> Twelve Congressmen told Republican Leader Joe Martin that peace sentiment was stronger in their districts than at any time during the past year.
> Senator Wheeler, in the midst of a second whirlwind speaking tour, talking isolation all the time, reported he had never had such an enthusiastic reception.
> The Gallup Poll reported that 79% of the U.S. was opposed to sending a U.S. Army abroad.
> At an America First rally in Chicago, mention of Churchill drew boos. When Colonel Lindbergh said that England was in a desperate situation, her shipping losses serious, "her cities devastated by bombs," he was stopped—and embarrassed—by applause.
So ran the currents of defeatism in Washington last week. It came not from isolationists. It came from devout New Dealers, adherents of the President's foreign policy. Their theme: the "morale" of the U.S. was bad. President Roosevelt said that the people were not sufficiently "aware," but thought that cracker-barrel talk would make them more so (see p. 13). But Washington believed that around the cracker barrels the talk was all isolation, defeatism, apathy.
No Wave of the Present. How much fact was there in the Washington fancy? Those who read could see that the U.S. press was almost solidly for effective aid to Britain, criticized the Government principally because U.S. aid was not effective enough. But the press is not always a reliable guide to public opinion. Throughout the U.S. were reports of a general lack of enthusiasm. The evidence was that the country felt far more unenthusiastic about isolation than it was unenthusiastic about U.S. foreign policy. The U.S., with only little dissent, had endorsed aid to Britain, had kept foreign affairs out of the campaign, had accepted the Lend-Lease Bill, had voted some $26,000,000,000 for U.S. defense and aid to democracies. Last week a "Fight for Freedom" Committee was organized in Manhattan with 250 sponsors. Its members "accept the fact that we are at war," pledged to "do whatever is necessary to insure Hitler's defeat." Honorary chairman: Carter Glass. Typical backers: Colonel William Donovan, Authors Rupert Hughes, Edna Ferber, Publisher John Farrar, Editor Herbert Agar, Historian Walter Millis. But there was better evidence of the state of U.S. opinion.
No Place to Sit Down. Chicago is considered by the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies to be the second most isolationist spot in the U.S. (Milwaukee is first). Yet last week Colonel Lindbergh, most popular and highly respected U.S. isolationist, drew 10,000 at the Chicago Arena, while General Sikorski, Polish Premier in exile, drew 75,000 to Soldier Field with a pro-Allied plea.