Evening star., 1945-02-09
A partial tert OF Coz. De,Dev's
Lincoln Day dinner address last
night tollotDS:

- War Is an evil which has
scourged mankind from the begin
ming of time. peace must be
waged with all the vigor and skill
with which we wage war or we shall
always be having to wage war.
THE opinion of our people has
crystallized. They want the United
States to accept its responsibilities
for the vital decisions affecting the
future of the world.
There is now in progress a con-
ference among the three great pow
ers among the United Nations. The
results of that conference will go
far to determine the course of the
rest Of the war and the nature of
the peace to come. At that confer
ence the President of the United
States has, am sure, the whole
hearted support of both political
parties and the prayers Of the
American people for his every effort
in the interest of our country and
of world peace.
Must Not Be Devious.
Our people are prepared to up
hold the hands of their own repre-
sentatives. They ask in return, that
the decisions to be made shall be
in harmony with our American
ideals of liberty and justice. They
ask that the actions to be taken
shall not be concealed and shall not
be devious. They ask that they
shall not ignore the opinion of man
kind. Our people insist that mighty
decisions shall not be made in the
cynical spirit of power politics. The
structure of international peace
must progress further and faster or
it will be left behind in the swift
movement of world events.
I'm the past three months. the lib
Grafton of peoples and nations has
pressed forward with increasing
speed. The governments of Bulgaria,
Yugoslavia, Italy and Greece, the
government and boundaries of Po-
land, have one after the other in
rapid succession required action and
decision. Yet, we learned, day after
day, that events required action and
our own Government was absent
from the scene. We have seen the
people in the humiliating
situation where they were compelled
to learn of these tremendous events
from the debates in the British
House of Commons. Moreover, we
learned from those debates that
while the powder kegs of Europe
were being dealt with once again
the representatives of our own Gov
ernment were uttering pleasant gen.
eralities and leaving our Allies to
decide the fate of the world.
During all of that critical three
month period the clearest call for
constructive action came from the
Senator from Michigan, Arthur H.
vandenberg.
Allies Have Strong Views.
&c" Our Allies have strong views
of their own We know that conflict
ing views must be reconciled. But
we insist that decisions be made
with us and not without us-with
our representatives in the discus
sion, every day, on every subject,
and not occasionally or part Of the
time. Our people cannot accept
compromises without a new, firm
knowledge that the American Gov
ernment took its part and did its
best in advancing the principles
and faith for which Americans are
dying all over the world. We shall
accept neither isolationism nor alb
dication.
THE time has come for the hard,
painstaking labor of translating
ideals and generalities into reality
and action. The conference now in
progress Is, we hope, q great step
to that end. From now on, these
problems cannot hang in suspense
for many months at time. They
cannot be left to the rare meetings
between the heads Of nations. Time
and events move too fast. Ideals
and great purposes are too easily
lost by default. We are not con-
tent that our Government sit idly
by and merely, as we have been
told, be kept informed Millions
Of Americans are in the front lines
Of battle. Our Government must
likewise be In the front line of de-
cisions which flow from those vic
torious battles. -
"As we give all-out support to ac-
ton toward carrying out our ideals