Evening star., 1945-03-05
German Slave Labor
Seen Opposed in u. S.
People Wouldn't Back Roosevelt
Iu Such Action, Writer Believes

u
People Wouldn't Back Roosevelt
Iu Such Action, Writer Believes
BY Dauid Laurence
Although President Roosevelt told q
press conference last week that he
thought it would not be . bad idea for
German ex-soldiers to repair the devas-
tation in Russia after the war, 1t u
doubtful whether Mr.. Roosevelt even
tually will have the support OF the
American people when the implications
Of his latest statement are fully ex-
planned to them
If any German soldiers or their lead
srs. or both, have individually been
guilty of atrocities or cruelties, then
hard labor in Russia or elsewhere is too
good for them. They should be punished
severely and every trace of Nazism
rooted out of Germany.
But the American people are at heart
neither british nor yengeful. The young
men or old men who have been drafted
ut the point Of a gun into the German
Army are entitled to the same treat
ment as other German civilians after
the war is over. President Roosevelt
has publicly proclaimed that the Allies
have no intention OF enslaving the Ger
man people. Yet his subsequent COM
ment about the use Of German ex-
soldiers as forced labor in Russia aft,
the war would seem to indicate the
opposite.
Tragic Mistakes.
If the Presidents remark was studied
comment and he really has made a
compromise with the Stain view about
using forced labor from Germany, then
indeed there must be grave concern
over the influence which the totalitarian
Stain and the chauvinistic Churchill
have begun TO exert upon the once
liberal minded Mr.. Roosevelt. If few
days of intimate association at Yalta
can make such profound change in
the Presidents outlook on the psyche
logical factors that may prevent an en-
during peace from being realized. then
there must be added to the ALREADY
tragic mistakes Of the Yalta conference
new revelations of the abandonment of
moral principle, and the turn to might
makes-right doctrine.
What must the German Army think
OF the recent calls to surrender going
over the loudspeakers from our troops
urging them to give up and promising
humane treatment when Goebbels and
his publicity machine now broadcast
the news that every American news
paper carried last week quoting Mr..
Roosevelt as saying he doesn't think
It's a bad idea for German ex-soldiers,
after long years in the trenches to 90
to Russia to become labor slaves under
Stain?
How much more resistance will be
stirred up by that argument which Mr..
Roosevelt has handed to the Nazis?
How many more American boys will
have to pay with their lives in . pro-
longed war because of Mr.. Roosevelt's
carelessness of utterance or regrettable
Misrepresentation Of the spirit of salr
play which actuates the American peo-
Pile?
Isn't the forced Labor policy calculated
to stimulate the German underground
after the war? Can there really be
peace when relatives of these German
ex-soldiers know that their kin will not
be coming home to them because they
will be held in bondage even after the
war Is at an end? Was this one OF the
great compromises" of Yalta and are
there any other surrenders to BRITISH
ness that have not yet become public7
No Peace by the Sword.
Maybe the whole forced-labor scheme
will come to naught when the passions
Of war cool of. One brief visit to
devastated area in Russia and President
Roosevelt seems to have lost his long
range perspective Msybe he will recover
1t some day when he sees photographs
of the devastation wrought on German
cities by our own bombs What he must
ultimately learn is that peace by the
sword has never conquered a virile and
resourceful people who become the vic
tins Of an inhumane or unjust peace
Once upon q time there was an Amer
lean President who said something about
peace with malice toward none and
charity toward all, and once upon time
Jesus said a great many things about
human brotherhood. But apparently in
this practical age of brutality, all this
Is brushed aside as impertinent "per-
fectionism"
1t will be very difhcult in years to
come to give this antiperiectionist line
Of thought as the explanation for the
killing Of thousands upon thousands of
American boys by snipers and under
ground guerrillas, as we keep up huge
standing armies by means of compulsory
military service in so-called "peacetime"
so rs to police 0,000, 900 embittered per-
sons in Germany-an this because We
lack in the leadership Of the Allied gov
ernments today men of vision or under
standing of what really is involved in
the simple word peace"
tReproduetion Rights ReseryedJ
Outsmorted by J. Bull
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
The British have done it. Just NJ ve