Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1940-12-23

Gently live.
In any other period of history
this would have seemed quixotic.
In this period its possibility hangs
wholly on the desperation OF Mr..
Hitler.
1t is perhaps the only construc-
tive. imaginative, and intelligent
thing 10 be done.
II 1t could succeed. II would
mean that we would play a deci-
sive role in history without actual
belligerency: il would mean that
we were not tied to the national
or imperialist aims of any power;
il would mean that we could main-
tain a certain objectivity of view;
il would mean that we would be at
any moment in a position to use
our power for peace as much as
! for war.
THE President has been one OF
i the few democratic statesmen,
perhaps the only one. of sufficient
Imagination and swareness to rec
ognize from the outset the epochal
and revolutionary nature Of this
struggle. and to see that through
il century was being liquidated
/ and the outlines OF another age
emerging.
I The President must know that
the United States will either make
a bid for decisive role in the
building Of that coming age or.
pass out OF history as a great
/ power.
4 He knows that IL would be very
hard for us 10 do il alone The
tendency 10 amalgamation is too
T irresistible
The world is not becoming more
isolated but more compact. Units
are not becoming smaller but
larger. Ns;ionalism as we have
known IL is not on the ascendant
but on the decline.
Therefore. we need allies. Not
allies 10 win a war for status
quo; not allies 10 win war for
isolated and chsuvinistic interests,
but allies TO win a contest for a
new order OF affairs on this planet.
VI vi slilAlfnl oINo w ~ W NC
strongly influential rallying
point.
+ WHEN the first German troops
w crossed the Polish border the
mountain of the order OF the nine
tenth century began sliding with
the velocity OF an avalanche.
The first shot fired heralded the
end OF an epoch. Briefly put, that
was the epoch Of capitalism, ma
tionallsm and democracy. The
war and the revolutions that pre-
cipitated il put the skids under
all three ne re have knopn them.
The century ahead will be
century OF immensely greater in
tegration than those behind US, II
II is not century of chaos.
The capitalism that measured
The value Of all things in terms Of
profit on money investment. al
ready undermined by the massed
refusal Of millions in all countries
to accept the business cycle as a
law Of God. was dealt a decisive
blow.
The nationalism that has kept
the world in a state OF anarchy for /
centuries is hearing it's death knell
rung.
The democracy that gave a man
vote instead of bread was chal-
lenged everywhere in the western
world.
livery stASe in the world has
IL been caught by this landslide.
The" German revolution. though
aided and abetted by capt. alists, I
had already dealt a blow at Ger
man and international capitalism
far heavier than the one previously
administered by the Soviet Union. |
The German revolution dealt a |
blow al nationalism. II is of no
significance that the revolution /
was undertaken in the name of
nationaliSm.
When Hitler exalted race over
nation he laid an AK al the exist
ing political structure Of the
world German nationalism is
racial and German International
ism struggle for racial domino
ton.
Finally, the German revolution
not only destroyed all the forms
OF political democracy but il at.
tackled its essential content. +
That content. as inherited from
Greece and from the French
Revolution, has made reason and
realism measures of value and |
encouraged the Sfree, inquiring.
critical mind
! And that content inherited from
Judao Christianity conceives of
man as a moral being and de-
mands that he act according to
sanctions imposed by conscience
and intuitive experience.
These two. free thought and
ethical sanction. have not only
created democracy but have Gre
ated science, humanitarianism and
law.
IN SUCH social cataclysm all
L nations and all peoples are being
put through the wringer. and
every hope Of restoring the status
-.