order that it may assist the stabilisation of its outposts, which are to be found in Western Europe at the moment.