Capital Comment

...D-day marked the culmination of four years of stupendous effort...

...Remembering how the crowds in the streets behaved during the last war, I looked for some axcitement, intense crowds hanging around radios, Hople gathered in knots to share their breathlessness...

...I made It a point to get around to the various government departments to see whether the invasion news had made a»y difference...

...Faring the choice which lies before Roosevelt, and viewing it from his point of view, the decision becomes at least underatsndable...

...la fact, it goea one step farther...

...Promptly with the Polish leader's arrival the grapevine bussed with the hint that a Polish-Soviet compromise wan in tha offing...

...And with Social Democracy stabbed in the back as the price for Stalin's cooperstion, the outlook for Europe remains as dismal as it has been for the past decade...

...Germany, coming late into the held, has for three-quarters of a century proved an ingenious and resourceful rival...

...This seems a tiresomely long way to get to what everybody with any political intelligence knows . . . that by "anti-Soviet" elements Stalin meana the Social Democrats 0 . the Socialists...

...The McNatt order freesea everybody la their present Jobs and channels all Job-getting or )ebrhanging throagh the United Statea Employment Service, which la subordinate to the War Manpower Commission...

...1» fact, mora excitement was occasioned in the Social Saaarity Building, which for tha duration houses the °*t of War Information and the War Production by the phony rumor started in that building that tbi fcetiet Union had* attacked Japan than by tha larltiaeate newa of tha opening of tha Western Front...

...President Bill Green will have appeared...

...This opposition ia aaid to have enrsged some of the more vehement members of the Army and Nsvy officers corps...

...The different arms of our services click into place as we advance to the attack...

...Is it the Polish reactionaries...

...Much of the high-sounding theorising of the geopoliticians is revealed as nonsense...

...Labor people in the War Production Board who have dally contact with the War and Navy Departments report a threat from soma of the more rabid officers groap that "the armed forrea can't he called on to fight Japan after Germany is licked unless we get labor conscription...

...That was four years ago —almost to a day...

...At the State Depart»«nt there were no important diplomats hurrying in »Sd out . . . only an occasional clerk or somebody like mjt going in br coming out on ordinary business...

...But when Hitler challenged us to a battle of the machines he must have had an indaequate picture of the industrial power which he was calling into battle array against him...

...But their administration of them has proved a complete failure...

...With their clanking monsters and regimented men they have conquered a score of nations...

...Tha "colonels clique" lost control of the * * * fmiamint wham they tod t h e Nnsi invasion in laaving the Polish workers to fight on alone...

...nutter is revealed when the question is aaked: art the "anti-Soviet" elements Stalin wants ousted f r < * the Poliah cabinet...

...Politics is a higher art than that of war...

...Our minds went beck to the bitter days of Dunkerque, to the shudders of fear at Hitler's "invincible" war machine...

...Tksa the Polish-American organization met in Buffalo last weak...

...Both Roosevelt and Churchill hsve many weighty reasons- and excellent ones they are, all agree -for wishing Soviet cooperation in the postwsr world...

...The side's* across the street from the White House was bare * ughtsecrs . . . only the usual pedestrians going •teadily about their business and not even stopping to at the stately building which houses the sparkof our national war effort...

...What emerges is t h a t the amateur strategists of high aad sew degree appear to believe there will be several aura breaches of the invasion coast before t tie Western Front will get going in earnest...

...And it may be that by the time this appears in print the rumored statements of approval by CIO President Phil Murray and AH...

...Everybody here seems to be waiting for the Nazis to hurl their army at our Normandy beachhead (as this was written), with the expectation that Eisenhower wiH strike at a new beachhead or perhaps several in response...

...MrNatt'a order also inrladea women...

...If a compromise can be worked out between Russia and Poland while Mikolai " * is hare, who better to enlm the outraged aenae of and fairplay of Americana of Polish descent the Poliah Premier himaalf, and who better to lead *J»^kaek into tha Roosevelt column come next No• • * there Is another angle to the Soviet-Polish—and J»i•» Italian—problems which is deeply diaturbing...

...You couldn't tell it from Monday...

...And in football, such a strategy is known a* the "hidden ball fttay...

...Our hesitancy, our fumbling in giving the cue for thia drive is our outstanding weakness...

...and had several trade agrwonaonto and "•enj friendship treetaOS There never has been a "*"» of aa Imptaiahli enmity" between Stalin •**the Poliah "Colonels clique" j? " *ka Poliah M e t e or eomWtoeelets...

...We understand how to arrange coordination of varied armies...

...Our machines, our skilled workers, our assembly lines, our factory management have been our chief source of pride...

...D-day was preparec" for with billions of cost and infinite care...

...We know how to kill better than we know how to live...

...Be• * n , . 8 t a l i n did , , i h s i i , with the "Colonels clique" _ ey yaara...

...These priceless gifts can be attained only if countless ancient hates and rivalries are blanketed under some new drive for unity...

...It la perhaps useful to recall that Gen...

...The one force which has the power to keep Kurope from being infected with Red fascism is Social Democracy . . . that is democratic socialism...

...Hitler made his try forpower by the superdevelopment of the machine...

...The preparations for peace seem, by comparison, haphazard and amateurish...

...And if the price of Stalin's cooperation is betrayal of European Social Democracy, how email thai pi ice must seem to men who desire that cooperation so greatly and to whom Social democracy means so little...

...The timing of the brass hsts in reopening this campaign is aimed to coincide with the opening of tha Wester a F r o n t The figuring la that the emotional reaction to the long-awaited and now imminent Big Push, plus tha national concentration of attention on t h a invasion news will enable the strategists to put t he labor draft over while nobody's looking...

...is to give Stalin auch reassurances of future security m reward for a cessation of Stalin's current political •nTreeaiona against Poland...

...Standing alone, Poland, he pointed ant, could be as hostile aa i t pleases without causing th» Kremlin any sleepless nights...

...jj It the so-called Polish "Colonel's clique...

...And I'm sorry to come lo the ion elusion thai American diplomacy is helping at the grindstone...

...Eisenhower was a football player from his earliest schooldays...

...Beth sf Ihesn knew the date of D-dsy...

...Oaa peaaibla answer to tha absence of public exciteppj — far same out in the next couple of days...

...It waa laaued by War Manpower Commissioner McNatt...

...They could knock civilizations down but could not build them up...

...Maybe there will be public excitement yet • • • la the meantime what public excitement there is still seaeja...

...But neither one gave sny inspiring, unifying political ideal to accompany and motivate the mighty military drive...

...Immediately things began to happen...

...And there isn't any room for doubt that it was issued under White House pressure...

...Incidentally, following that phony rumor soma Washington wag, remarking on tha quiet which reigned aa the Ruseo-German Front, suggested that the Deoiocftdm apau a propaganda campaign demanding that mjjm open an Eastern Front...

...Modern mechanical development started in England and spread overseas with British migration...

...te ha concentrated mainly on domestic and poHwaaL s t a i r s . Political and diplomatic circles here are watching wMh hawklike attention the results of the visit of Palish Premier Mikolajczyk...

...Again, the Kremlin got along vary well with the reactionaries when they were in power in the Polish Government...

...TrlK successful organization of men requires far higher gifts than the development and use of machines...

...For, despite all German claims, industrial technology was born, end reached its apex of achievement, in the Anglo-American democracies...

...Lindley pointed eat that Stalin could not regard Poland—even a completely hostile Poland - as a threat to Soviet security "nines Poland were backed up in such hostility by Britain and America...

...II came, not la the form of legislation, but by virtue of Executive Order...

...Little or no preparation has been made for ths organisation of a unified Europe...

...Now the reactionaries are out...

...In fact, at this crucial moment in world history, political factors are being handled by the old and discredited method of muddled and hasty improvisation, and too often, by unilateral action...

...It is suggested that Stalin will sane down his demands on Polish territory and that the Poles will meet him half way by ousting from the Poliah cabinet those whom Stalin regards as "antiSeriet" Ernest Lindley, one of the leading White House spokesmen among Washington correspondents, sugtattad in an article this week that the White House feds the answer to t h e Polish-Soviet problem lies in reassuring Stalin as to future cooperation between Russia and tha Western Democracies...

...What seems perfectly rlesr from the progress of events in Itsly, in Yugoslavia and now Poland •» that the knife la being whetted for Social Democracy in Kurope...

...Both Churchill and Roosevelt are great war leaders...

...The Soviet Union and Stalin have been on ef friendshIn with than far many rears...

...and his cohorts have failed for four years over a comparatively compact territory including central and western Europe...

...On March 25 it was reported in this space that: "The threat of a compulsory lsbor draft law once more looms menacingly over American workers...

...Now when the Polish fascists and semi-fascist* have lost their control and influence in the Polish Government would appear a most illogical time for tha Kremlin to tell us how much they hate those gentry...

...No crowds, no excitement, no breathlessness...

...a, tha line of Roosevelt's diplomacy, suggests Lindky...

...On the coastline of Normandy it is army against army, but it is also Pittsburgh and Detroit against the Ruhr and the Saar...

...The Polish Premier's visit was Irst announced months ago, but was delayed again sad again until newsmen gave up looking for it to happen...

...They failed to organize Europe...

...It was amaiing how universally that Opinion was held both by people who might be in a position to know and by those who by no stretch of tht imagination could da more than guess...

...Roosevelt has neither intellectual nor emotional reasons for supporting European Social Democracy...

...Over at the War Department it was just another working day...

...It requires the voluntary cooperation of widely varying types of men and of cultural groups...

...Two is the report printed in this spsce last January, to wit: "The Hraas Hat elite rorpa in the Army and Navy is emerging aa the apark plug of the drive to force labor ronarription on the country, despite the opposition of organized labor, organised management elements in Industry and a majority ia Caagresa...

...The means to success in this gigantic undertaking cannot be produced on any assembly line or in any training camp or war college...

...It makes the future look gloomy...

...Whan tha Poliah fascists and semi fascists bed their day of influence and power in the Poliah Government, tha Kremlin got along with them very wall...

...and both of them addressed the world before and after the dramatic attack on Fortress Europe...

...And l^at waa that most people in Washington were of the aaaakx* that tha invasion of the Normandy coast was a*t ye« The Big Blow...

...This is a possibility which, of course, has interesting aoawwtie political angles...

...The United Natleas do not even have say Joint council through which their members can express their desires and negotiate settlements...

...Laat week, Just a few days before the Western Front waa opened, the compulsory labor draft waa pat ever...

...the WMC order accomplishes exactly what the Bailey-Brewster Bill aimed to do...

...How far we shall have proved ourselves superior to the Germans in other respects remains to be seen...

...Then came the time of pulling ourselves together, of building a new army and * new navy, of training men aiil building machines for a long, tough war...

...Political circles began to buzz and almost with no advance notice tha Poliah Premier arrived at laat...

...And neither, of course, has Chun lull On the contrary...

...One is While Houses support for labor conscription...

...There is terrific Administration pressure on the A PL and CIO to go along on the WMC labor draft...

...But thus far we have not learned how to organize the peace...

...The United Nations will soon be responsible for the re-organization, not only of Europe, but of mankind...

...The sources of the grapevine bam indicated that the hints were with White House approval...

...Why ahould the Soviet Union have trouble with them now...

...But, no...

...Hitie...

...In America it began early and developed with all the advantages offered by the resources of a great, new continent...

...Within a month or two months or six months we shall have proved the superiority of our arms and armies...

...The politics of democracy requires a deeper knowledge of humanity than the politics of dictatorship...

...Men and Machines in War and Peace , AFTER the long time of waiting the announcements of last Tuesday released such a feeling of excitement as comes but seli deal to a nation...

...For the control of the Polish cabinet is divided between the liberals, the peasant leaders, and the social democrats...

...lha nature of the compromise hinted at is both interesting and significant...

...And, as he sought to dominate by the tank and plane and mobile gun and every other form of high-powered lethal instrument, it is by these that he shall die...

...We can now begin to sense the realities of modern war at the point of its highest development...

...Why labor conscription ahould be foiated on an unwilling people at this time, as cutbacks in production are facing thousands of workers with the menace of unemployment, defies all efforts at understanding...

...Where the Bailey-Brewater Bill waa confined to malea 18 to 45...

...After the great sacrifices of these past years humanity is crying out for peace, prosperity, and security...