Brooklyn Eagle (January 2, 1941)
THE COMING MESSAGE TO CONGRESS
More than ordinary interest to the message which the President is expected to deliver to Congress on Monday. Coming on the heels of his broadcast, it may well undertake to give the bold outline of how greater aid to Britain is to be implemented, and how production of the arms of war is to be speeded ahead in this country.
To be sure, the President’s solid, deliberate statement of the American position against the aggressor nations will have – has had – great moral effect in the world, blanketing the mischief of those who believe this nation did not mean business. It is understandable how those without ethical or moral scruple might have expected to find a corresponding vacuum in the leadership of other nations.
If their disbelief in the moral integrity of this country and its people perseveres in the face of the President’s clear statement of American principles – and their mistaken belief that they could enslave the world was based on what they conceived to be the moral lassitude of democracies – then, indeed, the message to Congress should straighten out their thinking.