Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1936-03-12

QuenceS, as we look BACK at tnefn now.
LESS than six months after this loan
decision was made, the secretary OF
state and the president agreed that
armed British merchantmen were
warships and that the Germans had a
right, under any international law, to
sink them. Our American leaders hen
proposed a modus vivendi that the
British would not arm their merchant
ships and that the German submarines
would rise to the surface and search
them rather than to torpedo them
without warning. This proposal was
declined, not by Germany, but by the
British government. In Washington
someone said. other fateful words,
words which we do not yet know but
which may we'll have BEEN: Let the
matter drop; u trade must not be in
jured." In any case, the matter was
dropped, dropped at a time when we
had, as we have now, the power to
close our ports to armed merchantmen
controversy. Later, the secretary OF
state wrote that he thought the result
of that decision was a needless loss OF
hundreds of lives, the lives of Ameri-
cans lost on British munitions ships.
He might have added that it created
the submarine issue which was the in
cident for our entry in that war.
after the peace conference, with
the decisions arrived at there, there
came other decisions. Sn 1928, the mu-
nitions companies discovered that
Germany was re-arming and was even
selling military powder to Turkey, all
of which was contrary to the provis-
ions of the Treaty of Versailles. Among
themselves, the munitions companies
discussed the matter. Who, they Won
dered, could stop it. 1t was decided by
them that the big British company
could, but that company did not, be-
! cause that company was in CONNER
cial relations with German chemical
and powder companies and did not
want to jeopardize their profits.
"The governments Of Europe also
kept silent. Thus was another deci-
sion made. And the boys born in 1917,
nine years old in 1926, never even
heard the names of the munitions
company in England or Germany, let
alone hearing anything of the decis-
ions. Yet, the very fate and future OF
these youths were wrapped up in
those decisions.
Back Where We Started
Coward works the world. Every
modern and liberal government elect
ed by Germany met with international
rebuffs in the name of security.
Chaos came and maddened national
ism, and a dictator who wanted to buy
war materials came with it. More de-
cisions were made. Wan materials, Ii
censes for airplane engines, these and
other munitions needs were furnished
from England, from the United States,
from France and from other lands
which had had a hand in writing the
treaty which forbade the furnishing OF
: these supplies. Germany was 500
again the threat to Europe that she
had been in 1914. So, back we are to
where we started. Twenty-Five years
have passed since 1914. The boy born
in 1917 is now 10. What have we, his
elders. learned? What has the boy
learned? Oh, how much we could have
learned, could we but have good
teachers who were free to teach us
truth!
1T is impossible, | think, for any
honest man to speak to his fellows
today and not state one fact: That
fact is that our industries are pro-
ducing almost as much as they ever
t did and yet close to eleven million
men and women are unable to find the
employment which will give them
back their self respect and their eco
nomic independence. If these were
times of peace, the country would
have no greater problem than that Of
again giving to these eleven million
people the American right of oppor-
4,,,x xx,I,pI hoe haap fnkan 1ulO
from them. The time may come when
that problem will come to the fore
front of our consciousness as the slav-
/, ery problem came to the consciousness
of the men of Illinois and the men OF
the border states, many years ago. J
make this qualification only because
| think that we are no longer living IN
the days of peace. Yet the unemployed
, are with us, as they are with Hitler
, and as they are with Mussolini. Like
: those nations, we seem Unable to or
!, ganize our economic system sufficient
ly we'll to return those men to work.
"Will we, like them, find it
t easier to give them jobs in the
t army at a few cents a day han
/ to give them work in the mines
), and mills and farms? There are,
1 am mIOrn1eO, those III tHlS
: country who see there an easy So
/ luton of the problem of unem-
plOyment. II is not an original
solution; it is a solution of de-
/ spair!
: "Why do men fight? Because they
t are told to, and they are shot If they
do not. Why do nations fight? Is i
possible that they fight largely because
l they are not able to give all their cit
2 liens an adequate living? We have
4 learned that men who are frightened
will fight, and that men are scared
easily when their neighbors arm. Blu
why do their neighbors arm? Is it be-
I cause they feel themselves starved II
Y an economic way or a commercial
way? Very much does a man fee
: starved who gradually finds less ana
t less food to put on the stove for him
e self and for those dependent upon him
rs it because the statesmen lead
Y ing such nations, which are badly or
: ganized economically and whose PEG.
h pie are troublesome, must h feet
: their people with dreams instead o
food, with delusions of persecution
t and with appeals to patriotism instead
e of with physical nourishment?
when that is done, of course, the
e neighboring nations become afraid anc
d in turn, arm in the name OF patriotism