Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1943-04-08

when the nation may weary of we'll
doing for the rest of the world. Their
point of view is expressed in such
books as Boards "Open Door At
Home" Jerome Franks "Save Amer
lea First" and Stuart Chase's "The
New Western Front"
The welfare imperialists are those
who speak of this as the American
Century and talk about our manifest
world destiny. Now is the time, they
say, for us to take over the mantle
of the British Empire, assume the
white-man's-burden, and carry the
principles and institutions of free
dom and democracy to the uttermost
ends of the earth. Henry Luce, edi-
tor of Fortune" is spokesman of
this point of view.
The world planners are those who
hold that neither free trade nor eco
nomic nationalism nor welfare i'm
perialism can assure world peace
and prosperity. They advance the
idea of an indivisible world economy
based on a rational division of labor
and community of human interest.
They advocate a World New Deal
after the war based on the principles
of equal opportunity, group compro-
mise, economic expansion and world
development. They propose to create
a number Of international public cor
porations after the war, e. g., an inter-
national RFC to finance the recon-
struction of England and the con-
tinent and investments in South
America and China; an international
IVA to develop the resources of
backward regions; an international
PWA to undertake the reconstruction
of devastated areas; and an interna-
tional WPA for the relief and rehab-
ilitation of poverty-stricken peoples.
Thus, we already have United Ma
tons Relief Administration which
Governor Lehman has been ap-
pointed to head.
Out of this ferment of ideas and
flood of literature on peace plans
some key ideas about the future of
the United States and the world are
beginning to emerge. and crystalline.
Some of these central concepts con-
corning the nature of the coming
peace are receiving official express
sion in the announcements of pub
lie men like Wallace, Welles, Winant,
Perkins and President Roosevelt.
Others are articulate in the literature,
but still subliminal in the public
mind.
Among these key ideas is the OBJ
vious truth that war strategy and
postwar strategy are indivisible,
that the conduct of the war will
condition the peace, that history is
a seamless process in which many
causes produce many effects" There
is a growing belief that long-run
trends cannot be reversed and that
there will be no return to normalcy
after this war; that modern wars do
not result in the restoration of the
status quo ante. This war will be
followed, it is generally believed, by
a transition period between the Arm
istice and the negotiation of peace
which will last as long as it takes to
pacify the world. During this tram
sition stage the victorious United Ma
tons will exact retribution from the
leaders of Fascist aggression, but no
wholesale revenge will be attempted
against their peoples.
The democracies believe that we
are fighting peoples war for peo-
pies rights everywhere and that this
is the century of the common man."
After hostilities cease, freedom from
fear is to be ensured by an inter-
national police force and freedom
from want by equal access to raw
materials and trade. Worldwide
human welfare will be promoted by
international economic collaboration
via the terms of the lend-lease agree
ments. Meanwhile, the machinery
of wartime collaboration among the
United Nations will be carried over
into the postwar period and adapted
to the needs and governance of the
postwar world.
The present war is seen to be an
episode in world revolution which
began in 1914 and is stiIl under way.
The contemporary revolution is re-
garded as challenge to liberal
democracy, national self-determina-
ton, and laissez faire economics. 1t
can only be met by applying the
principle Of indignation to govern
ment, economy and nations. This
means economic as well as political
democracy. the surrender of SOW
ereignty, and economic planning to
reconcile democracy and collectivism
The same underlying, impersonal
and memorable trends are seen to be
operating in all industrial countries,
which are at different stages of de-
velopment in the same general direc-
ton.
Planned economy is the twentieth
century concept destined to replace