THE EDITOR SAYS
Evjue, William T.
The Editor Says By WILLIAM T. EVJUE ABLEAK, tragic, hunted life Is ahead of the young king of the Belgians. History will label him as the monarch who turned tail and showed the white feather at a...
...He doesn't seem to appreciate that if our form of government Is changed to suit the desires of the Nazis or the Communists that lie will have no right, to protest against, war and that he will be conscripted as cannon fodder to light, for a Stalin or a Hitler whenever the diclalor ruts the word...
...Russia, too, is committed to the doctrine of world revolution...
...The Nazis, while they are concerned with more immediate jobs of aggression at the moment, may reply to the president's message by saying that there is no need for a program of defense in the United States because the Nazis have no designs on the western hemisphere...
...We wonder If the people of the United States have begun to appraise the significance of the fact that, this country will be without a friend among the powers of the world if England and France go down to defeat in this struggle and become second rate nations...
...Japan, of course, has always turned aggressive eyes toward the United States...
...It was through his efforts two years ago that Belgium's treaty with England and France in which England and France guaranteed the inviolability of Belgium was cancelled...
...But despite all the arguments that can be raised in criticism of present conditions In the United States, any reasonable person should be willing to admit that under Roosevelt, a pretty fair Job has been done in giving food and shelter to America's needy and that here in the United States wp have no such picture of appalling honor as prevails :n Europe today...
...The pompous Italian dictator has now become the Jackal of Europe,—the contemptible accomplice who waits until the prey is down and then jumps in for such pieces or the kill as Hitler Is willing to give him...
...Russia will turn eyes toward Alaska and Germany toward South America...
...Whatever else the Communists and the fifth columnists may say about conditions here, at least fathers and mothers can go to bed at night knowing that their homes will not be bombed and destroyed...
...A powerful country like the United States as an ally will be a great help when the dictators begin fighting among themselves...
...Are you going to salve your conscience by saying: "Yes, it is a harrowing and a horrible story which comes from Europe...
...We already know that Germany has been spending millions of dollars in North and South America in an effort to lay fifth column foundations and to sow the seeds of distintegration which constitute a vital part of Nazi aggression...
...Don't think that Hitler, flushed with victory, will not, begin to turn longing eyes toward the fertile acres of the Russian Ukraine...
...Germany, Italy, Russia, and Japan will all turn unfriendly eyes toward the United States...
...last 23 years to eliminate unemployment and raise the standard of American living,—sometimes at the expense of criticism on the part of present day pro-Nazis who are whispering against the sending of money to Europe when we have so many needs here...
...It will be a sad day for the United States when we begin to subscribe to a national policy unGer which our love of mercy and our Christian ideals become sterilized at our national boundaries...
...A one time Socialist in Italy, he double crossed his friends and cut their throats in his ride to power...
...These dictators are realists...
...Both are now despotisms proclaiming devotion to their brands of socialism...
...They appreciate that the world will not be bie enough to hold three or four dictators...
...Mussolini will be reduced to the status of a Nazi Gauleiter...
...She wants to be mistress of the Pacific and the Philippine islands, the Hawaiian Islands, and the might of the American navy stand in her way...
...What a tragic figure.—the young king of the Belgians...
...The homes of thousands of innocent people in Finland...
...Of course, they need it, and it shows a Christian spirit in doing such a good work...
...We have never known of any other way of life...
...Germany and Japan will both covet the rich Dutch possessions in the East where a large part of the world's rubber and tin are produced...
...We have never known anything else...
...May we say to this Brooklyn woman, who calls herself a Christian, that if th...
...The Progressive is aware that there are millions of unemployed and underprivileged in the* Unfted States who are in need of many things...
...His will not be an enviable position,—wherever he goes, he will be pointed out as a modern Benedict Arnold and he will learn the misery of a life in which he will be an outcast and friendless...
...He will also have the scorn of millions of people whom he betrayed and double-crossed...
...In contrast to the action of the king of the Belgians is the heroic conduct of the King of Norway who remains on Norwegian soil to fight an invader under terrific odds...
...We don't seem to appreciate that these rights can be taken away as they have been taken away In Czechoslovakia, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Holland and Belgium...
...Hitler and Stalin, heretofore, have seemed so remote...
...This newspaper has been enlisted in every movement in the...
...What would better suit the purposes of Japan than for the British navy to fall into the hands of Hitler, a move that would compel the United States to divert its fleet from the Pacific to the Atlantic...
...You go to the movies where you see the news reels portraying the ruins of what is left of once peaceful Norwegian towns like Elverum and Namsos...
...France and England, unfortunately were lulled into inaction by that sort of talk...
...One need only go over the pages of "Mein Kampf" to ascertain what is in the mind of the Nazi warlords and further it might, be well to note how accurately prophecy in "Mein Kampf" has become reality today...
...Again, are you going to salve your conscience by saying that we have our earthquakes, and cyclones and disasters, and we must help our own people...
...The dictators cannot afford to have a nation built on democratic concepts existing in the world...
...What a rob Mussolini has played...
...Our Brooklyn correspondent doesn't seem to know it, but she has already been victimized by Communist propaganda...
...But aren't you afraid that all this sending of money to Europe while we have so many needy ones In this country will stir up a feeling of resentment among our poor unemployed...
...How pitiful his place in history will be when ranged alongside the noble and unflinching record of his father...
...If our conception of Christianity is that we must parochialize and bound-arize our human compassion, mercy, and love of our fcllowmen, then it would be better that we set up on the altars of the United States symbols of a nationalism that reflect our selfishness and a mercy toward mankind that ends at our national boundaries...
...In the years to come, he will have the contempt of the Nazis to whom he surrendered because, under the blood and iron cult, the word surrender is a term of disgrace in the Nazi vocabulary...
...The student out on the university campus who loudly announces that he will not fight in any war doesn't seem to realize that his right to oppose war is one of the presc-ious rights that may be taken from him...
...United States turns a deaf ear and is unwilling to listen to the cries that are coming from the millions of refugees in Europe, then every Christian church in the United States should be closed and we should abandon the pretense of being Christians...
...One can understand a desire on the part of a leacer to save the lives of his men with food and ammunition gone and no chance to defend themselves...
...Mussolini is the least important, of titc four dictators...
...These nations have all adopted the totalitarian concept of government where the state is everything and the individual is nothing...
...The king took this action after he had received assurances from the treacherous Nazis that Germany would guarantee not to invade Belgium...
...If a powerful country can be built here in accordance with democratic ideals, under which our people can attain a national well-being and a good life, such a country will always stand as an Invitation to the other peoples of the world to emulate what we have here...
...From the evidence at hand, the young king of the Belgians is evidently an impetuous head-strong young man...
...Norway...
...Christian woman down at Brooklyn which says in part: "During the winter the United States has sent huge relief funds to the invaded countries of Europe and now a Red Cross drive is on to raise 510.000,000 to send to these poor people...
...Consequently, we accept freedom, civil liberties, and our way of life in much the same way that we accejit air and water and the everyday things about us...
...We don't seem to appreciate that the American way of life came as the result of heroic sacrifice...
...The worst fifth column in this country today is the indifference of millions of American people...
...May be say in conclusion to the Communists who are seeking to turn this country over to the domination of the despot, Stalin, that conditions in this country, deplorable as they may be...
...Wc think that these things are automatic...
...It was not so much the surrender of the Belgian king as the way he did it which will bring him world wide contempt...
...But common dency demanded that the Belgian king, before taking such a step, should have taken counsel with the representatives of his own government and with his allies before letting them down so abruptly...
...With the defeat of England and France, the United States will remain the one outstanding, independent power in the world with which the dictators must deal...
...Now the tragic Belgian king has learned what other nations have learned,—that a Nazi promise is made only to be broken when the opportune time comes...
...Let's ask some reasonable questions of the Brooklyn woman and our rcad-Vou pick up your papers in the comforts of your own homes and read each night of the millions of Dutch, Belgian, and French refugees, driven from their homes by brutal invaders with highways clogged with these.fleeing millions, seeking to escape with what few earthly possessions they could carry...
...History will label him as the monarch who turned tail and showed the white feather at a critical time for his country...
...More important than anything else in the United States at the present time is a spiritual mobilization of this country in which we will unitedly announce that we propose to defend to the last man the precious values centering around human dignity and human liberty which are the essence of our way of life...
...Belgium, Holland and France have been bombed by flyers from hell who have no scruples about dealing death to defenseless women and children...
...Germany is now in me grip of a group of crazed warlords eager for power and world domination...
...They will cast covetous eyes in our direction in the hope of making this country either a part of their domain or an ally...
...If France and England lose...
...But there is no essential difference between the brown Communism of Germany and the red Communism of Russia...
...There is another reason why the dictators are casting envious eyes toward the United States...
...It is obvious that countries which are committed to this philosophy of government cannot tolerate the existence of a great nation with a concept of government built around human dignity and the rights of the individual...
...They are as one in seeking world domination...
...constitute a heaven compared with life in the Soviets...
...The question raised by the Brooklyn woman represents a distinct and important part of the present line of whispering attack on the part of the Communists,—to create discontent among the unemployed and the underprivileged in order to cause disintegration and to weaken this country...
...Isn't there a big chance that the Communist element here will seize upon this to stir up trouble against the United States to further their own evil designs...
...But we have our Joads in this country and our first duty is to take care of them," The problem graphically portrayed in "The Grapes of Wrath" is a serious one but what a miniature it is, after all, in comparison with 5,000,000 refugees fleeing in horror and confusion over the French countryside seeking to evade the bomber and the invader...
...Indeed, it is now revealed that the young king had no right to surrender the Eelgian troops without the consent of his government...
...There are more specific reasons for aggressions against the United States at the hands of these totalitarian powers...
...We should endeavor to have enough Christian compassion to include both the Joads and the refugees...
...They are looking to the day when the spoils will be divided and differences may arise...
...There is no essential difference between the government prevailing in Russia today and that existing in Germany...
...The Progressive is in receipt of a letter from a well-meaning...
...For more than 150 years we have lived tinder a government, built on the foundations of human liberty...
...And now the primary question before this country today is whether, standing alone among a world of aggressors, we are prepared to defend ourselves against any eventualities...
Vol. 10 • June 1940 • No. 23
