To the World

To the reassembled Congress, Franklin Roosevelt sent his twelfth annual message on the state of the nation. It was a speech to the world.* The message was longer than any of its eleven predecessors. It was also on a higher level of statesmanship than any Roosevelt utterance since the Presidential campaign began.

U.S. and foreign critics alike had been crying for two things: a clear and coherent conception of U.S. foreign policy, and a willingness to define, accept and fulfill U.S. responsibilities abroad. In broad but heartening generalities the President stated such a conception and such a willingness. And in so doing, he apparently wiped clean the State Department slate --on which his new Secretary Stettinius had recently scrawled the hasty word "abstention."

Reassuring to the rest of the world were the attitudes Franklin Roosevelt urged on Congress and the U.S. people: the U.S. should not turn away and wash its hands in disgust if Europe's problems continued for a time to plague the world. "We delude ourselves if we believe that the surrender of the armies of our enemies will make the peace we long for. . . . Unconditional surrender ... is the first and necessary step--but the first step only. ...

"We ourselves, like all peoples who have gone through the difficult processes of liberation and adjustment, know of our own experience how great the difficulties can be. ... Our own Revolutionary War left behind it, in the words of one American historian, 'an eddy of lawlessness and disregard of human life.' There were separatist movements. . . . There were insurrections. These difficulties we worked out for ourselves as the peoples of the liberated areas of Europe . . . will work out their difficulties for themselves."

Difference v. Blindness. "The nearer we come to vanquishing our enemies, the more we inevitably become conscious of differences among the victors. We must not let these differences divide us and blind us to our more important common and continuing interests. . . .

"International cooperation and progress are not helped by any nation assuming that it has a monopoly of wisdom or of virtue. In the future world the misuse of power, as implied in the term 'power politics,' must not be a controlling factor in international relations. That is the heart of the principles to which we have subscribed. We cannot deny that power is a factor in world politics, any more than we can deny its existence as a factor in national politics. But in a democratic world, as in a democratic nation, power must be linked with responsibility . . . [for] the general good."

Perfection and Isolation. "Perfectionism no less than isolationism or imperialism or power politics may obstruct the paths to international peace. Let us not forget that the retreat to isolationism a quarter of a century ago was started not by a direct attack against international cooperation, but against the alleged imperfections of the peace. . . . We gave up the hope of gradually achieving a better peace because we had not the courage to fulfill our responsibilities in an admittedly imperfect world. We must not let that happen again. . . . We can fulfill our responsibility for maintaining the security of our own country only by exercising our power and our influence to achieve the principles in which we believe. ..."

Mr. Roosevelt conceded that the Atlantic Charter might not be immediately applicable to all of "this war-torn world's tangled situations." But: "It is a good and a useful thing--it is an essential thing--to have principles toward which we can aim. . . ."

Abstention Repealed? Ed Stettinius had said that the U.S. took direct responsibility only "where important military factors are concerned" in Italy, Greece, elsewhere. The President clearly extended U.S. interest and responsibility to the politics of liberation. Said he: "We have obligations, not necessarily legal, to the exiled Governments, to the underground leaders and to our major Allies, who came much nearer to the shadows than we did. . . . We and our Allies have a duty, which we cannot ignore, to use our influence to the end that no temporary or provisional authorities in the liberated countries block the eventual exercise of the people's [will]. . . ."

Applied to Greece, these words on their face were as much a warning to the new Provisional Government in Athens (and to its British sponsors) as they were to the rebellious leftists. But what were they, applied to Poland? (See FOREIGN NEWS.) In any case, if this line was actually to be followed, a new course had been set. The first big test would soon come probably at the forthcoming meeting of the Big Three (see Foreign Relations).

Trade and Tariffs. "We support the greatest possible freedom of trade and commerce. We Americans have always believed in freedom of opportunity, and equality of opportunity remains one of the principal objectives. . . . What we believe in for individuals, we believe in also for nations. We are opposed to restrictions, whether by public act or private arrangement, which distort and impair commerce, transit and trade."

Mr. Roosevelt's next sentence deserved the close attention of the British, who have been fearfully certain that U.S. "equality of opportunity" in world trade would mean equal access to world markets everywhere except in the U.S. Said the President: "We have housecleaning of our own to do in this regard. But it is our hope . . . that trade and commerce and access to materials and markets may be freer after this war than ever before in the history of the world."

Did this remark mean, as the British would surely hope, that the President was prepared to demand a reciprocal reduction of U.S. tariffs?

At Home. Turning to domestic affairs, the President's message struck a new tone long absent in his statements to Congress. Gone was the demanding or sarcastic note of earlier Roosevelt messages; no man or group was denounced. Franklin Roosevelt addressed Congress, gravely and seriously, as his equal and partner in the Government, and complimented Congress on its contribution to "the common good." (This approach was not without its effect: there was not a single caustic criticism of the speech immediately forthcoming from any Congressman.)

He asked for a National Service Act, but he did not ask for it as he had a year ago, when he laid other conditions on its passage. He requested it as something he believed now to be necessary, however belated it was (see Manpower). He also asked for a draft of nurses (see Army & Navy).

He asked for universal military training, not equivocally, as he had stated his position in a press conference last November, but as something which he thought was needed to insure against World War III. And he recommended a reduction of taxes after V-E day, Congressional consideration of a vast new postwar building program of houses, roads and airports.

Perhaps most notable of all to Congressmen was the conservative cast of his discussion of the postwar economy. Private enterprise, said Franklin Roosevelt, should bear the brunt of the financing, with Government aid merely to insure special risks. And when he called for more public works, especially for more TVAs, he did not demand the harnessing of U.S. rivers. He merely pointed out that TVA was "a bargain" ($750 million).

The President ended on a note of cautious hope. Said he: "This new year can be the greatest year of achievement in human history. 1945 can see the final ending of the Nazi-Fascist reign of terror in Europe. 1945 can see the closing in of the forces of retribution [against] Japan. Most important of all, 1945 can and must see the substantial beginning of the organization of world peace."

* Franklin Roosevelt did not deliver the message in person, but sent it to Congress to be read to a joint session. It took 54 minutes. That night (Saturday), the President broadcast a 25-minute version from the White House.

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