Evening star., 1944-11-11
'lsoIotionism' Seen
Bused on Resentment
Writer Warns of Grievances
Of Returning Veterans
By David Laurence

~ DUUIu LULOTEUCE
Many broad and impulsive inferences
are being drawn from the election re-
turns, and prominent among them Is
the widely expressed belief that "isola.
tionism" was killed at the polls.
1t is true that handful of "isola-
zionist" Senators and Representatives
will no longer be seen in Congress and
1t Is true that in all probability a
salutary influence will be exerted for
while on the remaining "isolationists"
who retained their seats or were not
up for reelection. But to say "isola-
tionism" has been killed or even
weakened is to mislead the people
For most Of the 'isolationists" were
not born that way-they are made
They are bred in large numbers, not
during wars but after wars.
President Roosevelt, If he miscon-
strues the mandate OF the election,
can breed millions of 'isolationists"
by the time the next congressional elec-
ton of l946 rolls around.
Pattern of 1920.
The process Is simple. The pattern is
available to any one who wants to study
what happened in 1919 and 1920 when
the 'isolationist" movement gained so
big and enduring a momentum that
even Mr.. Roosevelt, as late as 1882,
fell victim. to its vote-getting powers
and turned his back on the League Of
Nations which he had favored
'Isolationism" is not a partisan but
nonpartisan sentiment. 1t develops
strength in both parties. 1t is not re-
lated solely to complicated issues such
as whether or not we'll join a world
court or a world league because this
or that provision Is ambiguous. 1t
is to a large extent an antiwar and
an antiforeign feeling based on eco
nomic resentments.
The principal members of the "isola-
zionist" group in 1919 and 1920 were
the returning soldiers. They came back
with an accumulation of grievances.
They found at home those who
prospered while they themselves had
bled on the battlefelds. The veterans
"SAO WIN ddA lAlS tllC wal LlldG tllcJ
were going to have their jobs back
but they found this too often an empty
promise. They openly vowed to their
friends that they would never volunteer
for another war, and so on. Their
families became embittered. too.
Comes Home Angry.
If anybody wants to read up on how
the veterans felt after the last war
let him get book just published by
the Dryden Press and written by
Willard Waller, World War veteran and
an associate professor at Columbia Uni
versity. 1t is entitled when the
Veteran Comes Back"
THE soldier is glad to come home, :"
writes Prof. Waller, but he comes home
angry. In the early months of 1919,
the writer talked with a great many
other demobilized soldiers on Chicago
streets. Although he had felt something
| of the serviceman's rebellion, he was
as astonished as any civilian at the
intensity of their fury. They were
angry about something . - there was
never any mistaking their temper. They
hated somebody for something"
President Wilson had won the war
in 1918 as great Commander in Chief
But by the time the 1920 election was
held, the soldiers had come back. The
mere mention of Woodrow Wilson's
support for Cox, the Democratic nomi-
nee in 1920, was enough to lose Demo-
cratic votes almost everywhere The
country wasn't "isolationist," but
| Harding thought so after he examined
the election returns
When the soldiers come back this
time and express their disillusionment,
they will be called "isolationists" again,
but the truth is they may be merely
| voicing their protests at the failure
of the Government at home to produce
an economic equilibrium "IsolationiSm" "
in America in 1914 has been almost as
much distrust of and protest against
| the administration as it has been an
| opposition to internationalism
If. for example, Mr.. Roosevelt decides,
as rumored already, to give Britain
| $4,000, 900 900 each year of lease-lend
money after the war to rebuild her
civilian economy while American tax
&C. IIUrDCNCC De- ~