Evening star., 1939-05-30
PeriIs of isolation

SCSACVdly 1Aull SpCCSIl dI SA1ACdSO
was at once vigorous arraignment
of isolationism and a reasoned
advocacy Of reciprocal trade as a
concomitant Of peace. 1t obviously
was timed to bulwark the recommen-
dations which he has just made to
Congress for amendment of the
Neutrality Act.
The chief of the State Department,
whose impatience with the stay-at-
home school of thought in the Senate
is we'll known, minces no words in
exposing and assailing it's doctrine
that safety for the United States,
or even salvation for Our domestic
welfare, lies in complete detachment
from foreign affairs. There is no
more disastrous Illusion" Mr.. Hull
says, 'for the exact reverse is true"
The Secretary of State premises
his case against isolation on the
state into which the world has been
plunged by the aggressor powers.
He describes it as "perilous time in
the lives of individuals and of
nations, because of violence and the
threat of violence" He finds that
again one of the most exalted aims
OF civilization and progress-the
Punishment of brute force as the
arbiter of relations among nations
is being subjected to a strident and
powerful challenge"
Cordell Hull would not have this
country, in its legitimate aspiration
to escape embodiment in the mon
strous possibility" Of another World
War, run away from it's obligations
to contribute it's utmost to avoid
ance of that calamity. He refuses
to believe that war shall be regarded
incapable of eradication" Memo
rial Day, on which a grateful Nation
again honors those who fell in its
wars, is an appropriate hour, the
Secretary of State holds, for the
American people to resolve Ito spare
no effort within our power to create
conditions under which there will
no longer be place on this earth for
the kind of purgatory through which
our soldier dead had to pass"
Mr.. Hull introduces a new and
useful note into the isolation debate
by emphasizing that the policy OF
ultra national self containment
which it typifies is a direct menace
to the American way. If carried to
its logical conclusion, he declares
that RECOMMENDATION in practically
every phase of national life would be
the inevitable consequence" and
cites the experience of the totali-
tartan countries in substantiation.
These nations, he admits, may have
achieved economic security without
freedom of the individual, but it is
the security of serfdom." Isolation
ism would threaten the United
States, in Mr.. Hull's conception, with
similar loss Of it's liberties.
From these conclusions Mr.. Hull's
reasoning is naturally transferred to
the domain in which his enthusiasms
are SO passionately centered-that of
reciprocal trade. He has q word to
our isolationists here, too. He re-
minds them that great as our own
material resources are, we require
indispensable supplies from abroad
such as rubber, tin and manganese, /"
and that we must produce for export
lin order to buy these foreign products.
BY dispensing with imports we would
necessarily lose foreign markets for
our exportable surpluses.
These are automatic and funda-
mental facts in political economy
but Secretary Hull does we'll to
hammer them afresh into the heads
OF statesmen who think that in
isolation is to be found the solution
of all American problems, domestic
and international.