North Canterbury Gazette FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1937 America Turns From Isolation

North Canterbury Gazette, Volume 7, Issue 61, 3 December 1937, Page 4

North Canterbury Gazette FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1937 America Turns From Isolation

President Roosevelt’s speech in Chicago on October 5 will probably mark for the historian the point at which the United States definitely began to turn away from the isolation which has been its policy since the rejection of the League of Nations in the Presidential election of 1920. But it would be a profound mistake to believe, as many in England and Europe seem to believe, that it implies any readiness to identify American policy with British or French policy or any kind of commitment to entaglement in the politics of Europe or the Far East. The French and the British outlook is deeply coloured by the theory of a new international order embodied in the Covenant of the League _of Nations, a theory which Has increasingly come to be identified with collective sanctions against forceful alterations in the territorial status quo. The United States, no doubt from mixed motives, rejected the League system in 1920, refused to underwrite the treaty status quo and declined to have anything to do with sanctions. In fundamentals she has not changed her attitude on these matters. If she is moving away from isolationism it is not to reverse her decision of 1920 but to move cautiously to a new position. None the less, as she moves away from isolation the United States will necessarily find herself governed by the logic of the facts and of her own history. Resistance to banditry—whether domestic or internation—is a condition of liberty, peace, and a civilised life. Universal national self-de-termination, as Lord Lothian writes in the London Observer, spells anarchy and war unless it is balanced by a reign of law under which' frontiers lose their economic importance and there is power both to change the law and enforce it in the super-national sphere. As she is driven out of isolation by the inexorable forces of the modern world, her strength and her traditions will compel her to play a leading role. Her conclusions will probably be different from what we now hope and expect. But it is not hard to be convinced that the .principles of her political and economic life as embodied in her Constitution and her democratic individualism and energy make it certain that in due time she will contribute, and contribute mightily, to the better government of mankind.