Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1939-09-17
Says America Can
Keep Out Of War
By O1Den L. Scott.

lCdlly Willis Twill NC dUAC w oVuy OAo
of this second World War.
There are signs that President Roose-
welt is one who holds this opinion. The
President Is the most assured official in
the Government. Obviously Mr.. Roose-
welt has determined upon a course that
will guide him in the period ahead and
mentally is at ease
What the Presidents course is to be
in detail is not revealed.
But what that course will need to be to
avoid trouble of the type that may later
involve American participation is increas-
ingly clear to at least one wing of the
administration advisers.
The course. of effective war avoidance
for the United States calls for the fol-
lowing:
/. Adoption by Congress of neutrality
policy that will force belligerents to
trade with the United States at their own
risk and for cash. Adoption by the
White House of a policy that will re-
quire Americans to trade with countries
at war only at their own risk. This
means abandonment of the freedom Of
the-seas doctrine that served to involve
us in the last war
2. An aggressive policy of building
Navy capable of defending the Western
Hemisphere from attack even in the
event that Germany should, under some
unforeseen condition, come into COM
mand of the British Navy and follow an
unfriendly course in this part of the
world
3. A determination to let the Philip
pines have their independence-as they
have decided to do-to sink or swim in a
dangerous world without American de-
tense.
4. A deliberate acceptance of the role
of suppler for Britain and France in the
present war, recognizing that the gold
that they give in payment is of doubtful
future value and that even gifts of goods
in any volume are cheaper than war in
which the United States herself would
be involved.
5. A selling campaign to educate the
American people, businessmen in partic-
ular, to the fact that large scale war
abroad stimulates trade and prosperity,
and that an end to war-if not to be fol-
lowed by violent imitation and then
equally violent defation-calls for some
mild Government controls that should be
accepted. and applied with democratic
technique, as an alternative to later dis
aster.
Two cabinet members, Harold Ickes
and Henry Wallace, are definitely of the
view that the United States should not
set out now to overexpand natural re-
source industries and to dump American
wealth into Europe without considering
the eventual cost in trouble and in lost
wealth at home.
1t is coming to be recognized in some
official quarters that, during good times
and bad, in war and out of war the for
eign trade of the United States accounts
for barely 10 per cent of the economic
activity of the country, and that exports
account for barely per cent Of that
activity.
The most realistic among the high
officials of the Government are saying
privately that it would be much cheaper
for this country to buy out the cotton
farmers of the country and the wheat
farmers who produce for export than it
would be to fight war for export mar
kets at minimum cost of $40 900, 900 900
year and at cost of many lives. These
officials are convinced that the United
States even would be wise to give Britain
ND 81
er than to enter actual war
But what of the long-range effect Of
any such policy?
Here again answers are at hand. Ad-
vocates of policy Of strict neutrality at
the sacrifice of some trading rights
abroad say the following:
First, If Britain is the victor in this
war; the United States as a neutral
would be in strong position to serve as
the banker who could refinance bank
rupt world and whose influence would be
much more potent than 1t would be as an
ally to be outmaneuvered when the
spoils are passed around after victory.
Second, If Germany is the victor and
sets out for new conquests, the United
States then could be impregnable behind
its defense in this hemisphere
Nobody discounts the present value to
the United States of the British Navy as
an assurance of defense in the Atlantic.
But this country has not always been
assured of the support of this navy and
is entirely capable of building a Navy of
its own that can provide dominance in
both the Atlantic and the Pacific. Again,
costs would be high, but not as high as
participation in war with the dislocations
that war provides.
1t must be recognized that regardless
OF who Is victor in this war, the post
war world will be different and will little
resemble the world of the past, with it's
relatively free trade and its free ex-
change.
1t must be recognized, too, that both
sides in Europe, now and in the past,
have done their share of territory grab
bling and their share of using force to
gain detectives. Few officials think that
the United States as participant in the
new war would be able to exercise any
more influence at the peace table than
she exercised at the end of the last war.
American success as reformer of Europe