Though the isolationist bloc in the U. S. Senate was apparently strong enough to force President Roosevelt to refrain from deavouring to push his neutrality legislation through Congress before the adjournment by the threat of a filibuster, there is little reason to believe that in the' country isolationist sentiment is doing anything but losing ground. The various straw votes, which have been taken by different periodicals and. Institutions, are sufficient evidence to prove that with a steadily growing interest in foreign affairs, even the middle west states are having it borne in upon them that their economic fate depends very largely upon conditions throughout the world. The price of wheat depends not alone upon harvest conditions, but upon world conditions, and many a farmer in the middle west has come to realize that fact. It is consequently all the more important when a man like Mr. Paul V. McNutt, possible Democratic nominee as candidate in the 1940 Presidential elections, delivers himself of so strong an anti-isolationist speech as that which he is reported to have made in land, Ohio, The locality in which is close enough to the Atlantic seaboard and all that sea-borne commerce entails to ensure him of a respectful and probably sympathetic hearing, but the significance of Mr, MeNutt's action is to be found in that, in such days as these of widespread publication, he was speaking to the whole nation, and running the risk of aligning isolationist sentiment against him in the event of his going forward as presidential candidate. Isolationists may not form a very large proportion of the electorate, but no possible can= didate so early in the day seeks to antagonize supporters by any such forthright declaration, He spoke against what he is reported to have described as ruinous isolationism and expressed approval of Mr, Cordel Hull's policies, in a special address in connection with the commemoration of Taternational "pra Peace Dai He emphasized the Unites States' desire powerful as those others of purely moral quality which appeal with singular force to the mentality of the American masses. The United States would fight quicker for a matter of principle than for any material interest, but Mx. MeNutt has advanced cold hard reasons why the United States should relinquish their old prejudice in favour of complete isola~ tion, "He argued that to follow such a policy would necessitate the maintenance of a war fleet three times the size of that which exists at present, for the United States would have to defend' two coasts, with some margin in hand. It would necessitate the establishment of an army sufficiently strong to permit of the dispatch of an expeditionary force to any part of the American continent; it would signify the abandonment by American agriculture of many foreign markets, and the lying fallow of two-thirds of the cotton acreage in the South. A. great portion of the cultivation and wheat-growing of the mid-die west would have to end, living standards would be lowered, the nation would have to become militarized, and the nation would suffer under the necessity of supporting an exhausting burden of defence in the new world. Isolationism, he concluded, would ruin the economic life in the United States for a whole generation, and he urged that peace should be sought not by surrender but by ce-operation. The United States are not the only country which has sought: refuge icy isolation, Great Britain has tried it vis-A-vis of her relationship to Europe, and found through sheer force of circumstances that much as she would like to take up stich a position the realities of the situation did not permit of it, The necessity of maintain ing an adequate balance of power in Europe was of itself sum cient to prove the unreality of such a policy. And now modern interna~ tional trends is bringing it home more and more emphatically to many in the United States that the greatness of that nation, and the spread of its interests demand an abandonment of former aloofness.
Though George Washington "spoke so emphatically against foreign entanglements, that it has become almost the traditional principle guiding the foreign policy of the United States, his pronouncements do not appear to contemplate the consistent maintenance of a policy of icy isolation, for on tone occasion he said "We may choose peace or war as our me terest guides and justice shall counsel. Taking care always to keep ourselves in a respect fable posture of defence, we may safely. trust temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies."
There is to be found here no admission that foreign entanglements should be anything but transitory, and called forth by the necessities of the moment, but there is recognition of the fact that in certain clrcumstances even Washington contemplated the entering into arrangements which would obviously entail the acceptance of responsibilities: by the United States in exchange for whatever consideration there was to be obtained from these temporary alliances. It (Continued on page 183)
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.