Hush Week

Monday, May. 01, 1939

Article Tools

Reprints

Franklin Roosevelt experienced the satisfaction last week of one who, having raised his voice above those of angry disputants, hears them hush, sees their blows momentarily arrested. All American nations last week murmured admiring endorsements of his message the week-end previous to A. Hitler & B. Mussolini (TIME, April 24). Several European nations which would benefit from the ten-year peace pledge he proposed, offered grateful applause. Hitler reserved his reply for this week, only Mussolini jeered in a sarcastic rejoinder (see P. 25).

In the U. S. as expected, isolationist outbursts in the press (notably Hearst's) and Congress were evoked by the President's promise of U. S. participation in a world disarmament and economic conference. But a Gallup poll revealed that 73% of the U. S. people "would like to see the heads of the leading nations" confer now.

Advocates of abolishing or revising the Neutrality laws to give the President a free hand in foreign affairs began saying that Franklin Roosevelt's next step, to prove the purity of his motive in making his foreign policy so momentous, should be a clear disclaimer of any intention to seek a third term.

Point was lent to this suggestion when Senator Taft accused the President of "ballyhooing" the foreign situation to divert public attention from trouble at home (see p. 21). This charge was so serious that it may well boomerang and should war come in Europe, it would point to Franklin Roosevelt as a statesman-who-foresaw, might well improve his chances of a third term.

Meantime, however, President Roosevelt gave no sign of disclaiming third term aspirations. In a letter to the Young Democratic clubs, Mr. Roosevelt repeated the gist of his Jackson Day ultimatum to all Democrats (TIME, Jan. 16). Said he: "No victories are won by shooting at each other. There never was and never will be a political party whose policies absolutely fit the views of all its members. Where men are at variance with the course that their party is taking, it seems to me there are only two honorable courses—to join a party that more accurately mirrors their ideas, or to subordinate their prejudices and remain loyal.

"Instead of suicide or fratricide, what is the matter with our own side?"

This renewed threat of a Democrat Party purge forecast active Roosevelt participation in the 1940 primaries and, in the continued omission of a personal disclaimer, promised the continued presence of Franklin Roosevelt as a censor of other candidacies if not a real candidate.

>FORTUNE'S survey (May issue) revealed that in two months Franklin Roosevelt's general batting average had taken an extraordinary drop from 63.5% of popular approval to 58.8%, that whereas in March 36.9% of the population felt like voting for him in 1940 if he ran, now only 33.2% felt like it. But this survey was compiled before the Hitler-Mussolini peace message.