The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1940-07-18
GENERAL
-JOH N SON
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Washington, ID. C.
LESSON FOR u. S.

LESSON FOR u. S.
Most of the lessons of the war are
too obscure to learn. The fall of
France can't be explained. Gossip
filtering back indicates a stencil to
heaven.
We are already officially blamed
for not doing something that we
were somehow supposed to be
obliged to do. Who obligated us? Mr.
Bullitt did say openly that we
wouldn't be in it at the beginning
but would be in the end. The end
came too soon for France. If she
relied on Mr.. Bullitt, she missed the
bus.
The lesson from France is not
clear enough to learn but there is
one lesson from the whole bloody
mess that simply shrieks. No ma
ton can rely on any other and GER
tainly not we on the British navy,
or Latin America, or on anything
but our own strength.
France created the Gordon sani-
taire'-the ring of little nations like
Poland, Czechoslovakia and Ruma-
MIA, to keep Germany captive. She
relied on them and they on her. She
relied on the British navy Britain
relied on the French army. When
Hitler began to show strength,
France wanted to stop him. Britain
wouldn't play. When MuSSolini hi
lacked Ethiopia, Britain wanted to
stop him. France wouldn't play.
Both let Hitler and Mussolini build
up the strength to ravage the French
and British reliance on little nations
in the ''cordon sanitaire" and their
reliance on Britain and France.
One by one they fell. Britain and
France were helpless or unwilling
to stop it. They are responsible for
the threat to us today because,
finally, came the case of Poland.
Britain and France at last were
drowsily preparing. But neither was
remotely ready Nevertheless they
showed Poland into the guns. The
case was weak. Danzig was Ger
man city. The Polish corridor was
monStrosity. Furthermore, worst
of all, Hitler wanted no war in the
west, he was headed east and
southeast.
France, under British pressure,
joined in declaring war when Hitler
marched. 1t was one of the greatest
and most stupid blunders in history
If not the very greatest. 1t forced
Hitler to turn to the west. The re-
suit already has been the destruc-
ton of six small neutral nations
and the French empire. 1t terri
bly, threatens the British empire. 1t
threatens us.
determinations have already be-
gun. We hear that France didn't
want to go to war and Britain forced
her-that the French government
didn't want to abandon the defensive
and plunge into the disastrous Bel
gian pocket-that Britain forced it
and didn't support it. The facts
aren't clear. But the blunders are.
They shout their lessons to us. Don't
start anything you can't finish. Get
fully ready before you start slapping
down ears. Don't rely on anybody
but yourself. Don't push other ma
tons into warlike positions to de-
fend yourself.
In this laundering diversion of
Hitler to our direction when he
might have gone, eastward to wear
himself out in battle with the bear
of Russia, we are not blameless. We
supported and encouraged it moral
ly. Part of the argument to bring
France in was that only if she
were in war could she be sufficiently
unified and modified for war, and
that if she did get in she would
have time to get ready afterwafd.
Exactly that is being said to us in
this country today. There is anoth-
er way to say it. 1t is "Get die
tator."
Step by muddled step we have fol-
lowed laundering European war pol
icies. We are still following them.
Our two new war cabinet members
believe in doing that. That is why
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