US President Franklin D. Roosevelt today gave a speech to congress in which he pushed for the law on supplying arms to other countries to be relaxed.
The Neutrality Acts, which were a series of acts passed by Congress, forbid the sale of arms to countries fighting in conflicts, and were enacted in response to growing tensions in Europe. They forbid trading arms, or giving loans to countries fighting a war.
I should like to be able to offer the hope that the shadow over the world might swiftly pass. I cannot. The facts compel my stating, with candor, that darker periods may lie ahead. The disaster is not of our making; no act of ours engendered the forces which assault the foundations of civilization. Yet we find ourselves affected to the core; our currents of commerce are changing, our minds are filled with new problems, our position in world affairs has already been altered.
President Roosevelt, addressing Congress on 21 September 1939
In other news, the Romanian Prime Minister, Armand Călinescu, was today assassinated by a fascist group.
