Evening star., 1939-11-01
America Held Able
To Stay Out Of War
New Book Surveys Peace
Prospects and Finds
Them Bright

AMERICAS CHANCE OF PEACE: By
Duncan Altman and Blair Bolles.
Published by Doubleday, Doran &
Company, Inc,, Ne1o York. .,,t
On the Labor Day week end when
war broke out in Europe, America was
deeply apprehensive, fearful that his
tory would repeat itself to the point of
drawing us into a new holocaust not of
our making. Nervously fatalistic. too
many people uttered dire prophecies that
well be in before Christmas"
To many who preferred not to be dog
matte about the future but were seriously
disturbed at the prospects, it seemed
unbelievable that our Government could
find any justification for leading us into
Europes war. But many Of the words
and the small actions Of the Government
were far from reassuring; Intentionally
or otherwise, they were spawning def
mite war psychology within our own
country.
Fortunately, at least from the view
point Of those who want no part of
another war, the first month Of hostilities
brought some revisions in the pattern
which had first appeared to be taking
shape. In the first place, no swift
shambles Of either civilian or military
death occurred to outrage the neutral
world. In the second place, the funda-
mental unwillingness of the American
people to rush into Europes war appar-
emily became more fully impressed upon
Washington oficialdom. The time had
fully arrived for careful and realistic
appraisal of Americas chances for re-
naming at peace.
Against this background, Duncan
Aikman and Blair Bolles set out to do a
newspaperman's Job, namely, to write
an accurate and Informative piece and
to DO 1t in hurry. In the opinion OF this
reviewer. they succeeded well and when
more exhaustive histories Of these i'm
portant years are being written 1t is
probable that no more pertinent COM
parsons between 1899 and 1914 will be
drawn than those hustled into print by
these two.
OF Americas chance Of peace, they
found, in brief, much that was most
encouraging.
They found, for instance, that ma
chinery not only was in existence to
cushion the economic and financial
effects of major war upon our domestic
economy but that almost without the
pushing Of an extra button that ma
chinery operated effectively when the
war began. It was not so in 1914.
They found that instead of being pre-
pared for neither peace nor war on the
industrial and military fronts as in 1914,
today We have at hand and partly in
operation programs of mobilization which
by making us strong should help to
keep us at peace.
They found. and perhaps this is most
important Of all, that we are smarter
today than in 1914. both as a people
and as Government; in other words,
that we are not accepting the glib prop
aganda with which Europe flooded this
country rs years ago, and that official
Washington today is getting its INSIDE
stun" from smart, hard-working
bunch Of reportorial diplomats instead
OF the ingenious tea-tilters of those
other days.
In one Of the very best chapters of
their book, the authors describe how
Secretary Of State Scoop" Hull and his
staff Of foreign correspondents" have
consistently been on top of every Euro
pean development Except the Russo
German pacD days or even months
before 1t became public knowledge. The
Importance Of this accurate alertness in
permitting this Government to chart its
own course for peace is obvious; the
excellence Of the job is magnif1ed by
comparison with the diplomatic FUN
bling of 1914-19l8.
Boiled down, their conclusion is that
we are on relatively even keel today
because there has been intelligent FORE
sight displayed; from now on the most
important requirement is that we "think
things through" Following such
forL.lla, the authors believe, America
need never go to war unless or until her
true self interests dictate that such course
should be followed.
In the minds of many, these true self
interests do not cross the lines of
Europe's power politics. J.C.H.