The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1941-06-05
THROUGH
n A z E [
E Y E S
.
BY
Hazel Brannon

idian. for his article in the current
issue Of Readers Digest which has
startled the nation into some serious
thought
Congressman Collins claims that
the L. 5. army is preparing now to
fight the last war. We are prepar-
ing to build, as everyone knows, an
old style mass army of Abs 900
men. We have now in service about
1.4o0,0 900 men for whom we do not
yet have proper training equipment,
much less equipment for combat.
Mr.. Collins for over ten years has
been .ayocating a few well-trained,
powerful mechanical units. The
par ger divisions of Germany,
thoroughly mechanical, are just what
the Mississippi statesman has been
calling for here in America long be-
fore Hitler. America has learned
enough about conducting modern war
to know that mechanical divisions
are a necessity for smashing offense.
Mechanical divisions with air sup
port have conquered Europe.
Yet our army, as Collins points
out. is planning only two more me
chanized divisions. We have two
now. Germany had Id veteran di-
visions a year ago.
What ghost of a chance would
Americas mass troops stand against
meenanized forces?
Today, Mr.. Collins says we have
not one single division fit for COM
bat. which means trained and equip
ped to fight. Yet Mr.. Roosevelt's
closest friends and advisors are yell
ing for war.
Mr.. Collins demands that our de-
Tense plans be Immediately revised
so as TO give US AN effective army.
He says We should stop drafting men
by the million and concentrate on a
smaller. more powerful and more
manageable army. He points out
that no nation can afford both n
mechanical and a mass army Of four
million men which would cost six
billion dollars q year to maintain to
u nothing of carrying it into COM
bat or the pension cost afterwards
We have to choose, as he says,
and il we are going to fight Hitler
we must have bigger tanks, bigger
guns bigger planes and more Of all
Of them.
Every deficiency pointed out by
Mr.. Collins should be studied care
fully BY War Department authorities
and acted upon. America must have
the best il we are to have anything.
We cannot win a war by putting
and blowing and beating on our
breast s about how big we are in AM
erica. A tank will cut any egotistical
fool down flatter than a pancake.
George Washington said: ut is our
true policy to steer clear of perman-
ent alliances with any portion of the
foreign world. Taking care always
to keep ourselves by suitable estab-
lishments on a respectable defensive
posture, we may safely trust to tenn
porary alliances for extraordinary
emergencies"
The above quotation was taken
from the first Presidents farewell
address September II, 1895.
Today the U. S. government HIS
entered into an alliance with Great
Britain to wage a war on Germany
and Italy. America was brought
into the alliance by President Roose-
vel; when he conceived and had en-
acted by a subservient Congress the
Lend-Lease bill. By that act, as we
stated then, we committed ourselves
irrevocably to England's cause and
every step from then until today has
beer toward war. Today we stand
on The brink of war that W. are
not prepared to fight and a war that
the people of the United States 10
not want.
There is afoot today in England,
Canada, and the United States a
movement to make the alliance with
England permanent.
The following was written by the
Parliament correspondent in the Lon
den Times on April 3, 1941:
Mr.. Craven-Ellis is to ask
the Prime Minister in the House of
Commons whether he will suggest to
President Roosevelt that the United
States of America and the British
Commonwealth of Nations should
jointly consider entering into a sole
mn act of union, which will provide
for the United States of America
and the British Commonwealth of
Nations becoming one nation with
joint organs of foreign, financial and
economic policies. Mr.. Mander
has given notice to ask the Post
naster-General whether he will con
slider the advisability of issuing an
Anglo-AmericaH stamp, in associa.
tion with the authorities of the Unit
ed States of America, as a symbol
of the unity of the two great Anglo.