The Fighting Democrat

[Leslie Howard and J.B. Priestly on Britain Speaks, 1940]

It was the end of January 1941. Leslie Howard had been at home in England since August 1939. Great Britain had been at war with Germany for approximately sixteen months. Howard had been appearing on J.B. Priestly's BBC radio program Britain Speaks, or "Britain Pleads" as some called it, since July 1940 pleading with America to enter WWII on the side of the Allies.

Within the previous week, Howard had heard what would come to be known as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "The Four Freedoms" speech
during the State of the Union Address to the 77th Congress of the United States. In it, President Roosevelt advised the country that it was living in unprecedented times due to the threat posed by oppressors and aggressors against democracy and freedom. Roosevelt warned the American people, who were reticent about becoming involved once again in a war that was not threatening its shores, that they were not being realistic if they expected a dictator to offer them peace, generosity, independence, freedom of expression or freedom of religion, or even good business, when he had just conquered free democracies around the world. "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety," Franklin admonished the people.

Franklin was telling the democracies of the world being threatened that "We Americans are vitally concerned in your defense of freedom. We are putting forth our energies, our resources, and our organizing powers to give you the strength to regain and maintain a free world. We shall send you in ever-increasing numbers, ships, planes, tanks, guns. That is our purpose and our pledge."

To Howard this was welcome news. He stated in his radio broadcast that week that having elected Roosevelt, who "expressed to the world what is in his heart as statesman, patriot and man" that "the whole American nation is dignified by it."(1) Howard went on to state that having spent many years in the United States, and becoming very familiar with its citizens, that America possessed a "strange and unique racial fusion which...no one can thoroughly understand...not even Americans themselves, because to do so would require a comprehension of the aims and feelings of so many different communities of varying origin." To Howard, "The American people are, in the main, honest, benevolent and idealistic, with a profound belief in individualism and an even more profound desire for an antiseptic isolation from the constant upheavals and erratic behavior of the rest of the world."(1)

Howard compared the Monroe Doctrine stance of Thomas Jefferson to the Americans as the Arsenal of Democracy of Franklin Roosevelt, stating that the "Democracy of Roosevelt is just as democratic, but it is far braver and more outward looking—intolerant of domination by force, and determined to fight to the end for its principles." Howard commended the American people stating "Americans, of no matter what political creed, have found a spokesman [Roosevelt] for their innermost consciences, and because of the words and deeds of Franklin Roosevelt, they are now reaching out far beyond the parochial, Jeffersonian image of 'America for Americans.'"(1)

(1) Howard, Leslie, ed. with Ronald Howard. Trivial Fond Records. London: William Kimber & Co Ltd, 1982. ISBN 978-0-7183-0418-8.

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