Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-12-29

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Vernon to New York. Now Army
bombers are flown from the United
States to China and India in less
than three days.
1t is in this suddenly shrunken
world that the United Nations, like
our Is American States in 1887, soon
will be faced with a fundamental
choice. We know now that. the
League of Nations, like our own
Union under the Articles of Con-
federation was not strong enough.
The League never had American
support, and at critical moments it
lacked the support of some OF its
own members. The League finally
disintegrated under the successive
blows of world wide economic de-
preston and q second World War.
Soon the nations of the world will
have to face this question: Shall
the worlds affairs be so organized
as to prevent a repetition of these
twin disasters-the bitter woe OF
depression and the holocaust OF
war?
Wilson Gave Health
In First Attempt.
1t is especially appropriate to dis
cuss this subject on this particular
date, because it Is the birthday of
Woodrow Wilson, who gave up his
health and eventually his life in
the first attempt, generation ago,
70 tho uyNr1I'c
through united world action. At
that time, there were many who
said that Wilson had failed Now
We know that it was the world that
failed, and the suffering and war
of the last few years is the penalty
1t Is paying for its failure.
When we think of Woodrow Will
son, we know him not only for his
effort to build permanent peace
but for the progressive leadership
he gave our country in the years
before that first World War. The
New Freedom" for which Wilson
fought was the forerunner of the
Roosevelt New Deal of 1888 and
of the worldwide new democracy
which is the goal of the United
Nations in this present struggle.
Wilson, like Jefferson and Lin
coin before him, was interested first
and always in the welfare of the
common man. And so the ideals of
Wilson and the fight he made for
them are an inSplra ton to us today
as we take up the torch he laid
down.
Resolved as we are to fight on to
final victory in this world divide peo-
pies war, we are justified in looking
ahead to the peace that will in
evltably come. Indeed, it would be
the height of folly not to prepare
for peace, just as in the years prior
to December 7, l94l, it would have
been the height of folly not to pre-
pare for war.
AS territory previously overrun
by the Germans and the Japs is
reoccupied by the forces OF the
United Nations, measures of relief
and rehabilitation will have to be
undertaken. Later. out of the eX-
perience of these temporary meas
ures of relief, there will emerge the
possibilities and the probabilities
of more permanent reconstruction
Guiding Principles
OF World Democracy.
We cannot now blueprint all the
details, but we can begin now to
think about some of the guiding
principles of this worldwide new
democracy we of the United Ma
tons hope to build,
Two OF these principles must be
liberty and unity, or in other words
home rule and centralized authority
which for more than $50 years have
been foundation stones of our Amer
lean democracy and our American
union.
When Woodrow Wilson proposed
the League of Nations, it became
apparent that these same principles
of liberty and unit-of home rule
and centralized authority-needeo
TO be applied among the nations il
repetition of the First World Wal
was to be prevented.
Unfortunately the people of the
United States were not ready. They
believed in the doctrine of liberty
in international affairs, but they
were not willing to give up certain
of their international rights and tc
shoulder certain international du-
ties, even though other nations
were ready to take such steps. They
were in the position of a strong
well-armed pioneer citizen who
thought he could defend himself
against robbers without going to the
expense and bother of joining witt
his neighbors in setting up a police
force to uphold civil law. They
stood for decency in international
affairs, but in the world of practica
international politics the net effect
OF their action or lack of action was
anarchy and the loss of millions Of
lives and hundreds of billions Of
dollars in Second World War.
The sturdy pioneer citizen, proud
Of his own strength and independ-
ence, needed to be robbed and
beaten only once by bandits to be
ready to cooperate with his law
abiding neighbors. I believe the
United States also has learned her
lesson and that she is willing to as
sumo a responsibility proportionate
to her strength. England. Russia