Evening star., 1943-01-04
By ERIC A. JOHNSTON,


America after the war will have
to take world leadership. No other
nation will be physically or mentally
capable of doing 1t.
As the most powerful nation on
earth America will have no alterna-
tive, In the name of decency or
self-interest, but to help bring order
out of the chaos brought by war
In no other way can we prevent
wholesale starvation, anarchy, the
rise of terrorism and relationships
1t is the only way we can assure
permanent peace and progress in to-
morrow's international world.
Many among us. reacting against
the war and to avoid foreign entan-
clements, would like to incase this
country in hard shell of super
nationalism.
Can't Avoid Responsibilities.
Experience shows only too clearly
would lead only to war for another
generation of Americans. We can
not avoid our international respon-
sibilities even if we would
Almost the entire social and eco
nomic order of Europe will be in a
state of collapse after the war.
Once the worlds war wounds begin
to heal we may expect to see a great
change in the attitude among ma
tions. They will lose their inter-
national provincialism just as we
lost ours domestically.
A more rapid, a freer interna-
tional exchange of food, knowledge
and services is an inevitable con-
comitant of the machine age AL
though differences in language and
customs will continue to act as bar
riers, the mutual interests of ma
tions will largely reconcile these
differences.
The international task before
America is almost infinite. Coop
Grafton with South America in the
induStrialiZation of that vast and
rich continent will provide employ
ment and opportunity for Americans
for years
Cooperation by All Groups.
New markets for our factories will
be created abroad. For as backward
countries become induStrialized our
overseas trade will increase. We
have always had the greatest COM
merce with the nations of the high
est industrialization. Compare our
pre-war trade with China, Africa,
for instance, with that of England,
Canada, Germany and France.
The immediate task of helping
Europe and the rest of the world
recover from its shell shock will be
complicated by our own problems of
postwar readjustment.
We can solve those problems
and we will-but it will require wise
and unselfish cooperation by all
groups in our national economic
life.
Management, labor, agriculture
and Government must cooperate
to make the American business sys-
tenn operate for the benefit of the
people.
The world has passed through a
decade of demoralizing depression
and wide-scale unemployment. La
Dor and management, in many
cases, have been at bitter odds.
Perspectives Distorted.
Even in America, organized group
has worked against organized group
In race to see who could dig fast
est and deepest into the public
pocketbook
Elsewhere relationships have
sprung up, and the personal and
economic lives of many millions of
people have been stifled. Young men
have been taught to hate and kill.
Food has been burned or turned
under the ground even as millions
went hungry. Factories have been
idle while the potential products
OF those factories were ardently de-
sired.
1t is small wonder that perspec-
tives have been distorted bv these
tragic flaws in the world economy,
small wonder that many see the
poShiiAlh6 VI tlic Gnu VI lIle hneTl-
can civilization and the American
dream.
But the facts of the future out
weigh the vicissitudes of the past.
Many frontiers are ahead for all
who wish to face the challenge of
exploration. Beaten paths are for
beaten men. 1t is not the begin
ming of the end; we are just be-
ginning to begin
On the American business and
Industrial front, we have just begun
to invade the frontier of chemistry,
OF light metals, or plastics for
thousand uses. Scientists are at