Evening star., 1942-10-03
Davis Pictures u. ).
As Greatest Single
Power After War
Security to Depend on
Air Strength, He Tells
Foreign Policy Association
By the Associated Press,

By the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, Oct. 3..-Elmer
Davis, director of the Office OF War
Information. told the Foreign Policy
Association Forum today that the
United States would have the
greatest single power at the end of
the War" and that some inter-
national organization would. be re-
quired to give smaller nations real
collective security"
Regardless of the question of ma
tionalism or internationalism, on
which patriotic citizens may honestly
differ, Mr.. Davis said, the question
Of security in the next few decades
would depend on air power.
If the world attains a sane inter-
national organization" Mr. Davis
declared, "the men who deserve most
of the credit will not be statesmen
or philosophers or moralists, but the
Wright brothers and their successors,
who made the world so unsafe that
at last everybody had to get to-
gether, whether they liked it or not"
Discusses Seversky Prophecies.
He said the "apocalyptic visions"
of Aeronautical Expert Alexander
Seversky were likely to come true
in this war only to limited degree,
but predicted that Maj Seversky's
prophecies were almost certain to be
realized in the next war "if we are
foolish enough to have one"
at is not altogether true yet, but
certainly will be true before many
years, that small nations will exist
either on the sufferance of their
stronger neighbors-or else by virtue
of some type of international organ
ization that will give them real COL
lective security.
Even the larger nations seem
likely to need higher degree of
security hereafter than any of them
can be altogether sure of getting by
its own efforts"
Mr.. Davis asserted that the United
States would have to be more cir
cumspect" in its behavior than pow
erful nations have usually shown
themselves to be, or the propaganda
of the Axis powers might convince
some nations that their only safety
'lay in ganging up on U.S."
But we ought to remember that
II we have, as I am confident we
shall have, the greatest single pow
er at the end of this war, other
nations may not be as sure of our
good intentions as we are and meas
ures that might seem to us merely
necessary steps for our own defen-
sive security might look to others
like preparations for aggression"
Postwar Preparedness Urged.
Pointing to the experiences at
Pearl Harbor and in the Philippines.
Mr.. Davis said that the Nation
should maintain sufficient arma-
ments after the war to prevent a
surprise attack and to use these
ornaments as tactical device for
insuring peace.
This country has a compelling
interest in the continued unity of
the United Nations, to whose num-
ber other nations may be added
upon proof of good behavior, and if
we with our great strength have
such an interest, a fortiori every
other nation has an interest, too"
Mr.. Davis declared that so-called
experts" could not predict the
shape of things to come in the world
after the war, and said that Secre-
tary of State Hull had reminded the
Nation not to expect any form of
postwar settlement to bring about
the millennium.
Nobody can foresee just what
the world will be like when the war
is over, and what will be all the
factors in the attempt at world re-
construction" Mr.. Davis said.
But OF one thing we can be GER
tain, that the chief OF those factors
will be human nature, which is not
likely to suffer any sudden and
striking alteration for the better
before the war ends.
I'VE would be suicidally foolish to
repeat the error into which so manv
dlsillusioned sentimentalists fell
after the last war, and conclude that
II the solutions fall short of perfec-
ton they are no good at ALL"