The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1925-05-07
OUR ISOLATION.

In all consideration of world problems, we
are protected by beautiful and impregnable
isolation conversationally. But you cannot
talk fact out Of existence. We are not as a
matter of fact isolated, nor can we be. We
were compelled to join the rest of the world in
opposing an imperialism that threatened to
overrun the world and we will be compelled to
join the rest of the world in opposing an au-
tocracy that threatens now to overrun the
world. We INDUCED in fine phrases of eco
nomic altruism We elected president be-
cause he kept us out Of war. We reelected
him because he led US in war. The old ladies
Of the Senate keep their intellectual tatting
bobbins industriously weaving the flmy web
of dreams which passes for foreign policy, and
the reds from Moscow continue to press their
advantage in Europe.
Russia has learned that there can be no war
in Europe which involves any fundamental
question, into which we must not inevitably
come. The Balkans have always been the
stewpan that has boiled over It is boiling
now Our ministers to the two principal coun-
tries of the Balkans attend unofficially, the
official call by means of which the ministers
Of the allies grab two little countries by the
heels and bat their heads together in an eff
fort to make them behave. We were there
unofficially just as we were unofhcially muir
And all Europe including Russia, and in addi-
ton thereto, Japan knows that when the stew
boils over as the Balkans stew always does,
we will be there, unofficially as long as we can
maintain that fiction, and officially when we
have to. In the meantime, japan knows full
well that we cannot be in the Atlantic and the
Pacific at the same time. And, it is Russia
and Japan who are allies-not Japan and the
United States.
We are foolish to discount either the Rus
sian, the Japanese or the European situation.
So far as we are concerned they contain po-
tential trouble, all of them. And it is idle to
say we can keep out of them. It is idle to say
they never can get us into another European
war. There is no such thing as localized war
involving fundamental government. The
soviet leaders not only see their opportunity
they are equipped to grasp it. A moment of
indecision in dealing with thenmay mean an
other world devastation. If it does, our iso-
lation will do us just as much now as it did
when it kept us out of the war before. It
kept us unprepared. That is all isolation has
ever done for us.
We are not in an alarmist mood, nor are we
trying to stir up more trouble. We are not, how
ever particularly intrigued with the notion
that we have any isolation that will serve us
any purpose at ALL if the reds pull their stuff
The time has come in this country, at least, to
spend all the time and money that may be
needed to shove communism off the edges of
the country into the oceans and keep it there.
Freedom of speech and liberty of action are
one thing-organized opposition to free gov
eminent except by constitutional change is
another thing. The only isolation that will do
us any good is to so thoroughly isolate com
munism from this country that there will not
be a vestige of it on our soil. Then, if we are
wise, we will send our ministers officially, and
not unofficially, when it is necessary to aid in
fighting communism in Europe or anywhere
else. Ministers are cheaper than armies, if
they can accomplish anything. At any rate
we should not repeat the mistake of evading
the inevitable, attempting which cost us SO
many billions of money and hundreds of thous-
ands of lives in the world war. mall measures
of war prevention we should have place and
do our part. 1t is our fight now-not merely
at some future day