The Wilmington morning star., 1947-04-22
Tragic Reminder
nv ANNE O,HARE MCCORMICK

BY ANNE O'HARE MCCORMICK
War reporters who have seen Texas City
are inevitably reminded of Nagasaki after the
atom bomb, or some European town lad
waste in one of the climactic air raids That
finished the war. The horror and devastation
experienced by nearly every other peAlger-
ent country in the late conflict came to the
United States for the first time in the awful
disaster on the Gulf Coast. Some OF the VIC
tins and many who risked their lives IN the
heroic work of rescue were ex-servlce men.
They were among the Texans who boooed up
on every battlefield, in such numbers ana
with such irrepressible pride in their native
state that a bewildered French liaison officer
once asked the writer: lis the war being
fought by all the states or just by Texas!'
When they gaxed on the towers OF smoke
ana fame, the twisted and charred wreckage
of their home town, many Of these hghtlng
Texans must have remembered scenes on the
battlefront. One former CT is quoted as say
ing in a tone of incredulous awe: Il never
thought I'd see anything like this in Texas
Other Americans, looking at pictures that
brought back again the panorama OF ruin
that stretches from Coventry to Stallngrad,
shuddered a little - in sympathy with the
dazed survivors in Texas City and also in
premorition, for the catastrophe in Texas,
hideous result of a freak accident, was like
a preview of what would happen to a thousand
American cities, spared in the late war, II
another conflict were allowed to break upon
the world. T.
The country is jittery anyway. No American
has any illusions that we will be spared ths
next time from direct attack or from lmme'
date attack. There is no question mat tne
only way to avoid destruction is to prevent
war, yet no one seems to know how to make
peace. The inconclusive arguments at Mos
COW have a more discoura ging effect than
the Foreign Ministers realize, or than dis
agreements in the first round OF negotiations
on Germany would warrant If they were moi
the climax Of SO many %frictlons.
The conference drags to a close in an at
mosphere heavy with doubts of the possibility
of accord or compromise on vital issues.
Some observers find it salutary that the diff
ferences in the Soviet point of view and that
of the Western Powers are clarified in this
debate Certainly they are palmer and more
simply stated than before. Secretary Marshall
has presented his arguments in writing and
the Soviet Government has made good Its
promise to permit the conference to be freely
reported, with the result that the American
public knows better than in previous meet
ings Just what the United States delegation
stands for. But Qualification has also deepen
ed the cleavage. For the first time, in fact
it is a sharp East-West division, for the
French in these parleys have taken sides in
stead of swinging back and forth.
In this atmosphere the holocaust of Texas
CITY is likely tc intensity the American dread
Of war. Logically it should therefore strength
en- their efforts for peace. We are the least
war-like Of peoples, perhaps because we have
the least to gain and the most to lose by war.
Our primary aim is to keep what we have
our system of government, our standard Of
life, the position OF security which makes
most Americans believe, in spite of Pearl
Harbor, that fighting or not fighting is a
matter of our own choice. Thus our attempts
to check conflicts before they start, even con-
rlicts in which we have soon found ourselves
involved to the hilt, have been neither whole
hearted nor effective. President Roosevelt
tried it in his famous warning to Hitler in
1889 President Truman is trying it with more
force IN his program of strengthening Greece
and Turkey against attack.
But the first line of defense against war Is
strength within ourselves. This is so trite that
it is forgotten until a wise and long-sighed
citizen like Mr.. Bernard Baruch reminds us,
as he did in South Carolina the other day,
that our power is rooted in production. The
world crisis of today is first of all a crisis of
underproduction. In France, Britain. Italy. the
lands Of eastern Europe, even in Russia from
FL accounts, tagging human energy. the ef-
feet Of fear and hopeless ness on one hand
and OF the blocking of the ormal currents
of trade and communication on the other.
diminishes output at a time when the world
should be in a fury of reconstruction.
Mr.. Baruch is right when he declared that
if the productive forces Of the United States,
capital and labor. would work longer hours,
without strikes or layoffs, for the next eight
cen months. the effect at home, and abroad
would be electrifying. There is no place left
to which to turn for regeneration except f.
Amerira." he says. and there is also no other
place to turn for example and insniration.
The responsibility of America to show the
way out Of the labyrinth in which lost nations
are seeking peace and heading for war is
even greater than the obligation to tide them
over with financial help.
A correspondent suggests another way of
making e down payment on peace. ''Why
wait for Defense and War Bond Drives for
World War III?" he asks. why not have a
Peace Bond Drive now to raise the ten bill
lion they say it will take to straighten out
the economies and s%traighten the backs Of
the distressed nations of the world? Let the
Arsenal OF Democracy demonstrate its love
for np9co aC uno1l nc sc S%roro4L d. --.-y