Evening star., 1941-02-02

The eighteenth month of the war is
beginning. If parallels with the last
world conflict were in order, the situa-
ton for the United States would now be
similar to that of January l, 1916, when
even the need for military preparedness
was not generally admitted and when
our entrance into hostilities was still Is
months i'll the future.
Few Americans believe the country is
today that far distant from actual bel
ligerency. True, the minority which is
actually hoping and working for our
entry is small. But the minority work.
ing against that outcome is even smaller,
and is further handicapped by having
little influence over the instrumental
ties which mold public opinion. While
these are not disposed to urge outright
American participation, they none the
less continuously indicate that this out
come is almost inevitable. And in so
doing, one must conclude, they correctly
mirror the fataliStic attitude which now
seems prevalent among the American
people.
In the field of physical, as well as
psychological preparedness the United
States is now much more conditioned"
for belligerency than was the case as 1916
Gawned on a nation still, by and large,
endeavoring to maintain a neutral status.
Military consumption is now past the
experimental stage and is working
smoothly. If the defense program has
met serious difficulties in some respects,
it is also we'll ahead of expectation in
others. The issue is no longer whether
this country has the desire and the abil-
ity to defend ITSELF but whether it can
in the time available be equally purpose
full and efficient in meeting the emer-
sency which faces Great Britain.
Objectives Are Less Clear.
That is the issue which is crystallized
by the struggle over the lease-lend bill,
where opposition to active alignment
against the axis is making what is prob
ably it's last effective stand.
But if the combat policy of the United
States is much more advanced than was
the case at the chronologically compara-
BILE stage Of the last European conflict,
our war objectives are, by the same
token, far less clearly formulated and
planned. Long before April 6, 1917, a
definite postwar order, involving perma-
nent American participation, had al
ready evolved in the minds of President
Wilson, former President Taft and
many other leadings Americans Com
parable blueprints are not available now.
AS early asLthe end of August, 1914
President Wilson had privately gone on
record as favoring the postwar inclusion
of the United States in "an association of
the nations, all bound together for the
protection of the integrity of each, so
chat any one nation breaking from this
bond will bring upon herself war; that
is to say, punishment, automatically"
Here, of course, was the genesis of the
League of Nations idea including sane
tions, even though President Wilson did
not, in the early months of the war, give
public advocacy to his plan, Indeed it
was not until May 27, 1916, and then
largely at the instigation of Col. House,
that Mr.. Wilson first publicly stated in
general terms. the intent of his adminis-
tration to make the United States an
integral part of an international political
organization. Thereafter, beginning with
the 1915 presidential campaign, he con-
tinuously advocated that policy.
League to Enforce Peace.
The speech of May 27, 1915, was made
In Washington before meeting of the
League to Enforce Peace. That interest
ing and influential organization had been
born toward the end of 1914, largely
through the untiring efforts of Hamilton
Holt, then publisher of the Independent,
and Theodore Marburg, who had been
the United States Minister to Belgium.
These men and others equally distin-
guished organized the league, chose its
simple but expressive name and readily
prevailed on William Howard Taft to
assume its Craftsmanship. The definite
program was adopted at mass meeting
in Philadelphia on June II, 1915, at which
Mr.. Taft explained the purposes of the
proposed Peace League of the Great