A ROOM OF OUR OWN
Follette, Isabel B. La
A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La Follette IN ONE of those "gab-fests" which are one of the most satisfying joys of family life, the children were analyzing the high school elections and the...
...It will not be easy at this stage of the game to get the same mutuality into the discussions of the problem...
...Of the great powers Russia has been more like the United States and largely for the same reason, namely, that we have had so much territory and resources within our immediate territorial confines that we did not need to go abroad...
...Anyhow, the United States' interest in foreign trade is almost entirely divorced from interest in political control of other areas...
...There is no doubt but that an increasing number of Americans are, to put it mildly, uneasy over the way "Churchill is putting it over on F.D.R...
...Growing Conflict In Policies It is my impression that much of the "anti-British" sentiment arises from what Bob 3rd put his finger on in human relations, i.e...
...Like "isolationism" the term "anti-British" covers a vast range of attitudes, from a dispassionate attempt to face facts to rabid emotionalism...
...The danger in the present rift is in either the British or ourselves thinking that we "just can't get along with" the other fellow...
...Bob remarked that you had to be careful not to use a two-syllabled word or you'd scare the girls off, while Judy retorted that the girls were plenty smart and knew that the boys didn't like highbrows...
...In fact, it would have been far better if we had talked these vital questions over long ago, certainly as soon as we entered the Lend-Lease program...
...Perhaps this sort of discussion is going on in the "high places...
...A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La Follette IN ONE of those "gab-fests" which are one of the most satisfying joys of family life, the children were analyzing the high school elections and the qualifications of the candidates...
...We went into gales of laughter when Judy, who had worked enthusiastically for one candidate, announced that now she didn't care which one won since "John came out against freedom for India...
...It seems to me that if we recognize that difference frankly and djs-cuss our problems on the basis of that recognition, we'll get further than pretending about "hands across the sea...
...It is no easy task for the 40-odd million people of Britain to maintain a political control over so vast an empire...
...If so, the powers-that-be cannot begin too soon to "let us in on it" so that each citizen can make his own decision as intelligently as possible...
...A good-natured wrangle ensued, with Bob concluding that the kids were right to be suspicious of the too-smart ones since "down through history the smart ones have taken advantage of the others...
...Later as I thought over Bob's point, it seemed to me to apply aptly to the present American attitude toward Britain...
...She has been able to do it through these long years only because she was politically able and smart...
...I understand that this is especially true of the Middle East, Africa, and the Pacific...
...In my own humble opinion I think that the conflict would be less serious if it were openly stated and recognized...
...But this definition of our interests will have to be discussed sooner or later, and the longer it is put off the more likelihood of a real and lasting rift arising...
...An increasing number of American representatives travelling and observing in various parts of the world report that we are "being taken for a ride," They are in turn pounced upon by the Administration and other "internationalists...
...Where British Policy Differs The conflict that is genuine, of course, arises over the essentially different methods of building up and maintaining foreign trade...
...In the Pacific especially, British imperial interests always feave been and are now different from ours...
...Those who try to look beneath the surface can see that a conflict in policies between Great Britain and ourselves is gradually coming to the fore...
...That was accomplished by brains and stamina, but first of all brains, because they just didn't have enough Englishmen to do the job, but they had enough brains to manipulate others...
...Frankness Better Than Pretending This long period has given her leaders enormous experience, and it is that experience and those political gifts that have enabled her to regain the position she has today, for example, from what it was in June, 1940...
...a feeling that we are being out-smarted...
...Britain, like France, Germany, and Japan, has built up in the past trade interests through control of this or that piece of territory...
...There is a small group, but unfortunately they are in vocal places, who are so dazzled by that British competence that they fail to make the distinction between British interests and our own...
...There is nothing wrong in recognizing it, especially if recognizing that the conflict exists makes us also recognize that there is not some emotional conflict between the British and ourselves per se—i.e., just plain antagonism in and of itself...
...The total effect is bad all around...
...No matter what our individual attitudes may be on post-war planning, we can never build reasonably on such an attitude...
...Britain, on the other hand, is definitely interested not only in defeating Japan and thus preventing that power from entrenching itself into domination (as we are most emphatically also) of the Pacific, but also is vitally concerned with the political and economic future of Malaya* India, etc...
Vol. 7 • December 1943 • No. 50
