The Wilmington morning star., 1945-07-27
Peace Policy
By ANNE o'HARE MCCORMICK

BY ANNE O'HARE MCCORMICK
For long time 'too little and too late''
was the key phrase in a bitter chronicle. It
ran through the reports of lost battles like
the chorus of Greek tragedy-the lament of
the victims of aggression for their unprepared-
ness for war. And now on the Continent where
the battles are won, it begins to dawn on
the victors that the old cry may rise again.
this time as lament over our unpreparedness
for peace.
Todav's bad news is not of setbacks on
the fighting front; Japan seems to be Keeling
under knockout blows as blindly and fatally
as Germany did early this year. 1t is not of
DISAGREEMENT among the major Allies; there
is every reason to hope that the Big Three
are working together to fulfill the awful re-
sponsibility they have assumed as the supreme
negotiators for the human race.
The sad news is that the struggle does not
end In the days of "too little and too late"
lot of people used to question whether de-
mocracies could organize themselves to wage
total war Now we know the answer to that
one, the next question is: Can the powers that
won the war win the peace? Logic replies that
if they are capable of passing the tlrst test
they pass the second. But 1t becomes
increasingly clear that those who kept saying
that the second job would be harder and long
err than the first were not talking rhetoric.
cleared away and we have seen Europe, not
as we dreamed of it in the five years when
it was shut away-filled with people who
were following thoughts and watching our
slow preparations for deliverance; not as it
appeared when at last it became the battlefield
and everything was again hidden under the
dust of moving armies and the rain of bomb
fire-but Europe as 1t is, exhausted, divided
ravaged, hungry and reckless.
It has suddenly been brought home to Amer
leans that this Europe is not only a charge
upon US but danger. The boys who fought
there are coming back, shipload after ship
load, division after division. The bands play
when they land and our creaking transporta-
ton system, overstrained by the long drag
to carry the goods that rolled down the Red
Ball highways to the 'front.' does its best-an
apologetic second best-to get them home
quickly They are an excited lot, returning from
world farther away from this than any
ocean can bridge. They are little daZed
at finding things much 1.-The same and
perhaps at finding themselves not quite the
same in the old surroundings. For most OF
them homecoming is only furlough between
battles, and this puts restraints upon their exlr-
| berance-this and the haunting feeling that
what they have left behind is not peace. We've
broken it up all right said veteran OF %
who landed a few days ago. But I've been
wondering all the way home who's gong to
put the pieces LOgelneT.
1t is becoming plain that the San Francisco
Charter cannot make peace Even the Big
Three cannot make peace though if they agree
on the principles and conditions they can GER
tainly prevent war. Peace cannot ever be i'm
posed much less built, on misery and des-
pair We have fought terrible war for Eur
ope, but we will not win it until the elemental
needs, bread, work and stability, are salts
fed
The trouble with Europe is that it needs
everything. What Secretary 1ckes calls the
race between coal and anarchy will not be
won by the War departments decision to send
2,605 German war prisoners back lin six
weeks to work in the German coal mines.
It's too little too late The Ruhr mines are
producing less than 10 per cent of their normal
output, not mainly because of lack OF workers
but because many mines are unavoidable, be-
cause housing is destroyed throughout the dis
trict and because here, as in France and Bel
GUM the miners have to have food to be able
to work 1t will take 200 times 1000 war pris-
oners to work the German mines. 1t will take
| all the workers that can be recruited for the
French and Belgian mines. 1t will take at least
double food ration (Which the Germans gave
the miners) to make them work effectively
1t will take railroads and locomotives and coal
cars to carry the coal where it is needed.
1t will take an agreement with the Russians
to get some of the product o. the Silesian mines.
With all that there will be nothing like
enough coal to start the wheels of Europe
turning. let alone to heat the houses OF the
population There will not be enough if the
{, 900 900 tons Mr. Ickes proposes to send from
here are added though that might swing the
balance between order and disorder, life ard
death
Europe needs everything-but only to start
going In calculating how much we stand to
lose if the continent sacrificed SO much to
save sinks into chaos, we cannot afford to
forget that for five years Germany drew only
on the resources of Europe to hold the world
at bay. She had no other reservoir to supply
her Unsuitable war machine and feed 300 100000
people, Small compared to other continents,
Europe is rich in natural resources, in skill,
labor and intelligence. In straining ourselves
to put this continent on the way to reconstruct
ton. We gain more than we lose: not only mar
kets, not only stability where stability most
affects us, but our best chance to extend the
zone of freedom on which our own freedom
depends. chance. in other words, to win
the war l. New York Times.