The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-10-27
Observations
Too Much Talk
About Peace by
Non-Experts
BY HELEN EssARY


listen to the word peace being
batted around by statesmen and
prophets, that this was a game Of
badminton or baseball and not the
most hateful war in history, that
we are finishing up.
The gentlemen and the ladies,
too, who like 70 seem profound,
talk about "a hard peace" or a
g. II peace" as brightly as II they
were discussing "a hard ball" or "a
soft ball" being thrown by a fay
orite athlete in championship
game.
Most OF these ladies and gentle.
men who know so we'll how TO re.
arrange the world have been rather
like the spectators at the game.
They have been onlookers.
Few men who have done actual
fighting N the war have complete
convictions, about what we've got
10 do when this war is over.
Always peace has been state Of
perfection which people seem 10
have talked about hopefully and
then given up as an impossibility.
Just 10 prove this point OF mine
] looked up Peace" IN Bartletts
Familiar Quotations.
Bartlett's lists about 200 quota
lions on Peace. Next ! turned
10 War" in the same book.
found about % references thereto.
Obviously, as | said before. peace
is more a matter OF words than
is war. War is action. Peace is
sitting about arguing in highly
charged phrases, sometimes al so
much phrase.
The poets generally. judging by
Bartlett. refer 20 sweet peace,
"a solemn peace. "a dream
peace" "a heavenly peace, Some
optimistic rhymsters speak OF an
'imperisAable peace. the chimes
OF an eternal peace, and thou
sand years Of peace. Shake
speare, a realistic fellow, described
the cankers OF a calm world and
a long peace. Tacitus, from whom
many later writer's stole ideas free
ly, said They make a desolation
and call it peace"
\ shocking thought-"a desola.
tion which they call peace. An
ugly picture leaps into the mind.
Not a picture that is remotely re-
lated 10 a little white dove with a
fresh olive branch in its mouth.
But true picture which the world
will have 10 see when the order
to cease firing comes.
A thousand reasons suggest that
the statesmen and the experts
might we'll be cautious in their de-
mands for a certain KIND Of world
after the war. Many statesmen
and experts, too-are not notice
ably gifted In creating peace in the
small personal world they inhabit.
Most of the spectators who have
sat on the sidelines during the war.
know little more than six words
about the countries they speak so
earnestly about. Five OF these six
words generally are wrong.
Moreover I'll bet you that
the most outspoken demanders
amongst them can't keep their
desks in order. Yet they have great
views about settling the upside
down hemispheres sweetly and
with great profit.
Since | cannot keep my own desk
in order and am terribly vague
about geography, / shall pretend
that !, too, am qualified TO speak
my mind on the kind OF peace We
should have.
My feeling about peace Is this:
The United States must lead in
setting the terms OF peace. With
out the tools which we provided,
the war would have been lost by
the Allies. In addition TO the tools,
the like OF which the world has
never seen. we have also provided
men and money for the common
cause.
We have no reason 70 refrain
from saying what we really think
at the peace table. We have no
reason to fear offending any ma.
ton. What we must fear is an
inferiority complex asserting itself.
heard an intelligent man say
yesterday: I'VE are not smart
enough TO sit at a peace table with
those foreign diplomats. Amer
leans never can hold their own with
the English. Why. they run us
around like we were the losing mar.
bles in a game
The only way in which Amer.
leans are not smart IS that they are
somehow still ashamed OF their
own brand of smartness.
Sometimes | think the trouble
with the whole world is that every
body in 1t wants to be an English
man.