Evening star., 1941-09-07

Lacking the congressional sanction,
which seemingly will not be requested, 1t
is going to be difficult for future his
torians to name the date on which the
present administration finally drifted
across the line which separates peace
from war But 1t is apparent from the
Presidents brief Labor Day address that
he regards the decision as having, some
how or other, already been made.
This is indicated not so much by Mr..
Roosevelts assurance that: I'VE shall do
everything in our power to crush Hitler
and his Nazi forces" The President has
previously promised as much without
bringing an expeditionary force percep-
tlbly closer.
More to the point was the dismissal in
unequivocal language of the last linger-
ing possibility that the United States,
under the present administration, will
endeavor to bring about a negotiated
peace. Having turned his back on neu-
trality, and having excoriated the role
Of peacemaker, it is clear that no course
other than backing Great Britain to the
limit now remains open to President
Roosevelt.
What is not so clear is that this de-
veloping Anglo American alliance, indi-
Gated by the Churchill Roosevelt joint
declaration of August IA and brought a
stage further by the Labor Day address
from Hyde Park, cannot with any safety
be limited to wartime collaboration only.
implications Are Concealed.
The chief danger in the Presidents
highly personal and somewhat devious
direction of foreign policy is that its i'm
plications are concealed from public no.
tice. People are so confused whether we
are or are not actually at war that they
can scarcely be blamed for failing to see
contingent issues. Yet contingent in any
tacit alliance with Great Britain is the
absolute necessity of following through
in close cooperation with that nation
during an inevitably chaotic and dan
gerous postwar period.
The wholly disastrous mistake of the
United States after the other war was
to refuse for peacetime purposes any
effective measure of that wartime CO.
operation which was enthusiastically ex-
tended to the allied powers in 1878.
BY its isolationist reaction this coun-
try unquestionably then did much to pro-
duce conditions which made the rise
of Hitler, and his effort to unity Europe
by brute force, natural if not inevitable
Now We are again entering the lists "tc
crush" a German effort which, consider
ing the precedent conditions, is by no
means wholly insane" outburSt. II
this second Intervention is followed by
a second withdrawal, the natural antici-
patton will be a third and even more
disastrous European war.
After the previous war France and
Italy, to say nothing of Great Britain
and score of small nations, were hope
fully and reasonably expecting that
American economic and political CO.
operation which the Harding administra-
ton Summarily refused
Situation Differs Now.
The present situation is very different.
Italy voluntarily, France as the involun-
tary result of shattering defeat, are both
aligned on the side of Hitler's new
order" And the tremendous influence
attributed to fifth columns itself at
tests belief that there is strong support
for the Nazi program in many other
European countries. AS Mr.. Roosevelt
emphasized ip his Labor Day address,
the winning of the war, let alone the
securing of the peace which he proposes
to underwrite, is likely to be a long
and arduous" task.
This grim prospect, however, makes
it more and not less desirable that Amer
lean collaboration with Great Britain
should be viewed as much more than a
wartime enterprise. In the event of VIC
tory his collaboration must be continued
as permanent policy otherwise the VIC
tory will be meaningless and of short
duration. And in the event of relative
or absolute defeat which wise states
manship must always consider even
though it is impolitic to mention the
thought, such permanent Anglo-Amer-
ican collaboration would be, if possible,
even more imperative.
The foundations of enduring Anglo
American collaboration are now being
laid along two wholly different but per-
haps mutually complementary lines. The
less realistic of these efforts is the pop
ular movement for political union, whose
adherents advocate a precise and for
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