Presidential Power, the Panay Incident, and the Defeat of the Ludlow Amendment

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1 Congressional Record, 75th Cong., 3d sess., 278; New York Times, 11 Jan. 1938, 18. 2 D. M. Kennedy, Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945 (New York, 1999), 402–3.More careful studies of Ludlow's activities have noted that Congress was merely considering whether to bring the referendum amendment to the House floor for full-scale discussion as a ‘special order of business’, which was defeated by a substantial twenty-one vote majority; Kennedy is mistaken in claiming that the House vote was on proposing a constitutional amendment to the states. For a corrective on this point, see, for example, E. K. Bolt's discussion, Ballots Before Bullets: The War Referendum Approach to Peace in America, 1914–1941 (Charlottesville, 1977), 153, 164. Bolt's work is the best available on the amendment. 3 J. W. Pratt, Cordell Hull, 2 vols. (New York, 1964), ii. 450. 4 A. DeConde, A History of American Foreign Policy (2d ed.; New York, 1971), 572. 5 A. M. Winkler, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Making of Modern America (New York, 2006), 142–3. 6 H. W. Brands, Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (New York, 2008), 505. 7 Public Opinion Quarterly, ii (1938), 388. The surveys occurred in April and August 1937. On Americans' belief that the Neutrality Act was a panacea for avoiding war, see J. C. Donovan, ‘Congressional Isolationists and the Roosevelt Foreign Policy’, World Politics, iii (1951), 299–316. 8 G. H. Gallup (ed), The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935–1971 (New York, 1972), 35; Public Opinion Quarterly, ii (1938), 388. 9 Public Opinion Quarterly, ii (1938), 120. 10 Public Opinion Quarterly, ii (1938), 388–9, and iii (1939), 599; Common Sense, May 1937, 10 (quotation). For a brief autobiography of Bingham (1905–98), see S. J. Kunitz and H. Haycraft (eds), Twentieth Century Authors: A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature (New York, 1942), 141–2; see also the obituary in the New York Times, 5 Nov. 1998 (online). For the democratic impetus of the Ludlow Amendment, see R. D. Burns and W. A. Dixon, ‘Foreign Policy and the “Democratic Myth”: The Debate on the Ludlow Amendment’, Mid-America: An Historical Review, xlvii (1965), 288–306. 11 Public Opinion Quarterly, ii (1938), 389; See also J. Masland, ‘American Attitudes Toward Japan’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, ccxv (1941), 161–2. 12 Emporia [Kansas] Weekly Gazette, 16 Sept. 1937. Although the Midwest was the most isolationist region of the United States, white Southerners, notwithstanding their British ancestry and adherence to the internationalist-oriented Democratic Party, distrusted foreigners more and had less comprehension of foreign affairs than most other Americans. They were not far behind the Midwest in their isolationist proclivities, mainly because they opposed attending international conferences with non-white races. A. DeConde, ‘The South and Isolationism’, Journal of Southern History, xxiv (Aug. 1958), 332–46. On the topic of isolation in this period in general, see also, for example, A. DeConde, ‘On Twentieth-Century Isolationism’, in A. DeConde (ed), Isolation and Security: Ideas and Interests in Twentieth-Century American Foreign Policy (Durham, N.C., 1957), 3–32; and J. C. Schneider, Should America Go to War? The Debate Over Foreign Policy in Chicago, 1939–1941 (Chapel Hill, 1989). 13 Emporia Weekly Gazette, 2 Sept. 1937. White's ambiguous attitudes on foreign affairs during this period were reflected in the conflicting editorial positions assumed by his assistant editors, Frank C. Clough, an isolationist, and Roger Triplett, an internationalist. Personal Correspondence: Jim Nirider, City Editor of the Emporia Gazette, to author 18 July 1974. 14 New York Times, 17 Nov. 1937, 1. Congressional Record, 75th Cong., 3d Sess., 10 Jan. 1938, 278. 15 New York Times, 17 Nov. 1937, 1. Democratic Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana spoke in favour of a national war referendum, and Republican Senator Gerald Nye of North Dakota acclaimed the La Follette resolution. New York Times, 24 Dec. 1937, vi. 3. 16 Congressional Digest, vol 17 (February 1938), p. 41. 17 These Senate resolutions, which never reached the floor, may be conveniently found in Congressional Digest, Feb. 1938, 41. 18 For the text of Roosevelt's ‘Quarantine Speech’, see F. D. Roosevelt and S. I. Rosenman (ed), Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt (New York, 1941) vi. 406–11, quotations at 409, 411. For additional information on the background of FDR's ‘Quarantine Speech’, see the old and still excellent account in W. L. Langer and S. E. Gleason, The Challenge to Isolation, 1937–1940 (New York, 1952), 18–26. 19 New York Times, 11 Oct. 1937, 3. On the progress of Ludlow's discharge petition, see New York Times, 26 Nov. 1937, 8, and 15 Dec. 1937, 20. D. Borg, The United States and the Far Eastern Crisis of 1933–1938 (Cambridge, MA, 1964), chapters 13–14, is an outstanding study, still unsurpassed, of Roosevelt's groping for a Far-Eastern policy and his failure to restrain Japanese aggression at the Brussels Conference. 20 New York Times, 27 Nov. 1937, 18. 21 New York Times, 21 Nov. 1937, ii. 3. 22 New York Times, 15 Nov. 1937, 2. 23 The Nation, 18 Sept. 1937, 279. 24 New York Times, 18 Nov. 1937, 22. 25 ‘America's Aloofness’, New York Times, 30 Nov. 1937, 22. 26 ‘America's Aloofness’, New York Times, 30 Nov. 1937, 22. See also New York Times, 2 Jan. 1938, iv. 3. 27 ‘R.T.’, Emporia Weekly Gazette, 2 and 9 Dec. 1937, 1. 28 ‘R.T.’, Emporia Weekly Gazette, 30 Dec. 1937, 1. 29 ‘F.C.C.’, Emporia Weekly Gazette, 16 Dec. 1937, 1. 30 R. A. Divine, The Illusion of Neutrality (Chicago, 1962), 205–15. Sixty-four per cent of those polled in February 1938 opposed the United States permitting arms sales to China. Public Opinion Quarterly, ii (1938), 389. 31 New York Times, 26 Nov. 1937, 8. 32 I. H. Anderson, The Standard-Vacuum Oil Company and United states East Asian Policy, 1933–1941 (Princeton, 1975), 107–10; D. H. Grover, ‘The Panay Revisited: A Maritime Perspective’, American Neptune, l, No. 4 (1990), 260–9. 33 Ibid., 268 (quotation). 34 New York Times, 13–14, 17 and 20 Dec. 1937. See also M. T. Koginos, The Panay Incident: Prelude to War (Lafayette, IN, 1967), and Borg, The United States and the Far Eastern Crisis, 486–503. New York Times, 18 Dec. 1937, 8 and 20 Dec. 1937, 1. H. D. Perry, The Panay Incident: Prelude to Pearl Harbour (New York, 1969), chapter 18, a work oriented toward general readers, sympathizes with Japanese denials that the attack was deliberate. He charges that Colonel Kingoro Hashimoto tricked the planes into making the attack. 35 Hull to Hirota, quoted in Borg, The United States and the Far Eastern Crisis, 488. In general, see Borg, 486–97. 36 Roosevelt, ‘Memorandum to the Secretary of State on the Bombing of the SS Panay by the Japanese, 13 December 1937’, in F. D. Roosevelt (ed), Public Papers and Addresses of Roosevelt, vi. 541; author's italics. In annotating this document, Roosevelt mentioned that the Japanese government on 22 April 1938 submitted a cheque for $2,214,007.36, to compensate for death, injuries, and property losses. Ibid., 542. 37 Borg, The United States and the Far Eastern Crisis, 493–518; R. Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1933–1945 (New York, 1979), 155. For a defence of the British position, espoused by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, as being more assertive than Roosevelt's, see Kennedy, Freedom From Fear, 404. 38 Ibid., 500–1; New York Times, 18 and 20 Dec. 1937, 1, 8. See also Koginos, Panay Incident, chapter 3. 39 New York Times, 16 Dec. 1937, 19. 40 New York Times, 14 Dec. 1937, 24. 41 Arthur Krock, in New York Times, 16 Dec. 1937, 26. 42 New York Times, editorial, 16 Dec. 1937, 26. 43 Arthur Krock, ‘In the Nation: How the Panay Incident was Handled’, New York Times, 17 Dec. 1937, 24. See also Time, 27 Dec. 1937, 7–8, which harshly criticized Ludlow's bill for threatening to deprive Roosevelt of his power in this time of crisis. 44 E. L. James, ‘In Splendid Isolation We Face Japan Alone: Washington, Abjuring Cooperation and Joint Action, Now Enjoys Benefit of Paddling One's Own Canoe’, New York Times, 19 Dec. 1937, 65. On British Ambassador to China Sir Hugh M. Knatchbuil-Hugessen's shooting by overhead Japanese warplanes (he was injured but not killed), see H. Byas, ‘Japan Wooing Us,’ New York Times, 19 Dec. 1937, 66; and B. A. Lee, Britain and the Sino-Japanese War, 1937–1939 (Stanford, 1971), 40–1. For Edwin James' career with the New York Times, see E. Emery, The Press and America: An Interpretive History of the Mass Media, 3rd ed. (Englewood Cliffs, 1972), 426–7, 519, 654. 45 W. Lippmann, ‘Mr. Ludlow Prepares for War’, Congressional Record, Appendix, 75th Congr., 2nd Sess., 561. The Congressional Record does not note the original source of the article, which may have been written deliberately for Congress. 46 Cf. M. Jonas, Isolationism in America, 1935–1941 (Ithaca, NY, 1966), 162; Borg, United States and Far Eastern Crisis, 502–3; W. E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932–1940 (New York, 1963), 229. 47 New York Times, 18 Dec. 1937, 3. Congressional Record, 75th Cong., 2d Sess., 14 Dec. 1937, 1517–18. 48 ‘Japan Promises, And We Accept’, New York Times, 26 Dec. 1937, iv. 43 49 Alfred M. Landon to Roosevelt, 20 Dec. 1937, Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, ed. S. I. Rosenman (New York, 1941) v. 550. At his press conference the following day, Roosevelt said that he had not spoken with Landon about ‘international affairs’ during their meeting, except for ‘a few sentences’ to emphasize ‘the seriousness of the problem’. Roosevelt Press Conference #418, 21 Dec. 1937, in Complete Presidential Press Conferences of Franklin D. Roosevelt (New York, 1972), x. 427–8 For an excellent account of Landon's attitude toward the Ludlow Amendment, see D. R. McCoy, Landon of Kansas (Lincoln, NB, 1966), 377–80. Like numerous other reporters, Arthur Krock praised Landon. New York Times, 22 Dec. 1937, 24. On the struggle between Landon and former president Herbert Hoover for control of the Republican Party, see also Newsweek, 3 Jan. 1938, 19. 50 Landon to Roosevelt, 20 Dec. 1937, in Rosenman (ed), Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, v. 550. The telegram was also printed in most newspapers around the country, including the Atlanta Constitution, 24 Dec. 1937, 10 (‘Defeat of War Referendum Test Held Vital to Far Eastern Policy’), and the Emporia Gazette, 22 Dec. 1937. See B. L. Larson, ‘Kansas and the Panay Incident, 1937’, Kansas Historical Quarterly, xxxi (Autumn 1965), 243. 51 Roosevelt's Press Conference No. 418, 21 Dec. 1937, in Presidential Press Conferences, x. 424–6; McCoy, Landon of Kansas, 378–9; FDR to Frank Knox, 22 Dec. 1937, responding to Knox to FDR, 15 Dec. 1937, both printed in D. Schewe (ed), Franklin D. Roosevelt and Foreign Affairs (New York, 1969), vii. 487 (quotation), 389. 52 Roosevelt's telegram to Landon, 21 Dec. 1937, in Rosenman (ed), Public Papers, vi. 549–50. See also the text published in the New York Times, 22 Dec. 1937, 10. 53 F. Waltman, ‘ROOSEVELT REJECTS ISOLATION’, Washington Post, 22 Dec. 1937, 1. Waltman was a Republican political columnist for the Washington Post and the publicity director of the Republican National Committee from 1938 to 1940. Although an internationalist in foreign affairs, he was known for his opposition to FDR's attempt to enlarge the Supreme Court in 1938, and he often accused Roosevelt of ‘dictatorial’ attempts to restrict freedom of the press. G. D. Best, The Critical Press and the New Deal: The Press versus Presidential Power, 1933–1938 (Westport, 1993), 27–32 and passim. 54 Waltman, ‘ROOSEVELT REJECTS ISOLATION’, Washington Post, 22 Dec. 1937, 1; Fish's anti-FDR radio address is quoted in Bolt, Ballots Before Bullets, 166. 55 ‘The Ludlow Amendment’, editorial in Christian Century, 5 Jan. 1938, 7– 9. 56 Mark G. Toulouse, ‘The Christian Century’, in C. H. Lippy (ed), Religious Periodicals of the United States: Academic and Scholarly Journals (Westport, 1986), 109–14. In conformity to his eccentric stand on the Ludlow amendment, after Pearl Harbor Morrison denounced US policy toward Japan as needlessly provocative and dubbed the US declaration of war as an ‘unnecessary necessity’. The Christian Century was also the first national magazine to condemn the internment of Japanese-Americans in 1942. 57 Gallup, The Gallup Poll, i. 85 (poll of 16 January 1938); Bolt, Ballots Before Bullets, 162. The State Department pursued a generally cautious policy in China at this time. In August 1937, President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Hull urged Americans to leave China after three Americans had been killed in Japanese aerial bombings of Shanghai. In January 1938, Hull had rejected a Chinese request for a $500 million loan for arms purchases. He also withdrew some US troops from northern China. See Divine, Illusion of Neutrality, 205, and Borg, United States and Far Eastern Crisis, 515–17. 58 New York Times, 14 Dec. 1937, 18; 23 Dec. 1937, 6. Democratic congressmen David J. Lewis of Maryland and Byron N. Scott of California introduced resolutions into the House of Representatives calling for economic sanctions against Japan in co-operation with other nations. 59 New York Times, 23 Dec. 1937, 6. At the same time Vandenberg reiterated his opposition to ‘entangling alliances’ and ‘excursions in collective security’ by the United States. See also W. S. Cole, Roosevelt and the Isolationists, 1932–1945 (Lincoln, NB, 1983). 60 New York Times, 24 Dec. 1937, 6. For differing historical interpretations of the reactions of Congress and the people to the Panay incident, see the sketchy accounts in Divine, Illusion of Neutrality, 216, who finds it increased public desire for stronger measures against Japan, and Leuchtenburg, FDR and the New Deal, 229, who argues that it revealed public and congressional dread of war with Japan. More recent studies have not returned to the topic. The issue requires further study. 61 New York Times, 22 Dec. 1937, 10, voiced this opinion. 62 New York Times, 22 Dec. 1937, 10, for Rogers' commentary. Rogers voted against the referendum when it came up on 10 January 1938. Both the US Navy and the Socony-Vacuum Company were disappointed at the amount of compensation they received from the Japanese government. Socony-Vacuum obtained $1,287,942, over $300,000 less than it claimed; the Navy acquired $926,000 in compensation, $285,000 less than it claimed. Despite the Japanese government's show of contrition for the attacks, Japanese planes and troops continued to harass Standard Oil tankers in 1938. Ironically, Japan seized the Standard Oil tankers after it attacked Pearl Harbor. Grover, ‘Panay Revisited’, 268. 63 Ludlow Press Release, mid-December 1937, [Indiana University-Bloomington, Lilly Library], Louis L. Ludlow War Referendum Scrapbooks, I, Louis Ludlow Papers, 7. The author gratefully acknowledges a Lilly Library Fellowship which enabled him to examine the Ludlow Papers. 64 On Fish's activities, see Charles Chatfield, For Peace and Justice: Pacifism in America, 1914–1941 (Knoxville, TN, 1971), 283. Radio address by Hamilton Fish, 21 Dec. 1937, 75th Cong., 2s Session, Appendix, 608–9. 65 FDR to James Roosevelt, 20 Jan. 1938, in E. Roosevelt (ed), F.D.R.: His Personal Letters, 4 vols. (1950; reprinted, New York, 1970), iv. 750–1. In a speech to Congress on 11 April 1938, Ludlow referred to a previous convention of 10,000 members of the Young Democrats at Indianapolis, enthusiastically presided over by James Roosevelt, which (probably to FDR's chagrin) unanimously ‘resolved, that we favour a Nation-wide referendum before declaration of war, except in case of invasion or internal rebellion.’ Congressional Record, 75th Congress, 3d sess., 5281. 66 L. G. Svendsgaard, ‘McCormick, Robert Rutherford’, in American National Biography, excellently describes McCormick's antipathy to FDR. John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography (24 vols., New York, 1999), 14: 921–23. 67 ‘Let Hawaii Slide??!##%?’, New York Daily News (hereafter referred to as NYDN), 13 Dec. 1937, 1, 29. 68 NYDN, 14 Dec. 1937, 33. 69 ‘PRESIDENT PUTS 3 DEMANDS TO MIKADO IN NOTE’, Chicago Daily Tribune (hereafter referred to as CDT), 14 Dec. 1937, 1. Like its sister newspaper the New York Daily News, the Tribune also favoured Roosevelt's naval expansion proposals. Koginos, The Panay Incident, 35–6, 109. 70 ‘Push War Referendum’, CDT, 15 Dec. 1937, 2. 71 ‘Push War Referendum’, CDT, 15 Dec. 1937, 2. 72 ‘Sinking of the Panay’, CDT, 15 Dec. 1937, 12. 73 CDT, 18 Dec. 1937, 10. 74 ‘WARS AND THEIR CAUSES’, CDT, 17 Dec. 1937, 18. 75 ‘CABINET SCANS NAVAL STORY OF PANAY'S SINKING’, CDT, 18 Dec. 1937, 9. 76 ‘Inventions of War’, CDT, 23 Dec. 1937, p. 12. See CDT, 20 Dec. 1937, 3, on Japanese government. 77 ‘Tokio Reply Likely Today’, Chicago Tribune, 24 Dec. 1937, 2. 78 Roosevelt, Press Conference #416, 14 Dec. 1937, in Complete Presidential Press Conferences of Franklin D. Roosevelt, x. 409–10. Most newspapers published a photograph of Roosevelt's memo to Hull, and his crossing out the weaker verb ‘suggests’ and inserting the stronger term ‘requests’ in directing him to inform the Japanese ambassador that he wanted Hirohito informed of his ‘shock’ at the ‘indiscriminate bombing’ of American vessels. See, e.g., ‘President's Memorandum on The Panay’, New York Times, 14 Dec. 1937, 1. 79 ‘Why the Mikado?’ Los Angeles Times, 15 Dec. 1937, A4. 80 Washington Post, 23 Dec. 1937, 8. 81 ‘FLEET DISPLAY BY U.S.-BRITISH IN EAST HINTED’, NYDN, 16 Dec. 1937, 2 (first quotation), 8 (second quotation). 82 NYDN, 16 Dec. 1937, 8. 83 ‘Support the President’, Emporia Weekly Gazette, 6 Jan. 1938, 1 (first quotation); ibid., 13 Jan. 1938, 1 (second quotation). On the National Committee for the War Referendum, see Bolt, Ballots Before Bullets, 167. 84 Emporia Weekly Gazette, 27 Jan. 1938, 1. For White's later activities as a cautious internationalist, who surrendered his leadership of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies to the more forceful Century Group and Fight For Freedom Committee, see Lise Namikas, ‘The Committee to Defend America and the Debate Between Internationalists and Interventionists, 1939–1941’, The Historian: A Journal of History, lxi (Summer 1999), 843–63. 85 ‘Should the People Declare War? Some Arguments in Favour of Representative Ludlow's Resolution for a Popular Referendum’, William C. Rivers, 15 Dec. 1937, printed in ‘Letters to the Editor’, New York Times, 19 Dec. 1937, 70. 86 Elmer Davis (incorrectly spelled ‘Daivs’) to the New York Times, 16 Dec. 1937, printed in ‘Letters to the Editor,’ 19 Dec. 1937, 70. For a brief biography of Davis, see Joseph P. McKearns, ed., Biographical Dictionary of American Journalism (Westport, 1989), 166–8. 87 Joseph P. Lash to Dorothy Detzer, 17 March 1938, [Swarthmore College Peace Collection (microfilm edition by Scholarly Resources, Wilmington, Del., 1980–1987)], W[omen's] I[nternational] L[eague for Peace and Freedom] Papers, [United States Section, 1919–1959], reel 67. 88 Dorothy Detzer to Joe Lash, March 22, 1938, WIL Papers, reel 67. On Lash, see Veronica A. Wilson, ‘Lash, Joseph P.’, in Maurine H. Beasley (ed), Eleanor Roosevelt Encyclopedia (Westport, 2001), 305–7. 89 Christian Science Monitor, 11 Jan. 1938. 90 New York Times, 15 Dec. 1937, 1. Numerous excellent scholars conclude that the Panay affair gave Ludlow the support he needed to bring his amendment to the House floor. Jonas, Isolationism in America, 162, mistakenly observes that Ludlow obtained ‘the additional twenty-one signatures he need’ after the Panay incident. Other statements of the traditional interpretation of the Panay sinking's impact on the discharge petition include Koginos, Panay Incident, 83; Leuchtenburg, FDR and the New Deal, 230; and Wayne S. Cole, ‘The Role of the United States Congress and Political Parties’, in Dorothy Borg and Shumpeii Okamoto (eds), Pearl Harbour as History: Japanese-American Relations, 1931–1941 (New York, 1973), 314–5. 91 New York Times, 14 Dec. 1937, 18. 92 Congressional Record, 75th Cong., 2d Sess., 14 Dec. 1937, 1516–18. 93 Ibid., 1517. One of the signers of the discharge petition (signature #177) was a future President of the United States more known for his commitment to war, Texas congressman Lyndon B. Johnson. 94 New York Times, 15 Dec. 1937, 20. 95 New York Times, 19 Dec. 1937, sect. IV, 3. 96 New York Times, 26 Dec. 1937, 43. 97 New York Times, 29 Dec. 1937, 7. 98 Ibid. The twenty-three signers of the statement were: Ludlow, Samuel B. Pettengill and Virginia E. Jenckes of Indiana, Horace J. (‘Jerry’) Voorhis and Ed Izac of California, Gerald Boileau and Thomas O’Malley of Wisconsin, Robert Crosser, William Ashbrook and Brooks Fletcher of Ohio, Hamilton Fish and Caroline O’Day of New York, Charles Leavy and Knute Hill of Washington, Harold Knutson of Minnesota, Edward Clayton Eicher of Iowa, D. Worth Clark of Idaho, a belated convert to the war referendum who had not signed the discharge petition, and introduced his own war referendum amendment after his election to the Senate in 1939; Henry Luckey of Nebraska, Francis Case of South Dakota, Fred Lewis Crawford, a Michigan Republican, William P. Lambertson, Kansas Republican, Democrats Jennings Randolph of West Virginia and Herman P. Kopplemann of Connecticut. 99 Ibid. 100 Larson, ‘Kansas and the Panay Incident, 1937’, 241. 101 Concordia [Kansas] Press, quoted ibid., 242. 102 Manhattan [Kansas] Mercury, 15 Dec. 1937, quoted in Larson, “Kansas and the Panay Incident,” 243. 103 Lawrence Daily Journal and World, 18 Dec. 1937, and Kansas City Star, 23 Dec. 1937, quoted in Larson, ‘Kansas and the Panay Incident’, 243. 104 Larson, ‘Kansas and the Panay Incident’, 243–4. 105 New York Times, 15 Dec. 1937, 20; for the AIPO poll, see Hadley Cantril and Mildred Strunk, Public Opinion, 1935 to 1946 (Princeton, 1951), 1025. 106 Congressional Record, 75th Congress, 3d Session, 6 Jan. 1938, 132. On the Ludlow referendum's supporters' idealistic motives and desire to promote worldwide democracy, see Arthur Scherr, ‘Louis Ludlow's War Referendum of 1938: A Reappraisal,’ Mid-America: An Historical Review, lxxvi (Spring/Summer 1994), 133–55. 107 Ibid., 7 Jan. 1938, 163. Apparently, Jarman's purpose was to convince foreign powers that its consideration did not signify a congressional desire to appease Japan, since he had not signed the discharge petition and voted against consideration of House Joint Resolution 199 as a special order of business. His remarks were widely reprinted in the newspapers, e.g., Atlanta Constitution, 8 Jan. 1938, 15 (‘War Referendum Test Due Monday’). For Jarman's votes, see Cong. Rec., 14 Dec. 1937, 1518 (signature is not on discharge petition), and 10 Jan. 1938, 282–3 (Jarman voted against bringing Ludlow's resolution to the House floor). 108 Ibid., 190. 109 Ibid., 194–6. 110 Ibid., 197. 111 Walter E. Griffin, ‘Louis Ludlow and the War Referendum Crusade, 1935–1941’, Indiana Magazine of History, lxiv (Dec. 1968), 281–2. 112 ‘Calls for Boycott’, Washington Post, 18 Dec. 1937, 8. 113 Washington Post, 20 Dec. 1937, 1. On the other hand, a revisionist article, John C. Walter, ‘Congressman Carl Vinson and Franklin D. Roosevelt: Naval Preparedness and the Coming of World War II, 1932–40,’ Georgia Historical Quarterly, liv, no. 3 (Sept. 1980): 294–305, suggests that Roosevelt was hostile to greatly increased funding for the navy, and had to be forced into it by Carl Vinson of Georgia, chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee. 114 Public Opinion Quarterly, ii (1938), 387–88; New York Times, 4 Jan. 1938, 1. 115 Cong. Record, 7 Jan. 1938, 196. 116 Washington Post, 23 Dec. 1937, 8. Stimson's letter to the New York Times appeared on 22 Dec. 1937. 117 Washington Post, 23 Dec. 1937, 8. 118 Paul Mallon, ‘Public Backs Plan On War Referendum: Panay Bombing Deftly Handled’, Hartford [Connecticut] Courant, 15 Dec. 1937, 3. On Paul Mallon (1901–50), a nationally syndicated, anti-big government columnist, see Sam G. Riley, Biographical Dictionary of American Newspaper Columnists (Westport, 1995), 192. 119 Mallon, ‘Panay Bombing’, 10. 120 Kike L. Simpson, ‘Defeat of War Referendum Test Held Vital to Far Eastern Policy: House Leaders are Hopeful Congress will Demonstrate to World U.S. National Unity on Basic Foreign Issues, Thus Strengthening President's Hand in Japanese Situation’, Atlanta Constitution, 24 Dec. 1937, 10. 121 Ibid. 122 Roosevelt Press Conference No. 418, 21 Dec. 1937, in Complete Presidential Press Conferences of Franklin D. Roosevelt (New York, 1972), x. 425. 123 New York Times, 2 Jan. 1938, sect. iv. 5. 124 New York Times, 8 Jan. 1938, 4. 125 New York Times, 8 Jan. 1938, 4; Cong. Record, 75th Congress, 3d sess., 10 Jan. 1938, 278 (Italics inserted). 126 Griffin, ‘Ludlow and the War Referendum Crusade’, 283–4. 127 New York Daily News, 11 Jan. 1938, 2; New York Times, 16 Jan. 1938, sect. iv. 6. 128 Arthur Krock, ‘In the Nation: Interpreting the Vote on the Ludlow Resolution,’ New York Times, 11 Jan. 1938, 26. 129 Ibid. 130 ‘The Country Wants Peace,’ New Republic, 19 Jan. 1938, 294. 131 Max Lerner, ‘Mr. Roosevelt, Ringmaster,’ The Nation, 15 January 1938, 63. 132 Ludlow, ‘Extension of Remarks,’ 10 Jan. 1938, Cong. Record, 75th Cong., 3d Sess., Vol. 83, Appendix, 207. 133 Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., War and the American Presidency (New York, 2004), 53. 134 Louis Ludlow, ‘Should A War Referendum Amendment Be Added to the Constitution? Pro,’ Congressional Digest, clxxii (Feb. 1938), 44–8, 46 (quotation). 135 David Rhys Williams, ‘Instead of the Ludlow Bill’, The Nation, 26 Feb. 1938, 255. 136 Barclay W. Bradley, ‘Substitute No. 2’, letter to the editor of The Nation, 26 Feb. 1938, 255. 137 Louis Fischer, ‘The Road to Peace’, The Nation, 26 Feb. 1938, 238–41. 138 Caroline Lexow Babcock (of the Fellowship of Reconciliation) to Mrs. Kathleen Lowrie, 29 Nov. 1937; W.H. Bonck to Detzer, 19 Jan. 1938, WIL Papers, reel 66. See also James E. Van Zandt, chairman, National Legislative Committee of the Veterans of Foreign Wars to John O'Connor of New York, 16 Dec. 1937, in O'Connor, ‘Extension of Remarks: The Ludlow Amendment’, Cong. Rec., 75th Cong., 2d sess., Appendix, 485. 139 Gaddis Smith, American Diplomacy During the Second World War (New York, 1965), chapter 5; William L. Neumann, ‘Roosevelt's Options and Evasions in Foreign Policy Decisions, 1940–1945’, in Leonard P. Liggio and James J. Martin (eds), Watershed of Empire: Essays on New Deal Foreign Policy (Colorado Springs, 1976), 162–82. 140 Detzer to Mrs. A. W. Alexander, 23 May 1938, WIL Papers, reel 61. 141 Resolutions of the National Board of Directors, WIL, 15–16 Jan. 1938, 2, Resolution #5, in WIL Papers, reel 94. See also Trevor K. Plante, ‘“Two Japans”: Japanese Expressions of Sympathy and Respect in the Wake of the Panay Incident’, Prologue: Journal of the National Archives, xxxiii (Summer 2001), 108–20. 142 William C. Lee to Detzer, 3 Feb. 1938, WIL Papers, reel 66. Unlike most pro-collective security pacifists, after the defeat of Ludlow's referendum in Congress, Lee proposed to bypass the constitutional process and submit the war referendum to the state legislatures for adoption as a constitutional amendment. He went so far as to claim that Ludlow favoured this tactic. 143 Ludlow, Congressional Record, 14 April 1941, 1675, cited in Justus D. Doenecke, Storm on the Horizon: The Challenge to American Intervention, 1939–1941 (Lanham, MD, 2000), 97 (for Belgium); ibid., 187–8, 319 (for House resolution and congressional inquiry); on Ludlow's support for Atlantic Charter, see Fred Burdick, Report to America First Committee, 14 Aug. 1941, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, America First Committee Papers, Box 65, cited in ibid., 458 note 65. 144 Bolt, Ballots Before Bullets, 183 (Ludlow's support for United Nations Organization); Ludlow, speech of 3 April 1946, quoted in Justus Doenecke, Not to the Swift: The Old Isolationists in the Cold War (Lewisburg, PA, 1979), 62–3 (on the cold war). For a detailed examination of Churchill's ‘Iron Curtain’ speech, see Jeremy K. Ward, ‘Winston Churchill and the ‘Iron Curtain’ Speech’, History Teacher, i (Jan. 1968), 5–63. 145 James A. Farley, Jim Farley's Story: The Roosevelt Years (New York, 1948), 116–18. On 12 Oct. 1937, presidential proclamation no. 2256 convened a special session of Congress. James S. Olson (ed), Historical Dictionary of the New Deal: From Inauguration to Preparation for War (Westport, CT, 1985), 559. 146 Roosevelt to Speaker William Bankhead, 6 Jan. 1938, in Cong. Rec., 75th Cong., 3d sess., 277 (10 Jan. 1938); also quoted in Whitney H. Shepardson and William O. Scroggs, The United States in World Affairs, 1938 (New York, 1939), 365. See also ibid., 154–8. Useful brief surveys of Roosevelt's reaction to Ludlow's initiative are Koginos, Panay Incident, 70–83; Cole, Roosevelt and the Isolationists, 258–62; Bolt, Ballots Before Bullets, 171–8; and Frank Freidel, Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Rendezvous with Destiny (Boston, 1990), 289–90. For Bankhead's request for a letter, which Welles composed, see Bolt, Ballots Before Bullets, 171–3. 147 Roosevelt to Joseph Tumulty, 23 Dec. 1937, in Roosevelt (ed), F.D.R.: His Personal Letters, iii. 735–6. 148 The Gallup poll for Nov. 1935 found that 75 per cent of those surveyed believed that Congress should ‘be required to obtain the approval of the people by means of a national vote’ before it declared war, except in cases of invasion, while 25 per cent disagreed. In the poll conducted in the fall of 1938, the numbers were 68 per cent versus 32 per cent. By March 1939, after Hitler had annexed Czechoslovakia to the Third Reich, 58 per cent of those queried continued (at least in theory) to support a war referendum – 17 per cent fewer than in 1935 - while 42 per cent opposed. Shepardson and Scroggs, United States in World Affairs, 1938, 153–4. 149 Admiral Nomura Kichisaburo, ‘Stepping Stones to War’, U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, Sept. 1951: 927–31, quoted in John Prados, Combined Fleet Decoded: The Secret History of American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II (New York, 1995), 51 (first quotation); Report of the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbour Attack, Senate Doc. 244, 79th Cong., 2nd sess. (Washington, 1946), 3 (second quotation). See also US State Department, Peace and War: United States Foreign Policy, 1931–1941 (Washington, 1942), 52–3. 150 By contrast, US public opinion did not seem equally reconciled to war with Germany after 1942. Substantial clamour existed for a negotiated peace with Hitler during the war's first year, especially when the Allies seemed to be losing the conflict. Richard W. Steele, ‘The Great Debate: Roosevelt, the Media, and the Coming of the War, 1940–1941’, Journal of American History, lxxi (June 1984), 69–92; Steele, ‘American Popular Opinion and the War Against Germany: The Issue of Negotiated Peace, 1942’, Journal of American History, lxv (Dec. 1978), 704–23; and Steven Casey, Cautious Crusade: Franklin D. Roosevelt, American Public Opinion, and the War Against Nazi Germany (Oxford, 2001). 151 On the vital role of nationalism in uniting disparate ethnic, socioeconomic and political groups, see, e.g., David Waldstreicher, In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes: The Making of American Nationalism, 1776–1820 (Chapel Hill, 1997), and Benedict R. Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (rev. ed., London, 2006). Additional informationNotes on contributorsArthur ScherrArthur Scherr is an independent scholar who has taught history at the City University of New York. An earlier version of this article was read by the late Professor Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., the Last Historian at the Graduate School of the City University of New York. The author dedicates this paper to Professor Schlesinger's memory.