Evening star., 1945-01-08
President S MESSAGE
Called Best Since '33
Writer Sees Effort to Cure Dis
cord Here and Abroad
BY David Laurence

cord Here and Abroad
BY David Laurence
The state OF The Union" message
just transmitted by President Roose-
velt to Congress Is the best of the en-
tire series he has delivered since 1893.
1t deserves this appraisal for many
reasons, not the least of which is that
the tone Is conciliatory and the spirit
constructive and the purpose clearly
pointed toward curing discord and
promoting harmony in the light Of re-
cent events at home and abroad.
The crisis In the war as well as the
difficult and delicate steps preparatory
to the establishment of an international
security organization demanded exactly
the tactful and earnest approach which
Mr.. Roosevelt applied.
The recommendations for various
laws on the home front will occasion
debate, no doubt, but with the prin-
ciples of the Presidents thesis there
can be little dissent.
Measured Phrases.
Even on the international political
front, so to speak, Mr.. Roosevelt has
refrained from intensifying differences
among the Allies. He speaks in meas
ured phrases that constitute a careful
understatement of American public
opinion at the moment. If there Is
room for argument about any of the
concrete. points made, 1t might be in
the section in which Mr.. Roosevelt be-
trays sort of defeatism as he prom
ises to try as hard as Is humanity pos
sible to get the principles of the At
lantic Charter fulfilled and immedi-
ately warns that We must expect dis
appointments
1t might have been better If the Presi-
dent had exhibited deeper confidence
in the correctness of the Atlantic Char
ter. The runner who enters race with
a feeling he is about to be beaten doesn't
usually win the race.
But while Mr.. Roosevelt's restraint
and caution are understandable they
need not abate for one moment the
expression by all elements of our public
opinion of their manifest concern lest
expediency rather than principle be
allowed to govern the final making of
inter- Allied agreements. The more the
British and Russian governments come
to understand the wholly disinterested
nature of the American stake in this
war the more they will ultimately come
to recognize that we seek only the
triumph of fairness and equity as against
occasional outcroppings of selfish i'm
perialism by London's commercial aris-
tocracy or as against the self-righteous
totalitarianism of Moscow.
But in the words of the Presidents
message there was properly no sign of
contentiousness. 1t was message as
much calculated to avoid offense to our
Allies abroad as it was to avoid making
! extravagant promises to meet the recent
chorus of protests arising so loudly from
inside America.
Not Just Perfectionists.
If one may point out, however, a
cardinal error, it is the Presidents as
sumption that the attack on the peace
settlement after the last war grew out of
an Inflated drive for perfectionism. On
the contrary, the Versailles Treaty with
its palpable mistakes was accepted re-
luctantly by the perfectionists or ideal
lists only because of the greater promise
that the Covenant of the League of Ma
tions would function as a corrective in
f1uence and as an amendatory process in
the years to come.
1t was not just perfectionist minority
which cried out to Europe's statesmen
for courage and honesty and sacrifice
during the 20s and the 30s; it was a
vast body of thoughtful Americans who
knew that power politics, materialism,
the alliances between governments and
the tricksters of diplomacy and the per-
fectionists of diplomatic double talk to
lull peace-loving peoples to sleep. Mean
while, the Nazi totalitarians saw their
chance to exploit the weaknesses, the
corruption, and the plain, unvarnished
immortality of the democracies.
Mr.. Roosevelt avoided in his message
the polemics of international debate and
gave credit to all our Allies for their
magnificent work on the field of battle
He wisely refrained from assuming that
their motives or objectives were any
less worthy than our own.
This is tactful craftsmanship But 1t
cannot and should not cause any truly
liberal elements in all the democracies
to cease praying that the conferences of
the Big Three will somehow be guided
to place principle above expediency and
thus give to the plain people who are
fighting the war sense of exaltatior
and confidence.
For they are the ones to be convinced
that the sacrifices they are making shall
not have been made in vain.
Reproduction Rights Reserved)
Thot's What We Mean