Call for Repeal

The President made it clear last week that the next big order of business before the U.S. was repeal, in whole or in part, of the Neutrality Act--after Prohibition, America's second Noble Experiment.

Reporters had turned out for the White House press conference with little enthusiasm. Lately the President had mumbled no-comments to most questions. The crowd of newshawks shifted irritably in the heat of the office, gazed dully through the French windows at a half-dozen laborers listlessly raking dead leaves on the south lawn. The autumn sun was hot.

The President, coatless, in white shirt, black silk tie, was grave, preoccupied. He began a rambling discourse on the details of the sinking of the Pink Star--Panamanian-registered but U.S.-owned.

From the crowd came the question: "If these ships are to continue running, wouldn't it be easier to arm them as a measure of self-defense?" Yes, said the President, this makes sense; we are probably heading toward the arming of our merchant ships and the merchant shipping of the other American republics.

Would such armament conflict with international law? Certainly not, said Mr. Roosevelt. Wouldn't this require amendment of the Neutrality Act? Yes. To what extent? That was under consideration. A special message to Congress? Don't know yet.

Repeal? Betting was that the President would not ask for full repeal of the Neutrality Act, thus permitting isolationists, appeasers, peacemongers and their assorted following to put on another dramatic show. Best guess was that the President would ask simply for permission to arm merchant ships.

The Neutrality Act's main prohibitions are still in force, just as enacted. These are:

> U.S. vessels may not carry passengers or cargo to any belligerent.

>No U.S. ship or citizen may proceed into a combat area.

> U.S. merchant vessels trading with any foreign State may not be armed.

The prohibition against sending draftees, National Guardsmen and Reserve personnel outside the Western Hemisphere (except to U.S. possessions) is in the 1940 Selective Service and National Guard Acts.

Cash-&-Carry is still theoretically in force, but the Lend-Lease Act has practically nullified it: war supplies can be sold or lent by the U.S. Government to any nation whose defense the President considers necessary to U.S. defense.

Moves. Administration supporters downtown and on Capitol Hill already had their jackknives out, were busily whittling away at the rotten wood of the Neutrality Act. Secretary of State Cordell Hull had already announced that he favored drastic modification or repeal, had said that the Act was as likely to get the U.S. in the war as keep it out.

Senate Foreign Relations Chief Tom Connally said he was ready to arm merchant ships. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox had already urged repeal. Utah's bald, easygoing Senator Elbert D. Thomas came out for repeal. Tennessee's pompous, vest-piped Senator Kenneth D. McKellar introduced a ten-line bill to repeal the Act. Speaker Sam Rayburn predicted that the prohibition against arming U.S. merchant ships would be repealed "after some fighting and scratching around."

Voices. Interventionist leaders in the land were already whooping for much more than Neutrality Act repeal: they wanted a straight-out declaration of war on Germany. In a fighting speech, Editor Paul Smith of the San Francisco Chronicle confessed frankly: "I am a warmonger." In Harvard's Memorial Church, President James Bryant Conant urged an outright declaration of war. In New York newspapers appeared advertisements of the Associated Leagues For A Declared War, urging an immediate declaration. The best argument for this position was the record of Hitler's two best helpers since before World War II began: General Too Little and General Too Late (see cut). Aid to Russia, it began to appear, might already be in charge of the two generals; aid to Britain was, in the President's own words, a trickle, not a torrent; aid to China consisted thus far chiefly of straightening out the curves in the Burma Road. The Neutrality Act had become a weird picket fence between the manifest objectives of Uncle Sam and the manifest objectives of Adolf Hitler.

One thing was certain: this winter would see much direct action toward making the Neutrality Act as dead in letter as it is already in spirit.

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