OUTLAY ON DEFENCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 January 1940, Page 6

OUTLAY ON DEFENCE

‘•Even as through these trade agreements we prapare to co-operate in a world that wants peace, we must likewise be prepared to take care of ourselves if the world cannot attain peace In light of the continuing world uncertainty, I am asking Congress for Army and Navy increases which are based, not on panic, but on common sense .... As will appear :n the annual Budget tomorrow, the only important increase is in the estimate for Defence. Practically all the other items show a reduction. In the hope that we can continue in these days of increasing economic prosperity to reduce the Federal deficit, I am asking Congress to levy sufficient additional taxes to meet emergency spending for defence.” The President did not suggest the nature of the taxes. The extra sum he desires for defence is estimated at 400.000.000 dollars to 500,000,000 dollars. He devoted the last section of his speech to domestic affairs. He said national production had returned to 1929 levels, but the unemployment of millions remained a symptom of maladjusted economy. He rejected the European expedient of putting the jobless to work making armaments and said he would encourage the -‘American way”—re-employment through greater production. Mr Roosevelt concluded with an appeal for national unity. He warned apologists for foreign aggressors and equally “those selfish partisan groups at home, who wrap themselves in a false mantle of Americanism to promote their own economic, financial or political advantage, who are now trying European tricks on us, seeking to muddy the stream of our national, thinking, weakening us in face of danger by trying to set our people fighting among themselves. We must combat such tactics as we would a plague .... "W e must, as a united people, keep ablaze on this continent human liberty, reason, democracy and fair play, as living things to be preserved for a better world to come.