The guardian. [volume] (Boston, Mass.) 1901-1960, 1939-09-30
LOOKING AROUND
and BEYOND
By
FRANK R. CROSSWAITH

ago Poland, now the symbol Of resis
lance to forcible aggression, PLAYED
jackal to the NaN hon and by aoores
sion, not agreement, took her share Of
booty at the partitioning Of CzecbosIo.
vakia.
"What finally brought Chamberlain
and Daladier to their present stand was
the necessity of defending their en-.
plres. Under these circumstances re-
gardless of our relative sympathy for
the belligerents, truth compels us to
insist that the victory of one set rather
than the other will no more solve Fn.
ropes problem or the problem of co.
lonial peoples in 1899 than in 1918.
sit is perhaps the most lamentable
part of the present tragedy that the
international working class movement
was neither able to prevent the crisis
nor can it now confront war-mad
Europe with a positive and powerful
program Of peace and justice. It's fail.
ure does not imply betrayal or aban.
donment of Socialism. 1t is the result
of the various weak or inadequate poll
cies followed by a divided international
working class movement since the first
World war.
'The Third International developed
in Russia under a totaitarian govern
ment,a state capitalism which ulti-
mately became enough like the Nazi
system to permit an alliance of mutual
convenience between two unscrupulous
dictatOrs.
Certain of the parties connected
with the Second international put too
much hope for peace in capitalist
League Of Nations, organized to pro
tect the status quo They failed effec-
lively to fight the imperialism of their
own countries or to advance to the ex-
tent Of their ability the freedom to
colonial peoples. In certain cases they
took office in the capitalist democraeies
without sufficient power or adequate
program to solve the problems of pOy
erty and unemployment
Failures and mistakes such as these
contributed to the present situation in
which many European Socialists feel
that they have no choice except the
lesser of the two evils 1t is not for us
to denounce the immediate choice of
our European comrades IN their pres
ent terrible dilemma, but it is our duty
to insist that international Socialism
will have persisted in the house of its
friends unless it can present to the
masses Of Europe a basis for peace
not to be found in the military triumph
Of any imperialist nations.
1.-THE men and forces responsible for
this war must not make the peace The
peace must not be written by the Hit
lers, Stains, Mussolinis, Chamberlains,
or Daladiers, and the varied interests
for which they are spokesmen, but "a
Their by the people of Europe. The
peace to be lasting must establish a
United States of Europe in which ex-
pIoitation, whether by the private ca.
pitalism of the western democracies
or the collective capitalism Of the total
itarian states, shall be abolished.
This great end will not be won by
putting the United States into the war.
Roosevelt's war would not cure what
Wilson's war did so much to cause The
American government, under Wilson,
tried to play God to Europe by means
Of war, and failed. Neither then nor
in this crisis has the American govern,
ment the wisdom or the power to deal
with the bewiIdering power politics Of
Europe. The extraordinary duphclty
of Stains deal with Hitler has had,
and is likely to have, its counterparts
in other shifts of purpose and alliance
which America will not prevent"