Evening star., 1937-02-26
Neutrality Peril to u. S.
Proposed Legislation War Step in View of Past
Failures at Isolation.

break out, unless we are prepared to
establish q complete censorship over
the entire press the moment hostilities
break cut, calling home all corre-
spondents and acting as though the
rest OF the world did not exist. It Is
unthinkable that the American people
would submit to such a suppress
sion Of essential civil liberties short
Of complete dictatorship.
War Psychology Peril.
One has only to observe the inten-
sity Of feeling already engendered
In some circles over the Spanish civil
war to imagine how far war psychol-
ogy could 60 II major hostilitieS broke
out. Let US imagine, for instance.
that there Is q war in which England,
France and Russia are allied against
Germany and Japan! If such war
were prolonged for any time. 1t is my
sincere belief that it would be i'm
possible to keep feeling in this country
from stampeding. In the last war
it was the liberals. the radicals and
those of German extraction, notably
large numbers Of well-to-do and in
fluential German Jews. who helped
to cool the war fever. In such line
up the liberals. radicals and German
Jews would be among the first to take
si6es-the liberals, radicals. organized
workers and German Jews against
Nazism. The same emotional factors,
the same political prejudices would
operate As operated in the last war,
but this time immensely augmented
by the very groups who opposed our
participation in l914-17l
But, furthermore, the operation Of
neutrality legislation itself would i'm
mensely stimulate the war fever. Let
us again reconstruct what happened
in 1914. The declaration Of war was
followed by q financial panic. Sterling
went over night to $6.o5. The finan-
cial panic would have been followed
by q terrific depression in this coun-
try except for the fact that the bel
ligerents Immediately began to buy
from us, so that war. instead Of
strangling our economic life. actually.
and however insanely, stimulated 1t.
Making large profits, in which. in
cidentaliy. the entire working class
participated. We stayed out Of the
last war for three years.
At the outbreak of another Euro
pean war the same financial panic
would inevitably ensue. from the
catastrophe results Of which we could
only be saved by the stimulation Of
trade. And now we are asked to &C.
cept the thesis that 1t would be pos
sible for the Government-again,
short Of the most rigid Dictatorship
to strangle that war trade which alone
could save us from the most frightful
depression.
I submit that, again, the whole
program rests upon totally false
reading Of popular psychology. 1t
rests on the thesis that for most
people any condition is better than
participation in war. There are. in
deed, ardent spirits who believe this,
and who under whatever pressure
would maintain that ideal. But there
Is nothing in all history TO indicate .
general acceptance Of any such atti-
tude. Most people would rather fight
than starve.
Isolation from European entangle-
ments has been an American policy
since George Washington, and even
the idea of the total embargo OH
everything to all belligerents has been
tried before-by Jefferson. But the
fact remains that there have been two
comprehensive European wars since