The midland journal., 1946-03-22
Housing Bill Suffers
Rough Going in Congress
Taft Breaks With Conservatives in Backing
: Administration Measure; Long-Range
Building Policy Asked.
BY BAUKHAGE
Ne,os Analyst and Commentator.


out it's international obligations and
use force to check aggression, the
following sentence has been before
me: the American people,
now in the height of their might and
majesty, are no longer a sovereign
nation"
That sentence is from Nathaniel
Peffer's book, Americas Place in
the World which the Saturday Re-
view of Literature calls a Stubborn
ly and trenchant discussion" I
agree with that description of the
book and believe that what PETER
says is true and that it is vital for
| Americans to understand why 1t is
| true.
PETER says that we have lost our
independence and our autonomy "in
that which matters most in the life
of the nation-peace or war" And
then he shows with his stubborn
realism" how this has come about,
how in the beginning (before 1776)
America chad no control over its
own destiny because it was SO
weak, now because it is so strong"
And he shows clearly and con-
vincingly that, no matter how
anxious we may be to stay out OF
foreign broils, any major war in Eu-
rope or Asia will eventually involve
the United States. Our sincere but
romantically futile dream Of splen-
did isolation is forever broken.
Must Lose Life
To Gain IL
Many thinkers have pondered
over this question. In tracing Amer
ica's international affairs, this au-
thoritative and provocative writer
traces our course through the great
crises whose milestones are marked
with the dates 1776, 1887, 1861 and
| 1941. 1917 was the warning that was
not needed. We were drawn into
war then, not of our own making,
but we did nothing to shape world
affairs which followed and which,
inexorably, drew us for the second
| time into a world conflict in which
we had no direct concern.
It may seem far cry from dip
1omatic intrigue and the vicissitudes
of human hatreds, organized muir
der and lust, to the world of the
spirit but I could not help thinking
as / considered the efforts I wit
! messed at Nuremberg of certain
| text in the Bible; the words of Jesus
as recorded in the gospel of st.
Mark (XVIII:35), "For whosoever
shall save his life shall lose it; but
whosoever shall lose his life for my
sake and the gospels, the same shall
save it."
I am well aware Of the fact that
the devil may quote the Scriptures
with the best of us but / do not
think one has to be charged with
Mephistophelian tactics when one
traces parallel between the loss Of
our nations sovereignty in the sense
in which Mr.. PETER expounds it and
the loss Of our spiritual life in the
New Testament sense.
It is needless to iterate here that
the principles upon which this ma
ton was founded derive directly
from the Christian philosophy. How
ever, we have never fully lived up
to that philosophy since we still feel
it necessary to indulge in that high
ly unchristian procedure which I
once heard the late Lloyd George de-
scribe as organized savagery"-
war. War has always been justified
as measure Of defense-defense
of our citizens, our territory, our
sovereignty.
We have now lost our sovereignty
In that we must be willing to die to
save it. Let me replace the word
"life" with the word Sovereignty"
in the rest of the Biblical text,
which would then read: "Whosoever
(and that means a nation as well
as a person) shall lose his sovereign
ty for my sake and the gospels, the
same shall save it." Until America
and all the nations are willing to
sacrifice their sovereignty to high
er, world organization, whose tenets
are four-square with the gospels in
proscripting war, we can never
hope to win back a sovereignty in
accord with the Christian principles
which are the foundation Of our ma
ton.
A former American military gov
ernment man says our state depart
ment and Britain and France are
keeping Russia from searching Nazi
assets in foreign countries. It seems
strange that If Russia has been
sighted in any way we haven't
heard about it in loud voice before
! now.