Askov American., 1942-01-29
Dangerous Name Calling

Dangerous Name Calling
Under the above caption the
New Ulm Daily Journal pub
lished an editorial that contains
some pertinent ideas. The edi-
tor, w. K. Nicholson, rightly
maintains that this is no time for
name calling, that America is at
war and America needs and COM
mandS the best services of all its
citizens, that we must win this
war. Americas freedom is at
stake and it behooves everybody
to do his or her level best to
maintain that freedom. The Jour-
nal editorial follows:
Reading some of the newspapers
and hearing some of the conversations
of people during the last two weeks
leads one to the conclusion that some
would rather win an argument than
win the war!
After the attack on Pearl Harbor
the people of this country were in the
war up to their ears. Any further
argument on foreign policy was rath-
er academic and futile and this news
paper took the position that we had
all better sink our differences on
policy and unite in throwing all our
energies into the war effort. We
felt then and feel more strongly now
lives.
We have been a little surprised
and often amused by the Sniping car
ried on by some newspapers which
seem to think they establish their
own patriotism by attacking the loyal
ty of others. Their attacks on the
so-called 'isolationists" sometimes
have been funny though silly, and
sometimes they have been very un-
fair and rather dirty.
Just to keep the record straight we
are going to give a little attention
to this argument and then will for
get this sniping for the rest of the
war.
We, Americans, have undertaken
a real job and we will need our
united effort to win this war on three
continents. These editors who would
like to shoot "isolationistS" had bet
ter center their fire on the Japs and
NaZiS or we may all get shot!
Who Were the IsolatiOnists?
First of all we have never met Il
genuine "isolationist'' in the usual
meaning of the word. We have never
met a man who believed this country
should pull into its shell and refuse
to trade or deal with the rest of the
world.
There were many people in this
country who believed that this ma
ton should not NEEDLE in the foreign
affairs of other countries. They
thought we had our hands full Solv-
ing our own problems.
These people wanted this country
to concentrate on the job of build
ing our own defenses so strong no ma
ton or groups of nations would dare
to attack us. They wanted to capi-
1talize our natural defenses of the sea
and the air to defend America. More
than anything else they did not want
to 60 around antagonizing other ma
to even defend ourselves. They be-
lieved with Col. Billy Mitchell and
Col. Lindbergh that it was dangerous
to get into war until we had COM
mand of both the air and sea. Both
of these men were discredited by
staggering military leaders who
talked of defeating our enemies be-
tween breakfast and noon of some
bright, sunny day.
We have never known so-called
~'isolationist" who was not in favor
tof building up the defenses of this
nation. Neither have we known a
time when President Roosevelt and
his administration were not given
everything in military way they
were asking for. 1t is silly therefore
to blame the isolationists for getting
us into this war and it is equally
foolish to blame them for the state of
unpreparedness in which we found
ourselves at Pearl Harbor and after
wards.
Winston Churchill honestly gave
the people the picture when he said
down in Washington that the planes,
tanks and destroyers which normal
ly would have gone to Hawaii, the
Philippines and our Pacific posses
sions were sent to Libya and Russia.
Perhaps time will prove this was
a wise decision but facts are facts
and it is foolish to blame our woes
on to the isolationists.
Dangerous-Two Reasons.