Evening star., 1940-05-12
Wor Lessons for
America
BY Open L. Scott.

Iopc experience, al SInAu Cost. Inc
lesson is simply this: Wishful thinking
does not win either battles or wars.
This country goes along taking 1t for
grantedth Great Britain and France
are going to win the present war. They
watch Poland 60 and read the reports al
London how unimportant that event
really was. They find that, by all ac-
counts, Finland wins all the fights and
then, overnight, surrenders. They read
day by day Of great British naval VIC
tories In the Skagerrak and Of great
British French gains IN Norway only to
discover all Of a sudden that the British
and French are in ignominious flight
from the scene Of battle. They are told
how bombs from airplanes bounce OIL
battleships without doing damage and
then day or two later find the Ameri-
can Navy Department admitting that
warships probably will have to be rede-
signed because airplanes are found to
have temporary advantage over them.
All OF this is very bewildering-
to those with access to military and
naval opinion that can be based upon
real facts from the battlefronts. The
wishful thinking that has been sold to
the people Of this country has never been
Those officials have known all along
that the allies were missing one oppor-
tunity after another and were allowing
themselves to be unanswered into the
most dangerous position.
The cold fact is that the British and
French are not yet ready for this war
and may not get chance to get ready.
Those two democracies have hesitated to
take the steps that the present war
apparently demands because to take
them would be to adopt German meth
ods. A nation like Germany, with 49,
0o0, 900 persons ruthlessly organized for
just one purpose-war-has a terrific
striking power that calls for equally
ruthless organization on the part of the
SO, 900 900 British and French. Otherwise
the result will be defeat The idea that
sea power automatically will strangle
the Germans is a shattered idea. There
is at least an equal chance. admitted by
well-informed military officials, that air
power will strangle the British.
The leaders in Great Britain during
the first eight months of war tried to
find a comfortable and a cheap way to
fight the war. They failed to tap Amer
ican markets and may have delayed q
bit too long. 1t will be year before
American airplane factories can deliver
airplanes in volume to the allies.
A number Of lessons can be learned
by the United States from the expe-
rience Of the present war.
The first lesson is that preparedness
for modern war calls for immense effort
and ruthless RECOMMENDATION Of industry
and labor as well as finance. The entire
effort Of a nation must be directed to
the one end Of armament once actual
fighting starts.
The second lesson is that the United
States might have great difnculty in
giving the same kind Of help to the
British and French this time that It
gave last The Germans are demon
strating that airplanes can cause great
destruction to shipping that operates in
narrow waters, particularly when air
planes are placed in a position to oper-
ate from short bases. This means that
1t might not be an easy Job to transport
an army across the Atlantic and to land
that army within range of opposing air.
craft. The British experience at Namsos
in Norway provided taste of what air.
planes can do.
The third lesson is that. if the United
States might have hard time operating
with an army in Europe, any European
nation would have an even harder time
trying to land and operate an army on
these shores. Shore based war planes
could riddle any invading force, even If
that force managed to get through the
American Fleet. This means that peo-
pie Of the North American continent can
be more assured than ever Of their abil-
ity to demolish any attackers.
The fourth lesson is that the United
States is going to have harder job than
ever before imagined to protect its rights
and its commitments over about half Of
the earth's surface. There is q very
grave question whether the American
F1eet-unless much strengthened-could
operate successfully 1000 miles away
from home in the Pacific against Japa-
nese who have many nearby air bases.
OF course. the Japanese would have an
even harder time trying to operate
against this country, so that the result
might be a stalemate, but with Japan
probably occupying the Far Eastern ter
ritory that she covets.
There Is an equally important problem
nearer to home.
Until now the United States has de-
pended upon the British Navy to police
the Atlantic and thereby to enforce the
Monroe Doctrine with its protection for
Latin American nations. Recent events
suggest very clearly that the British
Navy may not always be on hand to do
that job. The same events suggest that
to police 1000 miles Of coast line from
the northern tip of Canada to the
the southern tip of South America is a
Herculean task for which the United
States alone is not prepared.
To protect the North American CONT
nent and the area around the Panama
Canal, this country really should have
assured control OF Greenland, with air
and naval bases. It also should have
assured control Of Bermuda, II ever there
was q chance that Britain might lose its
hold on that island group. In addition,
this country needs Trinidad-also Brit