Evening star., 1941-11-05
Denies Present War
Is "A Holy Cause
Says Conflict Is Political
And ExempIifies Tendency
Of History to Repeat

VI T1IStoTy 70 NePeut
To the Editor of The Star:
There is an interesting. If not an ON
inous, similarity revealed by comparing
present day arguments by advocates of
American embodiment in another Euro
pean war with newspaper headlines OF
March, 1917, and those Immediately pre-
ceding the War of 1872 Now, as before,
we are arriving at the holy" or crusad-
ing stage of propaganda. Synchronous
with President Roosevelts Navy Day
declaration that the Government pos
SeSsed an authentic Hitlerian document
exposing worldwide plans to substitute
for the cross of Christ +-' two symbols
the swastika and the naked sword" is
Bishop James Cannon's letter in The
Star for October q, urging fortnight
war against Hitler in the name Of free
dom of conscience, speech and religion"
Obviously little can be done at this late
date to sWerve our Government from a
course that leads to inevitable and per-
haps imminent war; a war In which we
irretrievably may lose liberties at home
pllCtlcSS tIldll lllOSt We save lOI
alien peoples abroad. to repeat a costly
folly of which even the present genera
ton lately swore never again But
when a churchman of the influential
prominence of Bishop Cannon attempts
to drape the cloak of holiness around a
conflict so palpably political in origin
and prosecution as the present struggle,
then contrary opinions justify presenta-
ton to the public as fully, if not so
eloquently, as were the bishops views.
Failure of the Treaty of Versailles to
incorporate (and later with American
lives and money enforce President Will
sons complete set of sanction principles
is held by Bishop Cannon as the ma ior
cause OF Hitlerism. This, from an Amer
ican standpoint, presupposes that ma
tions responsible for that treatys mall
formations would not have repudiated
later their financial obligations to this
country. would not have cast the op-
probrium Uncle Shylock" on Americans,
would not have launched their gigantic
worldwide grab of territory. had the
Fourteen Points been accepted. This is,
III -dSt, llit
for the death of a patient who refused
TO take his medicine
No war is holy. This holocaust, as all
others before it that have soaked the
earth with the blood of youth and the
tears Of bereaved women and orphans,
is fought because man or group of men
seeks a brief moment in the spotlight of
power To endeavor to justify wars as
means of protecting or rescuing the
cross of Christ is to forget the words
OF the Master whom Bishop Cannon rep
resents among men-"My kingdom is
not of this world: if my kingdom were
of this world, then would my servants
fight"
Hltlers victorious sweep across Europe
is but a repetition of Napoleons cam
paigns and of the Kaiser's abortive ef-
forts. The stage settings-propaganda
intrigue, political maneuvering. duplic-
ity-like the Nazis panzer thrusts, differ
from their prototypes not so much In
motives and methods as in their speed
of attainment. The shouts of that in
terventioniSt- extraordinary in 1908. Sem
ator Timothy Pickering of Massachu.
setts. Napoleon is coming!" found their
echoes in Ambassador Pages character
ization of Wilhelm in 1914 as 1T is an
other case of Napoleon" And how these
earlier bellicose ed-lanterns resemble
the utterances Of our Peppers, Knoxes
and Wilkes!
Let him beware who seeks to cloak war
in holy garb, for history has an embar-
RAISING habit of making such efforts ri
diculous. If England's successful chal-
lenge of Napoleon We're holy cause,
then our own War of 1912 becomes an
impious contest against Gods elect, and
freedom of the seas for which We there
contended and which is now the eloquent
shibboleth of our shouting war propon-
ents is truly atrocious thing. Too, if
the 1914-1918 World War were a holy
cause, with Providence smiling on Allied
arms. then the later international be-
havior of those whom God had delegated
as His protectors and indicators on
earth traduced their trust and sabotaged
His victory.
Americans today like the peoples of
Germany, Italy and Japan. know little
or nothing about what their elected
servants in Washington are doing in the
camouflaged arena Of international
pulling. Futile name-calling
and puny fst-shaking are the only
sounds and gestures allowed to reach
those who will have to fight and pay
for the war these puerile tactics lead to-
But everywhere citizens are heard de.
manding explanations of two glaring in
consistencies in governmental arguments
% If Hitler cannot invade England
in two years across 30ftmiles of Dover
Straits, how is he goingT,to conquer the
United States across nnbre than 5000
miles of Atlantic Ocean? (2) If the
Gestapo cannot keep little overrun ma
tions from rising in revolt while Hitler's
hordes are just across their borders, how
will the Reich maintain all of Europe,
much of Asia and two-thirds OF Africa
in pacific subjugation while Nazi armies
consummate the conquest of the vast
Americas on the other side of the world?
Perhaps it is the reluctance of our cit
izens to become unduly alarmed at ad-
ministration warnings during the past
several months that now, is leading to
the next logical step, in fact, the only
remaining lever of compulsion-"You
right to worship God is in danger" Here
is a threat that penetrates the center
of human emotions. It's potency pre-
dates mans struggles for political lib
ertY: it is the War-maket'S final trump