The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1939-1949, 1942-05-14

To-Day most minds are conferred on
the job of winning this war-and
that is one of the biggest jobs that
has come to any nation in the his
tory of mankind At the same time
many men are thinking of that day
when the war will finally end and
the equally vast task of reconstruc-
ton must he started. They are lay
ing plans for this world of the flu
ture, based ON the hope that ways
can be found to make international
peace and prosperity real and perm
anent, instead of temporary and il
1usory.
All Americans know what happen
ed after the last war It was the po-
sition of President Wilson that this
nation must accept the responsibility
of leadership in world affairs, and
he believed that the League of Ma
tionS was the proper instrument for
the discharge of that responsibility.
For good or i'll, Mr.. Wilson could
not win the American Congress and
the American people to his side He
literally burned himself out On a
national speaking tour which proved
to be an utter failure This nation
was sick of internationalism and
war It wanted only to mind its own
business and to manage its own af-
fairs. 1T had little interest in what
went on beyond it's borders.
Now the situation is vastly differ
emit in many ways. The Atlantic
Charter commits this nation to help
in the rebuilding of all the world.
The Charter, in principle, has been
almost universally approved - in
deed, the main criticism of lit is
that it does not go far enough, And,
perhaps, more important still, the
political opposition to the admins
tration has formally placed itself on
record with a policy which is a far
cry from the "tra ditional isolation
ism" of yesteryear. .-.<, ...
AT the end of the last war, the
strongest figure in the Republican
party was the able Senator Lodge,
who did more than any other man
to block Congressional approval of
the League of Nations. Now the
dominant figure in the party is a
man whose viewpoint is genuinely
internationalist, Wendell Willkie.
1t was Mr. Wilkie who carried the
torch at the recent meeting of the
Republican Policy Committee, and
who succeeded in having passed reso-
ultions which almost completely en-
body his ideas. -. ...u....
The other day Mr. Wilkie made a
speech, in which he said this: cit
will be a new idea to many Ameri-
cans that the United States in the
future may need help from other ma
tions. But we do need help if our
ideas of personal liberty, of justice,
of equality, of hope and growth and
expansion. are to survive. We can
keep America to ourselves, though
doubt if the America we keep to
ourselves would be free. But we cam
not keep freedom to ourselves. If we
are to have freedom, we must share
freedom +. The day of vast en-
pire is past. The day of equal peo-
piles is at hand 49,. 49,. &c.. .- 49,
Let us keep that aim shining be-
fore us like light-a light for the
people of Europe, for the people of
Africa, for the people of Asia, for the
people of South America, and for
the people of our own beloved land
As Time put it, Seldom before
had any U. S. leader said, in such
clean, earthly words, that the free
dom on which this nation was
founded means freedom and dignity
for all people Of all lands
Precisely what we must or will do
in the future is in the laps of the
gods. Many thing that ftere will be
great economic adjustments, and
we must find ways to help other
peoples attain the means as we'll as
the desire to buy part. of the in
credible flood of goods that our post
war factories will be able to produce.
They think there will be an end to
thinking that peoples of another
creed and color are inferior to peo-
Piles of OUR creed and color. They
think, i'm short, that a real start
may be made toward the goal of the
Brotherhood of Man that philoso-
pliers have dreamed about for
20 centuries.
In any event, all of us are now
getting new and far more accurate
idea of the character of other peo-
piles. We used to think of the Chin
csc in terms of incredible poverty,
disease and ignorance-now we have
learned that the Chinese are brave,
intelligent and are led by men who
are outstanding i'm any company. We
used to think of the Russians as
Spineless serfs-and now the Rus
slams have held the greatest mill
tary machine the world has ever
known, and perhaps saved all the
United Nations from defeat and dis
aster. We used to think of Australia
as rather uninteresting and I'M
important island" far away in the
Pacific-and now we have learned
that the Australians are people very
much like ourselves, proud and en-
battled, and that the defense of
Australia is vital to our own de-
tense. So it goes. Whatever comes,
the average American is obtaining