The guardian. [volume] (Boston, Mass.) 1901-1960, 1939-09-30

THIS COLUMN WAS BURN IN
June 1898. At the time of its birth,
we christened the new born Journalistic
baby Looking Around and Beyond
because we intended to consider each
week only those problems that appear
to have an important bearing on the
ebb and flow of Colored American life
particularly, and the tidal course of
working class life generally.
THE CURRENT WORLD WAR
now in its embryonic stage, is the one
absorbing question upon Babel of ton
CUES. Of all the announcements thus
far made concerning it, the following
statement issued by the Socialist Party
of the United States of America is, in
our opinion, the most interesting. We
therefore, share its educational values
with the readers of the Guardian.
Again, for the second time in less
than a generation, Europe is in the
grip of a war which brings sorrow
and loss to all mankind. Upon the ma.
tons involved in it will be heaped i'm
measurable suffering and individual
and social decentralization.
"The immediate occasion of this con
tiict is the resort to armed force by the
German dictator, fanatical leader of 8
cult which has proclaimed to the worlG
its intolerance, its brutality and its
glorifcation of bad faith. The anger
of workers throughout the world anG
Of all decent people is justifiably d.
rected at Hitler and his fascist clique
for unleasing the vast Nazi war ma
chine
But great as is HitIer's guilt, it does
not follow that this war is a conflict
between dictatorship and democracy
Still less Is it true, as many voices are
already proclaiming, that it is a wal
which springs out Of some biological
quality Of evil inherent in the Fascist
peoples which can only be dealt with
by crushing those peoples under the
heel of the virtuous English anC
French.
"On the contrary, all the great EN-
pires were acquired and are maintained
by force and fraud. Hitler's peculiar
Wlckedness in the minds of many de
rives largely from the fact that he
treats minority groups Of the white
race which have fallen under his power
as older imperalisms have treated the
colored races Of Africa, Asia and
America.
"What we are witnessing now is a
new and brutal chapter in the long con
flict of rival imperialisms and oppos.
! ing sets of national interest. The first
World war grew out Of that conflict
Allegedly-and by thousands of indi-
viduals sincerely UT was fought to end
war, and make the world safe for de-
Imocracy. The capitalist democracies
protesting these ideals, won the war
and made the peace of Versailles which
at the time, we Socialists denounced as
a peace to prepare new wars. This
peace, in order to maintain the status
quo and British and French imperial
supremacy, increased the disorganiza-
ton Of Eastern Europe and created
the resentment which was exploited By
Hitler to develop his empire. The ma
ture of his fascist imperialism and Ger
man acceptance of it were determined
by the pressure Of rival imperialisms
upon the German people and by the
internal failure Of capitalist democracy
to provide jobs and security.
1.-The powers now at war with Ger
man Fascism contributed to its rise
They shared the guilt of the Fascist
dictators in the rape of Ethiopia; the
conquest of democratic Spain, and the
destruction of Czechoslovakia. A yeal