An American Looks at the War

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23612, 23 March 1940, Page 1 (Supplement)

An American Looks at the War

world —the League of Nations. Our President, Wood row Wilson, fought hard for it. Those awful European nations, our recent associates, accepted it. America turned it down. We wanted to preach, not work, for a world of peace and ordered' liberty. The fairest summary of America's participation at the Versailles Peace Conference was made by Clemenceau's right-hand man, Tardiou: "A war won by four could not end in a peace dictated by one." But "Wo won the war." Sure we did. Almost single-handed. Almost. Let's try to be honest with ourselves so that we may be fair to others. Let's remember what England and France and our other associates contributed to the winning of that war. For instance, they fought the war for three years while wo remained neutral and waxed rich at their expense. England, with a population onethird of ours, lost in dead alone nearly 1.000,000 men; France, with a population less than one-third of ours, more than '1,500,000; Canada, with a population less than New York State, about 100.000. In other words, had the United States suffered relatively as Franco did. our dead alone would have exceeded 4.500.000 men. As it was, we lost about 75.000. We never knew the horror of an airraid, the terror and degradation of an

To the Editor of the New York Tlme».— PONTIUS PILATE still lives. At the moment he exercises greater influence on our national thinking about foreign affairs than any other person living or dead. He strides the length and breadth of America, dinning his immortal philosophy of neutrality into our minds and hearts. You can hear him on the platform, over the radio, in the club car, at jomen's club meetings and labour union gatherings. You can read his words in current books, in magazines and newspapers. "Wash your hands," he says, "of this mes:s. I did once, rind saved myself a lot of work and worry. That was none of ray business. This is none of yours. So wash your hands of it now." For the last 20 years we Americans havo been fooling' ourselves, as Pilate tried to do in another practical situation, when we've talked about America's foreign policy. We still are. It's not surprising. We have been deluged with a constant stream of propaganda about the "Crime of Versailles." "We won the war and what did we get?" the pathetic spectacle of a gullible America caught in the wily. intrigues of Old World diplomacy. , England expecting every American t6 do his duty, the "Merchants of Death" and the "Wall 6treet Bankers."

to paralyse the moral driving force of the American people. Too many of us have been doing our thinking on foreign affairs by proxy. A lot of us let the columnists do it. I suggest that we stuff our ears for a while to the stately measures, the sounding brass and the tinkling cymbals of various of these. Maybe if we do that we can hear ourselves think. Long before Hitler made the "Crime of Versailles" his favourite bed-time story to the German people many of our "intellectuals" were talking'and writing about it in the fevered manner of a town gossip. If Germans Had Won As a treaty it had imperfections, having been drawn by imperfect men representing imperfect peoples, most of whom for four years had endured a war that was not exactly perfect. True, Germany lost some rather unprofitable colonies in Africa (in 3914 they accounted for less than one-half of 1 per cent, of her foreign trade). AlsaceLorraine was restored to France. Any objections? The house hears none. Then there were the reparations. Much too much. At any rate, machinery was set up whereby they could be scaled down to a reasonable figure and that was shortly done. Voluminous tears have been shed over the war-guilt clause. Through all. the fog and smoke of controversy one thing is clear. England and France did not invade Belgium. The war was, not fought on German soil. "But —but —the Germans are a proud people." Since when has such pride become a cardinal and cleansing virtue? Do you remember what the German leaders said they were going to do to the rest of the world if they won? If you don't and are really interested, I suggest that you dig back into the official documents and the files of newspapers of 25 years ago, and also read the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The peaee-at-any-price propagandists to-day will not tell you, nor will the facing-both-ways columnists. Suffice it to say that had Germany won, the Treaty of Versailles, in comparison with the German peace terms, would have seemed like the Sermon on the Mount. There was one magnificent attempt in the Versailles treaty for a better

Stream of, Propaganda ' To-day there's a new but equally polluted stream of< propaganda luridly warning us against propaganda. The ppshot of it all is- that the thinking of many honest people has become confused, their nerves jangled and their emotions jaded. And as a nation we have managed so far to escape from reality and the tough responsibilities of being a first-rate Power. I don't mean that we have lost the Puritanical vice of preaching to others, but we have failed to exercise the Puritanical virtue of doing our share—and more, if lieei be—of the hard work our very greatness' requires of us. The purpose of this letter is to suggest briefly that we average citizens question some of these slogans and catch-phrases which are doing so much

United States Cannot "Wash And Remain A "IN DUE COURSE UNCLE SAM WILL DO A MAN'S JOB"

TslO attempt is being made officially by Britain, through any agency, to introduce propaganda for the Allied cause in the United States of America. From time to time it has been suggested that this policy is a mistaken one and that by inaction we are allowing German claims and distortions to poison the American mind against the Allies. If that is so, a corrective is administered by a remarkable letter which recently appeared in the New York Times. By the courtesy of that newspaper we reprint it below.

invading army destroying our towns and cities and enslaving a large part of our civilian population to be hewers of wood and drawers of water in the enemy country. Fuel-less Sundays, Liberty Loan drives, and one piece of sugar instead of two were among our major enterprises. Yes, they helped—helped a lot, "turned the tide" and all that sort of thing. But as a nation we were spared the agony our comrades-in-arms endured. My point is that when we stop to think and make a real effort to be fair the propaganda we have been fed for several years seems a bit indecent. At any rate, let's stop talking nonsense about being "bamboozled" by wily foreign diplomats. It's just another way of fooling ourselves and evading our responsibilities. One of the favourite sports of writers who have consciously or unconsciously misled and misinformed the American public in recent years has been to deride the motives which caused and the purposes which inspired America's entry into the last World War. They have created bogies and scarecrows, naming them "Merchants of Death" and the "Wall Street Bankers." and depicting them as beguiling and forcing the American people against their will to enter the war.

give a damn what the "Wall Street Bankers" say or think or do except when, as in the Nineteen Twenties, some of them sold us gilt-edged flypaper on which we were permanently stuck. Both our knowledge and common sense refuse to elevate the munition manufacturers into gods of human destiny. They make their unpleasant goods and soli them because there are people who want them and will buy them. Occasionally some over-zealous salesman may have encouraged a Central American revolution, but) to picture these practical gentlemen as playing a decisive role in the destinies of the world is plain silly.

That just isn't so, and you and I know it. The average American doesn't

America entered the last war for many reasons. The most immediate and compelling reason was simply that Germany, after repeated warnings and protests, continued to sink ships without warning, with a loss of American lives. If Germany had not sunk our ships and if American lives had not been lost in those actions, we would not have entered the war. With all our faults, we Americans have a great faith in certain ideals — a faith that has moved mountains and has contributed mightily to our greatness as a nation. When Woodrow Wilson struck the moral note, the heart of America responded. Most Americans did believe that we were fighting "to make the world safe for democracy."

Whether we succeeded or failed is irrelevant at this point. We did fight for something worth fighting for, and we need feel no regret or shame for that motive and purpose. Somewhat allied to the foregoing reason were our national heritage and traditions. English people, French people and American people believe in their hearts that individual freedom is one of those few things worth fighting for and, if need be, worth dying for.

The German ideal in the last war, as in the present one, was different, and —what is important for us to bear in mind—really endangered our ideal then as it does to-day. In spite of all the effusions of Nazi-Communist philosophy, of flabby intellectuals, and of demagogic politicians, materialism is not the only driving force in American life. It wasn't in 1917 and it isn't now.

price we pay for the freedom we cherish. But the propaganda is vicious to the extent it helps us to fool ourselves. We know better. Magna Carta, habeas corpus, the common law, William Shakespeare, the King James Bible, John Bunvan, Voltaire, Lafayette, the Rights of Man, Wordsworth and Bobby Burns —they are part of our heritage. They are not Prussian or Nazi or Communist.

Honest Folk Deceived Nor did we fight to pull England's chestnuts out of the fire. We never have. The propagandists who say we have done so cannot prove a single instance in our entire history as a nation to support their falsehood. And yet by using the Nazi-Communist tactic of repeating a falsehood again and again they have deceived some honest, wellmeaning folk and have soothed those frantic people who cannot bear to face the simple but sometimes hard truths of life.

The conquest of Austria, the ruins of Czecho-Slovakia, the massacre of the Poles, the attack on Finland, the torture of concentration camps, the bestial crimes against race and religion, purges, "blood baths," "Mein Kampf" and the Communist Manifesto —they are not English or French or American. No —we are not "all alike." We know all about that. But how long shall we let these propagandists help us delude ourselves ?

Have you observed how these same propagandists will scream with rage because England is at moments reluctant to do the hard jobs of civilisation which they urge us to shirk? I have been discussing the propaganda about America's part in the last war. At first sight it may seem like beating a dead horse, because we now have another great war and must make up our minds what to do about it. The old propaganda has been mentioned because it has tended to warp our present attitudes. Consider briefly now some of the present-day pitfalls that constantly threaten our thinking. "They're all alike." Who says so? Such strange bedfellows as Molotoff. the Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hugh Johnson and our milksop intellectuals, who only yesterday were screaming at Chamberlain and Daladier for their "cowardly surrender" at Munich and their "betrayal" of Republican Spain. And to give point to their propaganda. they tar us with their brushes. Molotoff referring to our treatment of tin 1 Cubans and Johnson to the American Indians.

the peace terms? What will have been America's contribution? A fewcheers, lots of "moral support" and goods for cash down. Again, I say, don't let the propagandists fool us. Let's not fool ourselves. We should at least be too adult for that. The latest trick of. the Pontius Pilate propagandists is to warn us against propaganda. Apparently they assume that Americans are a simple, childlike, almost moronic people who need nurses and guards to keep them out of mischief.

This propaganda against propaganda makes many an average citizen throw up his hands and say, "What can ] believe?" Well —you can believe in yourself, your own coinmonsense, your own decent instincts, your own values and traditions which you cherish enough to fight for. These peace-at-any-price people who, consciously or uncon sciously, are giving daily aid and comfort to Comrades Hitler and Stalin will do some harm and create more confusion before the courageous commoa-sen.se of America says, "Enough—you're a fake."

Perhaps the loveliest self-delusion we are enjoying at the moment is the picture of America acting as a sweet holier-than-thou peacemaker when the war ends. We will be happy, comfortable and "disinterested." Our former associates will have gone through the hell of a war they desperately tried to avoid; they will be suffering, poor and tired out. Therefore we can do some more preaching, tell them what sort of peace they should make (not too harsh on the Germans, because they are "a proud race"), and how they must behave if they are to be like us.

The fashion of our present-daj propagandists is to sneer at Uncle Sam for acting in 1917 the role of the Good Samaritan. According to these people, the Good Samaritan was a fool and a "sucker." He actually inconvenienced himself in doing his share as a member of the human family. There were no profits in what he did. .But the Levite was the "wise guy." He "minded his own business" and went his own way. Didn't lose a nickel.

Wait a minute. Suppose the NaziCommunists win? Well, brothers and sisters, if that happens, we'll have to do an awful lot more than preach—far more than if we frankly and actively aided England and France now. It might be that we are counting a little too comfortably on the Maginot Line and the British fleet. And, in spite of the peace-at-any-price propagandists, we do count on them.

We can ignore the Communist bunch for the moment —they are part of the

If the Allies win without our aid, by what right will we have a voice in

Perhaps Uncle Sam should do the same. I don't think he will. He isn't that sort of fellow. In due course he'll rub his eyes, stand up, take his coat, and do a man's job in a hard' but worth while world. LAWRENCE HUNT. New York.