Evening star., 1943-09-13
Democracy First

delivered by Vice President Wallace
at Chicago Saturday night is deserv-
Ing OF careful attention. His purpose
was to outline program for postwar
international organization. And in
defining his objectives he spoke with
admirable candor and boldness. He
was vague as to methods of attaining
his objectives, but, even so, the
address is of challenging Importance,
and especially so if it carries the
Endorsement of the President.
MIR. Wallace put himself squarely
on record as a supporter of the
resolution which has been drafted bv
Senators Ball and Burton, Repub-
llcans, and Hatch and Hill, Demo-
Gratis. In its substance, this resolu-
ton would commit the United States
to support some form OF interna-
tional organization to adjudicate
international disputes, with its deci-
sions to be upheld by military force
If necessary. The Vice Presidents
forthrightness in this respect will
commend itself to large body of his
fellow citizens. The resolution has
not been Endorsed by the President,
nor is its approval by Congress a
foregone conclusion, but there is
evidence throughout the country of
mounting belief that some such
program as this is necessary for the
preservation of peace.
But the Vice President goes far
beyond the scope of this resolution.
1t peace is to be secured, he believes
there must be a new deal throughout
the world along the general lines of
the domestic New Deal sponsored by
the Roosevelt administration. We
must not think in terms Of America
first" according to Mr.. Wallace, but
in terms of democracy first"
The Vice President believes that
the Second World War came on
because we were not sufficiently
concerned with the plight of the
common man the world over. Hitler,
he says, exploited our failure to
establish an economic democracy by
starting World War II, and If we are
to avoid a third world war we must
hight not merely to make the world
safe for democracy, but to give
democracy first place in the world.
Mr.. Wallace was vigorous in crying
down the slogan, America first"
For, he said, under that slogan we
can have only war, because under it
envious, hungry peoples, the have
not nations with per capita resources
less than one-fifth our own. will
inevitably rise up to tear us down."
What Mr.. Wallace is saying here
is that we cannot have high living
standards and abundant resources
IN America unless the rest of the
world also has high living standards
and abundant resources. If we at
tempt to maintain our superior
economic position. the rest of the
world will band together and wage
war against us.
This is an interesting theory, but
1t leaves many questions unanswered.
Did Japan attack us because she was
jealous OF our high living standards.
or because she thought our military
weakness would enable her to attack
successfully? Did Hitler invade
Poland because of any high living
standards or great resources of the
Impoverished Poles? Or did he at
tack because he thought the democ-
racies were too weak to resist him?
Mr.. Wallace comedies that "the war
Is costing us ten times what 1t
should because the democraries were
not prepared" And we were not pre-
pared because we were trying to i'm
prove our living standards while
Hitler and the japanese were con-
centrating on arms. But, if the de-
mocraries had been prepared in a
military sense, and had been willing
to stand together, does Mr.. Wallace
doubt that they could have re-
strained the warmakers at the out
set? If the democratic countries,
armed and standing together, could
not have prevented this war, what
is the use of talking about collective
security in the future? Why not
concentrate exclusively on raising
living standards and dividing re-
sources?
Mr.. Wallace is entirely right, of
course, in advocating better living
standards and greater resources for
the rest Of the world. But the gain
OF other countries should not come
at the expense of our resources and
our living standards. We built up
our own living standards from our
own resources. No other nation gave
them to us, and we, alone, cannot
give better standards and greater
resources to other countries. Many
OF the "have-not" natiops actually
enjoy abundant resources which
they have not developed. But that
is a problem for them to solve. Ex-
cept in a limited sense, we cannot
solve it for them.
With all our resources and all our
living standards, it is we'll to remem-
Der that there Is much to be done