AMERICA'S VIEW OF THE WAR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23719, 27 July 1940, Page 4 (Supplement)

AMERICA'S VIEW OF THE WAR

OF the many speeches made lately by radio broadcast to the world, that given by President Roosevelt was far from being the least important. The interest it attracted over a vast area was 'due to the growing concern, in the United States as well as in British countries, about the practical attitude of the President to the question of aid to the Allies, a question made more urgent by the col lapse of France. In the constitutional system of the United States), the President occupies a unique position with reference to foreign policy. This is plainly set out in the written basis of governmental practice, When the famous Constitution of the United States was devised, mechanical ideas were in their heyday; that was before the day of Wonderful advance of organic science and its extending influence in all avenues of thought. So, as a venture of * applied mathematics in the sphere of politics, this Constitution was rigidly shaped on the principle of checks and balances. Good government was to bo achieved by the creation of three depositories of power, each of them designed to supply a separate, although related, part of the machinery of State. The three were entrusted respectively with legislative, executive and judicial functions. Congress, in its two Houses, was to make laws'; the President, who naturally gathered about him heads of administrative departments and so a Cabinet whose membership was distinct from the personnel of Congress, was to be the executive authority; and the Supreme Court was to decide, in accordance with rules laid down in the Constitution, questions of constitutional import expected to arise from time to time in the working of the system. Relation to Congress Inevitably there has been a series of contests for supremacy between the Legislature and the Executive, and the path of Presidents has not been easy. For example, since the treaty-making power is in the harfds of the President, whereas the ratification of treaties necessitates the passing of a legislative enactment, Congress has stood upon this right against the President—as in the outstanding instance of the refusal to ratify the peace treaty that Wooclrow Wilson had signed, j In the course ot experience, there has i emerged the fact that a great deal do-

By MATANGA

pencils upon the strength and tact of the President when matters of foreign policy have to be handled,' and this fact explains the manifest changes marking the attitude of even so strong a man as Franklin Roosevelt. He has not hesitated, at appropiato times, to declare his constitutional right to handle foreign affairs on behalf of the people of tfic United States, whose elected representative lie is, by a federal vote, in contradistinction to any Congressman chosen for legislative duty by the vote of a State* but he has taken full cognisance of the necessity to respect, and consider Congress'. After all, it" has the power ot the purse, and whatever his right to leadership in, .say, an increase in the Navy, a vote of Congress has been essential to provide the indispensable funds. Such dependence on the legislative unit cannot be ignored, although strong persuasion can be used, very effectively when the Congress majority represents the party that chose him as a candidate for his high oflice and in the main put him there; and President Roosevelt has rightly endeavoured to use all legitimate means to win legislative support for his personal views. In the course of the present war, although his own instinct and judgment have favoured aiding the Allies to the utmost possiblo extent, lie has bowed before powerful opposition in legislative high places. . "Methods Short of War" His personal tendency is away from the rigid "isolationism" of many Congressmen, yet his speeches by broadcast show that, while in some he has given a, definite pronouncement in favour of complete identification with the Allies' cause, in others ho has modified that pronouncement by emphasising the overriding interests, in American opinion, of the Western Hemisphere. To find a practicable way of supporting the Allies • by "methods short of war"—he invented this phrase—has been his care, yet it can be said with full conviction that if entry to the war were deemed necessary, in the interests of America 1 no less than of Europe, and if a great, emotional surge throughout the United States swept away, as once before, all theoretical objection to such entry, no one would bo more heartily glad than President Roosevelt. His striving to persuade Congressmen to co-operate in making an amendment to t\ie Neutrality Act, in favour oft.the Allies, is but one proof among .many > of this bent of his desire. He did not

succeed immediately, but his quiet persistence and patience, until ft better opportunity came, demonstrated the direction of his sympathy. On record are many evidences of the way he looks and of the determination to take it as soon as political circumstances in his own country allow. In January of last year, when delivering his customary Message to Congress, he used <words of wide application. "There comes a* time in the affairs of men," lie said, "when they must prepare to defend not their homes alone, but the tenets of faith and humanity on which their churches, their governments and their very civilisation are founded. The defence of religion, of democracy and of good faith among nations is all the same fight. To save one we must now make up our minds to save all." That was when the outlook in Europe was darkening again, although war was not in sight. Domestic Politics He has not swerved from that conviction. It was powerfully expressed the other day, and in the interval between January of 1939 and July of this year he has voiced it again and again. On the other hand, ho has, in the same interval, practised wise caution in affirming the desirability of maintaining peace, has worked for that epd by direct appeal to the war-makers in Europe, and has been strenuously loyal to the conception of a Western Hemisphere kept as far as possiblo away from the maelstrom. At times the temptation to charge him with instability, has been strong, yet the facts of the position in which he has been placed should be set against the appearance of weakness. Franklin Roosevelt is a strong man—in a position of difficulty. A violent attempt to break out of it Avould have ruined his chance of succeeding in his desire and probably ruined the chances of others like-minded. Domestic politics, and particularly the imminence of another Presidential election, in which he might be a candidate carrying the banner of his party, had to be considered; and the people of the United. States were not prepared to forsake "isolation." They arc not yet prepared to do that. "Methods short of war" will'remain for a while the limit of p/irticipatfon. But it is Jiot necessarily the final and unalterable word, for the frontiers of the Americas ai'o now stretching out, at the bidding of moral principles and international urgencies, and Britain, not the Atlantic, hns become the bastion _ of every people loving liberty and justice, lh the President's speech was a deep acknowledgment of this.