Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-01-24

great plains: for the soft Negro
voices OF the South: for the
SPACIOUS hlueneSs of California?
And. above all. fer the Wilderness
Of thus handsome land; for the
space: for the feeling of room to-
=rUTu around III. for mn reeflng
that one is the citizen Of con.
tlnent, and no mean province?
OUR iSolationists = men like
" Senator Wheeler and Senator
Taft - are expressing something
deep in the American instinct. and
II : an instinct that has been
productive too. For II was the
urge 10 get away and stay away
that made us Americans, instead
of New Englanders. New Ger
mans. New SandinaVians, New
Russians. or what not.
Set. the fact of the matter is
the fact Of this uneasy and never
solved American relation TO Europe I
that we never have gotten away. I
and VIC never will. Every war that
has involved the whole of Europe .
and the Atlantic Ocean has even
Aually involved US. Every revolu-
ton that has occurred has involved
as.
Every scientific, industrial and
social change that has spread IN
Europe has affected us. Every po-
litical. social and economic lnsti-
tuition we have is modification
of European institution, and our
notifications have. in turn. modi-
fed those of Europe. We are actu-
ally part and parcel of a single
civilization and we have never
been able to change that fact.
THIS matter of the American
L relationship to Europe has got
TO be settled. 1t has got TO be set
tied once and for all-or once and
for several centuries to come. And
il cannot he settled in the manner
in which il has been settled hith-
erto-by brief and periodic inter-
ventionS in Europe. after which
we pulled out. and tried 10 resume
our traditional half or three-quar-
tets isolation.
America has come OF age, 1t is
no longer in any sense colony of
F,11rope il is. instead. the largest,
most numerous. most productive
and richest single nation of west
fern civilization.
Y ~sIt can not he pushed back into a
colonial status by A y Eurasia
united Under Hitlef,s sweFd, and
il cannot be shut off from Europe
and assigned 20 sphere of influ-
ence" in North and Central Amer
lea by the fuehrer of Germany,
either.
The sphere of influence this
country wants-if 1t wants any
sphere of influence short of equal
it. of rights On the whole planet
il will certainly choose for itself.
II isn't going to be laid down for
America in any blueprint designed
in Berlin. Moscow, Rome. Toxic or
anywhere else.
No matter what our iSolationistS
may wish. that is not going to
happen. for il is not the way ma
tions of 100000 900 politically con-.
scious people behave.
THIS matter of our relation to
L Europe finally demands settle
ment. because two wars in gen
Grafton are too many. and the very
issue of isolation and independence
is what is AT stake now. -
This comes home TO us when we
realize that the nations of Europe
today arc undergoing their wars
for independence. and Great Brit
ain is having much the same ex-
perience as we had in 1776, when
men and women from all over
Europe interested in their ewn~In-
dependence added their arms to
ours.
The coast of Scotland today Is
being defended by 10000 Poles
who are fighting for the independ-
ence Of Britain in order to get
their own restored.
Independent nations can only
exist in a world where the right
10 independence is generally rec
oenized. In Htler's division OF the
world. the United States might he
GrdCl0uSlN dSSlRIltu iit WV ~
being one Of the master-natlons-
if Hitler gets tired enough-but
il happens that we don't want TO
he a master-nation. spending our
lives and our substance policing
other subject peoples. and we are
not Standing in fThe for part 1T
the cast. Not yet.
DUT independence cannot rule
ID out the reality of interde-
pendence or Sanctifv the anarchy
that results in perpetual war. II
America gives her money. her
work. her resources and her
energy 10 secure the Independence
of nations in western civilization,
she has also got 10 see 10 II. this
timo. that Continental Europe
adopts ono American idea -- the
IDEA without which this continent
would have gone tho way OF
Europe: the idea of Federation
When there is once constituted
Europe in which there is national
freedom without the congericS of
complete SovereigntieS that spell
anarchy and perpetual strife, then
l1A, laet tCN fgCpdOfSo