Evening star., 1939-03-10


but more important still is the fact
that the man who wrote it followed
up his appraisal of the world situa-
ton by making substantial invest
ment in certain American securities.
Here is an extract from the letter:
4 continue to be moderately hope
,ful on wSrld conditions and I be-
lieve that peace has been saved once
More, at the beginning of 1899,
through. President Roosevelt, and if
you people will continue to do in
Your Gown country three things the
danger Of war will lessen:
"D Stop class hatred and class
tight as it resulted from ultrasoaal-
istic government encouragements
"(2) Continue to push armaments.
"(3) Continue to maintain rea-
sonable solidarity with all the other
democracies in their efforts to fight
gangsterism or ice-cold brutality and
the various forms of intimidation
and blackmail that are being ap-
piled to them at every sign of in
ternal weakness.
Situation Better in France.
IT am glad to say that all the
other democracies over here have
started to do the three things. In
France, the situation is better than
1t has been for years and the nation
at large has realized that you can
not face an external danger if you
have fights within, and you can
either have MarXism and go to
pieces, or ensure defense and elimi-
nate MarXism at once and COM
pletely
England Is putting one new war
ship on the seas every week this year,
and they are working day and night
to eliminate as rapidly as possible
their vulnerable points. In my own
little republic, the national defense
program demands 30 to 40 times
bigger individual effort per head of
population than your present Ameri-
can national defense program. This
may seem crazy and Is bound to lead
all the state finances to new bank
ruptcies (probably to be consum-
mated ultimately in currency de-
valuation), but meanwhile it is
question OF be or not to be.
I'VE all believe that the holdup,
gangster game of the dictators will
stop the minute they find us strong,
instead Of weak. On this theory, I
believe that Mr.. Roosevelt's help is
like preventive medicine, that costs
infinitely less than panicky surgical
intervention when the patient has a
high temperature.
Esteem Held for Roosevelt.
II believe that a reasonable soli-
darity shown by your people to those
who are trying to save freedom and
all the culture that Christianity has
. given us In the last two thousand
years, will do the trick to save us
from q world war that would be
about the end Of everything and
everybody, because no people with
some sense left will start q war
against the two colonial empires of
Europe, backed morally by the rich
est and strongest democracy Of the
. world. which automatically will bring
In the entire world into a coalition
against this ice-cold destruction and
selfish conquest, and since we have
all realized the danger and are put
ting our houses in order, all it now
needs in the maintenance of our
present better behavior and some
courage, and we, in European de-
mocracies, have a great deal of
esteem for the courage that your
President has shown of late"
What the above represents, of
course, is an application of the
theory that armament is a pre-
vent!ve rather than an incentive to
war. 1t assumes that the language
Of physical force is the only one
respected by dictators abroad and
that the Munich Conference and
the "appeasement' policy Of Prime
Minister Chamberlain were induced
by a realization of the military
weakness of the democracies and
the need for time to build up arma-
ments.
Answer to Arguments.
The proponents Of the opposite
theory insist that to build armament
is to be tempted to use it. This
school Of thought is advocating a
constitutional amendment to re-
quire national referendum before
war can be declared The answer,
Of course, to this line of argument
Is that II the people could defeat a
war declaration by a referendum,
0hey could exert equal pressure on
. majority OF both Houses of Con-
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
E 8