Evening star., 1937-12-17
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WIELIAM VILE.

II President Roosevelt were on the air
tonight with fireside chat dealing with
the international situation, this observer
risks the guess that F. D. RS broadcast
might be tuned to some such key as this:
MY Friends! Amid the international
crisis which erupted in the Far East five
months ago-a crisis at last brought di-
rectly home to this self f-centered Nation
by the sinking Of u S. 8. Panay-three
courses are open to the Government and
people of the United States-D We can
Join the desperate countries in their
avowed program of aggression and con-
quest; ca We can say that their threats
to peace and to what Is left Of world
law and order are none of our business;
that we shall retire into our own shell,
require Americans overseas to put up
their shutters, desist from missionary
activities, pull up their stakes, abandon
their generation pursuits, Of what
ever kind they may be, and come home,
for their interests and safety are no
longer Of concern to their country; or
CD We can continue the policy OF pro-
testing, from occasion to occasion, every
violation Of our uncontested and incon-
testable rights, leave transgressors to
wonder what we propose to do next, and
act, without advance notice, whenever
we deem the time for action has arrived.
4 -
again and again, have said that I
hate war. I have four sons, as many OF
you have sons, who will, as they would
be expected to, join the fighting forces
If and as soon as the emergency demands
their services. But my detestation OF the
uselessness and barbarism Of war does
not blind me, and should not blind even
a peace-craving America, to the fact
that free civilization is imperiled by
group Of strongly-armed, so-called have
not nations. They are under militant
dictatorships. They indicate their readi-
ness to gain by force what Is otherwise
denied them I do not contend that
their claims to wider place in the sun
are unjustified. do maintain that they
have no right to promote their ends by
plunging the world into blood and
tears or crushing peoples who stand
in their path. I believe the menace
once offered by the ruthless ambitions OF
Frederick the Great and Napoleon was
no whit less real to peoples, who prefer
the boons Of liberty to the tyranny Of the
goose-step, than the threat today pre-
sented by the combined military, naval
and air power of those governments
which seek to impose their ideologies'
upon others. What is happening in
China, in Spain-and even nearer our
own borders-warns us Of what may
await our type Of government whenever
its foes are convinced their war machines
are irresistible.
+ 4
For my own part. I believe the third
course to which have alluded is the
path Of greater wisdom. prefer 1t, be-
cause 1t is the path of peace. Perhaps
1t seems reversion to Woodrow Wilson's
policy Of 'watchful waiting It is far
removed, however, from that great
leaders temporarily proclaimed too
proud-to-fight doctrine, which the
enemy-to-be, as well as our future allies,
so grievously mistook to be q guarantee
that the United States under no circum-
stances would ever shoulder arms The
policy of keeping our mouths shut and
our powder dry would be frankly de-
signed to pinion flouters Of our rights
on the anxious seat. The accompani-
ment OF such policy, it goes without
saying, would be unremitting pursuit Of
our established program Of armed pre-
paredness. The world Is aware Of our
power to strike. It could only be further
impressed, and repressed, by the in
scrutability Of our purposes.
- ~
"Let me remind peacs-at-any.priee
seAloA whose motaves respect, IA