Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1940-06-20
Wars Do Not Settle
Matters

The world is in turmoil today,
and that is especially true of
Europe where wars are raging.
One country after another has
fallen before Hitler and his
armies, and now even the great
nation of France has given up.
The Maginot Line, series of
forts, built of concrete and steel
with wire entanglementS, bitches,
and so on, at a cost of S500,000,-
900 did not save the French from
attack. The Magnet Line is 125
miles long and from 10 to SO
miles in depth. 1t was con-
structed in II years but was sur
rounded by Hitler's men and fell
in fewer days than the years
required to build it. This fur
Their shows that we cannot settle
differences by means of war.
AT this distance, we cannot set
tie the European border disputes
and certainly not when war is
raging. Therefore, the thing for
us to do is to keep cool and be
loyal to America.
An article by William M.
Groom was published few days
ago in the readers column of the
Minneapolis Times-Tribune in
which was brought out an argu-
ment for League of Nations, or
some such body, to police the
world instead of submitting to
continual warfare between ma
tions. The article follows:
One of your lady correspondents
is very clever with her propaganda
but her arguments are an affront to
all well-informed people.
Britain has nothing to be ashamed
of in her colonizing. Not only she
but also France, Belgium, Holland
and Germany, all colonized the great
waste expanses in the colonizing
days, just as homesteaders took up
all the land they could when home
stealing was the thing, but coloniz-
ing and homesteading days are past.
What country in the world was ever
more fair and square in colonizing
Or in dealing with its dominions than
Britain? And is there anyone so
dense that he cannot see the differ
ance between colonizing and the pres
ent brand of aggression? The South
African war is sometimes mentioned,
out who is there that does not know
hat the Beers started that and opened
with the first battle? If Britain was
not justified in that war, then neither
vas the U. S. A. in the Spanish
war after the Spanish had
irst sunk the Maine.
If all the propagandists in the
were to blacken the name
If Britain, all true Americans would
urn upon them with scorn and de-
nand an answer to this question:
Does the past colonizing of any ma
ion justify the bitter agonies and
horrible experiences inflicted need
essly on fine, small, helpless peoples?
If such shocking tragedies are justi-
liable for Holland and Belgium, then
hey are just as justifiable for New
York, Washington and Minneapolis.
Has all righteousness and fineness
persisted from the earth that even a
woman justifies such hellish agrees
sion?
When are all right thinking people
going to wake up to the fact that
It will take a real League of Nations,
with the U. S. A. taking its rightful
place in the same, to restrain agrees
sors in the future? What police
force is to a city or state, that a
league is to a continent.
There would have been no depres-
sion, default in war debts, rearma-
ment, and this second world war
if politics had not kept the U. S. A
out of the present league. What doth
it profit a nation if it become the
strictest isolationist-but lose the
most priceless things besides?