Not until the war was nine months old did the Administration make its first step to] carry. out, its avowed policy measures "stronger than words" to check the adopting Corre
aggressors. Even then the step was a very short and faltering one, but it at least marked change in direction. ' American surplus and obsolete stocks of arms and munitions were made ble to the Allies for cash. On the surface this appears to be of little consequence but until the President announced that the bars were down on such sales the War Department had refused to permit them on the grounds that they would infringe the spirit of the Neutrality Act, and the Admi tration had done nothing to sweep aside the Departmental order. 'The Administration, in fact, had from the beginning of hostilities de~ ferred to the insistence of the Neutrality Act fon impartial treatment for all. belligerents: though occasionally stretching the interpretation in minor ways' in such a way that the Allies and not Germany benefited. The first Administration change was the granting of moral support for the Allied cause and condemnation of Germany. Practical aid Jowed the invasion of the Low Countries which for the first time led (0 a realization that American security was at stake in the! war, Oh May 31 Raymond Clapper could write, "The world we knew Is crumbling under every fresh headline. Nearly all of our na~ tional life has been lived under the partial protection of Great Britain, In her we had, 8 Kood neighbour and a powerful one. Because of her we were able to sit comfortably Ju the shade here on the Western Hemisphere and enjoy life. Now we are on our own." The value of anything, st was once more! demonstrated, is never "fully realized until you are about to lose it. Speaking on the! same theme in the House, Representative Wolverton of New Jersey declared, "We have always had the thought that in' any great emergency that involved our national sccur~ ity the Navy of Great Britain would be found on our side. But today we see the British nation hard pressed and many people commencing to thinic about the consequences if Great Britain should fail....1t has been the reverses that have come {o the British nation that had awakened us to the danger that now exists"
'The German drive through the Low Coun: tries and France brought about a complete change in American opinion. For the past three years at least the United States has! recognized Germany as her enemy, a8 the' hard core of opposition throughout the world. to those principles and policies which the United States felt were best. But it had al~ ways been considered axiomatic that France and England were capable of resisting and overcoming those forees even though at times! they showed a disposition to conciliate them.
Both isolationists and Administration sup~ porters in the past based their policy on Delief in the impregnability of British and: French power. The isolationists felt that the only danger to the United States, the only threat (o its peace, lay in the possibility that Britain and France might play upon American emotion and self-interest and drag the country into war in order to end it_more: speedily and at less cost to themselves. No. American imagined that the issue might be! in doubt unless effective aid was forthcoming. The isolationists differed from the Administra~ tion in not treating the Axis threat to Latin' America quite so seriously. They also. re~ jected the Administration view that no self= Yespecting nation could preserve complete im= partiality. between international right and wrong. Moreover they opposed the Ad= ministration policy of prodding France and England into resisting the Dictatorship because they felt that such an attitude might lead to a feeling of moral responsibility' to aid those countries if and when war came.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.