Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1939-11-16

your business, your farm or your
factory in order that that boy has
a chance to live.
Service Bill Not Unjust.
Then there is the third charge that
the Universal Service bill is unjust
That charge, of course, is silly, for
people should know by this time
that there is no justice in war. What
we propose is to see to it that wars
injustice falls equally upon all in
solar as that is possible. Perhaps
then there would not be so many
ready to 60 to war for war profits
and let others do the dying in order
to gain them.
At the recent national convention,
and at other conventions preceding
that one, the American Legion has
asked Congress to enact foreign
policy of strict neutrality which
would, insofar as possible, isolate this
nation against taking part in for
eign wars. AS regards to the western
hemisphere we have such foreign
policy called the Monroe Doctrine.
Every nation in the world knows ex-
actly what that policy is and gov
erns itself accordingly and so far,
for period of over 100 years, that
policy has kept foreign nations from
making war on any nation in the
western hemisphere. That is ex-
actly the kind of foreign policy we
want to isolate us from taking part
in wars in Europe, Asia or for that
matter, anywhere else. So far Con-
gress has not enacted such a foreign
policy. However, we intend to keep
on fighting until we have it and on
this too we ask your support at the
present time.
War Propaganda.
Recently the national commander
of the Legion, in a radio address to
the people of this nation, asked that
we do not support, condone or abet
any acts of biased belligerency COM
mitted by anyone towards any nation
at war. And he also warned against
war propaganda which we are being
subjected to at the present time.
Sir Henry Wilson, chief of staff
of the British army during the World
war, was asked after that war was
over which branch of service he
thought had contributed the most
towards success, whether it was the
artillery, the infantry, engineers or
cavalry or what branch of combat
service? He replied by stating that
none of the combat branches of serv-
ice had contributed the most to-
wards victory; that the branch of
service which had contributed the
most was the propaganda branch of
service, and that the greatest victory
won by England during the World
war was when they overcame our
repulsion against war and got us
into it on their side.
| War propaganda takes many forms
and is used in countless ways. The
thing to remember is that it always
appeals to our emotions and passions
for these are what leads the people
of a nation towards war. War prop
uganda never appeals to our common
sense, for after all there is no sense
in war. We are subjected to war
propaganda that we should help the
democracies of France and England
for they are our friends and saviors
of democracy and western civilization.
Internationally the sympathies of our
people are with these two nations,
but is that because our emotions
have been cleverly aroused or is it
because of common sense? We have
paid our debt to Lafayette. Let's
take look at the record and see
what we owe England and whether
or not England is so much our friend.
British Friendship?
Hundreds of years ago ruler of
England announced England's policy
as follows: When in trouble we use
diplomacy. If that fails we use
money, always being careful to see
to it that we use other peoples
money. If money fails we use men,
but again we see to it that we use
Quiet people HEEL. OuI peVOlutlOIl-
airy forefathers got taste of that
policy when they had to click the
immortal tar" out of British hire
lings, the relocated Hessians, in or
der to gain independence for this
nation. We as a nation got taste
of British friendship when they
raided our commerce during the Ma
poleonic war and indicted our sea-
men into their service, for which
we fought them in 1912. We had
taste of British friendship when
they burned our capitol in 1914. We
had taste of their friendship dur
ing the Civil war when they again
raided the commerce of the North
and poured money into the South and
their premier at that time defended
that policy in the House of Lords
stating "that the disorganization of
this nation would react towards the
commercial benefit of Great Britain"
We had a taste of their friendship
when, during the World war, with
their backs towards the wall, they
called for American money and
American men. We sent them mil
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