Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1940-05-23
i Might Be Wrong
|Buf-by P. q. stromberg

w L L - - IA w "A ~ VA
patriotic fear and fervor sweep
ing this country today it seems
well to pause and analyze the
basis on which the World War
ended.
THE ARMISTICE was based
on President Wilson'S famous
Fourteen Points. The World
looked to Wilson and America
for leadership. The outstanding
clause of the Fourteen Points
was the Wartime Presidents
declaration for a League of
Nations to outlaw war. The
Peace Conference at Versailles
revolved around the American
delegation. Because of devotion
to his ideal, Wilson was forced
to make compromises with hard,
designing politicians whose sole
desire was to impose restrictions
so severe that the seeds of the
present conflict were then
planted. That was the part
played by the British and French
politicians. But when we came
to the American side we find
men who, posing as great
patriots and isolationists, led a
successful campaign against the
League of Nations. The result
was that America refused to
take her part alongside other
nations of the world in a just
effort to prevent future wars.
A NATURAL weakening of
the League of Nations was thus
caused at the outset by the
refusal of the prepayment to
become Involved.
WHO is THERE in Anaeriea
today who will acclaim the 1919
and 1920 isolationists as great
American. patriots Who is
there who will argue that the
holocaust in Europe today could
not have and would not have
been avoided had there been
World force of police to say,
Nay! Nay! ? Who will doubt
that had the Peace Conference
delegates been more the patriots
with vision and less practical
politicians bent on immediate
gain, the generation now come
into manhood and womanhood
would have been spared all the
misery, destruction, suffering
and expense forced on them
today.
BUT WE DON'T have the
peace of which the martyred
Wilson dreamed. Instead we
Americans are faced with the
loss of our first lines of defense
(The British and French armies
and navies), and suddenly are
awakened to the fact that, much
as we desire peace and as much
as our leaders have preached
peace, we must spend billions to
prepare ourselves to fight for
peace. And we will prepare.
We will prepare in more ways
than the building of airplanes,
battleships, anti-aircraft guns
and mechanical land equipment.
We will prepare our people to
understand that America means
to defend American doctrines,
methods and liberties from
within as we'll as from without.
1t will not take years nor
months to begin a campaign to
eliminate Fifth Columnists in
our midst. Where we find inside
our borders, men or women
(some of them naturalized
citizens), who fail to appreciate
the freedom and benefits be-
slowed upon them we must, each
and every one of us, make it
our business to report such
individuals to proper authorities.
only in this way will we prepare
ourselves against any possible
Fifth Column debacle.
IT'S TIME FOR the
complacent American to realize
mat the ideal conditions under
winch we live must be paid for.
AS Senator Carter Glass said,
The American citizen must do
more than eat, sleep and go to
the movies"
WE WANT PEACE. We want
peace so earnestly that we are
~illng to make any sacrifice to
"lntaln it. To maintain it
eans that we must be ready to
nght. To r. .I nLl