The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1949-04-08

based on mutual understandin
Four years ago this spring
Roosevelt died = and every
spring since there has been a
determined drive against world
peace. The latest is the North
Atlantic military pact.
A farmer friend of mine said the
other day: "What is this North At
lantic Pact? I hear over the radio
that you are against it. Why? What
is this pact anyway"
My reply was very simple. I said
this pact really means that we are
going to send billions of dollars of
tanks, planes, and guns to arm west
ern Europe. My farmer friend is a
veteran of the last war-and prompt
ly replied: GLOW long will it be be-
fore we have to send menu" Ideol-
ogies mean nothing to him. Russia
means nothing. But getting into
war again means everything. This
man had never talked politics or
policies with me until the North
American Pact came up. When he
gets worried it means nearly every
one in the United States is worried
Americans are rightly worried.
They sense that the pact, as one
writer has put it, is "superseding a
one-world organization with a mill
tary alliance looking toward the pos
sibility of war in a world split in
two"
UN is FIRST VICTIM
The first victim of the pact is the
United Nations = the one hope for
peace.
When Secretary of State Ache5on
claimed the pact is an essential in
strument for strengthening t h e
United Nations, the New York Post
called this the most absurd of all
claims, and one columnist called it
For the clear intention
of the pact is to take the place of
the United Nations. Mr.. Bevin and
Mr.. Churchill have been more frank
about this than Acheson. The pact
sets up an Atlantic council with a
staff committee in Europe |
with more power than the UN Secur-
ty Council. The Atlantic Pact sub
;titutes the devided nations for the
United Nations. The military men
and the diplomats who put over the
pact try to justify it as a regional
under the United Ma
ions Charter. /
What kind of region is it that
covers everything from the Aleutian
Stands in the North Pacific to Afri-
"a? Can this hard dividing of the
world into two armed camps bring
)eace?
BASES UP TO BORDER OF USSR
Stripped of legal verbiage, the
North Atlantic military pact gives
the United States Army military
bases up to the very borders of the
Soviet Union.
Recently a national conference
vas held by the Federal Council of
churches of Christ in America, rep
esenting all the Protestant denomi-
ations. These Protestant leaders
aid about the North Atlantic Pact,
No defense alliance should be en-
cred into which might validity ap-
ear as aggressive to Russia, as
.ussian alliance would undoubtedly V
ppear to u.s." /
AS we ponder these words and
mink of the bases which the Atlantic L
act will set up so close to Russia +
re cannot afford to forget Russian .
istory. In the last 25 years they p
ave been attacked by foreign armies h
We separate times. Does anyone S
nagine that, as they stare across f
leir borders at our jet bombers l;
nd our cannon, calm visions of
eace will be born in their minds? t
we apply Christian behavior and t.
y for moment to put ourselves Ii
their place the true meaning of t
lie Atlantic Pact will be clear to us.