The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1941-05-14
The CHILD and the MAD ELEPHANT

or terror and what nope for demOc
racy is involved in an America at wa
on seven seas and five continents.
The Union for Democratic Action Il
willing to go to war to make it pos.
sible to eliminate "the conditions Of
international anarchy" that gave birth
to fascism. Yet these conditions, as
the Unions members no doubt once
maintained, are the result of war
Should America go to war, the evil
dence is slim that it will give birth
to the millennium.
The Union asserts that victorious
Nazis would swiftly drive the United
States into permanent war economy
with grave consequences to democ-
racy. The union would go to war
against the Nazis to avoid this even
tuality, with consequences to u. S.
economy and democracy it does not
trouble to mention or discuss.
"Me Too"
Unless the position of the liberal
interventionists is nothing more than
prayer, it must be assumed that
they expect to be consulted on the
conduct of the war. In the picture of
America at war. it is difficult to Wis
ualize a scene in which Secretary
Knox and DR.. Niebuhr confer How
ever, while Secretary Knox is an open
book, Dr. Neibuhr's potentialities ap-
parently are not exhausted. The pic
ture may be based on British labor's
power in the war cabinet. Whether
the American labor movement, trag-
ically divided and nowhere near the
political maturity of British labor
could hope during war to do more
than maintain percarious hold on it's
independence is extremely doubtful.
Assuming that British labor would
and could write a liberal peace, lib
eral advocates of war will be ready to
face the strong possibility that Amer
icas participation in the war will
negate the progressive aims of British
labor. Indescribable chaos is a not
unlikely result even of a Successful
effort by America to destroy the to-
talitorian world with arms and men.
The best" that can be hoped for is
probably the kind of self-righteous i'm
perialism articuated by Henry Luce
in 1.-THE American Century" Mr.. Bevin
may have little to say after the war,
Dr. Niebuhr nothing at all All these
are possibilities Dr. Niebuhr's group
must recognize and has not.
But the Union for Democratic Ac-
ton is guilty of more literal kind
of responsibility. Nowhere in it's
program is there any recognition of
the existence of military problem.
Men who are willing to accept lin re-
atty advocate) war ought to have
some notion of the possibility of win
ming" it and of its cost in lives and
wealth.
Eating the Cake
Perhaps the most wistful aspect of
the groups program is the hope that
the extension of democracy can be
IAN integral part" of the defense pro-
gram and at the same time utilize it
to further the democratic purposes it
was created to defend. Defense pro-
gram" is the customary intervention
ist euphemism for war program.
The fatuousness of these hopes is
by an editorial paragraph
in the current issue of The Nation,
whose editor and managing editor are
officers of the Union for Democratic
Action. The Nation hopes that John
D. Rockefeller Jr., show that he has
denounced Hitlerism, will use his
great influence" to shut off oil ship
nents to the Axis and make the Chase
National Bank behave like a good
leighbor in Latin America.
The liberal interventionists have
made their peace with war. Nearly rs
years ago the liberals of another gen.
grafton did the same. Randolph
Bourne's observation in 1917 retains
is timeliness: 1.-THE realist thinks
ie at least can control events by link
ng himself to the forces that are NOV
ng. Perhaps he can But if it is a
question of controlling war, it is diff
icult to see how the child on the back
# a mad elephant is to be any more
in stopping the beast than
S the child who tries to stop him
rom the ground"