The Daily Alaska empire., 1939-05-05
Springtime Over Europe
(New York Times)

This is one of Europes loveest springs. From blue impartial sky" as Anne O'Hare Mccormick writes in The Times Magazine, sunshine Of Warmlh and brilliance rarely seen in April pours down on the just and unjust alike The grass is tenderly green in Hyde Park and daffodils foam like yellow surf along the edges of the Serpentne." In the Bols de Bouogne the magnolias in bloom, and Par1sians sip their wine and nibble their croissants In the fragrant open air The tulip beds of the T1ergarten are a lovely sight and in the Villa Borghese happy children play in the golden air
 Will these pleasant pictures be remembered as many millions of the mddle-aged remember the spring of 1914? The old Europe was to begin dylg before the leaves that unfolded that April turned brown There were many innocent, happy things that would not come again. Lovers walk now In city parks and along country roads. Mothers watch their chll- Cren payng-boy children already accustomed to drill girl children still too young to be wives or widows old people do not ask much. warm place in the sun will answer for a while. But shadow crosses the sun. Will these pictures, in the light of future autumns and winters take on the unutteraole sadness of lost joys that cannot be recaptured?
 This is a practical question, not a sentimental ore The human pilgrimage this earth s at best, not easy But it has it's moments, and the key to most of those moments is the lasting quality, the known return of very simple things. Young people fall love marry, have children plan for the future They grow old and die and the children carry on their hopes If Europe could be honestly poed today with ont regard national boundaries can any one doubt that vote would be that these simple things should not be interrupted Dy war; II natOdl poIcleS Well
 y the results of such a vote the democracies would moi be faced by the hideous choice between war on one side and security and sef-respect on the other for there would be no aggressor nations
 IS true that some governments are aggressive Others are not Some nations are being brutally disciplined Some are still free But in any country does mother wish to have her son killed or mutiated does girl wish to lose her sweetheart does young man. however great his sense of adventure, desire to be shot bayoneted or blown to rags? When people believe a great to be at stake they will endure these things But in a world of free opinion and complete information great cause needing to be settled by mass slaughter, would be at stake
 Denlocracies have made wars-unjust wars some times But it is not to be believed that free men, in
 free society will deliberately destroy that society," which is what general war now is likely to do. The children play happily lovers go in arm, old people dream of the past in the soothing warmth of the April sun Who but madman would say that any of them would vote in free election, to roll out the artillery and send the bombing planes up? The worlds danger in this harrowngly beautiful spring lies in the suppression of mems yearnings, the perversion of their desires. If everything known if every one had a voice, there would be no