The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1941-09-02
FRENCH LESSON

dDiy, cOWdiulCe peIhoPS' AAHe
that should have been thought OF
had been neglected: things that
were supposed to be done weren't;
the counterattack which should
have nipped the tenuous German
spearhead at its base never came
off. And so Dunkerque and the
tragedy OF France. But It had
started long before, and It isn't so
simple as all that.
We sit back in our arm-chairs
and say that France had grown
soft, that she didn't want TO fight.
It's so easy for the spectator to
tell the punchdrunk fighter to pin
his opponents ears back. For
those ! knew fought, and probably
died. I'm as sure that they died
FOR France as | am that any OF
my friends here would die for
America, perhaps even surer.
Soft? Well, what is soft? II by
soft you mean the opposite OF the
New Sparta which Hitler sancti.
ties; II you mean the contrary Of
living for war, on war. by war, the
opposite OF the stark, primitive.
bestial life that Hitlerism con-
notes. then France had gone soft,
and America has got soft, and
thank God they have. Because
that isn't my idea OF place to live
IN. that isn't the world OF which
| wish TO be a part. France be-
lieved, America believes, and | be-
lieve In the dignity OF the indi-
vidual. in the intellectual life, in
the four freedoms, In democracy.
in a life which means more than
being raised as cannon fodder for
some megalomaniac to destroy for
some fictitious racial or nationals
tic concept.
Ii that be softness. make the
most Of IL. don't want
to- live in Hitler's type of world.
And moreover don't want
TO go on living In a world
where we are in constant jeopardy
of some international gangster
who deems the moment ripe to
muscle in on some small democracy.
We don't want Spartan simplicity.
cannons instead OF butter, and con-
centration camps instead OF univer
sity campuses. Pro patria morir is
all right as a last resort, but 1t isn't
the goal OF life. We'd rather live
for It. And we want the best that
life can give us in the material
field as well as the intellectual and
the spiritual.
Want Own Life
For we want our own type OF life,
to work when We feel like 1t or to
call il off and go fishing; TO marry
our own choice II We can persuade
her; TO have children or not to have
them: to sit on the front porch and
gossip without fearing stool.
pigeons; TO tune in any radio sta
ton we may want 10 hear; to vote
as We please; to live as We please;
TO get in our own car (fifteen more
payments) and go where we please.
We don't like orders. We don't
want blue-prints to follow.
Now France wanted all that too.
France didn't really want nearly so
much as we want in material com
forts. and did want a great deal
more In the way OF intellectual
pleasures. And France tried to cling
tO shaw opJ ~ Tive N oiv{lizad ITO
France didn't want to wage a war
OF aggression against state which
just perhaps might not be danger
Gus. And France. democracy that she
was, acted timidly and hesitantly,
and the day came when 1t was no
longer enough to die for the father.
land
Couldn't Afford Both
France couldn't afford TO do both:
to keep up her type OF life according
10 the pattern which she had devel-
oped over a thousand years and
which she had looked upon and
found good. and at the same time to
build up an armament program
equal to that OF her enemy. half
again as large. So she waited. So
she lies upon the verge OF extinc-
ton. Now we are confronted by
the same dilemma. and we are re-
acting very much In the same way.
What choices do We have?
Either to join now with every
fiber and sinew. TO smash down
this Insult to the human race. or to
keep up our position In the arma-
ment race, spending from a fourth
TO half our national income on arma-
ments while we draw into our little
she'll in the northern sector OF the
Western Hemisphere. The one en-
tails a colossal effort for which we
are ill.prepared, one which will cost
billions OF dollars and perhaps mil
lions OF lives. It entails a determ-
ination. when the juggernaut Is
smashed. TO institute some sort OF
international police force to guaran-
tee that this shall not happen again;
and If we have to be the policeman.
then with Gods help let us be the
policeman. Policing is cheaper than
war.
The other alternative, the Lind
bergh law. Is a withdrawal into an
isolation ward. and restriction
upon all our foreign trade, and an
armament bill OF twenty TO thirty
billions a year to allow us to keep
on quaklng in our shoes, shuddering
In our sleep, and pulling In our belts
a notch year. Personally ! want
no part in 1t, nor do | believe that
America does. We. don't want TO be
forced to build steel walls around
our homes, TO wear bullet-proof
vests. ride in armored cars. and hire
private armies TO keep away the
thugs. Nor as a nation do we wish or
intend to pay tribute every year In
order to defend ourselves against
81. ~ataptfat rofJ= 80 tbaea fnfarna.