ARMY & NAVY: Arms & the Congress

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One of the few genuine pacifists left in the U. S. is Senator Lynn Joseph Frazier of Hoople, N. Dak. As usual when Congress opened, Senator Frazier offered an amendment to the Constitution, declaring:

"War for any purpose shall be illegal and neither the United States nor any State, Territory, association, or person subject to its jurisdiction shall prepare for, declare, engage in, or carry on war or other armed conflict, expedition, invasion or undertaking within or without the United States, nor shall any funds be raised, appropriated, or expended for such purpose."

Never since 1917 was such a proposal more out of keeping with U. S. temper than last week. Hurry up calls from Washington sent Ambassadors Joseph P. Kennedy (London) and William Bullitt (Paris) hustling back to the White House from vacations in Florida. Ambassadors rarely appear before Congressional committees, and then only before foreign affairs committees. But Messrs. Kennedy & Bullitt were promptly closeted in "secret" session with a joint meeting of the House & Senate Military Affairs Committees.

"Secret" Congressional hearings are seldom secret long. Duly published were reports that Messrs. Kennedy & Bullitt foresaw war in Europe within the year, that Germany has 6,500 new planes, 3,000 usable old ones, and can build 1,200 a month. Explaining that French resistance to Mussolini held the chief threat of war, Mr. Kennedy was reported as saying that in order to appease Adolf Hitler the British would even allow him to put a base in Canada (which Franklin Roosevelt swears to defend). This Mr. Kennedy quickly denied. A story he did not deny was that much of his information came from Hero Charles Lindbergh (TIME, Jan. 16).

"Who's going to fight?" snorted North Carolina's irrepressible Senator Robert Rice Reynolds, doubting that France and England would risk a war. But many of his colleagues were impressed by the Kennedy-Bullitt stories, and Congress was aquiver by the time Franklin Roosevelt sent up his message telling why and for what he wanted more Defense money, besides the $510,000,000 for the Army and $720,000,000 for the Navy provided by the regular budget.

Program. To finance "a minimum program for the necessities of defense," Franklin Roosevelt asked Congress to appropriate $552,000,000 extra. For:

> "A minimum increase" of 3,000 Army planes—$300,000,000.

> "Critical" Army equipment (guns & ammunition of which the Army is particularly short)—$110,000,000.

> "Educational orders," promoted by Assistant Secretary of War Louis Johnson, to enable industry to prepare for quantity production of war materials in emergency —$32,000,000.

> Strengthening "the seacoast defenses of Panama, Hawaii and the continental U. S." —$8,000,000.

> Financing the first year's primary training of 20,000 citizen-pilots in commercial schools—$10,000,000.

> Increasing and re-housing the present garrison of 13,000 in the Panama Canal Zone—$27,000,000.

> Extending and strengthening the Navy's bases in Pacific and Atlantic—$44,000,000.

> Additional Navy planes (about 200) and aviation research—$21,000,000.