Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy - Ludwig von Mises ...

24 Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
won’t conform, maybe we will have to move him out of town’.”
Th e president continued: “Arnold has to keep his mouth shut.
He can’t see the press any more.” Morgenthau was delighted; he
reported to his staff later, “Oh boy, did General Arnold get it!” 41
At that White House conference FDR revealed that the
British and French were not his only worries. He was also concerned
about the U.S. economy. Th e New Deal programs had not
solved the unemployment problem. Th ere were as many people
unemployed in 1938 as there had been when he took offi ce.
Th e only way FDR knew to provide jobs to U.S. workers was
by government spending and the European “cash and carry” war
orders were putting people to work. “Th ese foreign orders,” he
told Morgenthau, “mean prosperity in this country and we can’t
elect a Democratic Party unless we get prosperity.” Secretary
Morgenthau agreed, “And he’s right.” 42
In May, FDR asked Congress for more funds—over a billion
dollars—to pay for 50,000 planes. 43 He was impatient. Only two
weeks later he urged Congress to hurry up with the funds. 44 Th us
in that election year FDR sought to solve his political problem by
putting workers to work on war orders. Th e manufacture of 50,000
planes would create jobs. FDR probably gave little thought to the
fact that the cost of these 50,000 planes would be added to the
federal debt and thus to the problems of future presidents.
On April 17, 1940, Secretary of State Cordell Hull warned
Japan that the U.S. would oppose “Intervention in the domestic
41 Ibid., pp. 117–18.
42 This description of the March 12, 1940, White House meeting is based on
Blum, From the Morgenthau Diaries, pp.109–18. Morgenthau quote appears
on p. 118.
43 Roosevelt’s message to Congress, May 16, 1940. See U.S. Congress, Events,
p. 239 (May 16, 1940 entry). See also H. Duncan Hall, North American Supply
(London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Offi ce; Longmans, Green, 1955), p. 127
(the offi cial British history of World War II).
44 Ibid., p.127.