Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-01-17
Aid for Britain

YOUR first question, namely, Should Amer
lea Enter the European War;" tends to
brighten our timd citizens, and to my mind,
does not present the crux of the matter.
l think you should ask your readers:
Has America anything that the so-called
'have-not' or totalitarian powers wants."
rs war headed toward America" .,
The fact is that our nation, more so chan
Britain, has what the totalitarian nations want.
War is headed toward us whether we like it
or not
Britain is located nearer to the totalitar-
ian countries and she saw more clearly what
those nations contemplated doing. Her
courageous people preferred death to the
slavery that totalitarianism enforces and
therefore resolved to block the totalitarian
march,
If Britain fails, then the Battle of
America will follow as soon as Hitler can
settle down to new arms producing and ship
building race, in which he will then control
far greater resources than we do
We shall then have to fight on our own
soil, without the aid of single world power,
against all of Europe and Asia, or we shall
have to surrender to Hitler.
1t is to be hoped that love freedom
and our American institutions and our way
of life sufficiently to rise to our defense
when that time comes, but the prospect of
having our homes bombed and Of ex-
tinction fought on our own soil is not very
inviting.
At present we enjoy a friendly British
feet in the Atlantic If that feet surrenders,
our prospective two-ocean navy will be in
sufficient to protect us, even when completed
five or seven years hence. Even if the British
fleet is scuttled the combined German, Italian,
French and japanese fleets will be at least a
match for our two-ocean navy and, in addi-
ton, the Russian fleet most likely will then
come under Hitler's sway.
The totalitarians will then control ship
building facilities six to eight or nine times
greater than our own. to say nothing of their
then capacity for producing arms and air
planes.
As to whether our present course, If per-
sisted in, will inevitably involve us in war,
that is trick question. The word inevitably
should not be in the question. No one really
knows what is or is not inevitable in this man.
made scheme of things. The only things that
are inevitable are controlled by higher power.
1t would be foolish to say that
present course does not involve risk of war.
Yet Hitler cannot be such fool as to wish
to add the most powerful nation earth to
his enemies while he is fighting for his life
against England
There is risk, of course, that he might
be such fool but, at present, thanks to the
British feet, he cannot get at us but we can
get at him. -
Let us look at the risk involved if we
do not persist in our present course. How
long do you think it will be before South
America is dominated by Hitler, if Britain is
conquered? AS a matter of fact, if stop
our present course right now, South America
will go totatarian overnight.
The future of America will be veryNdark
indeed if Britain goes down in defeat. We will
then be the only nation in the world which
will endeavor to keep democracy afoat and
will have to do such foreign business as
may do. entirely on Hitler's terms,
All who have passion for liberty, the
successors to Governor Bradford, Roger Will
liams Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, George
Washington, Nathan Hale, Abraham Lincoln
and numerous other luminaries as well as the
rank and file of the pioneers, must agree that
our present course is the only course that an
alive or, if you will, a militant democracy
can take.
The majority of us want to keep war
away from our shores and the majority of us
at least give lip service to democracy and
claim that totalitaransm. gone amuck on
conquest, is our enemy. Then why should we
not send supplies to those who are engaged
in blocking this mad totalitarian conquest?
True, it involves risk. But does not any
other course involve greater risk? am for
our present course despite the consequences
| veteran of the last war. / regret
that am too old and too fat to fight in this
war. For despite the fact that | love peace |
despise slavery more AS for me- | cannot
say Peace, peace, when there is no peace.
RALPH s. BINNS,
PenObscot Building.