The Home Front:
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT American Friends of The United Nations By William E. Bohn TWO WEEKS AGO, I had a dramatic experience. Without any premonition of what was in store for me, I went to Washington to...
...I am sorry that I cannot quote him exactly...
...It has made war cheap and infinitely destructive, and...
...These people were not at a loss for something to occupy their time...
...Without any premonition of what was in store for me, I went to Washington to take part in a conference of the American Association for the United Nations...
...These were normal, average Americans, young and old, from all of the states between Maine and California...
...In my own Delaware, high school students from end to end of the state meet each springtime for sessions on UN activities...
...The earlier sessions were for the most part devoted to practical matters of organization...
...Each of them discussed some feature of the UN Charter with the fashioning of which he had been concerned...
...Out in South Dakota, a plump young lady got the Farmers Union behind her and organized the wheat-growers far and wide to come together to discuss what is going on in the far corners of the world...
...They were all people who had sense enough to care about what might happen and energy enough to do something about it...
...To me, the strange thing about it all was that Russia and Communism were hardly mentioned...
...All sorts of practical schemes for accomplishing this high purpose were described and recommended...
...It was at the first session that Professor Shotwell detonated his intellectual bomb...
...These people who came from thousands of miles away represented every sort of organization that you can think of...
...We do not know enough about the new era to make the required changes in the United Nations...
...It was the conference to mark the tenth anniversary of the UN...
...Practically every sort of fellow or girl was there...
...How can we induce them to give support to the UN...
...I sat and listened in amazement...
...Answers were sought to detailed questions: "How can we get people into our groups...
...At national headquarters, an industrialist is donating his time to line up businessmen across the country behind this sort of activity...
...Everyone seemed to know that we must be prepared for war...
...Charles W. Mayo of the Mayo Clinic acted as President...
...Clark Eichelberger served as general utility man and inspiration...
...The general idea was that, if we make democracy work on a worldwide scale, Communism will have hard going...
...The churches, of course, had delegates—and the labor unions, the service clubs, the women's clubs, the colleges, the businessmen's outfits and political clubs...
...The stress was on raising the intelligence standard at home and the living standard among the world's backward populations...
...There were, of course, well-known persons who played leading parts...
...The common quality which held them together was social conscience...
...On the platform were six men who had acted as consultants and advisers at San Francisco ten years ago...
...In Baltimore, a three-day exhibition devoted to international affairs drew great crowds of citizens to the town's largest armory...
...But to me these persons whose names were on the program, who were there to talk and to teach, were hardly as impressive as those in the audience...
...But I was unprepared for what I saw in Washington...
...They were notable for their rarity...
...on the other hand, it can create a world belter beyond imagination...
...Isolation is out...
...It has been the advance of science...
...At first, I looked about suspiciously for the sort of cranks whom I dislike and distrust...
...They represented about a hundred organizations interested in supporting the UN...
...Then came Shotwell...
...Gathered there were crowds of people from all over the country...
...Professor James T. Shot-well, who for so long has stood as the symbol of international good sense, was on hand to prove that he has lost nothing of either wit or eloquence...
...The AAUN's purpose is to let "all the people in the United States know about the work of the United Nations...
...And there were in abundance Members of Congress, atomic scientists and experts of all the different sorts...
...But they went at this business with all the verve of old-time missionaries...
...When they talked, they did so with restraint and intelligence—and they knew how to listen...
...But unless we make it work —and quickly) ?we shall all be lost...
...But no one thought of war as a way of defeating Communism...
...the program was entitled "United Nations: The First Decade...
...Roosevelt was there, exuding her usual quiet wisdom...
...I had watched its work in Delaware at close quarters...
...How can we get them excited about what is happening in Asia or Africa...
...I knew something about the work of the AAUN...
...We must have multilateral action...
...In Trenton, a conference attracted people from all over New Jersey and whipped up their interest in world affairs...
...His idea was that the greatest thing which has happened during these ten years has not been war or the rise of Communism...
Vol. 38 • March 1955 • No. 11
