The debate on the neutrality bill has emphasized one thing above all else, and that is the determination of Congressmen of every shade of opinion that the United States must stay out of the struggle. This opinion was combined with outspoken attacks on Herr Hitler, and all he stood for, and was equally evident in speeches which gave an unfavourable version of past British history.
Aj secondary theme which ran through Speeches made'on both sides of the neutrality debate was condemnation of the dictatorial form of government. This was frequently twisted to provide an additional argument for keeping out of war on the grounds that all democratic liberties vanished once a country was placed on a war basis. One of the reasons why the Administration were able to secure a two-to-one majority in the Senate instead of the close vote which had been anticipated earlier was that Senators who started from the assumption that the repeal of the arms embargo had been requested as a first step to war were unable to sustain that opinion for very long.
The near relative to the "step towards war" argument was the "we're bound to be dragged in" argument and this also has perished by the wayside. The overwhelming majority of Congressional and presumably of public opinion is that the United States won't be dragged in and that there is no substance to the statement that American involvement is inevitable. One reason for this change is that the war has not followed the expected pattern. It has not ranged from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Japan is still attacking China but has made no effort to acquire the British and Dutch East Indies and threaten the Philippines. Russia despite her treaty with Germany has not been followed by any arrangement for carving up the Orient and ousting the Western powers. Italy too is neutral and the Mediterranean a peaceful inland sea. There have been no mass air-raids, no clash of large armies. The American public has begun to believe that the Allied Governments have the situation in hand. The argument that the United States should not permit France and Britain, her first line of defence, to be defeated is no longer heard because the first line of defence does not appear to be threatened. At first the strange course the war was taking was a source of bewilderment, but now it is better understood and and generally held wise. The slow inexorable pressure of the blockade is felt to be the Allies' best weapon. It is least wasteful of manpower and least destructive of the internal economy of either the blockading or the blockaded power.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.