The Pittsburgh Press (November 5, 1941)
White House urges speed on neutrality
Desire for quick revision of law emphasized by Roosevelt
Washington, Nov. 5 (UP) –
President Roosevelt today emphasized to his legislative leaders his desire for speedy approval of the pending Senate bill to repeal all Neutrality Act shipping restrictions.
Calling his Congressional lieutenants to a White House conference after his return from Hyde Park, NY, the President made clear his approval of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s action in enlarging the House bill which was limited to arming merchant ships, the conferees reported.
Chairman Sol Bloom (D-NY) of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said that he had assured Mr. Roosevelt of adequate House votes to pass the Senate version of the bill.
Quotes Roosevelt
He quoted Mr. Roosevelt as being “very anxious” to get speedy action on the legislation. He said Senate leaders told Mr. Roosevelt the Senate would complete action on the bill tomorrow night. Bloom said he expected the House would act on the legislation Monday.
Mentime, House Republican Leader Joseph W. Martin Jr. of Massachusetts said that a “casual observation” led him to believe the administration had the votes to pass the Senate bill in the House, perhaps in less than one day.
California’s two Senators engaged in a dramatic clash of opinions in the Senate meanwhile over the bill.
The argument started when Senator Sheridan Downey (D-CA) asserted that an “overwhelming” number of Californians favored the measure. Senator Hiram Johnson (R-CA), veteran of the successful fight to block United States membership in the League of Nations, protested.
Johnson protests
He cried:
I do not believe that California wants to go to war. Even if it were so, I would not vote to take this country to war. And I stand here and protest it with every bit of force I possess.
Immediately after this clash Senator Burton K. Wheeler (D-MT) took the floor, declaring:
Vote to repeal the Neutrality Act and you will soon be called up to vote for war.
Vote to repeal the Neutrality Act and you vote by indirection to destroy constitutional democracy. You vote to send American sailors to watery graves – to send pilots to violent deaths – and to send soldiers into bloodbaths of Europe, Africa and Asia.
Chairman David I. Walsh (D-MA) of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee told the Senate approval of the neutrality revision bill would be tantamount to:
…approving a shooting war which the President in his own authority has proclaimed.
Cites sinkings
Mr. Walsh said there is no such thing as a “partial war.” He asserted that such incidents as the sinking of the Reuben James, which he said had taken the greatest naval toll since the sinking of the Maine, now made it “abundantly clear that we are in” the war.
Mr. Walsh, recalling President Roosevelt’s campaign pledge in Boston last year in which he told parents that “your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars,” said:
Now I submit: What is the different between sending American boys in the uniform of the Army to the British Isles or as part of an expeditionary force in the continent in an attempt to overthrow Hitler? What is the difference between sending American boys in Army uniform on such a mission and sending the boys in the uniform of the American Navy into the combat zones around the British Isles, where naval war from the very beginning was waged in undiminished intensity?
Cites value to lives
Are we less concerned with the lives and fates of our boys in naval uniform than our boys in the khaki of the Army? Are their lives any less precious?
Mr. Walsh contended that the arming of merchant ships would “invite their destruction.” It would take guns, ammunition and trained gunners which the Navy could ill-spare, he said.
Conferring with the President were Vice President Henry A. Wallace, Chairman Tom Connally (D-TX) and Chairman Bloom of the Senate and House Foreign Relations Committees. Senate Democratic Leader Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky and Reps. Jere Cooper (D-TN) and Eugene E. Cox (D-GA).
Secretary of State Cordell Hull was also called in to meet with the legislators.
A test on the proposal to send American merchant ships into war zones may come on an amendment offered by Senator Bennett C. Clark (D-MO) late yesterday. He proposed to strike out of the bill everything except the one proposition approved by the House – the arming of merchant ships.