davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1946-05-01
Search for Legitimacy
By Raymond NJ oley

The Paris Peace Conference will find
easy sailing in adjusting the boundaries
of Europe. new Poland presented the
major boundary issue, and that has
been settled. The fact is that Europe
is old, the peoples of Europe have ad-
justed themselves to national bound
aries, and the pieces fall back in place
with little trouble.
The real rub will come when the
Foreign Ministers try to find govern
ments within the countries of Europe
which can stand the test OF time. For,
unlike Taileyrand and associated states
men who put Humpty- -Dumpty Europe
together in 1814-5, our present-day
statesmen are looking for something
besides legitimate kings and princes.
The search this time will be for new
kind of Legitimacy"
Five years ago, Guglielmo Ferrero
pointed out, in 1.-The Reconstruction of
Europe" that, under Talleyrand, the
Congress of Vienna replaced the revo-
lutionary governments of the Napoleonic
era with more or less chastened mon
archs, who tried to compromise internal
hatreds and to provide something of
the substance of government satisfac-
tory to the majority of the people.
Americans greatly distrusted this return
to kingship, and the Monroe Doctrine
was our warning that we wanted none
of their influence over here But, as
Ferrero contended the antiques held to-
gether until Europe caught it's breath
and a stretch of reasonable peace fol-
lowed.
X
Once more Europe has liquidated a
lot OF revolutionary governments, most
ly Fascist or near-Fascist. Present-day
statesmen realize that Europe must
first purge itself of all remains of the
governments of the Fascist revolution.
But the world has outgrown it's royal
families since Talleyrand, and there are
very few exiled kings who could get the
confidence of their former people.
Legitimacy must be found elsewhere
Evening star., 1946-05-01

The dramatic suggestion of Secretary
Of State Byrnes that the United States
conclude a 25-year alliance with Rus
sia Britain and France to prevent any
possible aggression from Germany or
Japan and thus remove all fear in
Moscow of another invasion by the
Germans recalls an old story involving
a small American town and crusading
clergyman.
A young and energetic minister was
assigned to church in rough frontier
town. After surveying the situation for
few days, he informed the board of
deacons that he would denounce from
his pulpit on the following Sunday a
certain slummy and unruly section of
the city. He was told by one member
that he had better be careful because
the owner of the houses in that area
was a heavy contributor to the church.
He then said he would denounce the
existence of the many saloons. Here
again he was stopped and told that the
saloons belonged to a powerful citizen
who was the next largest contributor.
The young minister looked respondent
talk about the yellow peril. There is
town."
Secretary Byrnes seems to have as
sumed the role of the young clergyman.
He realized, before leaving Washington,
that the meeting of the Big -Four For
eign Ministers in Paris-whose object
was the drafting of peace treaties for
the defeated nations-would encounter
great difficulties.
The United States wants real peace;
the other nations are chiefly concerned
with the spoils of war, so-called Sc
curity and power politics. Under these
circumstances, Mr.. Byrnes pulled out of
his brief case the plan for 25-year Big
-Four alliance to give Russia, nation
Of 190,000,000 people, with standing
army of several million men and vastly
extended boundaries, the security which
Moscow's spokesmen contend is the prin-
cipal reason for the Soviet's continued
desire to expand its frontiers in Europe
and Asia.
According to the bits of informat ton
reaching Washington from Paris, there
has been nothing but disagreements
among the representatives of the major
powers at Luxembourg Palace The
Russians are standing firm on their de-
mands for bases in the Mediterranean; !;
the British are strongly opposed to the
Soviet claims and have suggested as
an antidote the complete freedom of the
loosely knit Arab tribes which inhabit
Libya; and the Americans have been
rebuffed by Russia in their suggestion
that regardless of who obtains a trus-
teeship, the Dodecanese Islands must
be thoroughly demilitarized.
Evening star., 1946-05-01

but nobody better understood the Rus
sian mind and soul, and in the last Gen.
tury he wrote:
Russia must unite under her leader
ship all Slav peoples, not for expansion
or empire, but to insure their peace and
freedom. The next step must be the
conquest of Constantinople, not for
profit, but for the realization of that
truth preserved only in Russia. That
cannot be understood by Europeans,
who do not believe in the brotherhood
and regeneration of man. Russia
must became more Russian, SO that
Russia can reveal to Europe the new
humanity, the new social order which
she alone can represent"
y Dostoevski predicted a struggle in
which Russia would end Europe. West
ern Christianity would be obliterated
and revived eastern Christianity
arise. THE fate of Poland awaits
France; not we, but our children, will
see the end of England"
Not only the Soviets but Tsarists pre-
dicted Poland had to perish-not the
authentic Polish race, but the false
civilization, the false nationality i'm
puted to Poland"
Russian civilization has been his
torically hostile to European. and COM
munism has not changed this. The
1886 purges were actually the liquida-
ton of the European-trained and in
fluenced Communists. Never in his
tory was Russia more Russian and
Byzantine than she is today. Even
the revolutionary liquidation of the
aristrocracy contributed to this, be-
cause they were Europeanized by cul-
ture and intermarriage.
Russia has always admired the SCI
ence and technology Of the west, but
hates its ''rotting and decadent' civili-
cations. Her policy is one of splendid
isolation: expansion now, as in Dosto-
evski's time, for the avowed purpose
of "regeneration"; keeping her own
civilization aloof and uncontaminated
and Cooperating only for the pur-
pose Of achieving her own ends.
The Anglo-American powers, in COM
plete disregard Of their own security
and in apparent contempt of their own
civilization, have been collaborating for
their undoing.
This process is not leading to peace.
1t is leading inevitably toward war
unless we are to presume that the
United States will live on sufference a
generation hence.
Evening star., 1946-05-01
Deplores Wanton Wastefulness

To the Editor Of The Star:
In your fine, thought provoking
editorial Easter, 1896" you have stated
a shameful truth in saying: Year after
year it (Easter) has come and gone only
as the most inconsequential dates in the
ordinary calendar have neared and
passed" That is a terrible indictment,
and one sufficiently deserved to give us
pause. 1t is my observation-and it
shocked me!-that Mammon, indeed,
rules the world today, when even on
so sacred an anniversary as Good Friday
no cheap and tawdry radio program
was sacrificed in reverence to the great
est sacrifice of all. Even on Easter
Sunday, the same, stale. stupid. vulgar
comedians were listed in the commercial
refreshment offered to the Unsuitable
juveniles.
In the same Sunday Star in which
appeared the editorial referred to above
was another equally thoughtful: Famine
Inventory" Again my observation was
that all during the holy season of Lent,
the Capitals society pages listed endless
parties glowing with holiday spirits and
were spread to tempt the appetites of the
spread to tempt jaded appetities of the
overfed well-to-do. A news column in
your Tuesdays Star stated that IAN
estimated crowd of 5000 persons helped
consume 200 pounds of hot dogs, 100
cases of soft drinks and 1858 ice cream
sticks at an Easter egg hunt at which
a special feature was one of those pie
eating contests, SO dear to the hearts of
moronic funsters. I wonder what the
thoughts of the countless parents of
starving children throughout the world
would be if they could read that item
A writer has said that Americans
"enjoy the luxury of waste" Indeed
this country-most of it-does that; and
one day it will pay terrible price for
its wicked wantonness. None are so
blind as they who will not see-the
handwriting on the wall"
IsOBEL GREGORY DEXTER.
Evening star., 1946-05-01

than in kings or princes. Ferrero him
self recognized this. He said: There
is only one political form which is pos
sible today for a Western people, and
that is a representative government,
government whose powers are all, di-
rectly or indirectly, delegated by the
people, who are bound to obey them I"
But for representative government
to be, not traveSty imposed by force,
but serious institution possessing a
prestige which is indispensable to it's
sovereignty, two conditions are neces-
sary: That the right of opposition be
respected, and that there be free elec-
tions. The ma ajority has the right to
govern, but the minority has the right
to present its case. to criticize the gov
ernment, and to attempt to become the
majority by convincing the people"
This is the great issue in Paris.
take it that Messrs. Byrnes and Bevin
are not insistent upon little replicas of
Britain or the United States. Socialist
or even Communist governments can
be tolerated, if the will of the majority
sustains them.
But whatever the form of govern
ment, it can provide stability only if
the right of a minority to criticize or
TO seek to become a majority is recog-
nized. This is not true in Russia, of
course, but only Russia can change that
In most countries, there is no Com
munist majority. Russia must recog-
nize, on its side, and the United States
and Britain must recognize, on theirs,
that the stability everybody seeks is in
political systems sustained not by
zee, but by the balance of majority
/ minority parties.
If this principle is freely accepted by
Molotov, as well as by Byrnes and Be-
vim, not only will Russia win it's point
on Spain, but the Western Powers will
feel easier about the small states in
Eastern Europe.
released by Associated Newspapers. Ine.)
Evening star., 1946-05-01
Monchurion Setback

1t is disheartening that the Chi
nese Communists and Generalissimo
Chiang's national government have
failed in their negotiations in
Chungking to agree upon a Man.
churian truce, despite General Mar
Shalls best efforts to that end. Al
though talks are to be resumed in
Marking, the delay occasioned by
this failure can work only to the
disadvantage of China, for the
longer the two forces war against
each other, the more difficult it
will be for the country-and indeed
for Asia as whole-to begin to
enjoy some measure of the stability
1t so sorely needs.
AS President Truman's special
envoy, General Marshall apparently
supported a proposed cease fire"
agreement worked out by the DEM
ocratic League and approved by the
Communists. According to reports,
however, Generalissimo Chang re-
jected it primarily because he is
anxious to have his armies recap
ture Changchun and because it
would freeze" the present situa-
tion in such way as to leave the
Communists in virtually full control
of all but about a ninth of Man.
churia. The result is that the fight
ing continues and may become
grave and indefinitely prolonged
unless the negotiations in Nanking
prove fruitful.
On the basis of reports at hand,
there is no way of judging whether
Chiang's refusal to agree was JUS
titled, though it is easy enough to
see why he should be reluctant, as
chief of the government, to go
along with a formula that would
entrench the Communists in a rich
industrial and raw-materials area
indispensable to future Chinese de-
velopment Nevertheless, If General
Marshall favored the plan, he must
have been convinced in his own
mind that it would work to the
ultimate good of China as a whole,
irrespective Of factions.
Certainly continued warfare is
not likely to help. The sooner it is
brought to an end in Manchuria-
as it has been in China proper-the
sooner will that distressed country
be able to get back on its feet.
Until there is peace, until the
Chang government and the Com
munists resolve their differences by
rising above their own special in
Evening star., 1946-05-01
japanese Nuernberq

A "War-crlmeS trial" similar in
character and presumably equal in
significance to that which has been
going on during recent months in
Nuremberg, Germany. is now under
way in the somber War Ministry
Building in Tokyo. There Japan's
wartime Premier Hideki TOTO and
twenty-seven other members of
what the prosecution describes as
a criminal militaristic clique" were
formally arraigned on fifty-five
counts in war-crimes indictments.
AS at Nuremberg against the main
architects and executors of Nazi-
dom, the Tokyo indictments cover
not only specific breaches of tradi-
tional international war codes, such
as acts against prisoners and in
ternees, but also conspiracy to
dominate and exploit the world" in
conjunction with Nazi Germany and
Fascist Italy. Indeed. the charges
include planning acts of aggression
against Soviet Russia during the
years preceding the Pacific war
which the accused actually precipi-
tated by attacking the United States
at Pearl Harbor and levying war
against Australia, Canada, China,
France, the United Kingdom, India,
the Netherlands, the Philippines,
New Zealand and the United States.
That is why Soviet Russia is also
included among the prosecutors, the
theory being that Japan would have
attacked the Soviet Union if it had
not been deferred by Russia's obvi-
Gus strength. Indeed, the indict-
ment goes back to "acts of aggres-
sion" against the Soviet Union in
the years before 1941, these acts
being the series of border disputes
along the frontiers of Japanese
dominated Korea, Manchuria and
Inner Mongolia. In the same way,
France is included because of jap
anese action in French Indo-C China,
before Pearl Harbor, though tech
nlcal hostilities never materialized
owing to the complaisance of the
Vichy French local authorities.
The "world-conspiracy" item in
cludes such internal acts as the
systematic poisoning" of the Japa-
nese people with harmful ideas of
alleged racial superiority of Japan
over the whole people of Asia and
even the whole world" the imple-
mentation of parliamentary insti-
tutions for warlike ends, and the
mobilization of Japan's economic
and financial resources "for war
aims, to the detriment of the well
fare of the people of Japan"
Obviously the japanese trials,
like those at Nuremberg, represent
a radically novel departure in in
ternational law-at least in It's in
depreciation. That executive and
parliamentary heads of govern
ments can be indicted for the crime
of planning and preparing armed
aggression, in advance of actual
hostilities and apart from acts in
contravention of the accepted US
ages of war, is something that would
have not been seriously considered
before World War II. A major ex-
tension of the field of international
law is clearly in process of realiza-
ton.
Evening star., 1946-05-01
On the Record
By Dorothy Thompson

Mr.. Byrnes, In Paris, is certain to
have hard time. The peace confer
ence Is burdened with the accumulation
of past policies, which, however tenta-
lively made, have become realities. AL
though at Potsdam. Britain and Amer
lea did not finally approve the award
to Poland of Germany east of the Oder
and Niesse Rivers the radical truncation
of Germany has become a fact because
the Poles have moved in and settled the
land while large part of the Germans
have fled or been pushed out.
Eastern Europe from the Baltic to the
Adriatic Is effectively in the Russian
zone with the exception of Austria,
which is divided, as what remains of
Germany is divided, between four occu-
pying powers.
Danubia, of which Austria is histori-
cally and economically part, Is being
steadily integrated, politically and eco
nomically, into the Soviet system. Pol
icies have been permitted which made
this inevitable Britain, the United
States and the U. S. S. r., beginning
with Poland, have connived at the first
partition of Europe. They have thus
completed the wrecking of Europe, po-
litically, economically and-even more
Importantly perhaps-spiritually and
culturally.
All this has been done on the premise
that the first requirement of peace is
that the ANGLO American countries
should get on with Russia" To chal-
lenge this assumption as forming any
rational basis for peace has practically
amounted to high treason, both in this
country and in Britain. But the as
sumption has been. from the very begin
ming, false in its primary theses.
An obvious concomitant of the theory
that We must get on with Russia is that
Russia feels she must get on with us.
That is not primary Russian consider
alton at all. The Russian concept has
been to create by rapid fats accomplis,
a situation promising control over Eu-
rope and Asia isolating Britain and
America from the key global positions
in other words, falling heir to Hitler's
Eurasia.
In this the Soviets have combined
traditional Russian imperialism nd
messianism with its modern expression
communism. The concept of Russia
as the redeemer of the world through
creating a new world integration~ is
much older than communism. Feodor
Dostoevski was a counterrevolutionist
Evening star., 1946-05-01
Political Liberalism

1t is not easy, as Senator Ball of
Minnesota, recently told the grad
uating class of Syracuse University,
to be political liberal. For polit-
ical liberalism, in the true sense,
demands the holding of honest opin-
ions and the expression of honest
views-either or both Of which may
be expected to call down the wrath
of the articulate groups on the Right
and the Left.
There is a real and growing need,
however, for men in public life with
the courage to expose and condemn
the excesses of both groups. Senator
Ball does not discount the continuing
danger from what he calls the ex-
treme political right. But this right
wing has been the target of critical
comment by a good many politicians
men who know that it is neither
unpopular nor politically dangerous
to condemn our domestic "Fascists." 4"
There have not been so many who
were willing to speak out against the
extreme left wingers, although as
Senator Ball correctly says, it is
from this source today that we face
the greatest threat to political
freedom.
There are very few men in public
life in this country who do not un-
derstand the character and the aims
of the American Communists and
their fellow travellers. But most of
them have hesitated to speak out
for fear of being called a "Red
batter" a term which the Com
munists, capitalizing on the indis-
cretions of groups like the Dies
Committee, have succeeded in i'm
pregnating with a special oppro-
brium. Senator Ball, however, has
not hesitated to call Red a Red.
Communists and Fascists are alike, u
he told his Syracuse audience, "in
their devotion to the proposition
that the end justifies the means
On that basis they justify lies
cheating, murder, concentration
camps and secret police as necessary
steps on the road to a rosy Utopia
which always seems to be in the
distant future" And this, he added
is why liberals must fight Com
munists as bitterly as they fight
Fascists.
The question is how to wage the
Evening star., 1946-05-01
May Basket

I had forgotten ho,o May apples weaus
Their lost enchantment, how the cups
Creamy and stit, ,0ith stamens OF pals
gold
But I remember them on May day
eue:
Ho,D in touch of moon they glimnered
pearly
In night-dark leaues, turning "a.
grant breeze
SWeeter than honey Of moon -sUarming
bees
When blue ueluet night dreU in too
II I, some eue of May, should find them
so,
Filling basket swinging from my
door
II any one Mould see me any more.
He must Uulk softly through time
long ago.
YETzA GILLESPIE.
Evening star., 1946-05-01

fight. 1t is the more difficult, as
Senator Ball declared, because
liberals must always defend the very
freedom which Communists abuse to
achieve their end, which is the de-
Struction of freedom"
Up to point this is true, but it is
ridiculous to say, as some do, that
the liberty of Communists or Fascists
to abuse the freedoms of a demo-
cratic system must not be curbed,
even though the end result be the
loss of democracy itself.
Evening star., 1946-05-01
Mrs. Goldsmith

On June /, 1889, The Star carried
into the homes of Washington the
news of the greatest disaster which
up to that time ever had befallen
an American community. A two
column front-page story, headed:
"The Angry Waters" reported how
on the previous day the city of
Johnstown in Pennsylvania had
been destroyed.
Help, of course, was wanted i'm
mediately. Among those persons
who read the story was a gentle
hearted young girl. the eighteen
yearold daughter of Gustave Lans-
burgh, merchant, and Louisa, his
wife. The tragedy touched her
deeply. Money she might give, but
that was little. There was some
thing more that she wished to do.
Two gifts she possessed which were
all her own. She could play and
she could sing. So it happened that
Minnie Lansburgh in concerts to
raise funds for Johnstown survivors
took the first steps in her career of
service to others.
In 1891 she married Charles Gold
smith, and it is by his name that
she has been known ever since that
date. The list of her benefactions
is endless. She founded the Jewish
Foster Home and was one of the
founders of the Hebrew Home for
the Aged; she also established the
Washington Self-Help Exchange;
and she was instrumental in organ
izing the Community Chest and has
been one of the principal officers
and a member of it's Board of
Trustees since 1929. From 1916 until
1884, she was president of the Jewish
Social Agencies; from 1926 to 1887.
she was secretary of the Board of
Public Welfare. Her most recent en-
deavors have been in aid of the
Community War Fund and cur
rently the United Jewish Appeal.
No public expression of apprecia-
ton for such selfless devotion can be
completely adequate, but the back
ground OF philanthropy here indi-
Gated, known to many yet not to all
Washingtonians, is the explanation
OF why a special meeting of women
workers for the Appeal has been
arranged in Mrs. Goldsmith's honor
at the Mayflower Hotel today. She
lately was seventy-five. but she
still devotes her talents and sympa-
thies to people in distress.
Evening star., 1946-05-01
Population Trends
From the Reno Evening Gazette.

Fiom tue Keno evening SdZette.
1t isn't official yet, but California off,
clals claim to have learned through
the grapevine that their State now ranks
second in population. According to the
report, the latest Federal census esti-
mates place Pennsylvania population
at 9,193,957, while California is estimated
to have more than 100000. New York
still leads with 12.584,913
The Golden State has come a long
way in less than century. California
ranked 30th among the States in 1850,
with mere 1882. The State spurted,
thanks to the gold rush, in the next
decade, but the Federal census showed
it in 25th place, with a population of
379994.
AS late as 1910, the Federal census
still put Illinois, New York, Ohio and
Pennsylvania ahead of the Golden State