Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1940-08-01
The Democratic
Ideal

-
Ideal
In the July issue of Common
Sense the editors of that maya
zine, under the heading, "a For
eign Policy for American Democ-
racy," have set forth their ideas
and beliefs as to what the United
States should do in these troubled
times. They do not intend the
platform for any political party
but it represents IAN effort to find
a few relative certainties in a
weller of uncertainties" The ar
ticle in part follows:
The great issue of the coming weeks
and months will not be found in the
old party platforms. The great Ques-
ton in every mind is whether or not
this country should enter the war. 1t
is our contention that this question
cannot be answered intelligently in
the present chaos of emotion and
half-truths. For we have first to
answer certain preliminary questions.
What are we defending? What do we
want? For what are we to fight if
we do fight?
1t is not enough to say that we
are fighting for freedom" "democ-
racy," civilization" or even the de-
tense of our territory from invasion.
It is not enough because it only sug-
gests a defense of what we have,
and defense of what we have is not
adequate against a dynamic world
revolution.
Bigger Than Hitler.
This world revolution is much big
ger than Hitler or Hitlerism. There
are four dynamic totalitarian powers,
Russia, Germany, Italy and Japan,
with FRANCOIS Spain a weaker fifth.
Behind their own vague phrases and
emotional catchwords they all are
striving for a new order" They
can be defeated only by an alternative
new order" They cannot be de-
feated by mere defense of the old.
Even if their military strength were
to be destroyed by their enemies their
ideas would triumph unless countered
by other ideas equally dynamic.
The old order is represented by the
British and French Empires. Two
powerful nation states carved out
empires for themselves, imposed their
rule on hundreds of millions of sub
ject peoples, built vast industrial and
commercial systems which made only
a few rich and even fewer happy.
Since 1914 they have been unable to
fashion a stable world order that
would keep the peace, and unable to
cope with vast economic dislocations
which led to revolutionary unrest.
At the same time Britain and
France have been the home of the
most precious human values of mod
ern or western" civilization, values
written into such documents and
phrases as Magma Charta, the Bill of
Rights, ''Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite,"
but stemming directly from the Ser
mon on the Mount and emerging in
the humanist and nationalist philoso-
piers of modern times, and in a grow
ing structure of democratic institu-
tons. These values were not unique
ly British and French; all western Eu-
rope and America shared them and
they spread to the rest of the world.
But for various reasons they were
closely identified with Britain and
France; and they are likely to disap-
pear, or at least go into eclipse, if
Britain and France are subjugated.
Just as the old order is linked with
those timeless values, so the new or
der is at present linked with the
denial of those values. Feelings of
kindness, sympathy with suffering,
the worth and dignity of the indi-
vidual are of little account. The an
cient Christian idea of the brother
hood of man, which has struggled
for expression in all European civil
ization, is replaced with the concept
of a brute struggle for survival, in
which certain race or a certain class
or a certain national community has
a mission to conquer and rule.
New Order Progressive.
At the same time the new order
emerging from revolution is in other
respects constructive and progressive.
It is destroying the old hereditary
classes of aristocracy and wealth,
achieving new class equality in the
service of the state. 1t is destroying
the outworn system of Independent
national states, and if successful may
go on to the complete unifcation and
organization of not only Europe but
the world. 1t is able to use pro-
ductive capacity to the full, eliminat-
ing unemployment, unused resources,
and depressior-though so far the