Evening star., 1949-01-21
An Appeal for Peuce

The President of the United States spoke
yesterday to an audience which reaches
around the world.
1t was a wholly admirable address.
Harry S. Truman won the right to this
term in the White House after campaign
which was geared primarily to national or
sectional issues and which was designed
to squeeze the last drop of partisan ad-
vantage from domestic discontents. But
there was nothing of the partisan poll
tician about the man who delivered his
message of faith and hope to waiting
world yesterday afternoon.
President Truman spoke as one who has
looked into the future and who is undis-
mayed by what he sees there. 1T may be
our lot" he said, Ito experience and in
large measure to bring about, q major turn
ing point in the long history of the human
race" In other words, the next four years
will be decisive years. That brief span OF
time will determine whether mankind can
move forward peacefully or whether the
world must endure the incalculable dis
aster of another great war. This decision,
however, must not be left to the coercive
influence of drifting events. For that in
all probability would lead first to chaos
and then to war. If there is to be peace
in the world 1t must come from a willing
ness on the part of the people of this
country to exert In timely fashion the
great influence which they and they alone
are capable of bringing to bear. This is
a responsibility which cannot be passed
along to others. For we, and only we,
have the power and the necessary means
We must understand that the decision for
peace or war will turn very largely upon
what we do or fail to do in the years that
lie Immediately ahead.
The President, to be sure, appealed for
the support, moral as we'll as physical, of
"the millions who hunger and thirst after
righteousness" These potential allies are
to be found in every country of the world
and as an 1nducement to them Mr. Truman
put forward a program filled with promise
of better times. This is important as q
counter to the propaganda of communism,
which promises much but delivers little.
We should not delude ourselves, how
ever, with the notion that promises on our
part, without substantial fulfillment, will
be enough. Nor should we ever lose sight
OF the central fact that promises will re-
main promises unless and until we do the
things that must be done to translate
them into material benefits. AS Mr.. Tru-
man said, we have slowly but surely been
weaving a world fabric of international
security and growing prosperity At best
this will continue to be a slow and costly
process. For there is no quick or cheap or
easy road to peace. But whatever the price
which has to be paid, 1t will be incompara-
bly, less than the cost of another alien
gulf1ng war.
No one should suppose that we will be
able to sustain our political life at the
high level reached in the inaugural address.
Before many weeks have passed the in
evitable conflicts inherent in domestic
issues will be upon US, and men in both
parties will be grabbing for political ad-
vantage. But this need not and must not
divert us from the really important fact
of life in our time. However may 60 the
political battle on the domestic front, the
overriding issue of peace or war will re-
main constantly with U.S. And, this being
so, good Americans of both parties will
refuse to let partisan recriminations drown
out the message of faith and hope, the
appeal and the program for decent peace
which the President has put before sorely
troubled world,