The Wilmington morning star., 1940-06-11

dress today at graQuatlOn excl
cises of the University of Virgin
ia:
Every generation of young men
and women in America has ques'
tons to ask the world. Most Of
the time they are the simple bu,
nevertheless difficult questions OF
work to do, opportunities to flnd'
ambitions to satisfy.
But every now and again in the
history of the republic a dl11eren'
kind of question presents Itself
a question which asks, not aDou1
the future of an Individual or wen
of a generation, but about the III.
ture of the country, the future OF
the American people.
There was such a time at the
beginning of our history as a ma
ton. Young people asked them
selves in those days what lay
ahead, not for themselves, but Tor
the new United States.
There was such a time again in
the seemingly endless years OF the
war between the states. Y 6
men and young women on both
sides of the line asked themselves,
not what trades or professions they
would enter, what lives they would
make, but what was to become OF
the country they had known.
Today'S Question
There is such a time again to-
day. Again today the young men
and the young women of America
ask themselves with earnestness
and with deep concern this same
question: what is to become OF
the country we know"
Now they ask it with even great
er anmiety than before. They ask,
not only what the future holds for
this republic, but what the future
holds for all peoples and all ma
tons that have been living under
democratic forms of government
under the free institutions OF a
free people.
It is understandable that they
should ask this question. They read
the words of those who are telling
them that the ideal of individual
liberty, the ideal Of free franchise,
the ideal of peace through justice
is a decadent ideal.
They read the word and hear
the boast of those who say that a
belief in force-force directed by
self chosen leaders-is the new and
vigorous system which will over
run the earth. They have seen the
ascendancy of this philosophy OF
force in country after country
where free institutions and indivi-
dual liberties were once maintain
ed.
See Consequences
It is natural and Understandable,
therefore, that the younger genera
ton should first ask itself what
the extension of the philosophy OF
force to all the world would lead
to ultimately. We e today in
stark reality some Of the conse'
quences of the machine age.
Where control of machines has
been retained in the hands of man.
kind as a whole, untold benefits
have accrued to mankind. For
mankind was then the master; the
machine was the servant.
But, in this new system Of force
the mastery of the machine is not
IN the hands of mankind. It is in
the control of infinitely small
groups of individuals who r u e
without a single one of the demo
cratic sanctions.
The machine in hands Of irres-
ponsible conquerors becomes the
master; mankind is not only the
servant but the victim. Such mas
terry abandons with deliberate con-
tempt all of the moral values to
which even this young continent
for more than 300 years has been
accustomed and dedicated.
Surely the new philosophy proves
from month to month that it could
have no concept of the way of life
or the wa. of thought of a nation
whose origins 60 back to James.
town and Plymouth Rock.
Conversely, neither those W h G
spring from that stock nor those
who have come hither in l t e r
years can be Indifferent to the
destruction Of freedom in their an.
cestral lands across the sea.
Worldwide Arena
Perception of danger to our in
stitutions may come slowly or il
may come with a rush and shock
as it has to the people of the Unit
ed States in the past few months.
This perception of danger has
come to us clearly and overwhelm.
lngly; and we perceive the peril in
a worldwide arena-an arena
which may become so narrowed
that only the Americas would re.
tain the ancient faiths.
Some indeed still hold to the
now obvious delusion that we of
the united States can safely per-
init the United States to become
a lone island in a world dominat-
ed by the philosophy of force.
Such an island may be the
dream OF those who still talk and
vote as isolationists. Such an is
land represents to me and to the
overwhelming majority of Ameri.
cans today a helpless nightmare
OF a people without freedom, q PEG.
Pile lodged in prison, hand-cuffed.
hungry, and fed through the bars
from day to day by the contemp-
tuouS, Implying masters of o+be,