Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1945-05-04
The
Beam

AS l listen to all the chatter
about how the San Francisco
Conference of the United Ma
tions Is going to create an or
ganization to secure the peace
in the years to come, | am re-
minded of the old American
saying that talk is cheap but
1t takes money to buy whis-
key"
In our discussion of the is
sues that will be raised at
Frisco, we might well amend
the old saying to read as fol-
lows: Talk is cheap but it
takes money to buy milk for
the Hottentots."
Remember the uproar that
was raised when Hank Wal
lace made his noted speech
about a ''TVA on the Danube"
and a quart of milk for every
Hottentot."
This is something to recall,
now that the United Nations
Conference is under way, with
the eyes of the world fixed
hopefully upon the delibera-
tions at San Francisco.
DEPRESSIONS
Economist Hansen, of Har-
ward University, points out in
his book, AMERICAS ROLE
IN THE WORLD ECONOMY"
that "even in a world that was
completely under one political
sovereignty the fundamental
factor producing depressions
would still be present :"
Hansen goes on to express
the belief that the great de-
preston which Frustrated the
world in the 1905 was large
ly responsible for the out
break of World War II.
From this observation he
draws the conclusion that the
structure of world organiza-
tion will not in itself do the
job of preserving the peace.
The point he makes is that
the international security or
ganization will be useless
thing unless the nations in
volved in it 90 on to do a dem
ocratic job of eliminating the
economic causes of war.
SIMPLE EXAMPLES
To make this point clear, !
offer few simple examples
of what happened in this
country during the great de-
preston.
When sheriffs came to fore
close on farmers who, through
no fault of their own, could
not make the payments on
loans, the neighbors got to-
gether with pitchforks and
shotguns to run the long arm
of the law into the next
county.
In the big cities, when con-
stables came to evict indus
trial workers from houses
they had rented, the neigh
bors ganged up and moved the
unfortunate back in-in spite
of the law.
When folks really got hun
cry in those bitter days,
groups of desperate men gang
ec up to stage raids on chain
stores--in mobs too big for
the law to cope with, they gut
ted the stores and took the
groceries home to their starv-
ing families.
SECURITY ORGANIZATION
The lesson of these exam
Piles is that all this domestic
disorder happened in America
during the depression in spite
of the fact that we had city
governments, county govern
ments, state governments and
the national governmental
equipped with very strong po-
lice powers - whose duty it
was to keep the peace.
The same goes for any inter-
national security organization
which may be set up at San
Francisco. 1t 1t will be power
less to keep the peace-just
as American cops were power
less to keep the peace during
the depression unless inter-
national action is initiated to
feed the faces and fill the
bellies of the peoples whose
governments take part in the
proposed international organi-
zation.
This does mean Twas on
many rivers, and milk for the
babies of all peoples.
I hope the delegates at
Frisco are aware of this fact.
I believe I told you l have
rrak&t,.0