The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1944-07-06
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the beachhead in Normandy and
another in the Aleutians:
Dear Mrs. R.: I have your letter
wondering why you should sacrifice
the sons you 81 carefully taught not
to hate or to hurt, on a bloody beach,
head where every minute they must
hate and hurt in order to survive.
You say that you write and tell
your sons that, after it's over, life
will be the same and We'll all be
happy. but that, deep in your heart,
you know it won't be, for there
will be more wars and more blood
shed all owe again.
Naturally you would expect a
hard-boiled and cynical newspaper
man, trained to look under rocks for
all the seamy side Of official life. to
agree with you that we will have
more wars and that your boy on the
Normandy beachhead is making his
sacrifice in vain. But somehow or
other. l don't agree. Somehow or
other, l have a sneaking suspicion
that things are not going to be so
bad, and that we may be able to
prevent your sons son from doing
what his father had to do in Nor
mandy.
Maybe I am too much of an opti-
mist, but it seems to me, looking
back. that we made a lot of progress
toward permanent peace between
the last war and this. In the end, we
failed. But there are a lot OF things
you do that fail the first time, or
even several times. before you
finally make the grade.
Kellogg's Dream Of Peace.
One Of these tries which failed was
the Kellogg Treaty to outlaw war.
Old Frank B. Kellogg, who wrote
that treaty. was just an ordinary
American citizen from Minnesota,
not much different from the rest Of
US. He vas Coolidge's secretary of
state. and not a very brilliant one.
But he had one great dream-to out
law war.
And he kept pecking away at it.
and hammering the idea home on
the unwilling governments of
Europe. until the people Of Europe
were too strong for their govern
ments. and they just had to sign the
Kellogg Pact.
I was with Kellogg when he sailed
to Europe to sign his pact, stood
with him in the Quai d'Orsay in
Paris when, with a great gold pen
given him by the people of lie Havre
Ia city nov under bombardment),
he scratched his signature to the
document which carried the hopes
and prayers Of millions.
OF course, many Of the diplomats
who also used that golden pen on
that hot August afternoon in 1928
had no sympathy with the hopes
and ideals Of the people they repre-
sented-among them, Count Uchida,
whose imperturbable face gave no
hint that four years later he, as for.
eign minister Of Japan, would be
swapping his fingers at the treaty he
had signed.
Cynical neWsmen watching the
ceremony remarked that this would
be another case of the League of
Nations-an instrument of peace de-
vised by the United States but which
the United States would abandon.
There, however, they were wrong.
Frank B. Kellogg. Of course, was
ahead of his time. But so were most
of u great leaders-Washington,
Jefferson, Lincoln. The history OF
progress is a constant succession of
men who are ahead of their time.
Stimson's Fight Against War.
However, it did moi fail until it
had been used-and almost
fully-by another man also ahead
of his time. the nan who succeeded
Kellogg.
Henry l.. Stimson, secretary of
state under Hoover, was one of
the few men in high position
who then saw clearly signs Of
approaching wars. and who fig
ured that, If the world could
head off the minor wars in the
Chaco between Paraguay and
Bolivia, in Siberia between Rus
STA and China, and in Man
churia between Japan and
China. then we could build up
a machinery of peace strong
enough to head of the major
war which he knew was coming
on the continent Of Europe.
His greatest effort was to
mobilize the peace machinery Of
the world against Japan in Man.
churia. And he almost made it.
That he failed was due to an
isolationist revolt inside his W
Hoover cabinet, plus the UNDER
cutting of British imperialists
who put their own selfish en-
pire ahead of world peace.
I was with Mr.. Stimson during
part Of that trying time. l know
how heroically he labored. Three
times in all. he went to Europe
determined to hew out new machin.
cry for peace.
MAT. RAG