The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1944-02-24
Sen. Tydings Warns Against Recurrence
OF Mistakes Of Twenty-Five Years Ago
Maryland Senator Radio Address, Gives His Listeners Some
Plain Facts That Are Well Worth Thinking About

In radio address over WBAL,
Baltimore, on Sunday, Feb. 13,
Senator Willard E. Tydings warned
against a recurrence of the mistakes
of Is years ago and said that the
United States got war instead of
peace because she lacked the char
acter to stand up TO world condi-
tions and to her responsibilities, The
address follows:
"All Americans have been
shocked to learn about the cruel
treatment of our prisoners of war
by the Japanese. The studied fiend-
ishness, the sadistic impulses and
gloating wantonness of the savage
Japs are difficult for any of us to
understand.
These acts show that as a nation
the American people had little
knowledge of Japanese aims,
thoughts, methods and beliefs. Most
Americans lived in a fools paradise,
believing that all was well, when
as a matter of fact all has not been
well since the Japanese invaded
Manchuria in 1881.
Let us reflect for a moment on
several Of the outstanding happen
ings of the past twenty-five years.
At the conclusion of the first World
War our troops came home from
Europe. Almost Immediately the
people of our country in a national
election rejected the peace proposals
of President Woodrow Wilson. In
the main President Wilson'S pro-
posal called for a program of col
lective security among the leading
nations of the world All other ma
tons joined in this proposal except
the United States. Our Govern
ment rejected it. We refused to
become a part of the collective Sc
curity agreement among nations.
The United States decided then to
stand alone.
within two years thereafter, in
1922, there was called in the City of
Washington a World Naval Disarm-
ament Conference. AS a result of
that conference we agreed to sink a
large part of our Navy, then the
most powerful in the world This
Government sent United States
warships to the bottom, while 9TH
er countries simply destroyed the
blueprints of the warships they said
they were going to build. This ac-
ton on the part of our Government
met with wide approval by our
people. They longed for peace and
they thought they would get peace,
first, by refusing to enter into any
agreement with other countries to
maintain peace in the world and,
second, to get peace by not keeping
up defenses of our own country.
THUS, the United States tried to
do two contradictory things: First,
it decided to stand alone and have
no formal agreement with other ma
tons to keep peace and second, hav-
ing decided to stand alone, it re-
fused, to keep up its defenses so
that it would be strong enough,
standing alone, to defend itself.
These events happened before l
came to Congress in 1923.
This arrangement prevailed I'M
til 1929 when bill was offered in
Congress to again build up our Ma
Wy. A number of new cruisers
were to be constructed. The de-
bate about the cruiser bill went on
in the Senate for about month. l
was a newcomer to the United
States Senate at that time. Know
ing that our country had decided to
stand alone, it seemed to me to be
a better part of wisdom to keep our
defenses strong, and the Navy was
our first line of defense AS a SOL
der of the last war, I had seen at
first hand how pitifully we were
unprepared when we became in
volved in World War I. 1 spoke
from day today in support of the
Cruiser Bill. Many Senators op-
posed the measure violently. We
were told there would never be an
other war. We were told that CIV
ilization could not stand it. Those
of us who favored the Cruiser Bill
pointed out that the United States
was standing alone, that the Gov
eminent had decided to remain
aloof from the League of Nations,
that standing alone it was impera-
tive that our national defenseS be
kept strong for our own security.
During that debate on the cruis-
er bill in 1929, a large section of the
press and many well-meaning
Americans stated their opposition to
it. They asked, what is the need
for these cruisers? Where are they