Evening star., 1945-07-06
Minnesota Statesman


content of Commander Harold E.
Stassen's excellent discussion last
night of the San Francisco Charter
and the responsibilities which
adherence to 1t will impose on the
United States belle the popular i'm
preston that he is youthful Mid
westerner who, with age and expert
ence, will, develop capacity for
national leadership. The former
Minnesota Governor is young In
years. But he has already acquired
a maturity of outlook and breadth
of vision which warrant his accept
ance as competent leader of the
forward-looking elements in this
country.
Commander Stassen did not over
state the case for the Charter. He
sees it as a blend of idealism and
realism-a human and therefore an
imperfect document, but one which,
nevertheless, sets forth the "fervent
hopes and aspirations of the two
billion peoples of the world" If the
Charter has weaknesses or short
comings, and Commander Stassen
agreed that this was SO, it is also
true that it has received the over
whelming support of the people of
this country source of strength
which should not be minimized. 1t
will not be enough, of course, merely
to be favorably disposed toward this
design for new and better world.
In the words of Commander Stassen,
it is of terrific Importance" once
the Senate has ratified the Charter,
that the people of this country and
Of the world do not feel that they
have thereby automatically insured
peace. The Charter is merely a
machinery and a code. The extent
to which it contributes to the main
tenance of peace will depend upon
the good faith and the continued
alert interest of all people.
To this end he makes the highly
important recommendation that the
foreign policy of the United States
be formulated and implemented with
a maximum of direct information to
the American people. Twice within
a single generation we have been
involved in calamitous wars, and in
neither instance we're our people
sufficiently we'll informed to recog-
nize the disaster looming ahead and
to take timely steps to meet 1t. This
must not happen again. In the
years to come we are going to move
out into the stream of world events
under a foreign policy which will
involve certain risks. In that situa-
tion nothing could be more i'm
portant than that the people of the
country be kept fully informed as
to what this Government Is trying
to do, and why.
This will not appeal to those who
prefer the conventional methods of
statecraft, who believe that the
people should be given minimum
instead of a maximum OF informa-
ton as to the state of our relations
with other nations. But the record
of the past three decades does not
speak well for these methods. Our
foreign policy in the future neces-
sarily must proceed on the assump-
ticn that America has come of age
and Is ready to undertake an inter-
national role commensurate with its
power and its maturity. That being
so, the time has come to deal with
the people as with adults, to recog-
nize that the disadvantages of open
diplomacy" are outweighed by its
benefits, and to strive for a con-
stantly rising sense of responsibility
on the part of the press and all
other instruments for the shaping
of public opinion. This is the essence
of what Commander Stassen was
saying, and it needed to be said