Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-05-30
Preparedness
Best Lesson
For This Day
You Can Keep Peace
With Finest Defense
BY PAUL MALLON

WASHINGTON, May 30.-On
w Memorial Day we all look
up from our tasks to salute the
dead. This year we pause In war
work to look upon the inspira-
tons left us by our war dead.
There is nothing unusual
about death. Like birth, il is
the -commonest of all natural
heritages. No one will escape it.
Even the Son of God chose to
experience IL in its harshest
form.
Our mourning. therefore, is
tempered by the knowledge that
there is only one thing we, our
selves, can do about il. We can
die we'll. according to our beliefs,
the democratic beliefs of our
country and our personal re-
ligious beliefs.
From these inevitabl e
thoughts, all of us turn on this
day TO the obvious conclusion
that our active duty is to the
living, or as Lincoln expressed
il. to dedicate ourselves to the
cause that these shall not have
died in vain.
TNHERE will be many sugges-
l. tons urged in news Of this
day, in speeches and statements
of important people as to how
we can insure the future In this
respect, how we can now with
our modern enlightenment.
finally achieve a permanency OF
peace after this war.
But the most important con-
sideration is likely to be for
gotten.
IF we can always remember
what we, as unified nation,
thought when we were plunged
into this conflict, what we knew
then Tin the dismal failure OF
our freshly discovered error
was the only sure way to keep
the peace. il we can engrave 1t
on every stone in the land so
that il will always be in the
minds of our children and chill
dren's children that never again
NAV they stray of the path
into soft peacetime decisions of
unwarranted safety, then we will
have achieved the proper goal
of this day.
DEMEMBER what we all
~ thought December Z.
Here we were attacked. We
had chosen to believe that after
5000 years, human nature
throughout the world had sud-
denly changed after 1917 and
that all men henceforth would
live up to the angelic Christian
goals of peace through promises.
We had treaties with practically
every one.
"No nation" they said. twill
ever be cruel enough to plunge
the world into war again. They
have promised"
So we plugged along with a
one-ocean feet and an army Of
10000 men, believing in the
security of oceans, the safety of
treaties remember the kellogg
Pact renouncing war; and "the
universal brotherhood of man.
We we're unprepared to defend
ourselves. We let ourselves be-
come passive. soft. foolish and
weak. We let others believe
they could beat us. So they
tried.
You may only keep the peace
by keeping the greatest army
and navy in the world, our expe-
rience tells us. Trust not in
treaties. Keep your powder dry
and keep more of il than any
one else has. Keep this nation
ever afterward supreme on land,
sea and in the air. Safeguard
your Christian virtues and ideals
with armor not with words.
NOV IL you want to use your
~ world position to spread
principles of humanity (Which
may or may not be accepted),
if you want new and better
leagues of nations (which may
or may not work.. il you want
every one TO have a quart OF
milk a day around the world at
our expense. all right.
Those ideas are noble. beauti-
full. inspiring. No doubt the
world will some day come TO
them when fully enlightened
man has ceased to be envious OF
his neighbor or ceased to covet
his neighbours goods. when all
his nations are pleased with
their lot in the world and want
no more of anything. Then this
will be a peaceful. happy world.
Unfortunately there is no evil
dence that any man or any large
group of men anywhere In the
world have reached that benign
state yet. Until they do you
cannot depend on delinquency in
any form to keep the peace-un-
less. perchance. il may have a
bigger gun. a bigger airplane,
stronger tank behind il.
Remember first that no one
quarrels with Joe Louis. Keep
a strong right arm. Trade with