Evening star., 1946-09-20
Wallace Talk Poves
Way to Another War
Mistaken Zeal May Give Agsres.
sors New Ideas
By David La,crence

By David Lamrence
Mistaken zeal by Secretary Wallace
to prevent war has perhaps done more
to make the whole world think war is
inevitable than he ever intended
For the Secretary of Commerce, speak
ing with the prestige of a member of the
Presidents cabinet, has put the stamp Of
authority back Of the charge that some
where in the American Army and Navy
a school Of thought is contemplating an
attack on Russia now" before she makes
any atomic bombs. Though this charge
has been formally denied by the Secre-
taries of War and Navy. Mr. Wallace has
advertised this story throughout the
whole world
Mr.. Wallace may contend that he
didn't Intentionally make public the let
ter which he wrote to President Truman
and which he gave out only when he
neard that a columnist had a copy.
Yet Mr.. Wallace was exceedingly care
less and indiscreet when he put such
thoughts on paper at all.
Sho"Nu LcttcT himself.
1t turns out that six copies Of this
letter were made and that Secretary
Wallace showed in confidence OF
course-to one newspaperman a COPY Of
that letter in August. The newspaper
man was the Moscow correspondent OF
the Associated Press, who is on his way
back to Russia. That correspondent now
tolls tha
knew all about the letter and, of course,
would have preserved MI Wallaces con-
fidence.
But Mr. Wallace chose to show copies
of this highly confidential correspond
ence with the President to persons out
side the Government Small wonder that
one of the six copies got into the hands
OF Washington columnist
Mr.. Wallace naturally doesn't want to
provoke a third world war, but such A
contingency is far more possible today
than it was before Mr Wallace made his
Madison Square Garden speech or re-
leased his letter. This is because twice
a world war has broken out with the
aggressor state believing America was
unprepared and virtually disarmed and
divided by isolationist politics.
Disarmament His Idea.
Today Mr. Wallace wants America TO
disarm again and trust Russia to behave
and give up her aggression. She has al
ready violated the Atlantic Charter and
has grabbed 250000 square miles of ter
rltory. She has already shown that she
is making war on democracy throughout
the world. Though Mr. Wallace SAYS
Russia shouldn't do these things with
her propaganda abroad at the same
time he reveals strange tolerance of
communism and totalitarianism which
is surprising
The Secretary of Commerce argues
vehemently that he is neither pro-Rus-
sian nor pro-Communist, but the effect
OF his statements is to manifest a SYM
pathy for what a totalitarian govern
ment is doing in Eastern Europe. He
overlooks the brutality of the Moscow
government in its treatment of human
beings IN Eastern Europe and its robbery
and rapine which have Mortified the
world. To Secretary Wallace this ap-
parently is just another philosophy
alongside of which democracy should
make up its mind to live in a sort OF
friendly competition.
Communism, like Fascism. is inhu-
name and brutal in its operations. The
Russian government has exiled for DO
htical expressions thousands of men
who have had the temerity to express
themselves. There can be no common
ground between democracy and totali-
tarianism. A clash is constantly going
on and will continue to 60 on until one
or the other is eliminated
Reverts to 1920 Policies.
To advocate isolationism and sp-
peasement now, as Secretary Wallace
has done, is to revert to the policies
which so many Republicans preached In
the l920s when they persuaded the
United States Senate to reject the
League of Nations covenant. Mr.. Wall
lace made some speeches attacking the
isolationists in 1910 and 1914 He now
owes them all an apology, for his basic
doctrine differs little from that of the
America First crowd. AS a matter of
fact, in his charge that the United
States Government is pursuing policies
that will provoke war, he is using the
same line of reasoning as have various
extremists in the anti-Roosevelt camp
who claim Mr.. Roosevelt provoked the
attack on Pearl Harbor.
America did not provoke World War
or II and is not now provoking World
War III, but if Secretary Wallace wants
to do as Prime Minister Chamberlain
did at Munich, he will not find America
following him.
Also he should not be making the fol-
lowing comment: These appropriations
military are now more than 10 times
as great as they were during the 3Os."
The reason Mr.. Wallace should not
make that argument is because Demo-
cratic administration was in power
throughout the 30s and 100000 Ameri-
can boys have just paid with their lives
because the United States was unpre-
pared and both Germany and Japan
thought they could take advantage of
our disarmament
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