The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1942-09-11
COMMON SENSE ABOUT
THE WAR

ceive no consideration for publ1catl
COMMON SENSE ABOUT
THE WAR
Montesquieu, in his spirit of tn
Laws" in 1850, announced not s
many but wiser maxims of nations
trends than those of Senator Wheele
who, in the Billings Gazette the eve
ming before Pearl Harbor, said: 81 ar
lin favor of ironing out our difficultie
with Japan around a peace table" an
who, after supporting Ford for gov
ernor two years ago and Rankin TO
senator two months ago, has at tn
Billings convention made his biennia
return to the fold and been there wei
coined as the prodigal son by tn
Democratic party (of which l am
Imember), but whose national emblem
is still the jackass, saddled for noun
tebanks of the Wheeler type.
Montesquieu says "The first sue
cesses in war are achieved by mon
arches and oligarchies (nations with
out rule by the people,; democracies
gain in power as the war progresses
and usually finally win; in the latter
the common soldier has higher pur
Iposes."
| 1t is we'll to realize that in 10 years
preceding this war, Russia developed
an enlightened form of democracy
adopted the American Bill of Rights
and our constitution with the two ad
ditions: that every man was entitled
| to a good paying job, and also had
to work for his living. There are no
poll tax payment restrictions on the
ballot in Russia. (By the way, the
only lend-lease money that is going
to be repaid is the billion dollars we
lent Russia, and the half billion we
lent China.)
| hope that my sanguine views will
not give any reader a false optimism.
1t is going to take the sweat and tears
of the entire rank and file of the
Allies to whip Japan back to her form
er bounds and cancel her power in the
inundated islands, to march to Berlin
as we ought to have done in 1918, to
scatter over the earth the efficient
German people so that there will no
longer be a fatherland where they can
clique up, dring too much beer, and
sing songs about their superiority
over other folks, and then follow some
Kaiser, fuehrer or pied piper into a
world war every twenty years, after
re-arming with money supplied by the
60 families and America Firsters of
this and the hamberlain-D aladier set
in France and England. We also may
have to flog Franco out of Spain; but
it is a good sign that we are winning
the war that this murderous scoundrel
does not strut lately as he did six
months ago.
Japan without navy will be like
a snake with a broken back If we
can destroy the remaining Japanese
fleet, the ghost of her domination of
the vast Pacific is quieted for a hun
bred years. We have probably sunk
60 percent of the Japanese navy. The
closest estimate our foreign intelli-
gence bureaus could give of their
navy, as of last November, was afloat
and building 305 vessels of all kinds
battleships, cruisers, aircraft carriers,
destroyers and submarines. They had
quite large merchant fleet. This
was, of course, quickly put to carry
ing troops and supplies. In addition
to the sinkings by the Dutch (said
to be 33), our air and naval forces |
have sunk or wrecked 361 Japanese
ships of all descriptions. Many of |
,hese were converted merchant YES
sells.
None of the Japanese first class
is reliably reported to
nave been sunk A battle ship is
costly. The Jap is more willing to
ose men than expensive military
equipment The battleship became
Utmost useless with development of
he airplane. The fast cruiser Ga
,ruiser was formerly called a second
lass battleship) is now more i'm
,ortant arm than the battleship. Of
heir SO cruisers afloat and building in
November, we have sent to the bot
ON certainly "a We lost quite heav-
ly in the Java sea commanded by
he Dutch admiral, who possibly blum
cred, but the victories at the Coral
ca, Midway, the Aleutian islands, and
he Solomons, in common sense it is
fair estimate that now appreciably
1ore than one-half their sea strength
5 gone. Ours is greater in the Pa ,
ific than ever before.
1t was good strategy to leave them
1 the Aleutians American filters
ould sink the supply ships easier
here than in the guarded harbors of !,
apan. And many good ships have
cen caught in this trap set by them
elves.
Much mysterious military wisdom !,
attributed to Japanese leaders by
ur press and people. Thus, when q
lie Chinese regain 60 miles of the !.
iilway for which Japan gave count
ss lives, our press says that the Jap
voluntarily withdrawing for an as
lult on Russia. That is probably a
istaken notion. The Japs simply
)uld not hold the railway when the | a