The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1941-05-22

OH dAt 4 Iidue, 10 no IL Dy NOUS
ands? Yet | think better of the hands
that do the butchering than of the
ambitious heads, the cold,
less hearts, which plunge the nation
into war"
Theodore Parker.
/ shink that if the American peo-
pie permit themselves to be drawn
into this World War any more than
we are already in it that we should
at least know why we are fighting.
The issue should be so clear that
ever the school children in these
United States who comprise our
citizenship of tomorrow should be
able 10 tell us why the head of this
nation is sending their big brothers
and fathers to be butchcred.
l say the head of our nation be-
cause if the U. S. Congress ever
votes TO declare war and send an ex-
peditionary force anywhere it will
be because President Roosevelt asks
it to do 50. Our congress no
longer functions as an Independent
governing body. 1t does only what
the President tells it to do. Thus the
responsibility will be fixed definitely
and absolutely on our President #
we send men to fight across the
sea He cannot ever escape that
responsibility today, tomorrow or
in the annals of history
He is the man who first told us
we were in danger. He is the man
who made a nationwide radio ad-
dress right after being installed in
office for a third term and scared us
to death with a threat of German
invasion. The fact that this pos
sibility Of German invasion he talk
ed about was taken seriously is evil
dent because it is only in the past
three weeks that debate on the pos
sibility Of an invasion of the U. s.
has died down. 1t is an accepted
fact now that invasion is out. 1t
was never seriously believed by any
responsible mar or official in the
army or navy
Now Mr.. Roosevelt tells the u
try the real reason why we are in
danger. He tells the truth this
time. We quote from his address
Sunday:
IL the United States is to main
tain its position as a world power the
American people must be ready now
to act in it's defense.
st is idle for us to talk of future
foreign trade unless we are ready,
now, to defend the principles upon
which it is and must be based.
THAT defense calls most urgently
diate and utmost effort. Otherwise
there can be no foreign trade of the
future on fair terms, under democra-
tic principles"
at has become clear that this ag-
gression menaees not only our for
eign trade ard our national business
prosperity, but also the very social
and spiritual framework of our de-
mocratic way of life.
"Already, and to a very serious
extent, military and economic agrees
sion have circumscribed the area
within which the principles, upon
which we base our international COM
mercial relations can operate"
The president declared that Am
erican trade principles of equality
and mutual benefit to all could not
exist in a word dominated by totali-
tarianism. and that Germany uses
trade as merely another weapon for
further ruthless aggression and sub
jugation."
international in a
world never be carried on for the
mutual benefit of ALL" the executive
asserted.
So the truth has now come out.
We are not to fight this war, if we
do fight it, because we are defend
ing the United States or because we
want to preserve democracy here or
abroad. We are not fighting the
war to ward off a German invasion
of the u S. because we know that
we can defend our own country from
invasion if we take time to build its
defenses.
We are fighting to defend our
trade.
Foreign trade is necessary. our
President and his economists be-
Iieve, because, they say, we will
have to lower u standard of liv-
ing if we do not engage in foreign
trade, In other words our foreign
trade amounts to so much that it
is necessary if we are to maintain
our present standard of living. This
is what they tell US and they say
we must fight to preserve our for
eign trade.
Is our foreign trade so much
that it really means a loyer stan
dard of living for all our People? Is
it so much that it is worth tayipo