Evening star., 1946-04-21
lust Between
Ourselves .
BY Philip n. Love.

For you and me, and all the other
peoples of the Americas, this Is the
first peacetime Easter in five years.
For most of Europe, it's the first in
seven years. And for Asia-or, more
specifically, China and Japan-its
the first since 1881, when the Japs
started what was to SNOWFALL into
World War II by invading Man.
churia.
That's a little hard to realize.
isn't it?
What it means, really, is that most
Of the readers of The Junior Star
have never known world at peace.
If you are IS or under, there has
been no peace in your lifetime. And
even if you're older than that-up
to 20 or 2l, say-you probably can't
remember time when the world
was at peace.
No matter how old you are, the
"Manchurian incident" as 1t was
called, isn't likely to have made
much of an impression on you one
way or another. At the time it
occurred, hardly anybody recognized
it for what it really waS-the begin
ming of the most devastating war
in history. OF all the men in public
life at the time, only two-Henry
L. Stimson, then Secretary of War,
and the President in whose cabinet
he served, Herbert c. Hoover-saw
it as a threat to world peace. Sec
retary Stimson, undoubtedly with tho
full support Of President Hoover,
spoke out against this Jap agrees
sion, but neither the people of this
country nor the responsible officials
Of other nations would listen. ct
was the same Henry L. Stimson, in
cldentally, who, though a Repub-
lican, served the Democratic Presi-
dent Franklin D. Roosevelt as Sec
retary Of War from June, 1910, until
after the japanese surrender).
Looking back now, it is not too
difficult to see that if Japan's inva-
sion of Manchuria had been stopped,
Italy wouldn't have dared attack
Ethiopia, and If both the japanese
and Italian outlawry had been pre-
vented, Germany never would have
gotten out of hand, and there would
have been no World War II. That,
at least, seems to be the present
opinion of most experts on inter-
national affairs-though, back in
1881, Secretary Stimson and Presi-
dent Hoover were generally regarded
as a pair of nervous Nellies" for
Imagining they saw anything dam
gerous in Japan's conduct.
| Now the world is at peace-but
still the war isn't over.
| We all know that the Germans
surrendered last spring and the jap
anese a few months later, but
Well, in Europe and much of Asia,
hunger is rapidly becoming starva-
ton, and even in this country, days
of plenty still seem a long way of
Many of the warborn shortages
housing, butter, sugar, to name q
few-are still with us, and others
bread, to name but one-are threat
ening. Prices are high and trying to
go higher. Wages, though high
still lag behind prices, and labor Is
trying to catch up.
The United Nations is taking 1t.
first faltering steps and, like all tod.
oilers, will undoubtedly have severa
nasty tumbles before it learns tt
walk upright. Russia, distrustful o1
a world that snubbed her for ma ny
years, is naturally somewhat re.
luctant to acceptAu her new friend.
at face value. Most of the othel
nations, suspicious of everything
Communistic, are naturally on guarc
against the Russians.
1t isn't a happy world. It's Z
world at peace-and yet not at peace
But it is the first Easter in q
long time on which there has beer
an absence of war. That, consider
ing all the events of the last Is years
is something And for that we shouls
be grateful.
! And, Easter being what it is ant
commemorating whose resurrection
it does, We should pray that, by mex
year at the latest, we can reall,
have "a
Happy Easter!
,