The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1946-04-20
Something Like 1920
By ARTHUR KROCK

foreign ano domestic policy after World War
I. Some OF these signs seem to have been put
on permanent foundation, Of which our mem
bership In the United Nations and firm sup
port OF its charter are examples Another is
the wholehearted acceptance by Senator Van
denberg and former Observation-Disclosures Of
full American participate min the global reg
ulation he long hoped was as unnecessary
as he thought it unwise, but also on the in
crease are retreats into the grounding policy
holes Of the Nineteen Twenties.
Then the people OF the United States, having
declined to participate in the League of Ma
tons of which their war President was the
architect, made separate peace with the
Central Powers. They turned their backs on
Europe and its troubles as conditions that
must either right themselves or of no great
concern to this country if they didn't Their
officials relaxed what slight controls there
were against initiation until unreasonable
prices, with which successive wage demands
could not keep pace, were only checked by
buyers strike. And serious depression en-
tered the pattern of harsh correction.
An age of materialism followed in public
and private activity, its economic fallacies re-
quiring the crash of 1929 and 1890 before they
could be even temporarily suppressed. In lit
erature It became the fashion to debunk and
scorn all that the people had held noble and
glorious in the war years. And in a decade of
false prosperity and pacitism the embryo die
tators were encouraged and left free to set
up those courses that produced World War II.
There is much more resistance in 1916 than
in 1920 to these relapses in public thinking
and political acquiescence in that thinking
Then the President took no firm stand against
any of it. Now the President is doing what
he can, without the essential aid of solid
party majority in Congress, to oppose some
"a Of &c hanpaniro RI ouiu
fear in Erope-Democratic end Autocratic
alike - that this country may again refuse to
60 through with the peacetime obligations pro-
duced by victory in war. And in this country
there are disturbing suggestions that our
last post war errors may be repeated in
domestic policy.
In the catalogue Of events which have re
vived these fears abroad and these tendencies
at home the following belong:
The House of Representatives against the
earnest counsel Of men like Generals Eisen-
hover and Marshall, who conducted the mill
tary phases of the land war and know the
perils of peace, has emasculated the bill to
extend the Selective Service Act. Although
Congress in wartime did not question their
judgment in matters of such moment, the
House deals now with these and others en-
trusted with national security as If they were
lobbyists for a selfish cause
Tremendous effort was required to balance
the McMahon Bill for the control of atomic
energy so that the views OF the Army and
Navy as to atomic weapons and new prob
lens Of security would not be excluded from
the highest councils. The attitude Of many
scientists and some politicians appeared to be
that the commanders who had been entrusted
with the life Of the nation in the mos. desper-
ate war of history were suspect where the
progress Of civilization was concerned.
The plainest teaching Of our economy and
history would seem to be that initiation Is
served, and a return to full production i'm
peded, by the maintenance of certain conoi-
tons. These conditions are - increases in the
amount OF money and credit artificial short
ages promoted by unnecessary price controls
and government acts and policies that foster
a rising wage cycle which in turn must stead-
ly force Up prices. Yet the government is al
lowing all these conditions to become more
firmly entrenched.
The emasculation Of the draft act in the
House is only one expression of a new isola-
zionist trend which those abroad think they
see afoot in the United States. Another is the
reasoning of the House Committee on Appro-
priations in cutting off entirely the State De-
partment's fund for an intelligence unit. The
act itself was less significant than this rea-
soning The grounds for the cut were not that
Oil Alteu1ScuCe uHlI QOeS nOt properly De1OnS
in the State Department, though this view is
held by many. They were that the regular
divisions of the Department can perform this
expert and essential duty with the standing
personnel, viewpoint not shared in the least
by those who did vital intelligence work during
the war.
The Navy as whole feels that major de-
tails OF unjficaton plans in administration bills
ignore or overlook its extraordinary record as
an integral department in World War II, and
are being pressed at time when this record
should be fresh in the mind Of the country
There is another side to the argument which
bars this item from entry in the above cate
CORY. But what does merit entry is the fact
that some Congressional advocates of unifica-
ton are employing it largely as a means to
reduce our defense budget to a point incon-
sistent with the present needs of security.
There are other acts and tendencies of ret
rograde nature for which there is no space
here. Against them are realistic balances But
If the reverse trend increases, these, too, con-
ceivably can be Cancelled - New York Times
nHNT ATI0NC