Evening star., 1925-03-31
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
/. G.. Nj.
NATIONAL ISOLATION AN IL
LUSION. Perry Belmont. G. 2.
pIf Sons

NATIONAL ISOLATION AN IL
LUsION. Perry Belmont. G. p.
Putnam,s Sons.
Except for a final word of ex-
hortation and advice, National
Isolation an Illusion" is argument
throughout.
In part. this body of logic is set
up against the doctrine OF national
isolation. In other part, 1t is pro-
jected in vindlcation and support of
the Democratic party in American
politics. This party, according to
Perry Belmont, is the lineal descend
ant and the lawful inheritor of those
principles upon which the founda-
tions of this Government rest A
party-so this author likes to main
tain-that has conclusively estab-
lished the validity of this birthright
by way of its high service in con-
verting abstract principles OF gov
ernment into the concrete substance
Of national programs and policies.
Specifically considered, in this con-
nection, are those policies bearing
upon the relations of this Govern
ment to the remaining political
powers Of the earth.
Here, on the one hand. an act Of
reputation. On the other. an
advocacy Of party so jealous in
spirit as to approach, in effect. pure
propa ganda itself. These two stand
together here as the central motive
power around which is gathered a
notable body Of research embodied in
corroborative detail and final de-
duction.
But for our generally untidy
habits Of thought, but for our
generally loose ways in the use of
words and in their interpret alton,
the first part of Mr.. Belmonts argu-
ment would have fallen away COM
pletely for want OF theme-would, in
fact, never have been undertaken.
1t is such obvious incapacity for
straight thinking and speaking that
has so widely and persistently
identified a possible political inde-
pendence with an utterly impossible
economic isolation.
From the day when Washington
admonished his country against en-
tangling alliances, this confusion Of
ideas and terms has steadily grown.
At the time of their delivery these
words fell straight into the fears and
dubieties of new and untried Nation,
nervously apprehensive OF monarchical
designs against It, The natural sus-
picions Of those days OF experiment
and tension precluded any making OF
clean-cut distinctions. Fear, con-
stant and acute, served to confuse
issues and to becloud measures. All
this a matter of course in that situa-
tion and at that time. But that such
confusion should have persisted
throughout the full period OF our
M ztf
old groundless fears-this IS an
anomalous and astonishing thing.
For II takes no more than an ele-
mentary grade of knowledge to dis
cover that any nation. in order TO
adopt isolation, must be completely
self-contained. No such nation
exists, ever has existed. Self-con-
tainment belongs. If il belongs any
where, TO primitive state not yet
out OF it's tribal organization. Prob
ably not there even, for the nomadic
tribes themselves give argument
against the power of locality to keep
pace with their needs and desires.
At this near end of the long Sc
quence let us take the United States
fabulous in natural resource, opu-
lent in inventive genius, bulwarked
against interference by the en-
circling seas. Self-contained? Not
by a. long run. Subject for the ex-
pertinent Of isolation Every day
argues more strongly against 1t. No,
isolation is a myth or It is scare
crow. If a myth, the creation of be-
wildered and dulled minds. II a
scarecrow. a clear perversion, thing
raped from economics TO be set up in
the field of politics with its most
gruesome and hobgoblinish antics
turned upon the foreign relations of
a country. Clear demagogisr, then?
Maybe not Very likely, instead, the
kind of ignorance that accrues from
the surprising power Of the human
to fool his own mind.
However much and for whatever rea-
son, or no reason, we may hitherto have
offered hospitality to the doctrine of na-
tional isolation. we are bound hence
forth to seize the difference between a
proper political independence and a
necessary economic interdependence.
This clearing Of the mental eye will be
sharply speeded up for those who seize
the advantage of this budget Of prime
evidence, this full and deliberate discus
sion of the vital point in hand.
!: X x x
Mr. Belmont approaches his cham
pionship of the Democratic party by
way Of the service of Thomas Jefferson
in permanently shaping the essentials
of the foreign policy of this country. To
him, in a full bulk Of documentary
proof, are assigned the doctrines of the
freedom of the seas. freedom from un-
just commercial restrictions, neutrality,
non-intervention. recognition of de facto
governments, non-eXtradition of political
refugees and the Monroe doctrine, in
whose making jefferson clearly had an
influential part. All measures, these.
-, - to, 80 ,fs
study, upon the non-political economic
Of the civilized world
as whole. From this point OF de-
parture Mr.. Belmont proceeds to cite in
a systematic and supported treatment
the other manifold claims of his party
for supremacy in the guidance of a ma
tion founded upon democratic principles.
These claims are Of primary connotation
in political philosophy. They are but
tressed by documents Of incontrovertible
authenticity. They are elaborated clear
ly and linked up indissolubly with the
expansion Of the country and the growth
Of the mechanics of government He
cites the great difference between the
two dominant parties, a difference of
theory that is acquiring the disconcert-
ing habit OF breaking bonds and of
roaming across into the field of the op-
ponent- However. in an ardor of party
conviction and personal loyalty Mr.. Bel
mont takes the high stand that "the
Democratic party, created at the birth
Of our democratic Republic. preponder-
ant when our foreign policy was formu-
lated, disrupted when the country was
rent asunder by civil war, surviving and
reuniting at the restoratio of the Union,
derives its indestructible vitality from
the principles upon which it was insti-
tuted-principles which lie at the founda-
tion of the Government of the Republic"
The party, therefore, to stand full
panoplied for a world interdependence