April 18, 1946
THE PRESIDENT. It's a pleasure to have you here, and I will be glad to answer questions if I do know the answers. If I don't know the answers, I will just tell you I don't know. [Laughter]
This meeting, as I understand it, is for the purpose of finding out whether the President has good sense or not, and whether he knows how to use what little he has got. [More laughter] And I am perfectly willing to go through that sort of grilling. In fact, I take pleasure in it. And it is a pleasure to have you here, really.
So you can start in whenever you get ready. I am going to sit down! [Laughter]
[1.] John S. Knight [President of the Society]: Mr. President, we have just had a very interesting session with Mr. Benton, and at that session the members of the Society were not at all backward in the questions they directed to him. I hope they will be equally responsive now. So if any of you have any burning thoughts, I suggest that you present them immediately.
THE PRESIDENT. I have never seen a bunch of newspapermen who were backward. So proceed.
[2.] Q. Mr. President, I would like to ask how long you think it will be before the Army and Navy and Marine Corps are under one organization?
THE PRESIDENT. That's a humdinger, Daniels. Your experience as Secretary of the Navy ought to contribute to any answer to that question.
They are on the road to, I think, an agreement. We can't say much about it. But I had a very satisfactory session with the heads of the Navy yesterday, and I expect to call in my five-star advisory board, and before we get through with it, I think we will have an organization that will work satisfactorily for the national defense of the country.
You know, what we are trying to do-what I am trying to do is set up an organization on the experience that we have had in the greatest war in history, so that that organization will be ready to operate in case of an emergency--which we hope will never come--and so that we will not have to feel around and organize a dozen different production programs, and a dozen different ideas before we actually are ready to operate.
God blessed us with the greatest set of military leaders that any country in the world ever had, in this instance; and also, gave us a years in which to get ready. That will not happen again.
[3.] Q. Mr. President, in view of what you just said, I wonder about the--what you think of the Central Intelligence Group, which does not seem to include the FBI?
THE PRESIDENT. But it does.
Q. It does?
THE PRESIDENT. Yes, it does. And the FBI is furnishing a great deal of the intelligence to the present Central Intelligence Group.
Q. To some of us it seemed that that was a natural nucleus for it.
THE PRESIDENT. Well, you want to be very careful in any of these things. What we have to guard against is a Gestapo, in this instance, and a military dictatorship, in the setting up of a national defense program. You must always be careful to keep that under civilian control, and under the control of officers who are elected by the people. Then you won't have any trouble in the future.
I have got no business giving you a lecture on free government, however. [Laughter] [Pause ]
Are you out of questions this early in the game? [Laughter]
[4.] Q. Mr. President, is the need for food throughout the world, to avoid starvation, as great as it has been pictured?
THE PRESIDENT. It's greater. You can't imagine how acute that situation is. Mr. Hoover will report to me and the country tomorrow over the radio at 7 o'clock--tomorrow evening. And he has made a complete survey of Europe, and he is on his way to Asia now, to see what the situation is over there.
It hasn't been painted nearly as bad as it is. I wish I could send each one of you to Greece and to Poland, and to--to Norway and to India, and to China and to the Philippines. I wish you could see just exactly what the situation is, and just talk with the commanders of the occupied zones which are our responsibility. It hasn't been painted any darker than it really is.
Q. Mr. President, aren't we falling down on getting supplies and shipping them?
THE PRESIDENT. To some extent, yes we are. And that is due to the situation that has developed as a result of anticipated higher prices by people who hold the materials in first hand.
Q. Mr. President, are we going to be able to organize and function fast enough to really save millions of lives as we should?
THE PRESIDENT. I hope we are. We are doing everything that is humanly possible to accomplish the purpose.
Q. It looks bad, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT. It does look bad. No question about it.
Q. Mr. President, I have never seen any adequate account of what opportunity for self-help there may be in these countries. Some southern countries already should have some kind of crops coming in, unless they are completely lacking in feed and machinery, and that sort of thing.
THE PRESIDENT. There isn't any country now that has a crop coming in this early, which is affected by starvation. You see, the crops--the grain crop in the southern hemisphere--in South Africa, for instance-was a total failure for 2 successive years. We didn't know about this last failure until it was too late to do anything about it. And the wheat crop in Australia was almost a total failure. In India, the rice crop has been a failure. In Malaya and Indochina-French Indochina, and in the Philippines, which usually had a surplus of rice for distribution, on account of war and devastation, didn't have any crops for the last 2 years. That is really what caused the difficulty. South Africa has been asking for 400,000 tons of corn, and they are usually an exporting country.
Q. During the summer, won't there be a leaf crop--vegetable crop--
THE PRESIDENT. The first crop they anticipate is the crop in North Africa, which is said to be very good. That will help, but our--the thing we are looking forward to is our own and the Canadian wheat crop, which will begin to be harvested in June-in Texas in June, and then go all the way north for the next 3 months. If that crop is as we anticipate it, it will help, but the emergency is the next 75 days.
[5.] Q. Mr. President, do you see any prospect for early steps toward international control of armaments?
THE PRESIDENT. Yes. I think we are approaching that, slowly and gradually. International control of armaments will depend on the success of the United Nations as the peace-making organization for the world. If the United Nations becomes a success--that is the thing I am working for with everything I have--the armaments will take care of themselves. If it doesn't become a success, then we'll have to take care of the armaments.
[6.] Q. Mr. President, how long will it be before the Philippines gets its independence?
THE PRESIDENT. The 4th of July, nineteen hundred and forty-six! That's the date set by law, and I hope I will be able to go there and help put them to work.
[7.] Q. Mr. President, do you believe that the amendments adopted by the in regard to OPA will wreck the OPA, as Mr. Porter indicated this morning it would?
THE PRESIDENT. If that bill should become law, it would wreck OPA; but just because it has passed the House doesn't necessarily mean that it will become law. [Laughter] Let's wait and see what's said about it.' [More laughter]
[8.] Q. The nomination, Mr. President, of an Ambassador to Argentina, is that to be interpreted as meaning that this Government no longer regards the government of President-elect Peron, now that he has an election mandate, as a potential menace to world security?
THE PRESIDENT. That depends on the actions of Mr. Peron himself. Let's wait and see what he does, before we come to a conclusion on that.
[9.] Q. Mr. President, do you care to comment on the argument that if Franco is overthrown in Spain it will be under Communist domination in Spain?
THE PRESIDENT. I don't know enough about that situation to give you an gent answer. I am sorry that the developed in Spain as it did when the publicans were in control of that. It is too bad they couldn't have stayed control. We wouldn't have all this now.
Q. Is there any difference between Republicans in Spain and Republicans in America, Mr. President? [Laughter]
THE PRESIDENT. I think it has--I think those two words have an entirely different meaning. When we speak of--when we speak of Republicans in Spain, we speak of people who believe in a Republic. When we speak of Republicans in the United States, we speak of conservatives, who are not so strongly--[lost in the laughter].
[10.] Q. Mr. President, do you care to comment on selective service?
THE PRESIDENT. I beg your pardon?
Q. Do you care to comment on selective service?
THE PRESIDENT. It is absolutely essential that selective service be extended for another year, if we are to carry out our commitments in the occupied countries. Unless we want to turn our backs on our responsibilities, it is necessary to continue selective service, until we have established a military policy in this country which will carry on without it.
[11.] Q. Mr. President, would you care to comment on the amendments to the extension of the draft, as passed by the House, exempting teenagers and delaying induction?
THE PRESIDENT. I will make the same comment I did on OPA. I hope we will get a bill out of the Senate that we can use. [Laughter]
Q. Mr. President, changing it from 18 to 20, of course, ends the draft for 2 years, because the 20's are already in--
THE PRESIDENT. That's right.
Q. What would you think, Mr. President, of the--raising the age from 26 to 28 ? Many church groups have opposed 19 and--18 and 19-year-old boys, because they are at an impressionable age. Would you care to comment on that--those staying at home, but taking the 27 and 28--26 and 27--
THE PRESIDENT. That might be helpful. The Draft Act of 1917 and 1918, if I remember correctly, was 21 to 31 It worked very satisfactorily, but we have started in on the 18-age program, and to change it now, as you say, would just leave us out of the draft for 2 years. It would be no use having it, because the next 12 months is when we need it.
[12.] Q. Mr. President, would you care to comment on the possibility of our getting some coal to keep our industries going in the next few months? [Laughter]
THE PRESIDENT. Mr. Lewis would like to have me comment on that. There is no comment. [More laughter]
[13.] Q. Mr. President, would you care to comment on the Bulwinkle bill?
THE PRESIDENT. No. I will comment on the Bulwinkle bill when it comes before me. It hasn't yet passed the Senate. Let's see what the Senate does to it.
[14.] Q. Do you care to comment, sir, on the prospect for an amicable settlement of the Iranian question?
THE PRESIDENT. No. I don't care to comment on that. I think that will take care of itself. The United Nations is handling it. The Government of the United States is well-represented there.
[15.] Q. A moment ago you made a statement about the next war, if it came, and we wouldn't have time to prepare--which would leave us at a disadvantage. Could you tell us something as to your opinion of the atomic bomb--would you care in advance of those experiments to enlarge upon that any further?
THE PRESIDENT. Well, if--what I am driving at is this. If the United Nations is a successful organization for the maintenance of peace, there will be no more reason for anticipating a war between the members of the United Nations than there would be for anticipating a war between Missouri and Illinois. But, if it is not a success, if it doesn't work, and then you simply drop back to the old power politics and spheres of influence, you will have exactly the same trouble that we have had all the time.
So far as atomic energy is concerned, I think if we put that atomic energy release to its proper use, we are facing the greatest age in history. If we don't put it to proper use, we will just simply destroy ourselves.
You can put it to two uses: one is to put it to the use of welfare and security, and the other is to destroy yourself; and I don't think we are going to destroy ourselves. I think we are going to make proper use of it.
I am not a pessimist on that subject at all. I think we have got too much sense for that.
Q. Mr. President, are experiments particularly on the way to put atomic energy to its fullest peacetime use?
THE PRESIDENT. I didn't understand the question?
Q. Are we working on the--the project of utilizing atomic energy for industrial use?
THE PRESIDENT. Yes, we are. Yes, we are. We are trying to get a program implemented with the United Nations, so that the whole world can share in it. But that is a difficult proposition. It takes a lot of work, and it can't be done in 2 days. If we will do it in 3 or 4 years, we will be doing very well. Somebody
THE PRESIDENT. It's a pleasure to have you here, and I will be glad to answer questions if I do know the answers. If I don't know the answers, I will just tell you I don't know. [Laughter]
This meeting, as I understand it, is for the purpose of finding out whether the President has good sense or not, and whether he knows how to use what little he has got. [More laughter] And I am perfectly willing to go through that sort of grilling. In fact, I take pleasure in it. And it is a pleasure to have you here, really.
So you can start in whenever you get ready. I am going to sit down! [Laughter]
[1.] John S. Knight [President of the Society]: Mr. President, we have just had a very interesting session with Mr. Benton, and at that session the members of the Society were not at all backward in the questions they directed to him. I hope they will be equally responsive now. So if any of you have any burning thoughts, I suggest that you present them immediately.
THE PRESIDENT. I have never seen a bunch of newspapermen who were backward. So proceed.
[2.] Q. Mr. President, I would like to ask how long you think it will be before the Army and Navy and Marine Corps are under one organization?
THE PRESIDENT. That's a humdinger, Daniels. Your experience as Secretary of the Navy ought to contribute to any answer to that question.
They are on the road to, I think, an agreement. We can't say much about it. But I had a very satisfactory session with the heads of the Navy yesterday, and I expect to call in my five-star advisory board, and before we get through with it, I think we will have an organization that will work satisfactorily for the national defense of the country.
You know, what we are trying to do-what I am trying to do is set up an organization on the experience that we have had in the greatest war in history, so that that organization will be ready to operate in case of an emergency--which we hope will never come--and so that we will not have to feel around and organize a dozen different production programs, and a dozen different ideas before we actually are ready to operate.
God blessed us with the greatest set of military leaders that any country in the world ever had, in this instance; and also, gave us a years in which to get ready. That will not happen again.
[3.] Q. Mr. President, in view of what you just said, I wonder about the--what you think of the Central Intelligence Group, which does not seem to include the FBI?
THE PRESIDENT. But it does.
Q. It does?
THE PRESIDENT. Yes, it does. And the FBI is furnishing a great deal of the intelligence to the present Central Intelligence Group.
Q. To some of us it seemed that that was a natural nucleus for it.
THE PRESIDENT. Well, you want to be very careful in any of these things. What we have to guard against is a Gestapo, in this instance, and a military dictatorship, in the setting up of a national defense program. You must always be careful to keep that under civilian control, and under the control of officers who are elected by the people. Then you won't have any trouble in the future.
I have got no business giving you a lecture on free government, however. [Laughter] [Pause ]
Are you out of questions this early in the game? [Laughter]
[4.] Q. Mr. President, is the need for food throughout the world, to avoid starvation, as great as it has been pictured?
THE PRESIDENT. It's greater. You can't imagine how acute that situation is. Mr. Hoover will report to me and the country tomorrow over the radio at 7 o'clock--tomorrow evening. And he has made a complete survey of Europe, and he is on his way to Asia now, to see what the situation is over there.
It hasn't been painted nearly as bad as it is. I wish I could send each one of you to Greece and to Poland, and to--to Norway and to India, and to China and to the Philippines. I wish you could see just exactly what the situation is, and just talk with the commanders of the occupied zones which are our responsibility. It hasn't been painted any darker than it really is.
Q. Mr. President, aren't we falling down on getting supplies and shipping them?
THE PRESIDENT. To some extent, yes we are. And that is due to the situation that has developed as a result of anticipated higher prices by people who hold the materials in first hand.
Q. Mr. President, are we going to be able to organize and function fast enough to really save millions of lives as we should?
THE PRESIDENT. I hope we are. We are doing everything that is humanly possible to accomplish the purpose.
Q. It looks bad, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT. It does look bad. No question about it.
Q. Mr. President, I have never seen any adequate account of what opportunity for self-help there may be in these countries. Some southern countries already should have some kind of crops coming in, unless they are completely lacking in feed and machinery, and that sort of thing.
THE PRESIDENT. There isn't any country now that has a crop coming in this early, which is affected by starvation. You see, the crops--the grain crop in the southern hemisphere--in South Africa, for instance-was a total failure for 2 successive years. We didn't know about this last failure until it was too late to do anything about it. And the wheat crop in Australia was almost a total failure. In India, the rice crop has been a failure. In Malaya and Indochina-French Indochina, and in the Philippines, which usually had a surplus of rice for distribution, on account of war and devastation, didn't have any crops for the last 2 years. That is really what caused the difficulty. South Africa has been asking for 400,000 tons of corn, and they are usually an exporting country.
Q. During the summer, won't there be a leaf crop--vegetable crop--
THE PRESIDENT. The first crop they anticipate is the crop in North Africa, which is said to be very good. That will help, but our--the thing we are looking forward to is our own and the Canadian wheat crop, which will begin to be harvested in June-in Texas in June, and then go all the way north for the next 3 months. If that crop is as we anticipate it, it will help, but the emergency is the next 75 days.
[5.] Q. Mr. President, do you see any prospect for early steps toward international control of armaments?
THE PRESIDENT. Yes. I think we are approaching that, slowly and gradually. International control of armaments will depend on the success of the United Nations as the peace-making organization for the world. If the United Nations becomes a success--that is the thing I am working for with everything I have--the armaments will take care of themselves. If it doesn't become a success, then we'll have to take care of the armaments.
[6.] Q. Mr. President, how long will it be before the Philippines gets its independence?
THE PRESIDENT. The 4th of July, nineteen hundred and forty-six! That's the date set by law, and I hope I will be able to go there and help put them to work.
[7.] Q. Mr. President, do you believe that the amendments adopted by the in regard to OPA will wreck the OPA, as Mr. Porter indicated this morning it would?
THE PRESIDENT. If that bill should become law, it would wreck OPA; but just because it has passed the House doesn't necessarily mean that it will become law. [Laughter] Let's wait and see what's said about it.' [More laughter]
[8.] Q. The nomination, Mr. President, of an Ambassador to Argentina, is that to be interpreted as meaning that this Government no longer regards the government of President-elect Peron, now that he has an election mandate, as a potential menace to world security?
THE PRESIDENT. That depends on the actions of Mr. Peron himself. Let's wait and see what he does, before we come to a conclusion on that.
[9.] Q. Mr. President, do you care to comment on the argument that if Franco is overthrown in Spain it will be under Communist domination in Spain?
THE PRESIDENT. I don't know enough about that situation to give you an gent answer. I am sorry that the developed in Spain as it did when the publicans were in control of that. It is too bad they couldn't have stayed control. We wouldn't have all this now.
Q. Is there any difference between Republicans in Spain and Republicans in America, Mr. President? [Laughter]
THE PRESIDENT. I think it has--I think those two words have an entirely different meaning. When we speak of--when we speak of Republicans in Spain, we speak of people who believe in a Republic. When we speak of Republicans in the United States, we speak of conservatives, who are not so strongly--[lost in the laughter].
[10.] Q. Mr. President, do you care to comment on selective service?
THE PRESIDENT. I beg your pardon?
Q. Do you care to comment on selective service?
THE PRESIDENT. It is absolutely essential that selective service be extended for another year, if we are to carry out our commitments in the occupied countries. Unless we want to turn our backs on our responsibilities, it is necessary to continue selective service, until we have established a military policy in this country which will carry on without it.
[11.] Q. Mr. President, would you care to comment on the amendments to the extension of the draft, as passed by the House, exempting teenagers and delaying induction?
THE PRESIDENT. I will make the same comment I did on OPA. I hope we will get a bill out of the Senate that we can use. [Laughter]
Q. Mr. President, changing it from 18 to 20, of course, ends the draft for 2 years, because the 20's are already in--
THE PRESIDENT. That's right.
Q. What would you think, Mr. President, of the--raising the age from 26 to 28 ? Many church groups have opposed 19 and--18 and 19-year-old boys, because they are at an impressionable age. Would you care to comment on that--those staying at home, but taking the 27 and 28--26 and 27--
THE PRESIDENT. That might be helpful. The Draft Act of 1917 and 1918, if I remember correctly, was 21 to 31 It worked very satisfactorily, but we have started in on the 18-age program, and to change it now, as you say, would just leave us out of the draft for 2 years. It would be no use having it, because the next 12 months is when we need it.
[12.] Q. Mr. President, would you care to comment on the possibility of our getting some coal to keep our industries going in the next few months? [Laughter]
THE PRESIDENT. Mr. Lewis would like to have me comment on that. There is no comment. [More laughter]
[13.] Q. Mr. President, would you care to comment on the Bulwinkle bill?
THE PRESIDENT. No. I will comment on the Bulwinkle bill when it comes before me. It hasn't yet passed the Senate. Let's see what the Senate does to it.
[14.] Q. Do you care to comment, sir, on the prospect for an amicable settlement of the Iranian question?
THE PRESIDENT. No. I don't care to comment on that. I think that will take care of itself. The United Nations is handling it. The Government of the United States is well-represented there.
[15.] Q. A moment ago you made a statement about the next war, if it came, and we wouldn't have time to prepare--which would leave us at a disadvantage. Could you tell us something as to your opinion of the atomic bomb--would you care in advance of those experiments to enlarge upon that any further?
THE PRESIDENT. Well, if--what I am driving at is this. If the United Nations is a successful organization for the maintenance of peace, there will be no more reason for anticipating a war between the members of the United Nations than there would be for anticipating a war between Missouri and Illinois. But, if it is not a success, if it doesn't work, and then you simply drop back to the old power politics and spheres of influence, you will have exactly the same trouble that we have had all the time.
So far as atomic energy is concerned, I think if we put that atomic energy release to its proper use, we are facing the greatest age in history. If we don't put it to proper use, we will just simply destroy ourselves.
You can put it to two uses: one is to put it to the use of welfare and security, and the other is to destroy yourself; and I don't think we are going to destroy ourselves. I think we are going to make proper use of it.
I am not a pessimist on that subject at all. I think we have got too much sense for that.
Q. Mr. President, are experiments particularly on the way to put atomic energy to its fullest peacetime use?
THE PRESIDENT. I didn't understand the question?
Q. Are we working on the--the project of utilizing atomic energy for industrial use?
THE PRESIDENT. Yes, we are. Yes, we are. We are trying to get a program implemented with the United Nations, so that the whole world can share in it. But that is a difficult proposition. It takes a lot of work, and it can't be done in 2 days. If we will do it in 3 or 4 years, we will be doing very well. Somebody