Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1943-02-18

The fourth in a series of arti-
cles on the Four Freedoms re-
leased by the Office of War
Information, Freedom From
Want" deals with one of the
greatest causes of war and strife.
With the potential wealth and
power already in existence, the
problem of want becomes one of
more equitable distribution, and
of universal cooperation among
the peoples of the earth. AS
stated in this weeks discussion,
What remains to be seen is
whether they have the wit and
the moral character to work to-
gether and to lay aside their
personal greed" The article
follows:
The proposal that want be abol-
ished from this world would be
pretentious, OF even ridiculous, were
it not for two important recent dis
coveries.
One is the discovery that, beyond
any doubt, men now possess the
technical ability to produce in great
abundance the necessities of daily
life-enough for everyone. This is
revolutionary and quite unpre-
cedented condition on earth, which
stimulates the imagination and quick
ems the blood.
Another is the discovery Cor rather
-
one planet indivisible - that one
mans hunger is every other mans
hunger. We know now that the
world must be looked at whole if
men are to enjoy the fruits they are
now able to produce, and if the in
habitants of the globe are to sur
vive and prosper.
Freedom from want, everywhere
in the world, is within the grasp OF
men,. It has never been quite with
in their grasp before. Prosperous
times have been enjoyed in certain
regions of the world at certain per-
iods in history, but local prosperity
was usually achieved at the expense
of some other region, which was
being impoverished, and the spectre
of impending war hung over ALL
Now, the industrial changes of the
last $50 years and the new prospect
implicit in the words United Ma
tons" have given meaning to the
phrase freedom from want" and
rendered it not only possible but
necessary.
1t was in the year 1912 that the
earth became round in the minds of
men-although it had been privately
globular for many centuries. Now
in the year 1912, by a coincidence
which should fortify astrologers, the
earth's rotundity again opens new
vistas, this time not of fabulous con-
tinents ready to be ransacked, but of
fabulous world ready to be unified
and restored. War having achieved
totality, against mems wishes but
with their full participation, our great
resolve as we 60 to battle must now
be that the peace shall be total also.
The world is all one today. No mill
tary gesture anywhere on earth, how
ever trivial has been without con-
sequence everywhere; and what is
true of the military is true also of
the economic. A hungry man in
Cambodia is threat to the well-fed
of Duluth.
People are worried about the per-
iod which will follow this war. Some
fear the peace more than they fear
the war. But the picture is neither
hopeless nor is it black. Already, in
this country and abroad, agencies
are at work making preliminary
studies and designing machinery to
stabilize the peacetime world which
will follow the war. They are pre-
pairing to reemploy the returning SOL
dier, to maintain buying power at a
high level, to stand behind industry
while it is changing back to peace
able products, to guarantee certain
security to the groups which need
such guarantees. The fact that these
plans are being drawn is itself en-
couraging, for when trouble is anti
cipated and fairly faced, it is less
likely to ensue.
The tools of production and the
skills which men possess are tre-
mendous in the present war emer-
gency, and when the peace comes
the world will contain more skilled
people than ever before in history
Those who are at work planning
broadly for a better human society
propose to equip this enormous pro-
ductive manpower with new ideas
to fit new conditions.
The pattern is already beginning
to be apparent. Once, the soil was
regarded as something to use and