"It Is Later Than You Think"

Last week scholarly Dr. Edward Mead Earle--World War I veteran, distinguished diplomatic historian, professor at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study --crammed into a letter to the New York Times the urgent thoughts that many a citizen has been thinking about U. S. Defense. Excerpts: "The United States must be prepared immediately to defend with its own resources, alone and unaided, not only continental United States but all, or considerable portions, of the Western Hemisphere. . . . We must proceed on the assumption that we shall have to go it alone. We cannot afford the luxuries of business as usual and politics as usual. . . .

"Congress should immediately enact legislation mobilizing the entire economic and military resources of the nation to meet the national emergency which is upon us. Such legislation . . . should enable . . . [the President] to have complete control over raw materials and to establish a system of priorities which would assure precedence in our industrial production to arms, munitions, and other essential military equipment.

"It is imperative also that there should be undertaken immediately an enormous expansion of our shipbuilding facilities. Regardless of whether the French Navy is surrendered to Hitler, he now has under his control the vast shipbuilding capacities of Germany, France, The Netherlands, Belgium and Norway. . . . Our existing shipyards are not able to maintain for us 'a navy second to none.' "The National Guard and the organized reserves of the United States Army should be called into service immediately for a period of at least six months. . . . Compulsory, selective military service should be initiated immediately. . . .

"The question of whether our Army . . . should provide an expeditionary force for use in Europe has been settled for us. There is now no possibility that a landing could be effected for such a force on the continent of Europe. The Army which we raise will therefore be clearly and unmistakably for the defense of the interests of the United States in this hemisphere. On the question of such defense we are not divided.

"The American people are in all probability far in advance of their political leaders ... in a realization that we now face one of the most stupendous tasks which we have ever undertaken as a nation. The measures already enacted . . . are a drop in the well, and it is doubtful if any man can now foresee the extent to which they will have to be supplemented and implemented.

"There is every indication, however, that there exist in this country . . . the resources, moral and material, granted intelligent leadership and organization, to see this thing through so that our great heritage shall be preserved. . . ."

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