YOUTH: Monstrous Lobby

(2 of 2)

"Boo! Throw them out! Shut them up!" Members of the Congress, taking parliamentary procedure into their own hands, gave Mr. Tropea the bum's rush. Peter Tropea put up a fight, managed to break free and throw his book at an A. Y. C. officer before being ejected. The book was Cannon's Procedure in the House of Representatives.

Archibald Roosevelt meanwhile was singing out his resolution over the din.

One youth briefly wrestled with him. He sat down, sulked, walked out. Smugly the audience settled down. Complacently they listened to the evening's speeches.

Next morning the young folks were in fine fettle. Despite a cold, raw drizzle, they formed in line and paraded towards the White House, 4,466 strong. By the time they reached the White House their spirits were chilled and their hearts were not in their throats as they sang:

We've been getting nothing else but love, Franklin,

That's the only thing we've plenty of, Franklin.

After they had stood in the rain an hour, the youths' spirits were somewhat damped. Finally the President stepped out on the South Portico. He began talking. He tried to be light. No one laughed. He made some political remarks. No one clapped. He was fatherly-told the children to be sure to change into dry clothes when they got home. Not a murmur. Then he lit into them.

When he is pressed, when the time is ripe, Franklin Roosevelt can be blunt to the point of brutality. Faced by these cocky, sullen kids, he let himself go, gave the kids (and their adopted mother, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt) a first-class spanking:

He told them sharply to keep their noses out of things they know nothing about. He noted that the New York chapter of A. Y. C. had condemned U. S. aid to Finland "on the ground that such action was 'an attempt to force America into an imperialistic war.' [Cheers] My friends, that reason was unadulterated twaddle, unadulterated twaddle. . . . [Boos, shushes, dead silence.] That American sympathy is 98% with the Finns in their effort to stave off invasion of their own soil by now is axiomatic. That America wants to help them by lending or giving money to them to save their own lives is also axiomatic today. That the Soviet Union would, because of this, declare war on the United States is about the silliest thought that I ever heard advanced in the fifty-eight years of my life. . . .

"It has been said that some of you are Communists. ... As Americans you have a right, a legal and constitutional right, to call yourselves Communists . . . but . . . you have no American right, by act or deed of any kind, to subvert the Government and the Constitution of this nation."

Next day, the woman in the case got in the last word. She told the Congress that it was fine, ignorance or no ignorance, for them to put themselves on the record, as they had, for Ethiopia, Spain, China, Czecho-Slovakia. As to Finland: "I don't think you should go on record for anything that you don't believe in. ... I know all the reasons that are given for the Russian invasion of Finland. I know all the reasons because I have heard them from my Communist friends—but I still say there is no excuse for a big nation to invade a small nation, and therefore our sympathies ought to go to Finland."