The Pittsburgh Press (May 24, 1941)
U.S. MAJORITY OPPOSES WAR, LINDY ASSERTS
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‘Our way of life cannot survive participation,’ flier tells rally
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New York, May 24 (UP) –
Charles A. Lindbergh told a mass meeting sponsored by the America First Committee last night that the nation was being led toward war over the opposition of four-fifths of the people – a war:
…in which our losses are likely to run into the millions, and in which history itself is doubtful.
He told a crowd overflowing Madison Square Garden and bunched around loud speakers in the street:
We had no more chance to vote on the issue of peace and war last November than if we had been a totalitarian state ourselves.
‘Not in position to win’
Mr. Lindbergh said he had opposed the European war when it started because:
I knew that England and France were not in a position to win and I did not want them to lose.
Now, he said:
I oppose our entry in the war because I do not believe that our system of government in America, and our way of life, can survive our participation.
Senator Burton K. Wheeler (D-MT) told the rally that the United States was safe from both military and economic invasion by Germany. American workers can produce more than “Nazi slaves” and American businessmen are “smarter than any Nazi competitor,” he said.
Urges appeal for peace
Mr. Wheeler said:
We are building a two-ocean navy. It will protect this hemisphere. Except for a few units it will be ready for service within two years. Unless Hitler can invade this hemisphere within the next few months, he could never do it even though he captured the entire British fleet and the remainder of the French and Italian fleets were his to command. This is not idle talk from a swivel chair expert. Ask any top ranking, active, working American naval officer.
He urged President Roosevelt to appeal to the people of Germany, Italy and Britain for a just peace, that would not work to the advantage of British Tories or imperialists or power-mad or land-hungry dictators.
More than 500 policemen guarded the building, picketing was forbidden. Police broke up a picket line of about 85 persons four blocks from the Garden. Newsreel cameras were barred from the building. Photographers said they had been asked to agree to submit films for editing and had refused.
‘Throw him out’
Mrs. John P. Marquand, wife of the novelist and president of the New York Chapter of the America First Committee, repudiated any support given the rally by Nazis, Fascists, Communists or their sympathizers. Mr. Lindbergh joined in the applause.
Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt and Igor Sikorsky, airplane manufacturer, were seen in the audience. John T. Flynn, chairman of the meeting, announced that Joseph Williams, leader of the Christian Mobilizers, was present and there were boos and cries of “throw him out.” Mr. Flynn said he did not know whose “stooge” Mr. McWilliams was but that:
…you can always count on the photographers of these war-making papers to find him wherever he is.
Norman Thomas, Socialist leader, another featured speaker, urged:
…a peace offensive, a negotiated peace, now.
‘Signs of danger’
Mr. Lindbergh said that:
It we cannot make other nation wish to copy our American system of government, we cannot force them to copy it by going to war. On the contrary, if we go to war to preserve democracy, we are likely to end by losing it at home. There are already signs of danger around us…
I ask them [interventionists] to consider what the last war brought to Europe – to Russia, Italy, Germany, and now to France and England and even to smaller countries…
Our country is not divided today because we fear war, or sacrifices or because we fear anything at all. We are divided because we are asked to fight over issues that are Europe’s and not ours… England’s balance of power, or for her domination of India, Mesopotamia, or Egypt, or for the Polish Corridor, or for another treaty like Versailles…
Mr. Wheeler said it was “brazen effrontery” to talk of fifth columnists in this country:
…with a British Ambassador touring the United States to arouse our people to sacrifice their sons and their treasures to save the British Empire.