PROGRESSIVES AND THE PEACE

...They are haggling, these tired liberals are, over whether it shall be the Churchill-Dewey dual alliance for Britain and the United States, or Walter Lipp-mann's sugar-coated triple alliance, or Ely Culbert-son's multiple World Federation, or Clarence Streit's Union Now, or Henry Luce's American Century...

...nor can all the honeyed hokum peddled by stay-at-home editorial writers and women's club orators commit the 10,000,000 men and women under arms to a course of action which does violence to the truths they are soaking up on battlefields around the world...

...Churchill, it is all too clear that our actual goal in this war has become the restoration of the status quo as it existed the day before the guns went off...

...It is important to remember that despite all the turgid oratory and breast-beating editorials, the issue which confronts us today is not that of isolation vs...

...Churchill's version of the post-war settlement, that it was this same Winston Churchill who said in his book, Great Contemporaries, that he admired Hitler's "courage" and "vital force...

...Churchill and his program of preserving and extending the British Empire and restoring the dynasties and inequalities of pre-war Europe...

...The Path Ahead Is Clear Sen...

...Churchill is not only a good poker player (he carries home with him a pair of American trousers whenever he sits in with the boys at Washington, Casablanca, or Quebec), but he is also an avowed imperialist...

...He demands the restoration of King George of Greece, whose late Gen...

...Nothing can more easily destroy the hope of attaining everything that progressives and liberals have been fighting for, nothing can more surely guarantee a new lease on life for the old imperialism, and nothing can more surely wreck the hope of lasting peace than for the United States to commit itself now to participate in the enforcement of a peace treaty whose terms we do not know...

...Where progressives differ from the Tories and the "liberals" is here: Progressives would emphasize the causes of war and deal with them first...

...These qualities make Winston Churchill a great warrior and a great imperialist, and we are properly thankful that he rallied the British at the moment of their supreme crisis and led them out of the valley of despair to fight with a courage and devotion which have won them the admiration of the world...

...It was precisely such a resolution which thefounder of this magazine, Sen...

...Churchill's determination to make this a Tory war, while with the other hand they beckon American liberals to get on the bandwagon for an international police force which will make Mr...

...Suppose China goes to war against Great Britain over Hong Kong, as Lin Yutang threatens in his newest book . . . Will Americans in the world' police force be compelled to fight the Chinese for preservation of Hong Kong as a British colony...

...La Follette also saw then, as do many far-sighted progressives today, that America can make its greatest contribution to world peace and world democracy—economic as well as political—by putting her own house in order, by solving the economic problems and resolving the racial issues, which when left unsolved, lead to fascism which in turn leads to war...

...I am not here calling him to account for false judgements, but merely pointing out that basically, Hitler and Mussolini were, thoroughly acceptable leaders to Winston Churchill, until—and here is the key to his public career—until they dared to challenge the world leadership of the British Empire...

...They are engaged in verbose debate over the clauses and commas of the Fulbright Resolution and whether it is more or less ambiguous than the Ball, Burton, Hill & Hatch Resolution and the substitutes being offered...

...These are only a few of Mr...

...He will stand, I think, as an orator, imperialist, and England Firster almost without parallel in British experience...

...whether we shall have an international army or a world police force...

...Suppose, and these are no far-fetched possibilities— Suppose the masses of India rebel against their British masters . . . Shall America, child of revolutionary democracy, spill the blood of her men to keep India under the British yoke...

...They would insist, while we still have left some of our fast dwindling bargaining power with our allies, that we exact certain conditions looking toward the establishment of a humane peace settlement, instead of waiting until we have promised away our freedom of decision and action...

...Remember that it was this same Winston Churchill who said once that he was charmed by Mussolini's "gentle and simple bearing," by his "triumphant struggle against the bestial appetites and passions of Leninism...

...Churchill discusses war aims...

...Suppose the natives of the Indies decide to throw the Dutch out and work their mines, oil fields, and plantations for their own benefit and profit . . . Will Americans participate in a police force to crush the rebels and keep them subjects of the Queen of Holland...

...Progressives favor a resolution which would make it crystal-clear that America will participate in the enforcement of a peace treaty which strikes at the causes of war, and which guarantees to all nations, great and small, and all peoples, whatever their color, .creed, or race, access to the riches of a generous and abundant earth...

...He is determined that Hong Kong must go back to the British Empire, even though Lin Yutang has asserted that this would produce war with China...

...Remember, when you are asked to endorse a world -police force to support Mr...

...The deep-going aspirations of people everywhere— aspirations for freedom, for economic opportunity and security, for political democracy, and for peace among nations—all these would be crushed to dust if we established a world state and a world police force dedicated to the restoration of the pre-war balance of power, the pre-war dynasties, and the pre-war lack of freedom and security which characterized much of the world...

...Churchill has a habit of getting his way...

...It Would Be Tragic Folly But what on earth does this have in common with liberal, progressive objectives, or with a genuine program for lasting peace...

...Consider this for a moment: The liberal press, such as it is, has denounced virtually every move made by the Messrs...

...Robert M. La Follette, Sr., introduced a quarter of a century ago—in the midst of World War I. Seeking to prevent what was to become the Tragedy of Versailles, he sponsored a measure which would place Congress on record against a peace settlement which would provide for annexation of new territory and the payment of harsh and hate-creating indemnities...

...Churchill's scheme to restore the old national dynasties...

...Here was a resolution which proposed to commit America to rooting out some of the major causes of war—harsh indemnities, territorial expansion, monopoly and economic privileges, and imperialism...

...If one-tenth the energy and oratory expended on schemes to enforce our way of life on the rest of the world could be used in making our way of life succeed here at home, we will have done more to bind up the world's wounds than we can by passing a trunk full of resolutions of the Fulbright and B2H2 variety...

...If you're tired of fighting imperialism, if you're resigned to the restoration of all the pre-war injustices, if you no longer respond to the challenge here at home—why, help yourself to a lusty drag of the internationalists' peace pipe and you, too, will find escape in a dream world where all the pimples on the face of the earth are "cured" by simply having the world police force of a super state shoot them off...

...The liberals pretend to a certain pained surprise wheneyer Mr...

...Nothing pleases the smart imperialist more than to have the service clubs, the women's clubs, the classrooms, the radio forums, and the newspapers and magazines debating whether we shall have world federation or a federated world...

...A Pirate's Peace...

...2. We must resist every effort to make the peace treaty a vehicle for the restoration of pre-war dynasties, imperialisms, and inequalities...

...But* this resolution was swept aside then, as it would be today...

...Churchill's piracy legal and perpetuate his restoration policy...

...For Progressives, the path ahead is clearly marked: 1. We must fight every effort to commit the United States to police and enforce a treaty which has not been written...

...This is the kind of haggling and bickering among liberals which delights the reactionaries because this kind of argument over foreign policy never gets close to essentials, never comes to grips with realities...

...His plans to keep the Empire alive and expanding, to restore Tory regimes throughout Europe, and to suppress by force of arms any revolutionary move which shows itself, are perfectly consistent with his character and background, great old pirate that he is...

...Nothing could be more tragic for progressives than for them to become addicts of these phony peace cures...

...Watching the lines form in Congress and throughout the nation for this preliminary showdown, one is struck by the moral and intellectual decadence of what we know as liberalism—the escape of men and women who once fought the good fight, into a sham world, a world in which their weary minds can play with symptoms rather than causes, with panaceas rather than cures...

...And yet the boys and girls who run the Nation and the New Republic, to mention only two, make a great show of holding their noses with one hand at Mr...

...Churchill has been a great war leader—doubtless one of the very greatest in all of Britain's proud history of conquest...

...Roosevelt and Churchill during the past two years of war, and that same press is beating the drums for a world police force which will enforce those political mistakes and freeze them into permanence...

...Escape In A Dream World All this chatter about resolutions, which are designed to conceal rather than convey meaning, is, of course, Tory talk...

...Will Americans be asked to shed their blood to preserve unpopular and reactionary monarchies...

...Progressives who oppose writing a blank check now to persons unknown to accomplish goals unspecified believe just as strongly in genuine cooperation among the nations of the world as hysterical internationalists who would claim for themselves a monopoly on morality and peaceful purpose...

...We Have A Right To Ask We have a right to ask, and ask now, for guarantees that the world leviathan we are urged to create will not be used to crush the revolutionary impulses of men and women who hunger for the Four Freedoms, and not just for speeches and editorials about those -freedoms...

...These are only a few of the questions Americans must ask themselves before they consent to bind their future and the future of their children to the enforcement of a peace treaty which has not yet been written, but which, if it follows the pattern of our words and deeds up to now, will pledge our lives and resources to preserving, protecting, and policing the old imperialism and the old order...

...Guarding The Swag Progressives oppose resolutions which are a compound of weasel words, hidden meanings, and vague promises...

...Suppose the people of Greece and Yugoslavia revolt against Mr...

...For as long as people are busy debating the nature of the alliance to be formed and the nature of the armed force which is to police the world, their attention is distracted from the nature of the peace treaty itself...

...Churchill's publicly stated demands, and Mr...

...Suppose Poland objects forcibly to any settlement which gives Russia part of her pre-war territory . . . Will Americans consent to stand guard over a new partition of Poland...

...this kind of argument was made to order for the Tories who want the rest of us to chase rainbows in the sky while they organize and exploit the real estate and raw materials here on earth...

...Churchill demands the retention intact, if not the actual expansion of the British Empire...

...Metaxas' fascist regime was only somewhat less brutal and intolerant than the Hitler variety...

...He has announced that the pre-war dynasty must return to the throne of Yugoslavia in spite of public resentment...

...Never mind what caused them, and never mind how often they come back...

...Such a resolution, of course, would be torpedoed by the internationalists in and outside of Congress because it would raise "irritations and vexations" which would "embarrass" our allies, especially Mr...

...cooperation...

...Although he was an advocate of world cooperation, the senior La Follette opposed the League of Nations because the Versailles treaty it was created to enforce was a violation of the terms of the armistice, a betrayal of China, Egypt, and India, a mockery of the 14 Points, a callous trading of territories—and the League itself was designed to "stand guard over the swag...

...I use the world "preliminary" because certainly no amount of resolving by the present Congress can bind the next Congress, which will doubtless have to grapple with the peace settlement...

...From everything that has happened thus far and from many things said by Mr...

...They would stress the terms of the peace before they haggle over means of enforcement...

...4. We must put our own economic house in order and make our own democracy a model for all mankind before embarking on any global assignment to reform the rest of the world...

...But appreciation of his dramatic qualities must not blind us to the fact that it would be tragic folly to write out to him and his kind that blank check demanded by the internationalists and the so-called liberals...

...3. We must work affirmatively for world cooperation IF there can be world agreement on peace terms consistent with our principles of political and economic democracy...

...Instead of holding out for concessions from the British imperialists, instead of making American participation in policing the post-war world dependent on the willingness of our allies to make deep-going changes in their past conduct and future demands, the internationalists in America are demanding a flat, unconditional promise by the government of the United States to participate in a post-war scheme of collective security, regardless of the terms of the peace settlement itself...

...Justice William O. Douglas expressed it this way in The Progressive last week: "We cannot expect our prestige throughout the world to rise above the level of our own accomplishments at home...

...Resolved, further," that resolution read, "that Congress declares that there should be a public restatement of the Allies' peace terms, based on a disavowal of any advantages, either in the way of indemnities, territorial acquisitions, commercial privileges, or economic prerogatives, by means of which one nation shall strengthen its power abroad at the expense of another nation, as wholly incompatible with the establishment of a durable peace in the world...