FACING THE FACTS
Gordon, John B.
Facing The Facts By JOHN B. GORDON r\XK DAY LAST WEEK a man was admitted to see ' Winston Churchill. His name was Curtiss Wright Douglas, the famous American inventor. With his own crew, he had...
...Mr...
...The third is the death bomb...
...Do you realize," he asked, "that with these instruments of power you can stop aggression everywhere in the world today...
...The second is a bomb sight of uncanny accuracy, able to operate through fog, mist or darkness, and unerring at 60,000 feet...
...Churchill, that will not do...
...Japan is finished," he said...
...When you can work out a reasonable blue print for a just and lasting peace, call me up, and perhaps then, I, an American, will help you win the war...
...The Prime Minister thought a moment...
...No," said Douglas, "that will not do...
...When they were above the great industrial plants of the Ruhr the crew began to release the death bombs...
...With his own crew, he had flown to London in his newly created stratosphere bomber, the Super-X...
...And are you going to permit Germany and other aggressor nations to have free access to raw materials and to markets for manufactured products...
...No," said Douglas, "that will not do either...
...The Super-X carries 2,000 of them...
...But don't you see," asked Churchill, "that the first thing is to beat Hitler, and that after that we can talk about world peace...
...The earth below was seen as a round ball, as if it were another planet...
...We can reduce Tokio to rubble, sink every ship in her navy, and drive' every Jap out of China...
...Churchill," he began, "I have three inventions to offer you...
...The first is a plane that is as far superior to anything you now have as your best bomber is superior to the first ship flown by the Wright Brothers...
...Churchill, in addition to being an inventor," Douglas replied, "I am also something of a humanitarian...
...Then I will tell you my price...
...Sir, I am an American...
...Nor will it give democracy to China, or insure China or the rest of the world against Communism...
...She does not deserve markets or growing room...
...Churchill cried, "the war is won...
...That does not take care of Japan's great problem of over-population, its people herded together on a little island...
...It weighs 100 pounds...
...It flies at 60,000 feet, far above the range of anti-aircraft guns or other planes...
...My price is simply this—before I turn over the Super-X to you, you must give me the terms of a just and lasting peaee...
...For many years I have been a student of international affairs...
...Through bright sunlight they flew toward the great Ruhr Valley...
...So saying, he headed the Super-X for America, and left the warring nations to fight it out, after firs...
...We cannot agree on the fundamentals of peace...
...It pulverizes all matter and kills all life within a radius of one mile...
...Then I leave you, Mr...
...Aggression started in 1931," he said, "when Japan marched into Manchuria...
...Every living thing was killed...
...Churchill out in London...
...I have told this mythical story of the mythical t3ur-tiss Wright Douglas—any similarity between actual persons, living or dead, is purely a coincidence—not to discredit Winston Churchill or the British peace aims, but simply to-show the immense obstacles thai yre face in planning for world peace...
...Curtiss Wright Douglas, the great American inventor, were on their way in the Super-X...
...Time Limit On Stealing "No, sir," the American inventor replied...
...Four hundred Frenchmen have ruled 20,000,-000 natives in French Indo-China...
...Japan was not the first aggressor nation," Douglas replied...
...Churchill," Douglas replied...
...Great factories crumbled into dust...
...You are right, you are right," Mr...
...The Immense Obstacles Ahead Anxious to please, the Prime Minister then suggested that boundaries be frozen as of 1936, before the union of Germany and Austria...
...Mr...
...Thus you perpetuate the causes of the next war...
...Nothing like it had ever been seen in the world before...
...Holland rules over 53,000,000 souls" in the Dutch East Indies, and Britain has conquered India and the Boers...
...As an American, I can not undertake to win this war for you unless you can give me reasonable assurance in advance that you can provide a just and lasting peace...
...It carries 100 tons of bombs...
...It will not provide markets for her manufactured goods...
...It goes 600 miles an hour...
...Douglas parried the question...
...What is your price...
...It seems reasonable ^to me that we should establish governments and boundaries more or less as of 1931...
...But Japan is an aggressor," protested Churchill, "and deserves to be punished...
...Hostile planes came toward them, and antiaircraft guns were seen firing far below, but neither were any more effective than some small boys in Germany who were throwing stones...
...Mr...
...stopping, we hope, to leave Mr...
...No, Mr...
...I want to convince you that with them the war can be won, completely and overwhelmingly within one week...
...Mr...
...What are your terms...
...And if we let Germany retain all the territory in Europe wheri large blocs of Germans now live she will be toe strong...
...But that will not be fair," said Churchill, "because with slave labor they can outsell us...
...That places millions of Germans in alien boundaries...
...Churchill and Mr...
...I will not stand for a policy which says that every nation which stole before 1931 is right, and must be protected, but that every nation which stole since 1931 is wrong, and must be punished...
...Churchill, I want to demonstrate these inventions for you...
...Systematically the area was covered, until an industrial district the size of Allegheny County was wiped from the earth, as completely as if one of the great glaciers from the Glacial Age had swept across it...
...Churchill's mind leaped nimbly to the point...
...I will not have the responsibility for the destruction of property that men have worked years to build, for the revolutions that will sweep Germany and other countries, and above all, for the death of countless souls, just to punish one man or one group of men or to destroy a government with which my country is not at war...
...It is obvious that further talk is useless...
...Something Of A Humanitarian' Within a half hour Mr...
...I am intensely interested in world peace...
Vol. 5 • December 1941 • No. 49
