Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1941-01-30


In the Minnesota Daily of jan
uary % appeared the following
editorial entitled, "On War and
Peace. In portraying the pic
ture of world events and Ameri-
cas- ultimate part in it as the
students see it, the University
newspaper article brings out
many excellent points.
There is strange Inconsistency in
the results of the campus survey of
student opinion regarding war.
Fifty-nine per cent feel that the
United States will eventually become
an active belligerent in the present
war. And almost 80 per cent oppose
a declaration of war today.
The latter sentiment, we feel, stems
not from any studied examination of
the effects of such declaration, but
from a latent, almost subconsciouS,
aversion to war. Students, like other
they must choose between Hitler and
war; and yet there fingers the dis
quieting, uncomfortable feeling that
there is a choice which is neither
of these.
So the students postpone Arma-
geddon; they express opposition to a
declaration of war today, hoping that
somehow this third choice will make
itself clear in the months ahead.
At the same time, in accepting a
declaration of war as inevitable, they
express the thought that their gov
eminent recognizes no third choice,
and is preparing to lead them into
war.
The M i n NJ apolis Star-Journal
makes this point in its editorial on
January of this year:
To-day we are committed, insofar
as the president can commit us by
word, to the defeat of the Axis at all
costs-whatever those costs may be
at home or abroad.
eff the American people are given
the facts, and if the inescapable logic
of those facts points to war, the peo-
pie will not shrink from that con-
clusion. But the people have a right
to reach their own conclusion, and
to know that they are making the
decision.
"The danger is that the decision
between aid to Britain and total
commitment to a British victory
between peace and warts being
made for the people, and that the
In hot sc Hnsv ~
made"
Today's survey would indicate a
realization on the part of students
that such decision is being made
but the fact remains as the Star
Journal has put it: The decision is
being MADE, it is not rising up from
the people themselves.
MIR. Roosevelt, during the CAM
paign, branded as "outrageously false"
the charge that "the administration
wishes to lead this country into war"
And yet only two months later,
Raymond Clapper, the Washington
columnist, was writing:
1--WE are going down the road with
England not merely to turn back in
vasion but to smash Hitler We
are crossing to Rubicon again, al
though we are barely knee-deep as
yet"
And he adds:
1--WE will be better off to recog-
nize the realities now"
Let us, then, recognize the realities.
There is no such thing as twilight
zone between war and peace. AS
President Henry M. Wriston of Brown
university said in convocation adj
dress at that institution on Septem-
her Is, 1910:
1'You cannot have limited war and
total war together"
And if we have war, he said to his
students, mot only will you fight it,
but you will fight it on and over the
soil of Europe"
That may not be palatable state
ment, he admitted. And he went on:
MANY people will feel it is not
correct; others, who feel in their
heart of hearts that it is true, will
feel this is not the moment to make
it. Both these groups will be COM
posed overwhelmingly of people who
will not do the fighting. You, who will
do the fighting, are entitled to hear
it; whether you believe it or not is
your own business"
That led DR.. Wriston to make a
statement which is the crux of this
editorial, and which we think ex-
plains this hesitancy of American
Youth tn accent war There was nc