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However, the U. S. Navy now has building: eight battleships, two aircraft carriers, six light cruisers, 29 destroyers, 14 submarines. Still seeking a Guam base (needed only for war in the Pacific), the Navy last week was certain its naval air force was still the world's best.
Observers, noting gargantuan national defense bills being swallowed by the U. S. almost without a murmur, wondered whether the policymakers, the cable-readers, had not misinterpreted the national will for isolationism as a wish for peace at any price. Popular reaction to American White Paper may tell much. But gone were the days when Calvin Coolidge spoke for the nation in saying "The business of America is business." Senator Key Pittman last week seemed almost as out-of-date when he said: "Let the mothers and fathers of America sleep in peace."
Old words which had a more timely ring were Woodrow Wilson's: "There is, therefore, but one response possible from us: Force, Force, to the utmost, Force without stint or limit, the righteous and triumphant Force which shall make Right the law of the world. . . ." Was there not an echo from Franklin Roosevelt, last week: "We shall be able to keep that way [of peace] open only if we are prepared to meet force with force if challenge is ever made."