Askov American., 1943-12-16
initiation of a world federation by


the immediate union of no more than
two regional federations = flexible
measure that is attractive. to minds
which cannot anticipate quick sweep
ing results and yet want to make
start - also contain grave element
of danger? Your proposal that the
United States should maintain leased
bases in Malaysia, including even
Thailand and Indo-Chino, envisages,
realize, "non-imperialistic condi-
tions Gas in Bermuda and Cuba to-
day)". But are you not underesti-
mating the American gravitation to-
ward fresh imperialistic power i'm
plicit in our new naval supremacy
and our need of safeguarding sup
plies now shut off to us in the East?
Is not this very step perhaps the
most dangerous to your own plan,
the place where it might most easily
break down in practice?
In any event, is there nothing
wiser to suggest than that the United
States, to set the full plan in mo-
ton, declare that it is founding the
world federation in its own name
and in the name of the Malaysian
Federation? Am l wrong in feel
ing that the explosive forces in this
area, and inside the United States
itself towards it, are such that we
would be taking on at the very start
the region most likely to play into
the hands of imperialists and nation
alists, both in our own and rival
countries?
Might it not be better to commence
with the American republics as fed
Grafton number one, abandoning the
requirement as a
means of establishing the world fed
Grafton? Here, in this area, much
psychological, economic, and even
rudimentary legal preparation has
already been made. The extent of
cooperative consent among the con-
stituent countries would probably be
as wide as in any other possible re-
gional grouping.
If the two-federation minimum is
retained, wouldn't it be wiser to start
with the American republic as one,
and seek to add almost any other
than Malaysia?
5. Finally, some questions in the
field of democratic politics. While l
hope your enthusiasm will be juSti-
fled, and while the one certain
enemy of a better-ordered world is
defeatism, l cannot escape the
thought that, unless favorable oppor-
tunities are met with exquisite tim
ing, some other writer will come
along, a hundred years or so from
now, raising queries about the plan
of the hour, and including you, flat
teringly but ineffectively, among
those in attendance at some trans
Styxian gathering of honored archi-
tects of peace - the peace that
ought to have been, but never was
on sea or land.
How can the plain, uneducated
masses be brought behind a pro-
gram whose complexity is, thanks
to its specific handling of concrete
matters, its chief recommendation to
the few? Don't, / beg, imagine the
masses are unimportant. They can
not create world systems, but they
can kill them. They cannot initiate
moves for world cooperation, but as
Father Couglin once taught us, they
can be utilized in an effort to sup
press them. Their ability to plan
is meager, but their veto power is
terrifying. Somehow they must be
reached and, in democratic coun-
tries, convinced or appeased. They
are not world-minded to begin with,
and it is one of the anomalous facts
of social import that fathers and
mothers of boys who have fought far
overseas, and often even the veterans
themselves, want nothing so much
as to retire into an American shell
and be left alone.
Never shall 1 forget the earnest
speaker addressing a popular crowd
and telling them it took him six
hours to read, understandingly, the
Covenant of the League of Nations
At beginning, he said, they must
all do the same. Not in our more
desperately battered generation are
we likely to voice such celestial op-
timism. Yet we can dodge the re-
sponsibility of reaching and arous-
ing the masses no more than this
naive crusader.
Ordinary people have had their
minds stretched great deal, but
| it is easier to stretch them with head
lines than with programs. The very
folk who have the biggest stake in
the creation of a developing world
organization are often so pre-occupieo
with lesser concerns that they fai
to see how a Serajevo can invade
their kitchens, how conditions ir
Sarawak as much determine the Sc
curity of their fences as the very
lumber from which these are con.
structed. This negativism is the raw
material out of which a Thousand
Senators and Congressman, in recen
years, have reared proud, super
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