Sunday, October 27, 1940

TWO EDITORIALS

Adolf Hitler is Now Going To Be Our Neighbor

The concern of the Washington Government over the new deals of Hitler with Vichy and Franco has good ground. Both deals definitely spell menace for the United States.

That the island of Martinique is itself involved in the French deal does not yet appear, and it is virtually certain that an attempt will be made to assure us that there is nothing to fear. Nevertheless, it is altogether probable that the Nazis are going to be using the French fleet before long, and if so, the cruiser and plane carrier, with 100-American-made planes aboard, which are now lying at the island, will almost certainly be called into service.

In any case, if you will look at a map of the world or globe you will see that Hitlerism is rapidly coming closer to the United States. Six months ago it was 4,000 miles away. Three months ago it had come a thousand miles closer with the fall of France. And now it is to be at the great harbor and naval base of Dakar on the extreme tip of western Africa. That brings it no closer to the continental United States, but it does bring it within less than 2,000 miles of the Virgin Islands. And it brings it dangerously close to South America. The flying distance from Dakar to Pernambuco or Para, in Brazil, is no more than 1,800 miles. Moreover, 300 miles off Dakar lie the Cape Verdes Islands. Starting from these, the flying distance to Brazil would be only about 1,500 miles.

Hitler hasn't got the Cape Verdes as yet, but it is a safe bet that it won't be long. They belong to Portugal, and with Spain in his hands, bringing Portugal to heel will be easy.

But when that happens, he will get not only the Cape Verdes but also the Azores, which will put him in easy bombing distance of Newfoundland, where our new naval base is to be built. In the taking of Spain, again, he also gets bases in the Canaries and the Madeiras, which bring him closer to the United States and puts him in striking distance of Bermuda, where another of our new naval bases is to be built.

This Seems To Leave Things A Little Mixed Up

As to what it all adds up to we aren't quite clear. But we are pretty sure that it adds up to something cosmically funny.

Here is Mr. Willkie, who, whatever other groups he may represent, is certainly the candidate of business. And here is Old Boss John Lewis, whose looks, manners, and ideas are anathema to business or most of it anyhow, and who returns the compliment with interest.

This Boss Lewis is the man business credited with inventing the sit-down strike and called Red. And he is the man who headed and heads CIO, which business has consistently insisted was Red. He is the man, above all others, who determines the shape of the Wagner Act and who has blocked all efforts of business to amend it. He is the man who got that man Madden, whom business has also insisted was Red, put in as chairman of the National Labor Relations Board--Madden whose decisions business has consistently objected to as prejudiced in favor of CIO and against business. He is the man who has denounced Ernest Weir, Little Steel master and finance chairman of the Republican Party, in the most unmeasured terms, as a reactionary. And he is the man for associating in dealing with whom the President has himself been sometimes labeled a Red by the angrier wing of business.

But Boss Lewis goes in to see Mr. Roosevelt, and, according to the Washington Merry-Go-Ground, demands that that man Madden be reappointed to NLRB, is refused, and goes out to line himself up side by side with Ernest Weir behind Mr. Willkie, and is welcomed with open arms.

One thing does perhaps appear in it all, over and beyond the obvious conclusion that seems to make a difference whose ox is gored. And that is that people who have been talking about rigid class divisions in this country have been talking through their hats. When you can get Ernest Weir, Raymond Moley, and Boss Lewis all rowing busily in the same boat, the class boys are simply left looking silly.