The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1943-04-01
| W0RLD-KNOWN AUTHOR
TERMS UNITY PEACE BASIS
II. G. Wells Declares Unified
World Is Essential To
End Wars

II. G., Wells. world-renowned au-
thor, writing from London, England,
in a letter to the Baltimore Sun Of
Sunday, March %, says:
| have been asked to speculate upon
the relations of Britain, America and
Russia in the near future We are all
doing that more or less thoroughly,
and most of us are learning very
great deal from our discussions.
Since am too valetudinarian for
war work, since l have had the luck
to have my library, study, Uranium,
and so forth still intact, have had
my time to give to this business Of
sharpening up opinions and ideas. |
am a full-time onlooker at the ever
swifter world tornado through which
we are all trying to steer
Are M Learning"
I doubt if anyone but a blockhcad
or a monomaniac can really be salts
fed with his convictions Of ten years
ago. We are all learning, and that
applies just as much to Franklin d.
Roosevelt, Joseph Stain, the "patri-
otto" French politicians who fight so
bitterly among themselves, Lord Hal
flax, Goebbels, Mr.. Wilkie and Mr.
Hoover, as to you and me.
1t is a time when every man should
be allowed a certain liberty to change,
and when it is not simply unfair but
grossly stupid to pin him down to his
words and deeds of a dozen years
ago.
"Division Means Death
It is ridiculous to talk about the
( different "ideoIogies" Of America, Bri-
tain and Russia as though they were
"incurable" mental diseases. We are
all living together and we are all
learning the same lesson, that divis-
ion means death.
SO when we are asked; "What of
Russia from now on. and how does it
affect our commitments in Amer
/ lea ?" We shall be very stupid indeed
if we allow our ideas and our possibly
hasty acceptance Of facts about the
Russia Of the recent past as being
/ typical and unchangeable to blind US
to the fact that no country can have
been put through such mental cruel
ling in the past four or five years as
Russia, and that no country is more
likely to astonish US presently from
the intellectual as well as from the
military point of view.
Notes Change In China
l will not compIicate our problem
! by bringing in China except to point
out how rapidly the factors in ou
/ problem change.
/ A score Of years ago China seemed
hopelssly divided country, an impo-
tent confusion of antiquated thoughts
and methods. Now, in a mere frac-
ton Of a lifetime, in one adolescence
/ she is discovered to be consolidated
gaining control of her great body and
her mind. China again is a world re-
born.
Has any other great region Of the
world been moving at the same pace
] | doubt it.
For the greater part Of Europe I'M
der German sway there has been
something like a paralysis of thought
The sutferings Of the occupied coun-
tries have been sutferings of depri-
walton rather than effort and slim.
/ illus.
Must Consider The Defeated
There we have to consider the out
look of defeated peoples who ever
now scarcely dare to hope, who have
not yet got that touch of triumph
which enables men to realize the dawn
of a new and more valiant world
They have had to cling with bott
hauds to their old patriotic ideas
Their is still the desparte mental
ity of sabotage rather than the pride
of mastery. All that mentality will
change as the Axis collapse goes on
/ Nevertheless these countries that
have been overrun are likely to be
behind the times and narrow minded
for some eventful years.
What OF Their Role?
What role are our scattered Eng
disappearing communities going tc
play in the reshaping Of the world ?
How far will they march in har-
mony with Russia toward the com
mon goal Of a world commonweal?
VIII they, too, realize the hard facts
about US and learn as immensely as
Russia has manifestly been learning ?
What | am going to say is an un-
popular thing to say, but someone
must say it. The English-speaking
communities, without exception, en-.
terrain an altogether too high idea OF
their moral and intellectual superior
ity to the rest of mankind.
They had it, but have they got it
now? In many ways mentally they
have rested on their oars.
Do they think hard enough for the
new problems before mankind? Il
seems to me that too often we still
accept slogans for ideas.
Has it yet occurred to us as com.
munities that quite possibly a worlC
we have dominated for more than 9
century may slip out Of our control ii
a decade? Or do we still refuse to face