Greenbelt cooperator. (Greenbelt, Md.) 1937-1954, 1940-06-06
Preparedness

Preparedness
War preparedness in the United States gives rise
to line of thought both fearful and expectant.
The state of mind induced by the tremendous sums
being pledged to destructive poses should be the
occasion for serious thought.
nation which few short weeks ago could find
means to aid the uemploye and to alleviate the
uffer1nGs of the poor, suddenly finds an untouched
vein of gold. truly remarkable phenomenon.
However, to the problem directly. there two
schools Of thought in opposition to preparedness.
One, genuinely fearful of the consequences of
of dictatoria1 powers; of the dangers of fl
nancia1 and economic crisis wit the collapse of
from war, and that energies franti cay devoted to
tools Of destruction would be seemly devoted
social and economic reform.
The second group is the notorious ufifth col
wmH--whether in fascist comumi st ranks, whose
party doctrine is pledged to internal di srption
of preparedness as to prevent any effectua1 aid
to the ~enemy" If should suddenly loom.
The fascists for obvious reasonable communists
for the "party lines Whereby any which would
lead to the quickest disruption Of the present social
and economic regime welcome. As only lately in
dictated by John Stracheys indictment of the London
Daily Worker. Especially that fasci appears
to be wagering all in huge effort which may well
swallow up both its own philosophy and that of its
opponents, the European denocracies-so-called.
what of concepts? If to Judge
premises and Deductions President Roosevelt, what
his opponents' ideas night be, appears have
thoroughly a1tenated himself from the background
vested interests and special privilege which was hi
which his admin stratton fostered and carried
through. Albeit, this might of course have been
merely palliative defense against the disruption
of the system of viii ch he is member.
Assuming the honesty of his intentions and the
integrity of his program it would appear that
who thoroughly carried out a pro-socia1 program
both of direct to the average public and
Of attack business privilege through his correct
i've egtslaton would not enter into anti-socia1
program as war preparedness except under duress.
1t is unlikely that he would be grinding the ingois-
tic axe for mum lions profiteers, although it is
within the realm of possibility.
His line of reasoning for preparedness would then
be that since attack United States by for
eign powers is outrageous, mthinkable, and far
fetched,-tt Is quite wi thin the scope of powers
which have dedi Gated themselves to doing the i'm
possible, the mthinkable, the lunatic thing. All
the more, since than vague r1mors have been
circulating for several years that these for
eign powers have set up aipane facilities South
cta1 requirements and certainly the beaten
track for sound business ventures. In other words,
suspiciously military preparation. his, combined
With trade and propaganda aggressios both In South
America and in the United States, would create the
Impression of remote possibility of attack against
which the intelligent policy would be adequate de-
Tense preparation.
In view of these things and making many asslmp-
tions of the good of number of acts it would ap-
pear that these preparations for in the
ture of defense rather than an Indictment to fur
Their participation in European tangles.
Whether it follows that the existence of arms is
a necessary prelude to their only history can
show. Certainly, be Waged without arms.
Equally certainly, pacific restraint on the part
of civilized people Will not stop foreign aggression
of the kind rampant.
While the internal policies of fascism Nrcti on
they do and they must fascist policy is fore
doomed to failure. The history is present in
italy, in Germany, and in Japan. The ruin of these
nations be kept from the people only by external