Evening star., 1932-04-24
PLANS NEW BOOK,
LONELY AMERICA
Author, Here to Collect
Facts, Foresees Grave
PeriIS for u. S.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.
To explain the causes of Lonely
America'-the title of a forthcoming
book-Lothrop Stoddard of Boston, au-
thor of The Rising Tide of Color
Against White World Supremacy" has
been conferring with Government Off
cials and members of Congress in
Washington. Twelve years ago Mr..
Stoddard arrested the attention of both
America and Europe with his book
warning of the yellow peril" In
Lonely America" he disclosed in an
interview with this writer, he will de-
pict the deadlier white peril"
The peril 1 now have in mind" says
Mr. Stoddard, is the peril that over
takes any nation grown too soft, too
rich, too sure of itself, particularly
when that nation is without the past
that prepares it to face the world with
the necessary guile. Lonely America
will be a frank effort to deal with the
fundamentals of our present danger
Gus position in the world
Mr.. Stoddard says he is astounded to
find men charged with responsibility for
our foreign relations blind to current
and coming events. The apparent
readiness to build even higher our pres
mote from financial and economic re-
adjustments in Europe, and to oppose
the partition of China supplies the
major evidence which Mr.. Stoddard
discovers that American statesmen are
blind to eventual disaster He does not
shrink from predicting that the United
States may carry its policy of invincible
isolation to a point where the rest of
the world, in sheer desperation, will
unite to make war against us. Lonely
America" Mr.. Stoddard says, is there
fore going to be "candidly sensational"
because, he contends, that even with
the strictest adherence to truth, the
facts, marshaled together, are appall-
ing"
The Boston political essayist, who
has just produced a book entitled "Eu-
rope and Our Money" declares that if
this country had faced facts IL years
ago our investing public would not
have exchanged several billions of its
hard-eaned dollars fer European
bonds. He holds that our foreign in
vestments and trade have been ex-
panded to the point of ruin. as the
result of the ignorance of the investing
public and the tactics of certain groups
Of individuals whose viewpoint has been
more economic than ethical.
BIames Poor leadership.
up to the turn of the century"
explains Mr. Stoddard in answer to
request for the words and music of his
Lonely America" theme song ''the
| United States was largely an insular
nation, concerned chiefly with its own
affairs The Jeffersonian ideal of free
dom from foreign alliances was gener-
ally believed in and practiced. Then
the Spanish American War, and later
the Great War, shook us out of cur
isolation. We began to acquire for
eign possessions, foreign debts, foreign
alliances Finally Wilson and the post
war treaties threw us headlong into a
hasty (and to many observers, short
lsighted and ill-advised) orgy of inter-
nationalism. We narrowly missed
joining the League; by mixing into
minority groups. plebiscites and the
| theoretical rights of small nations, We
earned the dislike of very large sec
tions of the world. When the money
markets began to shift from London
to New York our financial entangle-
ments grew into unwieldy proportions,
and since funds were handled by bank
ers unused, for the most part, to large
scale foreign finance, difficulties soon
began to arise.
I'VE are still a young nation, and
singularly rich, naive, innocent, trust
ing. open-faced and credulous one to
boot. We believe in such things as
peace, integrity, national honesty, open
diplomacy and other commendable
illusions. We try to put all those
things We believe into actual practice
And We find ourselves very much in
the position of a little girl at school
who is too truthful not to tell teacher
We are the blundering Doors of world
politics, too big to knock down $50
far, too busy feeding ourselves with
compliments and panaceas to note a
certain ominous rumble in the back
ground. Like Lady Camerson, 'mer-
rily We go to hell believing that paci-
fism is the cure for external unrest,
prohibition for internal"
Sees Hope in Realism"
Mr. Stoddard was asked to supply a
brief bill of particulars for his indict-
ment of what he considers Americas
ostrich policy of sticking its head in in
ternatlonal sand and remaining obliVi-
Gus to realities why does the world
nate us? I'll tell you wh.at the princi-
pal reasons are. The world hates us
for our tariffs, for our arrogance. for
our disregard of the usual conventions
OF diplomacy, for our refusal to agree
. to what Is possibly the only move that
could have meant secure and peace
ful Far East, viz, the dismemberment of
China, and for our unhappy habit of
sending tactleSs and unnecessary notes
to foreign governments on all occasions.
For these and a myriad of other rea-
sons the world hates us. I am bent
upon inviting attention to our result
ant position in international affairs
politically, economically, socially, finan-
clally. | would like to stimulate thought
along the line of where both our dan
gers and our hopes lie l would set
Americans wondering what real chance
we nave against world united against
US. would ask them: Are we not
alone in dark wood, with the wolves
gathering?"
What is you remedy for warding off
the perlls you see mounting up for
Lonely A4nerica?'" Mr. Stoddard was
invited to reveal
The crying need of the hour" he
rejolned, lis for a realistic facing of
the world as it is. One of The foibles
OF the Victorian age was a mawkish
sentimentality combined with an emo
tlonal yearning for sweetness and
: light. Long sheltered from external
perllS and pampered by prosperity, we
are belated 'Victorians. But the rest
OF the world, schooled in adversity, has
left all that behind and is becoming
realistically 'hard-boiled' We must
awaken to the fact that we dwell in an
increasingly ruthless world We must
become clear-sighted realists or take
the consequences"
tCopyrisht, 1927
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