Excerpts from the Press Conference

(Panama conference—Proclamations concerning neutrality and limited national emergency- Special session of the Congress and repeal of the arms embargo- Food prices—Additions to the Army, Navy and Marine Corps—Prevention of subversive propaganda and sabotage.)

THE PRESIDENT: No. 1, for the conference in Panama, the Under Secretary of State [Mr. Sumner Welles] is going down there to represent this country. I think that covers that.

Next, I have signed the Proclamation of Neutrality as between the United States and South Africa which, we have been officially informed, is in a state of war. That is the Union of South Africa.

No. 3, the Proclamation of Neutrality in regard to Canada is drafted but final action by the Canadian Parliament, as you know, has not yet been taken.

And the Proclamation I am waiting for is the Proclamation of Limited Emergency, which I will have to explain to you when I get it. It will be here in a minute or two. So, in the meantime, if there are any questions you want to ask, go ahead.

One question will be on the report on the Athenia and that will be given out by the State Department sometime today. It will be the literal and, I think, verbatim copy of the reports from our two Naval Attaches in London. It is simply given out as their report without comment, comment being, I think, unnecessary.

Q. Can you tell us of the extra session situation?

THE PRESIDENT: On the special session, there isn't any news. It is still in the study period. I cannot tell you any more because that is the simple truth. Naturally, I have been talking with various members of the House and the Senate for some time;but, literally, there isn't any news because there has been no decision.

Q. Is the action of the leaders favorable to a special session, that is, generally?

THE PRESIDENT: I cannot tell you that.

Q. Is it still just a question of when, or is it both a question of when and whether?

THE PRESIDENT: There has never been a question of whether;and the date last week was between the first of September and the second of January, and it is now between the eighth of September and the second of January.

Q. Is there any doubt at all or should anyone have any doubt about your intention to ask for a repeal of the present neutrality law, the so-called neutrality law?

THE PRESIDENT: I think you could assume that.

Q. May I go further with that question?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

Q. I hear, although I am unable to touch the evidence or produce the evidence, that there is a rising sentiment in the country for the repeal of the embargo. Are you conscious of that, or would it affect you in any way at all?

THE PRESIDENT: I think I had better not answer—

Q. [interposing] You do not mind my asking?

THE PRESIDENT: No—because you people are just as good a judge of that as I am.

Q. The report is also that you are going to have a short session, limited to neutrality.

THE PRESIDENT: I think I told you last week—and the only way I can answer that is in the same way—that as far as I can tell at the present time, it seems unnecessary to ask for anything except a repeal of the embargo—action on the so-called neutrality law.

Q. In other words, it would not run into the next regular session?

THE PRESIDENT: No. I see absolutely no reason for it because, as you know, while Congress is not in session there are always a number of small things which it would be nice to have acted on, but it is not essential that they be acted on.

Q. Mr. President, there have been some intimations and suggestions that the Administration might recommend changes in the Johnson Act. Has anything been crystallized on that?

THE PRESIDENT: I never heard of it. That is a new one.

Q. Anything on profiteering?

THE PRESIDENT: Not that I know of. In other words, the statement that I could not think of anything that was absolutely necessary other than the neutrality angle covers almost all cases.

Q. Can you tell us anything about the profiteering studies that are being planned?

THE PRESIDENT: No. The only thing I can say on that is to mention some of the things that happened yesterday and the day before: there are a lot of perfectly well-meaning people who went to retail stores and found that some of the prices had gone up on foodstuffs; and there was also the case of two or three people in the White House, who could not buy more than five pounds of sugar.

Of course the real fact is that there is an actual surplus of food of every variety in this country. There is no conceivable shortage; and, as Secretary Wallace said yesterday, all of this fear of shortage of sugar, or a shortage of flour, or a shortage of this, that or the other thing, is ridiculous. All of us ought to do our best to make people realize that they must not get excited about something that does not exist. There is not any shortage; and we have plenty of everything in the way of foodstuffs.

On the question of prices, there is so much surplus in all the normal commodities that, while prices of foodstuffs which have been exceedingly low may come up a little bit, there will not be a repetition of some of the prices we had during the World War. There is an entirely different situation today.

Q. Will the United States, at the Panama Conference, attempt to inject into the program this plan to keep the Western Hemisphere free from war?

THE PRESIDENT: I think the State Department in conjunction with all the other Governments which will be represented are, at the present time, studying what they call an agenda. I do not know as yet what it is going to be. In other words, the agenda will be determined by the nations sitting there-not by the United States alone but by all the nations together. . . .

Q. Have you that Proclamation before you?

THE PRESIDENT: I have and here she is. I am going into this with a little care just so—what shall I say—scarehead stories won't be written. This is all off the record that I am talking about.

Now, a thing called "Declaration of National Emergency" is provided for in a great many statutes, not just one; and if one were to issue a Proclamation of National. Emergency without any limitation, scare headlines might be justified, because, under that, the Executive could do all kinds of things.

What I want to do, and what all of you want to do, is to make it clear that there is no intention and no need of doing all of these things that could be done. There is need of doing a few, what might be called simple and minor things within peacetime authorizations. In other words, there is no thought, in any shape, manner or form, of putting the Nation, either in its defenses or in its internal economy, on a war basis. That is one thing we want to avoid. We are going to keep the Nation on a peace basis, in accordance with peacetime authorizations.

That is why the title of this Proclamation really tells the true story: (Reading)

"PROCLAIMING A NATIONAL EMERGENCY IN CONNECTION

WITH THE OBSERVANCE, SAFEGUARDING, AND

ENFORCEMENT OF NEUTRALITY AND THE STRENGTHENING

OF THE NATIONAL DEFENSE WITHIN THE LIMITS OF

PEACETIME AUTHORIZATIONS"

In other words, I want to make it clear that in no shape, manner or form, do we do anything except remain on a peace basis. The Government will function in accordance with the regular departmental and agency method. That is very clear. We are not setting up all kinds of war boards, administrative boards, such as we used when we were in a state of war. (Reading)

"BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION

"WHEREAS a proclamation issued by me on September 5, 1939, proclaimed the neutrality of the United States in the war now unhappily existing between certain nations; and:

"WHEREAS this state of war imposes on the United States certain duties with respect to the proper observance, safeguarding, and enforcement of such neutrality, and the strengthening of the national defense within the limits of peacetime authorizations";

That is the main point to get across. [Continuing reading]

"and

"WHEREAS measures required at this time call for the exercise of only a limited number of the powers granted in a national emergency:

"NOW, THEREFORE, I, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, President of the United States of America, do proclaim that a national emergency exists in connection with and to the extent necessary for the proper observance, safeguarding, and enforcing of the neutrality of the United States and the strengthening of our national defense within the limits of peacetime authorizations. Specific directions and authorizations will be given from time to time for carrying out these two purposes."

Now, in order to illustrate, at 12:30 the Attorney General is bringing in three or four Executive Orders. One of them, for example, relates to the Army.

The authorized peacetime strength of the Army is 280,000 men. The Executive Order relating to the Army will allow the Army to recruit and call back what they call the first line reserves-ex-corporals and sergeants and things like that—a little above this year's authorized appropriations but not anywhere near the 280,000 that are authorized as peacetime strength. I cannot give you the figures now because the final figure has not yet been decided. And there is no use running to the War Department and the Navy Department to find out because they do not know. I have not fixed it yet. I will between now and 12:30 but, when I fix that upper limit, it will be way below 280,000. That will be given out at 12:30.

Now, the object of that, in the case of the Army, is—I suppose the easiest phrase to use is—to fill in the chinks, enough men to man certain defenses such as the Panama Canal, enough men to Puerto Rico, enough men to fill up certain arms of the service from which there have been in the last few years, you might say, borrowings in order to take care of some emergency things like aviation that we were trying to build up. It is to repay these borrowings of men that we made from various branches of the service, which today. have these chinks in them.

The same thing will apply to the Navy. As I remember it, the total authorized peace strength of the Navy is 180,000 men. At the present time we have between 115,000 and 120,000.

Under this Executive Order relating to the Navy, we shall have additional recruiting and calling back of the first line of reserves, in other words, experienced Navy enlisted men who served their eight years or twelve years or sixteen years or twenty years. We shall increase the present 115,000 to 120,000 by a comparatively small number; but we shall not go to the 180,000 of authorized peace strength. The object of that is, again, to fill in certain chinks or gaps. The fleet is only 85 per cent manned—the active fleet ships in commission. It is to fill in that 15 per cent so that all batteries, all watches, can be made full-time. It is to put into commission some of what they call the priority I class of the out-of-commission destroyers, not by any means all of them. We have, I think, about 116; and we shall probably put back into active commission only about a third of that number.

Then with the Marine Corps, we shall get a small additional number—again not up to the authorized peace strength of the Marine Corps—to fill in certain gaps in the Marine Corps.

So, you see it is not exactly a startling thing to do; it is an ordinary precautionary measure.

The third Executive Order will merely carry out the existing law that says, "In the event of a national emergency there is appropriated $500,000 to the State Department for the aid of Americans in foreign countries." This makes that $500,000 available to the State Department.

And the fourth relates to what you might say is a combination of neutrality and national defense. It provides for an addition to the personnel of certain investigating agencies of the Government to protect this country against—I suppose the easiest way of putting it is—some of the episodes, some of the things that happened over here in 1914 and 1915 and 1916 and the beginning of 1917, before we got into the war. There was sabotage; there was a great deal of propaganda by both belligerents, and a good many definite plans laid in this country by foreign governments to try to sway American public opinion. We do not have to specify. The older men who are here can remember some of the episodes of that time. It is to guard against that, and against the spread by any foreign nation of propaganda in this country which would tend to be subversive—I believe that is the word- of our form of Government.

Those are the only four things we are doing at this time and we see no other major needs for the future. There may be some minor things which will call for Executive Orders in the future; but nothing that can be, in any way, construed as putting this country on a war basis. We are going on just as we always have, in running the Government.

Q. Referring to the increase in the Army and Navy, are you making any increases in the National Guard?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, this will cover that.

Q. In that connection, Mr. President, I assume that will cost money in addition to appropriations that have been made by Congress. Under this Proclamation, is it possible to spend beyond the appropriations of Congress for that purpose?

THE PRESIDENT: Let us take a simple example—suppose we in-crease the Army by one-twelfth or eight and something per cent, we have to feed those extra people, we have to clothe them, and we have to pay them. That means that the Army appropriation for food, clothing and pay would only last until the first of June; and we should have to get a deficiency appropriation from the next Congress to make up that deficiency. It goes into the Deficiency Bill, just as so many other laws allow the departments to create deficiencies out of current funds and then go back to the Congress in the spring for funds in the Deficiency Bill to carry the department through to the end of the year.

Q. Mr. President, where will that $500,000 for the State Department come from for repatriating Americans?

THE PRESIDENT: It is a regular appropriation like all others.

Q. It is there, but needs this Proclamation to be effective? Is that what you mean?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

Q. Does this Proclamation of an emergency have any effect upon shipping or foreign exchange?

THE PRESIDENT: I do not think so. No.

Q. Mr. President, will any of these recommissioned destroyers be used as convoys?

THE PRESIDENT: Not that I know of.

Q. They will be assigned to patrol work, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.