Evening star., 1945-10-14
Triflinq With Victory

When Adolf Hitler sent his armies
Storming into Poland in 1899 this
country, in the words of General
Marshall, was not even a third-rate
military power so far as it's available
strength was concerned. We were
so weak that Hitler ignored us in
his calculations, and although the
war has been won because we were
lucky and because time was pur-
chased for us with the blood of our
Allies, 1t is painful to think of the
lives that have been sacrificed and
the hundreds of billions of dollars
that have been thrown away be-
cause, in advance of war, we refused
to make the relatively minor prep
arations that might have prevented
the conflict and which certainly
would have minimized its destruc-
tive consequences.
In 1889 most of us simply refused
to believe that the United States
would have to fight war. We were
utterly and willfully blind to the
truth. We were concerned with pre-
serving our social gains and, even a
year later, we were still talking nom
sensically about superimposing
defense program on our normal in
dustrial operations. Yet we had
made progress when war came on
December 7, 194l, and while still
woefully weak in the military sense,
the unfaltering courage of the Brit
iSh and the Russians gave us the
additional time needed to mobilize
our potential strength, to become
the greatest military power in the
world. 1t was costly process, cost
ly in lives and costly in resources,
but it should have demonstrated
once and for all the folly of national
weakness. Apparently, however, that
lesson has not been learned.
All of our energies at this time are
being devoted to the tearing down
of our military organization, and the
public is demanding that this be
done with even greater speed. The
proposal for universal military train
ing, which General Marshall SO
earnestly advocates as the only feas-
ible means of inSuring our future Sc
curity, cannot gain an attentive,
much less a sympathetic, audience.
In a word, we are reverting with
reckless haste to status of relative
military weakness. No one can eSti-
mate how far this process will be
permitted to go, but we may be GER
tain that the other powers are
watching us closely and that our in
fiuence throughout the world will
diminish as our military power de-
creaSeS.
To offset the inevitable loss in ac-
tual military power, inevitable be-
cause this country would never foot
the bill for large professional mil
itary establishment even If that were
desirable in our system, General
Marshall and virtually all of his as
sociates have pleaded for adoption of
a system of universal military train
ing-not Service-aS the single alter
native which would enable this coun-
try to be an influential factor in
maintaining peace and to defend it
self in event of attack. The choice,
in The Stars opinion, is very clear.
Either we will lapse back into state
of military weakness and thereby
throw away the hope of security and
freedom for which this war was
fought, or we will build up the re-
serve of strength which can come
only through universal training and
thereby serve notice on the world
that we intend to be real factor in
the maintenance of peace and a Ma
ton capable OF defending itself If
attacked
Some years ago, when the military
weakness of the western nations
threatened them with final ruin at
the hands of the Axis, General Mac
Arthur wrote these words: "The his
tory of failure in war can almost be
summed up in two words: Too late
:. too late in comprehending the
deadly purpose of potential en-
emy; too late in realizing the mortal
danger; too late in preparedness;
too late in uniting all possible forces
for resistance; too late in standing
with ones friends"
This time, thanks to our coura-
geous friends, we in the United States
were almost, but not quite, too late.
But if there should be another war
there will be no friends in position
to buy us two or three years of time.
If we are too late in organizing our
own defenses we will then learn what
it means to lose a total war.