The Lessons of Peace and War-U.S. Must Build Now
BULLITT, WILLIAM C.
The Lessons of Peace and War—U.S. Must Build Now Bullitt Cites 'Carrot* And Club' Parable For Foreign Policy By WILLIAM C. BULUT7 SOMEONE once said that to the philosopher, Herbert Spencer, the...
...a member of tbe founding family...
...Voorhis tried to get it to function for the national progressive cause...
...With the election of Thomas W. Lamont as chair-nan of the board of J. P. Morgan ft Co...
...It is vital that the people of the United States should decide just what they want: Vital because every foreign Government keeps constantly in mind the fact that the President can not bind the United States by a treaty without the consent of two-thirds of the Senate...
...The latter, headed by am Charles A. Madden, is approaching Christian Front leaden throughout the country, . . ' . JERRY VOORHIS and Martin Dies are hardly what you would call "a pair...
...The report was presented to members on a take-it-or-leave-it basis...
...Secretary Tumulty from the-White House telegraphed that for him to leave Paris would be regarded by the nation as desertion...
...I cannot ?? it this time...
...For the first time in tbe House history, 23 Wall Street affl not be run by...
...England, France, and Italy were totally dependent for their lives on men, munitions, shipping, food and money from America...
...And for my part I find it thoroughly inspiring...
...An adequate over-all organization for the maintenance of world peace is, of course, a necessity...
...We shall not get peace unless we bring forward—soon— both concrete terms of peace and a plan for international organization which will obtain overwhelming support from the people of the United States and the Senate...
...Russia had surrendered to Germany...
...The House of Morgan was born in I860, and given its Wall Street baptism in the Civil War years ^ha-John Pierpont's notorious anbine-swindle of the Lincoln levennnent It died last week, *ub the passing of J. P. II, just jaunj^verjunent struck another "ow at his' financial empire' by ¦baekjng...
...He did not because he had been persuaded that bis own moral authority would be so great at the end of the war that it would sweep away all opposition...
...And so far as the annual reports issued by the committee prior to 1942 are concerned, I not only signed them, but helped in their preparation, and honestly feel that they were documents which revealed facts about the work of totalitarian agents in America which were important for the people to 'know...
...But the day that Germany collapses we shall still have on our hands a war with Japan—a hard war, which may be long—and the Soviet Union will be at peace and we shall want Soviet support against Japan...
...When a foreign government will not move in the direction in which we want it to move there is only one way to make it move—the old way of getting a donkey to move by holding a carrot in front of bis nose and a dab behind his tail, and intimating politely to him that he can have either one he wants...
...3. Much of the material contained in this report bearing upon the question of alleged "Communist affiliations" of certain individuals deals not with matters upon which there was any committee action whatsoever, but only individual action taken by the chairman...
...The true progressive, devoted as he is to our Constitution and the methods it prescribes, and...
...FOLATION means war...
...The House came within seven votes of proscribing all of these people from Government employment which, in my judgment, would in the case of a very large percentage of the people involved, have been a rank injustice and a violation of fundamental American principles...
...Dies Committee" as an exclusive document written for our pages...
...2. Beyond this I have one major point and several of lesser importance which I am impelled to make...
...Then, for our own self-protection, we should begin to help friendly nations, as we began to help Great Britain in 1940, and again, in self-defense, we should achieve war...
...He had not used his power while ha' bad IV'.., So...
...He added that he had ordered the Steamer George Washington to come to Brest at once to be ready to take him home, and had ordered the Secretary of the Treasury to give no more money to the Allies...
...A new organization gearing itself for a fight against "World Government" is the Defenders of . George Washington's Principles, P. O. Box 8227, Pittsburgh, (17>, Pa...
...and providing for some orderly method of making it possible for accused persons to be heard in their defense...
...he never made biz fight And the Treaty, filled with wars, was defeated by a combination of liberals who hated the Treaty because ? was just what Wilson had said it was in April 1919, and isolationists who hated-Wilson and the League...
...No scene in modern American history is so filled with lessons as the scene hi Wilson's bedroom in Paris on the night of April 6, 191...
...After a number of dissenting minority opinions, Voorhis turned in his resignation...
...On at least two occasions, notably the one affecting employees of the Board of Economic Warfare, when I protested that the committee had given no consideration to the charges made, the point was made in reply that this was the chairman's personal action and the committee was not involved...
...The New Leader recently printed his tribute to Leon Blum...
...And the structure of peace that we want to build will not stand unless we first recognize the existence of the refractory facts and plan and work—in time _to make ready the ground for the structure of peace...
...Participation in an attempt to control the affairs of this shrunken world and establish peace may also end in war...
...It is true that within the past couple of months considerable . work has been done, at the request of the chairman, by myself and members of the committee staff, on a report on organization and individuals carrying on propaganda and other activities favorable to the Axis cause and the Ajcis philosophy of government...
...Every foreign government remembers that France lost both the left bank of the Rhine and the military guarantee because tbe American people were so opposed to the commitment that the Senate never even bothered to vote on the treaty of military guarantee...
...In my opinion it has no place there...
...We failed in spite of all of Woodrow Wilson's noble ideals and good intentions...
...Somehow they managed to work together for years on the Congressional Committee to Investigate un-American Committee...
...I am also in agreement that where the head of an agency has requested a report from the Civil Service...
...than anything Father ConghUa has ever said...
...If there is a spectre haunting Europe and the world today, it is the spectre of that "Lost Peace...
...that unless Lloyd George, Clemenceau and Orlando would rewrite what had been written ,and make peace in accord with the true intent and spirit of the Fourteen Points, he would go back to America and denounce them as the enemies of peace...
...He did not build up an adequate peace'machine with a dynamic peace staff directing it...
...Six months later Wilson stood before Lloyd George, Clemenceau and Orlando impotent...
...Bad peace terms will doom any mechanism for maintaining international peace however well conceived...
...We should welcome their enlightenment, and refrain from commenting as Carlyle did when someone told him that the Transcendentalist Margaret Fuller had said, "I accept the Universe...
...One fact is basic: If we should attempt to withdraw into isolation, and protect ourselves from the outside world bv maintaining a huge navy, a large army and an enormous air force, we should again reach war by the same road that we followed into this war...
...ASHORT time prior to this event the annual report of the year 1942 was issued by the committee...
...This annual report should, in my judgment, have consisted 'in large part at least of guidance to the American people as to how they might identify, avoid, and combat the propaganda and activities of agents and friends of enemy nations of the United States in the current war...
...And yet such material appears here in an annual report of the committee as a whole...
...We will fail, unless we realize before it is too late that peace is far harder to win than rletory...
...We have to face the fact that international negotiations are controlled by national interests or imagined national interests...
...Germany and Austria-Hungary were doomed to have no voice in the peace...
...He was attacked * furiously by the very newspapers of England, France and Italy that had likened him to the Saviour a few months before...
...In any case most of the material upon which it is based has been in the committee's possession for months and such a report should have been issued long ago...
...On the day when the resolution to extend the committee was under consideration before the House, I concluded my remarks with the following statement: "It seems obvious to me, in time of war especially, it becomes of fundamental importance that the emphasis of such a committee's work should be against the efforts of enemy powers and their agents to weaken our nation's war effort...
...Poor Wilson suddenly faced the fact that his power was gone...
...devoted likewise to that upward march of humanity which has been the one constant factor in the broad sweep of history, is farther from totalitarianism in his philosophy and his aims than is any other sort of person...
...The New Leader prints his "Why I Resigned from the...
...I do not say the committee has done nothing in this field, for it has, but the real impact and emphasis of its work falls more and more in the field of domestic political controversy, less and less where, in my judgment, it belongs if our Nation's cause is to be served...
...2) is-the weightiest reason by far for my dissent from the majority report...
...The meeting was called in opposition to a rally held recently m Detroit at which Dr...
...IN a minority report issued on July 1, 1942, and as* signed by myself as a minority of the committee I included the following statement: "The minority of the committee has never and is not now seeking to defend or protect any Communist The person presenting this report has signed every annual report issued by the Committee on Un-American Activities and made the concluding argument in the House for continuance of the committee in March of this year...
...It was whether the committee had a right to call in question the political or economic views of American citizens who Are fundamentally loyal to our.country and to its constitutional democratic form of government...
...When Balfour came to America, bringing tbe secret treaties, expecting Wilson to insist on their annulment as part of the price for the help England, France and Italy were asking from the United States, Wilson did not mention the secret treaties...
...Good terms capped by a comparatively weak international organization will have a far better chance to endure than bad terms of peace capped by a strong international organization...
...He was attacked viciously in the American press and the Senate...
...1919 and After NINETEEN -NINETEEN was a tragic year...
...It is, in my judgment, wrong for such a document as an annual report of this committee to be treated in this manner, particularly at the present time...
...of whom are now in tbe armed services and had in the g* very little to do with their «thert business...
...The very existence of freedom, democratic government, and all America has stood for hinges upon the outcome of the war...
...rOR four years I was a member of the Committee * on Un-American Activities of the House of Representatives...
...J. P. had two *jnt,..both...
...We live at such a moment The obstacles in the path to peace are great, but our will must be greater...
...I? is, moreover, a refractory fact that unless we can help * the Europeans establish a Europe democratic and integrated, we shall not achieve lasting peace no matter what agreements for keeping the peace of the world we may make...
...He saw the truth that his power had sprung not from his moral authority, as he had believed, but from the power of the United States to supply needs were no longer desperate his hour had passed, he was too late...
...I believe the whole effort of the committee will stand or fall on the basis of how well it does that job...
...It is our part now to fight in that spirit for peace in a world of freedom and ¦ democracy...
...During the course of the year 1942 there were repeated instances where, in the committee's name but without any committee action: being taken in most cases, this line of distinction which seemed to me fundamental with regard to the committee's work was violated...
...Any agencies in this countiy which tend to cast doubt or fear upon the sincere efforts of perfectly loyal Americans to build a better world for the common man are there fore to me dangerous forces...
...Briefly, those rules were that regular meetings be held...
...Our free constitutional democratic form of government in America is ohe reason that our country has become great...
...They, have believed in the possibility of improving their conditions or their lot in life by their own free effort...
...His son, Corliss J2*5~?' (Corliss the mother's ^¦^.ijame), is a prominent ^¦ununLst fellow-traveler...
...Under these circumstances, of course, I should riot expect that I would bo named as a member of it in the future...
...Our power is comparable to Wilson's power in the summer of 1918...
...At the present time, we have a real carrot and a real club...
...That was our aim also in the last World War...
...I never believed that it had a right to accuse people of "un-Americanism," simply because these people's economic position or political views disagreed with those of a majority of the committee...
...Every foreign government remembers that France gave up the protection of the left bank of the Rhine in return for a written pledge given by Wilson and Lloyd George that if Germany should make an unprovoked attack on France the United States and Great Britain would go to war on the aide of France...
...It is a story of national significance...
...Commission and where that report has recommended the dismissal of an employee, the recommendation of the Commission should be followed...
...To include the long list of peopje in the chart presented by the committee and put Into it the names of people who by no possible stretch of anyone's imagination can be considered Communists is to strike a blow at liberty of the most serious kind...
...His Secretary of the Treasury telegraphed that he had just given t!he British, French and Italians all the money they needed for the next three months...
...William Bullitt is the former U. S. Ambassador to Russia and France...
...Thomas William Lamont is...
...As the blows of paralysis struck at him, the seeds were already- being sown in Europe for another'and more devastating World War...
...There is a French proverb which says, "To govern is to foresee," and if we want peace, we have to foresee the difficulties and conquer thtan—as Wilson failed to do...
...xrat to have a good cause is not enough...
...And Smith reported further: "Now I say, the way to solve tbe world problem is not to lower the immigration walls, and I pay tribute to this courageous man . who has fought this releasing <of restrictions on immigration and I bring you greetings in the form of a telegram from tbe Honorable Senator Robert Rice Reynolds, whe congratulates you on the work you are doing and expresses a desire to furnish any material needed, to help in any way he can in this fight...
...The real carrot and the real club will be in the hands of Stalin...
...lament's election also brings *" ?? Russell C. Leffingwell •ad George Whitney ?? the new "«?* triumvirate...
...This reason (No...
...During all this time, however, there was a constant struggle going on within the committee over one point which I considered most fundamental indeed...
...In view of the general trend which the work of the committee had taken during the year just previous...
...Stephen S. Wise asked that America permit Jewish refugees to enter for duration...
...He relied on the power of his words to convert men to righeousne...
...Wilson said to the friends he had called to his bedside that he would not sign the Treaty that had been prepared...
...Every foreign government rightly refuses to take seriously any American proposal unless it is so overwhelmingly popular that it is certain to obtain the consent of the Senate...
...Reynolds By WALTER K. LiWIS ' Gerald L. K. Smith, the Detroit rabble-rouser, read a telegram from Senator Robert Rice Reynolds at an "America First Party" rally on March 19, In Detroit Said Smith (speaking of Reynolds): "I desire to give yon the greetings from United States Senator Reynolds, of North Carolina, who is one of the greatest students of the immigration problem and has done more to restrict immigration than anyone in the U. S. Senate...
...Gerald Smith Flaunts Support Of Sen...
...They no longer needed our munitions or our men...
...Voorhis of California is slim, quiet, intelligent, and efficient to the point of self-exhaustion...
...as perhaps the "shrewdest «Perator" on Wall Street...
...IT will be noted that the first polrft which I made in ¦* my dissent from the annual report for the year 1942 had to do with the procedure of the committee...
...Quit the Dies Committee' (Continued from Page Five) view of the point made in my minority report...
...I no more believe a Comunist should be so employed than I do that ? sympathizer with the Axis cause should be so employed...
...That was my position then and it is my position now...
...The "carrot and the dub" passage has already become the focus of international discussion...
...There are, however, other considerations as well which have prompted my action...
...In those words was a fact that the Germans had overlooked: the fact of human will, the fact that in life there is a spirit that will not accept defea...
...France's imprisoned Socialist leader...
...and in view of the fact that I had completely failed in my efforts to change in any degree whatsoever the procedure of the committee, I made up my mind that the ohly course for me to follow was to oppose its continuance ancF resign from its membership...
...The major reason for my dissent is this...
...I am impelled by my own conviction and by the fact that I know perfectly well from my experience, that although I might try to urge that certain changes be made in the methods of the committee so mistakes might be avoided, I should not succeed...
...If the harness galls intolerably, the donkey will kick the cart to pieces...
...Time is running against us, and we soon shall be too late...
...It seems to me that this represented a very definite shift in the line of the committee's work, a shift away from an investigation of Fascists, Nazis, or Communists, and in the direction of making the committee nothing more than a political instrument of reaction...
...that ri« public statements be made by members of the committee bearing on any portion of its work not yet made public unless a majority had approved such statement...
...The •3-year.old financier is a New Yorker, a Harvard man of the CuB* of *92, a former newspaper pWt«*V:and' a member of the ¦?4»n.firm since 1911, when ¦•rVthe Elder invited him to join **npartner...
...He is a man of ex-25S P°utical influence in the **jeatkinal and literary world, J* . {a - widely considered the Jyofbd community's best pubHc-PjjrtfcM'agent...
...England seemed lost...
...I voted three times to continue the committee...
...By Congressman Jerry Voorhis Why I Resigned From the Dies Committee Thomas Lamont -And theEnd of the Morgan Dynasty Tbe Morgan dynasty in Araer-ican finance came to an official end this week...
...For this reason it seems to me that the only thing for me to do, is to vote against its continuance, and I shall do so when the roll is called...
...My belief is that the supreme test is the test of loyalty to the United States and that as to anyone who passed that test the committee had no right to make an accusation...
...Tea remember the old man commented, "By God, she'd better...
...Said Smith: "A set of resolution* was passed at tbe close of the meeting calculated te do more injury to the Jew hi America than anything that Gerald Smith could say...
...Bullitt's remarks are fort right and penetrating...
...I believe these things should have constituted, but unfortunately do not constitute, the major emphasis of this annual report...
...We should see na-tions friendly to us being crushed by nations hostile to us, until the hostile nations began to be so powerful that we should have to fear a successful attack against us...
...And the carrot has to be a real carrot and the club has to be a real club...
...Must Build Now Bullitt Cites 'Carrot* And Club' Parable For Foreign Policy By WILLIAM C. BULUT7 SOMEONE once said that to the philosopher, Herbert Spencer, the supreme tragedy of human life was · beautiful theory slain by a refractory fact A realist expects to meet clef ractory facta and to get what he wants in spite of them...
...All that was almost a quarter of a century ago...
...And we have to realize that tiabunoral authority of the leader of a nation extends to Mffcr nations just so long as the propaganda machines,^ those other nations refrain from combating him.-^"^ ./ j Before the Armistice of NovAnber, 1918, Wilson was the most powerful man in the world...
...4 !* 4 Wilson failed because he did not use his power when he had it We have our power now—and while we have it we must use it—or lose the peace...
...The terms of the Treaty of Versailles doomed in advance.the League of Nations and the Kellogg-Briand Pact...
...Because Wilson did not realize until too late the immense effort that it ¦ was necessary to put into the task of achieving lasting peace...
...THEN a series of blows poured on him...
...That report has not yet been approved by the committee and there appears to be some doubt even that it will be approved...
...through the ICC, Morten .control'of railroads...
...America is at war against Germany, Japan, and Italy...
...Another reason is the fact thai no group among our people has ever become hopeless...
...And we shall not be able to win the fight for our proposals unless we obtain the assent of the United Nations to our proposals before we lose our bargaining power...
...It is perfectly clear to me that under circumstances of this sort, the primary task of a committee on un-American activities, is the exposure of the activities and propaganda of forces friendly to enemy countries and of groups in this country who, wittingly or unwittingly, promote their cause . In speaking in the House on March 11, 1942, in favor of continuance of the committee, I made the following statement: "In my judgment the future of the committee should be devoted primarily and with every bit of major emphasis at its command to the doing of a job of exposing and combating the work of people who attempt to create confusion in our country and to build up sympathy with the Nazi philosophy of government...
...Wise of fomenting anti-Semitism...
...Under those circumstances, we are likely to find ourselves as impotent as Wilson was in the Spring of 1919...
...He accused Dr...
...The position of the minority is, however, that when the majority accuses people of being un-American because their political or economic views are at variance with those of the majority it is committing an error that is not only contrary to every tradition of democratic government but is of a sort that no committee of this character can commit and continue to do effective work against subversive elements...
...My own view, was from the beginning, and of course still is, that it was 4>nly those groups operating under the direction of foreign powers or seeking to fundamentally subvert our constitutional form of government, which should be the object of the committee's investigation...
...During that period of time I tried to do my job as best I could...
...THERE are years when the whole world is in flux, mo-* ments when the lives of nations and men may be moulded for better or worse...
...Thomas Wood- . row Wilson left the White House a broken man, clinging | pitifully to the memory of fond hopes for an ideal Peace which never worked through...
...ti.f...
...Repeatedly on occasions when the resolution for extension of the Committee came before the House I would pledge*5" myself to work for a reform of its procedure and to rem ire that certain simple rules be adopted...
...Dies of Texas is big and fat and lazy and Toad-mouthed...
...Thus they seek to weaken America's war effort...
...For all will agree I am sure that it is the primary duty of any governmental group to contribute to the maximum possible extent to the winning of that war...
...Many former isolationists, fortunately, are begin-ning to- recognize this truth, and are now saying that they accept the fact of our new closeness to the other nations of the earth...
...When Churchill met his Cabinet after Dunkirk and told them that, to face Hitler's huge military machine, England had less than seven hundred pieces of artillery, two hundred not very good tanks and less than a thousand planes of all sorts, heads around the Cabinet table sank lower and lower...
...This culminated in the speech of the chairman delivered in the House of Representatives this January in which he made accusation against a number of governmental employees without even charging as to mpst of them that they were Communists, and merely stating that they were "crack-pots...
...And I believe that all Americans should be grateful to men who have brought the discussion of world organization for peace out ef the realm of vague hopes into that of concrete proposals...
...In this instance, for the first time I did not sign the report and stated my reasons for refusing so to do under tie following four headings: 1. -There'baa been no opportunity for discussion or amendment of the report or for committee members to do any work upon it...
...He built up a mighty war machine with an excellent general staff directing it...
...The showdown finally came...
...But as William Bullitt points out here, the lessons of that War and Peace should remain vivid...
...If the harness strapped on the nations of the world by the terms of peace fits well, there will be Wilson Failed to Use Powers in Time to Create Strong League a chance that the world will jog along quietly...
...Dies worked tbe appropriation for all it was worth to his own career and prestige...
...Our aim is to achieve enduring peace in a world of freedom and democracy...
...Then^hurchill said: "That is the situation, gentlemen...
...No meeting has been held for its consideration...
...Before the Armistice, Wilson had the power to impose the peace he wanted—the peace he had sketched superbly in the Fourteen Points...
...4. With the general position of the majority of this Committee that Communists should not be employed by our Government, I am of course in full agreement...
...that his Fourteen Points were being perverted into a Treaty of War which bore no resemblance to the Treaty of Peace he had conceived...
Vol. 26 • March 1943 • No. 13
