Evening star., 1940-10-21
Urges industrial Help
For Lutin America
Reader Says Defense
= Requires New Policies
Of Production
To the Editor of The Star.

10 the EolIor OF Inc otdr
At the present time this country is
thinking about and talking about hemi-
sphere defense. but few indeed realize
exactly what hemisphere defense means
and how it can be attained. The popular
idea of hemisphere defense concerns
naval bases and military garrisons or
the mobilization of armed forces. People
do not realize that modern war depends
more upon the mobilization of industrial
and financial forces than it does upon
the mere mobilization of the strictly
military ones.
We must realize that in all prob
ability hemisphere defense is to be a
long-term affair and not something that
must be attained in matter of weeks
or months, but over a period of years.
Hitler today hesitates in trying to cross
the English Channel, but can we be
sure that 10 years from now he will
not be able to cross the South Atlantic?
1t would be far better for US to have
our defenses ready at that time and
not need them than to need them, and
need them badly, and not have them
When we consider that defense is
long-term affair and that the ability of
the industrial machine to furnish sup
plies both for the civilian population and
for the military forces is Of utmost i'm
portance, the best method of attaining
such defense would seem to be pro-
gram of industrialization for the coun-
tries of South America.
Such program would not only make
hemisphere defense a concrete reality,
but it would solve both the present and
future problems of South America to a
very large degree. South America today
is suffering from loss of a market for
its agricultural and other products and
place to buy its manufactured goods
We could supply the goods, but We do not
want the products which South America
has to exchange for them because they
compete with those of which we have
surpluses already. Those who talk OF
lending these countries money with
which to hold those products off the
market or lend them money so that they
can buy goods from us are working up
a blind alley because any such plan
would only serve as palliative which,
when hostilities in Europe subsidized,
would Immediately throw South Amer
ica back into Europe's orbit
But if We could help the South Ameri-
can countries to develop an industrial
program it would not only enable them
to solve their own economic problem of
supplying a market for their agricul-
tural products but would enable them to
produce the goods they need, and such
program would continue to yield them
benefits long after the possibility of in
vasion or Of political penetration is
gone.
One could look at Mexico as a con-
crete example of what such program
could mean to us or what the lack of
such program could mean. II Mexico
is left to itself it will almost unquestion-
ably drift into a Fascist or at least
semi condition and be easy prey
to philosophical invasion even il not
military or economic one. Under such
condition a base in Mexico could be of
great advantage to an enemy of the
United States. On the other hand
Mexico could be built into one of the
most impregnable defenSes of the con-
tinent. If we should enable Mexico to
carry out a program of industrializa-
ton and resource development We could
make Mexico one of our greatest de-
fense assets instead of one of our de-
fenSe liabilities. We could lend our
technicians and our engineers and
finance the program. Regardless of the
cost it would be cheaper than allowing
Mexico to become a base to be used
against US, and in the long run it might
well prove to be profitable investment
in its own right
CLARENCE ARMSTRONG.
October 10.