Evening star., 1940-05-10
Coils for Realistic
Foreign Policy
Writer Fears Sentiment
Will Fog American
Attitude on War
10 the Editor Of Ths star:

10 the Editor Of Ths Star:
There appeared In Z recent issue OF
your paper letter from d. 8. Smell
Of Schenectady In which he described
Hitler as "a master Of this earth, prob
ably the greatest natural genius the
world has ever seen," solemnly an
nounced that "Armageddon is here"
pleaded for realism in our war attitudes,
and vigorously concluded that we should
at once wade into the European mess
to save civilization.
AS a preface to my comment on this
letter, may say that I am neutral,
holding no brief for either Great Britain
or Germany. At the same time, enter
tain an old-fashioned notion that there
are at least two sides to. every case. I
attempt to take judicial attitude, free
from emotion.
I agree with Mr.. Smell only as to his
plea for realism; for 1t is undoubtedly
true that the American people are today
stumbling in fog of unrealities.
major unreality is the bland as
sumption, born of wishful thinking,
that there exists on the earth such q
thing as national morality. This is fol-
lowed by second erroneous assumption
that the side we are for Is moral, while
the side we are against is immoral. The
truth is that what is known as the ma
tional interest, and not the Ten Com
mandments, always controls every nation.
The sovereign corporation has no soul.
We work up our blood pressure when
Hitler lies his way to success, overlook
ing the fact that international diplo-
macy Is made up largely of deception,
and that no country ever keeps prom
ise when it interfereS with q major
national program and the promise may.
with reasonable safety, be broken. The
United States, when under no special
stress. deliberately violated its treaties
with the Indians again and again, and
more recently invalidated its promise
to pay obligations in gold. Napoleon,
acting for France, broke treaty after
treaty and all of the rules of the deca-
logue, but he is adored by the French;
as wildly today as they followed him
yesterday.
We fondle the idea that the nation
we do not favor is an aggressor, while
the nation we do favor is a nonaggres-
sor. The fact is that all strong, virile
peoples are aggressors. That applies to
the United States; we acquired a sub
stantial part of our domain by conquest.
Because Of her aggressions Great Brit
ain holds Is per cent of all the land on
the globe, and boasts that she rules 100
per cent OF all the waves. BY compar-
ison the possessions of Germany are
modest. Great Britain has spent 56 per
cent of her lifetime in war, while Ger
many has spent % per cent. Nor has
Albion given up any of her loot in re-
pentance, so she can hardly say that
she has reformed. OF course, nations
never repent; their vilest denominations
are glorified permanently in their school
books.
The views of many are distorted by
the conclusions that one government is
while another is an enemy and destroyer.
History quite clearly proves that this Is
not true. AS there is no morality be-
tween nations, there can be no friend
ship. What passes at times for friend
ship-and changes with the winds
cold, coincidence Of national interests.
Britain is again wooing Russia, and II
we were to get into the war, quite pos
sibly the Stalinites would be our brothers
In arms. AS general rule, the small
neutrals in Europe exist, not because
they are deserving peoples and God has
smiled upon them, but because the
strong nations wish to use them as
bumpers, and SO save the expense of
Maginot and Siegfried lines. For ex-
ample, if before the present contest.
Holland had decided by popular refer
endum to become part of the German.
Reich, Great Britain would have gone
to war to prevent the elimination OF
are not useful as bumpers, and at the
same time are valuable-like the Boer
republics in South Africa-they usually
are taken over.
Another unreality resides in the COM
mon contention that In, the. second
World War, as in the first, there is an
issue respecting democracy. Most of the
governments of the past have been
relationships; they. are nothing new.
Whenever country reaches such q
condition of distress that it may be
called seriously i'll, dictator is neces-
sary; there must be one physician in
charge whose prescriptions will be i'm
plicitly followed. A democracy is a good
form of government for nation that
is well, but it does not function effec-
lively in periods of severe stress. It
could not be made workable in the Ger
manu- ~ racent Years Wa copcoJod o,,r