Evening star., 1941-05-07

tary OF War StimsOn's radio nd-
dress last night.
You will excuse a word of pref
ace as to the personal position
from which I speak. Today am
being called warmonger by
some of those who oppose our
present efforts at national de-
fense. AS a matter of fact, for
many years after the Great War
both as a private citizen and as
Secretary of State, I labored
with my full strength for the
establishment of a reign of law
among the nations which their
controversies should be settled by
judicial methods instead of force.
There was time when such a
movement seemed full of hope.
Today that time has passed
temporarily, we trust-and our
hopes for peace have been dashed
by international aggression. The
world is facing so great a crisis
that all our efforts must be turned
toward the defense of our Ma
tlon's safety. For that reason to-
night I am speaking of that crisis
and of our defense in meeting it.
IN 1888. a group of men under
the leadership of Adolf Hitler
obtained possession of the gov
eminent of Germany and over
threw the German Republic. Mr..
Hull our Secretary of State, has
recently we'll described the meth
ods of those men as the methods
of barbarism. Both within and
without Germany they have set
back the clock of time more than
five centuries. They have en-
barked on scheme of conquest
which is avoWedly intended to be
worldwide. For that purpose they
have built up in secret an i'm
mense military machine based on
the forced labor of Germany.
They have already attacked, con-
quered and occupied Austria,
Czecho-s -slovakia, Poland, Norway,
Denmark, Holland. Belgium, Lux
embourg, France, Rumania, Hun
gary, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia,
and have reduced the people Of
those Is countries to condition
of semi-slavery to the Nazi des-
potiSm. They have attached to
their Axis as vasSalS two other
nations dominated by the same
purpose of military conquest
Italy, guilty of unprovoked at
tacks upon Ethiopia, Albania and
Greece, and Japan, guilty of a
similar attack upon her neighbor,
China.
Nazis Batter Down Domestic
and International Law.
BY this conquest they have de-
stroyed the Western civilization
which had been slowly building
up in Europe ever since the Dark
Ages. We are so close to these
happenings that We can hardly
yet realize the havoc which has
thus been wrought both within
and without the national boun-
diaries of that unhappy continent.
For example, for many centuries
humanity has slowly been build
ing up the rule of individual free
dom in all its various manifesto
tlons; freedom Of the person, in
cluding the abolition of serfdom
and chattel slavery; freedom of
the mind, including the freedom
to think and talk and to write
with our fellows; freedom of en-
terprise in our business and COM
merce; freedom to travel about
the world with ever-growing lib
erty, and finally, the crowning
freedom Of all, political freedom
IN respect to the choice of our
governments.
This growth in freedom had
been SO long and so steady that
we had come to believe it was
soon to be the recognized system
of the whole world. All at once
it has been dashed aside and
trampled on by these Nazi rulers
who are proposing to establish a
world order in which they shall
be the masters and the people of
all other nations their slaves.
They have left no such thing as
individual rights of liberty within
their territory or international
rights of independence without
their territory. Both domestic and
international law have gone down
under their blows. For the rule
of law they have substituted the
rule Of the Gestapo, the secret
police under whose malign terror
ism no vestige Of personal free
dom Is safe.
This is the so-called new order
which we face today. It has open
ly announced its hostility to us
and to our order. 1t has been
steadily encircling our western
world. It's advance agents are al
ready busy among the republics
to the south of us, building stra-
tegic airlines through vital por-
tions of that continent and Creep
ing up toward our Panama
Canal. It's armed forces are threat
ening West Africa, looking to-
ward jumping off place within
easy reach of the Brazilian coast.
It's propagandists are already
vigorously active in our own
population.
Plastic Minds of Youth
Bent Toward Intolerance.
Hitler and his military associ-
ates have seized their opportuni-
ties with uncommon skill. They
have used their power to incul-
cate into the plastic minds of a
generation of youth the abhorrent
and reactionary doctrines of ra-
cial intolerance and hatred of
other men. They have taken ad-
vantage of modern science to de-
velop in secret, while other ma
tions slept, a mechanical striking
foroo IF ,,,,proooJoptod oou,or