The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1941-11-26
SECRET TREATY

sidered too costly in planes lost, both
by the British and the Germans. II
is understood that the answer to night
raids has been worked out simultane-
ously by both the British and the
Germans Night fighters are now
equipped with apparatus capable of
locating enemy bombers. This de-
velopment may mark fundamental
change in air warfare 1t may mean
the end of night "blitzes' and the
bombing of ports However, air ex-
perts point out that the classic over
taking of the offense by the defense
may be followed by the offense Off
setting this offset The narrowing of
the gap between the speeds of the
bomber and fighter may be the next
retaliation of the offense against the
defense. But this may be a year in
the future.
Eternal War
If the U. S. electorate paid more
attention to the Presidents Armistice
day utterances and less to his cam
paign speeches, it might not be so
confused about the purposes of his
foreign policy. On Armistice day,
when the public tendency is to ignore
all speeches, the President becomes
the philosopher historian and reveals
something of his basic approach. Last
year, the President adopted the Mac
Leish line which maintains that the
World war was, after all, a war to
make the world safe for democracy.
Since the President could find practi-
cally no contemporary historians who
would agree with this thought, he ap-
pealed to historians of the future. "a
hundred years from now" he said
historians will brand such affairs as
puny and false. A hundred years
from now historians will say rightly
that the World war preserved the new
order of the ages for at least a whole
generation-a full twenty years-and
that if the Axis of 1918 had been sue
cessful in military victory over the
associated nations, resistance on be-
half of democracy in 1910 would have
been wholly impossible"
On Armistice day the President car
ried forward the same idea: 1--WE
know that these men died to save
their country from a terrible danger
of that day. We know, because we
face that danger once again on this
day" Then the President went lit
tie further. He quoted Sergeant
York's retort to "cynics and the
doubters" about the last war: "The
thing they forget is that liberty and
freedom and democracy are so very
precious that you do not fight to win
them once and stop. You do not do
that. Liberty and freedom and de-
mocracy are prizes awarded only to
those peoples who fight to win them
and then keep fighting eternally to
hold them" The President added, in
his own words "The people of Amer
lea agree with that. They believe
that liberty is worth fighting for And
if they are obliged to fight, they will
fight eternally to hold it,"
Peace Periods
In order to justify participation in
just one more world war, President
Roosevelt feels it necessary to justify
ont only the last war but also future
wars. In spite of the suspicious ell
gendered by the slogans of 1917, the
public seems ready to believe That the
current war is a war for democracy:
but the public does not seem ready
o be told again that it would be the
var to end all wars for democracy.
N the Presidents musings peace be-
comes a series of preparation periods
between wars for democracy which
nay have to be fought "eternally."