Evening star., 1940-05-14
American Crisis

American Crisis
II there had been any doubt in
the minds of any one as to where the
American Governments sympathies
and interests lie in the war today,
Secretary of State Hull dispelled it
with extraordinary candor last night
IN his righteously wrathful and
forceful address before the American
Society of International Law. In
measured and meaningful terms, the
usually reticent head of the State
Department., in effect, served notice
on the world in general and on war
mad Germany in particular that this
Nation henceforth is allied morally,
at least, with the European democ-
racies now battling for their lives in
Holland and Belgium and France.
The United States has been forced
to become partisan in this most
critical of all wars for reasons that
go deeper than sentiment. Mr.. Hull
has admitted publicly what many
anxious observers have been saying
privately with increasing solemnity
OF late-that the structure of civili-
cation, of world order under law"
has begun to crumble and that it's
threatened collapse directly and
vitality menaces our own Nation. We
cannot escape being caught in the
crash merely by shutting our eyes
and stopping our ears and protesting
that 1t is none of our business" AS
Secretary Hull put it, 1--WE cannot
shut it out by attempting to isolate
and insulate ourselves" It is mat
ter of dire reality that such an atti-
tude we'll might accelerate the very
catastrophe which it's deluded ex-
ponents seek to avert.
Secretary Hull went far in laying
down new and more virile Ameri-
can policy with respect to Europe's
war-but The Star believes he should
have gone even farther. He spoke of
the efforts of the Nation to use its
moral influence" against the spread
OF international lawlessness. Moral
influence Is a proper instrument of
foreign policy under ordinary condi-
tions, but it has become a pitifully
impotent and ineffective factor in
q world largely dominated by mill
tary violence. 1t has been demon
strated that aggression of the type
which marches brutally and in
exorably across neutral and inof-
fensive countries today cannot be
halted by appeasement nor by ap-
peals to reason.
America must awake to the plain
and unpleasant fact that unless
moral aid to the beleaguered allies
is supplemented by practical, tangi-
BILE assistance of a degree not here
tofore extended, the walls of Euro
pean civilization as we know It may
fall before the forces of totalitarian
anarchy-and no democracy, how
ever powerful or however secluded,
could long survive such cataclysm.
The United States wants to stay out
of this war, Of course; but it may
find itself engulfed by it eventually
unless realistic steps are taken
without further delay to help France
and Britain and their allies beat
back the formidable, relentless
hordes Of Hitlerism.
The most immediate need of the
embattled democracies of Europe is
planes. Let us stop quibbling about
premiums for plant expansion, about
release Of latest designs, about how
and when payments shall be made
let us remove all obstacles to the
speedy production and delivery of
these potent challengers of Nazi air
power. Every American plane sent
into combat strikes a blow against
q military machine that is poten-
tial threat to our own Nation. The
more blows we can strike without
engaging in the battle ourselves, the
less our chances of involvement.
Suggestions already are being made
In Congress that laws requiring pay
ment in cash for war purchases be
revised. This would involve repeal
OF the johnson Act, barring loans to
debt-defaulting nations, and modifi-
cation OF the cash-on- -the-line pro-
vision Of the Neutrality Act. AL
though the allies have not yet ex-
hausted their cash, the time may
come before many more months
have passed when credit will be
asked. Is this Nation going to i'm
peril Its own security by shutting of
further supplies OF planes and guns
because the nations fighting our
battle for us cannot afford to pay
cash? Would it not be better, indeed
! to give planes and guns outright tc
Britain and France than to see the
flames Of conquest spread to thi;
part Of the world7
These are some momentous ques-
, lions Of policy which the admins.
h