L.T. SUNOCO, MONDAY. JANUARY 6, 1941 GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: The Seventy-seventh Congress of the United States is now officially with us. And it made its bow in spectacular fashion. The first thing it had to do was of itself unique: in joint session the Senators and Representatives had to canvass the electoral votes and officially declare Franklin Delano Roosevelt President of the United States for the Third Term in succession, the first Third Term President. Of course, all that was mere formality; nevertheless there was a fateful aspect to that ceremony in Washington today. And then, as most of you know, the president and Mrs. Roosevelt, accompanied by the Crown Prince and Princess of Norway, drove up to the Capitol in state, cheered to tne acho as they proceeded. And at four minutes pas^two tne president aJdressed tne joint houses of congress. And thirty-eight minutes later he had finished his delivery of four thousand words; among the most momentous words ever spoken by an American President. LEAD - 2 What Mr* Roosevelt said had, of course, been foreshadowed weeks in advance. Nevertheless the world was waiting for today’s ofiicial utterance. As well it might be, For his crisp paragraphs concern most intimately and directly the future of the entire world. That much is made clear by the comment from the other side of the globe where three of those paragraphs drew the keenest attention. They followed a sentence in which Mr. Roosevelt said:- "Our national policy in foreign affairs has been based on the decent respect for the rights and dignity of all nations, large and small.” To which he added, "The justice of morality must and willwin in the end." Then came those crucial paragraphs. "Our national policy," said the president, "is this:- First by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to an all inclusive national defense." The second point was: "By an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to full support of all those resolute peoples everywhere who are resisting aggression and who are thereby keeping war away fromour LEAD - 3 hemisphere.n And for a third point, he said, nBy an expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to the proposition that principles of morality and considerations for our own security will never permit us to acquiesce in a peace dictated by aggressors and sponsored by a appeasers.” A direct slap at the advocates of appeasement. Ihen he explained those words: nby an impressive express ion of the public will.” For he pointed out quote:- ”In the recent national election there was no substantial difference between the two big parites in respect to zfet that national policy. Therefore,” he added, ”the immediate need is a swift and driving increase in our armament production.” In one part of his message Mr. Roosevelt gave an indirect answer to some of his critics. They had uttered the plea, ”Please, Mr. President, le^s have no false optimism.” His answer was ”1 am sorry to say that in some very important cases we are all concerned by the slowness of the accomplishment of our plans.” In a way that was one of the most important features oi the message, for later he added these words: ”1 am not satisfied with i EAD - 4 the progress thus far made,” And he said further: "The men in charge of the program are the best in training, ability and patriotism, and they are not satisfied with the progress thus far made.” Whereupon he gave two illustrations: ”We are behind schedule,” he said, ”in turning out finished airplanes, but we are working day and night to solve the innumerable problems and catch up. On the other hand,” he declared, ”we are ahead of schedule in building warships, but we are working to get even further ahead.” In his historic speech today the President asked for \ greatly increased appropriations to meet new needs for our own safety. To which he added the protentous words: ”1 also ask thisj Congress for authority and for founds enough to manufacture additional munitions and war supplies of many kinds, to be turned over to those nations which are now in actual war v.ith aggressor j nations.” Then he repeated what he had proclaimed in his latest fireside chat: ”Our most useful and immediate role is to act as an arsenal for them, as well as for ourselves.” \ And in explanation A he said, "»e cannot and will not tell them they must surrender because of present inability to pay for the weapons which we know LEAD - 5 tney raHst have. I do not recommend that we make them a loan of dollars.I recommend,” he urged, "that we make it possible for those nations to continue to obtain war material in the United a11 States, fitting their orders into our program." Nearly of their materielle," he then declared, "would be useful for our own defense." As for the terms of payment, Mr. Roosevelt stated: "For what we send abroad we shall be repaid within a reasonble time following the close of hostilities,in similar materials ar at our option, in otndr goods of many kinds which they can produce and which we need. Then he added this plea: "Let us declare to the Democracies quote:- "Y/e Americans are vitally concerned in your defense of freedom. We shall send you in ever increasing numbers ships, planes tanks, guns." The President next threw down the gauntlet of defiance to the Axis powers when he declaimed, "In fulfillment of this purpose we will not be intimidated by the threats of Dictators. Such aid," he said, "is not an act of war even if a Dictator should unilaterally • When the Dictators are ready to make war upon I procalim it to be so LEAD - 6 us tney will not wait lor an act of war upon our part. They did not wait for Belgium, or Norway, or The Netherlands to commit an act of war.n Bo much for foreign affairs, and the dramatic highlights of today’s nistoric messages. Turning his eyes inland Mr. Roosevelt todl the Congress that many subjects in our social economy call for immediate improvement; such as old-age pensions and unemployment insurance, a}.so better opportunities for adequate medical care for everybody, and a better system to provide jobs for all who need work. MIDDLE EAST Meanwhile the news from Afric continues to be exciting. There is going on now what the military experts in London call a race between the British and Hitler, Having captured B'irdia the next goal of the Australian divisions is Tobruk, another Lybian Port some sixty miles West of Bardia. Tobruk was being intensively bombed by the Royal Air Force today. The British believe that Hitler will be obliged to do^N something spectacular to offset the capture of Bardia. So the J Army of the Nile is pushing toward Tobruk before the Nazis canr come to the rescue. The clean-up at Bardia seems to be pretty complete. The calculations tonight are that Britain’s army of the Nile has captured some seventy thousand Italian prisoners; thi ty-eight thousand taken at Sidi Barrani, and some thirty-odd thousand at Bardia. And, at Bardia the Aussies captured tremendous booty; tanks, guns, epuipment of all kinds and abundant stores. In Italy Mussolini’s people haven’t yet been told the news about the fall of Bardia. All they could learn from the Rome radio broadcast was that the defense of that T — 2 Libyan stronghold was an epic sacrifice and a^teaF* token of More. H! eventual victory. LA But there sjssr considerable significance in a r communication v/: ich described the xjkxbsx heroism of an Italian General whose name is i~ergonz01i. Hefs a veteran of the Spanish Civil V.'p,r and was in command of the Fascist Division at CuadAlajara. The Australian Tommies rebaptized him with the picturesque name of General Electric Wh skers because of the luxuriant ya foliage on his chin. Whatever name you prefer to / /\ give him, General Electric Whiskers Bergonz0ii is being hailed by his countrymen tonight because he refused to escape by airplane from Bardia and took, his chances along with the plain soldiers. —■—' r ' praises p^5*{Tie British are also singing the^prixiss^ of a General whose name was unknown on this side of the ocean until today. His full title is Major General Iven Gifford UacKay. raght months ago he was a schoolmtster near bydney. Aow he is distinguished as the General Officer commanding the Australians who captured B-rdia. But even as a schoolmaster neTs no novice as a fighting man. Hp was in the last war, fou^ nt at Gaij-ipoli^ and - - - MIDDLE EAST - 3 gained many honors. In fact it was in the last war that he earned the nickname of "Iven the Terrible" — before he ’.vent As back to being a schoolmaster — and before he became the idol of this new Australian Army of the Wile. DO LG AH IA History seems to have something up her sleeve in the t Balkans, We can’t pet tell what is is. Though reports are definite, that contradict each other * B t seems pretty sure that Hitler is about to bring off another major coup in southeastern I Europe. And that right soon. He’s getting ready to pull somethirg British out of the bag to offset the smashing victories in Africa and what the amazing Greeks have done in Albania. First we hear that the Fuehrer is about to march into Bulgaria. The United Press says it has private information that the Nazis delivered an ultimatum to Bulgaria on Saturday, that the vulgarian government gave in, and that the German hordes will march across the Bulgarian frontier shortly; probably Wednesday, since tomorrow’ is Christmas Day in the Orthodox Greek Church calendar. The story goes that Bogdan Filoff, the Bulgarian premier. was at Vienna over the weekend and that he received his ultimatum from Von Ribbentrop. Corroborating the story is the report that Hitler’s generals now have hald a million troops including mefahanized Panzer divisions in Rumania, from where it would be an easy s tep over the border into Bu&garid. BULGARIA - 2 The Soviets, like the Czarist Government of Russia, always declared that Moscow could not be indifferent to any important change in the complexion of the Balkans. But some have believe that Hitler and Stalin have made a deal whereby the Russians get a free hand in Finland on condition that the Fuehrer can do as he pleases in southeastern Europe. But that U.P. report is denied from three differnt directions! First, Berlin. Nazi officials ridicule the notion of an j ultimatum having been received by Bulgarian Premier Filoff. Also denial from ^ofia, capital of Bulgaria. But Balkan diplomats on duty in London declare that there are not five hundred thousand German troops in Rumania — only fifth thousand. They point | out that only last month a member of the Bulgarian Parliament proposed that they should line up with Hitler and Mussolini, and the Bulgar Foreign Affairs Committee turned it down. One interpreta tion of all this is:- A.- that Hitler is either preparing to march through Bulgaria on Salonika, thus coming to the help of Mussolini; or, B- that all these motions in the Balkans are feints Just strategy to distract the attention of the British while hefs really making another desperate attempt for the invasion of Britain It may or may not be significant that the report of the coming occupation of Bulgaria is fully believed in Belgrade, capital of Jugoslavia. \LBAfllA Another report of Gernian reinforcement to the Italians in Albania. This xxx is more circumstantial than the others which were denied. For it states that a Greek contingent was badly beaten, twenty-four miles to the south of Tirana. And the force that beat it was a strong Italian detachment supported by German tanks. The significant thing about this report is that it comes* from Jugoslavia. Hitherto all the stories from Jugoslavia have been favorable to the Greeks. Many o' them h ve been premature though the facts overtook the rumour later. This engagement south of Tirana was not a tig one, the forces engaged were not ' The^ important feature of it is the apparently definite presence of those German tanks. Her !s a still later buixetin from Budapest, hot off the ?rire. The Hungarian &azis ar-_ giving out further details about the latest agreement between S-t-alin and Hitler. The Soviet Tsar gets not onuy a free hand in Finland but also more land in Rumania, the entire province of Moldavia. In exchange Hitler has a free hand in Bulgaria.\ fcrtog^Tftgr^t-gggs-ngt-gqBnA i. TherefII be quite a red-letter sporting event at ^ad^son Square Gorden in New ¥ork tonight. Alice Garble, the unquestioned lady champion tennis ace of the v.orld becomes a professional. v.il^ make h r first appearance as a pro^playing against Mary Hardwick#, the English champion. Later in the evening Alice, with Big Bill Tilden, the old master, as her TT partner, will play M^ss Hardwick and Don Budge. It is interesting to learn that the tv.enty-five thousand dollars which Alice Marble will get for a year of professional £ennis will be spent taking i oe spent taking singing lessons. 4f she succeeds in her ambition, sheTll be the ^ u first girl thy» jumpad. to the stage of the Metropolitan Opera X House by way of Madison Square* Garden, ervy^g. -iLJC <(We W VU? (^r*L '**»+*- - ? v