Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1951-08-05
Constant Alert

aggreSsiveness of Communist Rus
sia's intentions was first being
realized in this country, Americans
found themselves looking ahead
into a future which seemed to con-
tain only three possible courses of
action for them. The first was
appeasement and surrender, which
they could not contemplate. The
second was attack-the concept of
the so-called preventive war
which they could not stomach. The
third course, at first look, seemed
hardly less grim than the other
two. 1t was that the United States
must maintain itself, and the rest
of the free world, in state of pre-
paredness for an indefinite time
the ramparts manned, the sentrieS
alert, the entire garrison expecting
the worst but praying for the best,
year after year after year.
The third course was the only
one worth considering. But many
an American, in those days, saw in
it a fearSome prospect-that the
tense, extended effort that would
be required to protect the American
way of life might itself destroy the
American way of life. The hope
lessness of the threatened dilemma
was appreciated not only in this
country, but also in the Kremlin.
RuSsia's leaders made no secret of
their belief that capitalist America,
If it did not fall to pressure from
without, would crumble internally
under the pressure of the drive to
make itself secure.
The Acid Test
America chose the third course
the road of permanent prepared
ness. 1t chose, at the same time,
to set about it in such a way that
the gloomy predictions as to what
would become of us in the process
had the least chance of being real
lied. For the system which has
made this country what it is-let
us call it, for want of better name,
democratic free enterprise-this
clearly was the crucial, acid test
If that system should fail to sur
vive the test, whether it went down
on the field of battle or died trying
to get ready for the battle, it prob
ably would not get another chance
The stakes, therefore, were high.
The authorship of Americas bat
tie plan in this fight for life is OBJ
scure. 1t has been called the
Wilson plan, but the mobilization
chief would be the last to claim
that he invented it. No one person
did. The man who seems first to
have set it down formally on paper
was Leon Keyserling, chairman of
the Presidents Council of Eco
nomic Advisers.
The basic idea behind the plan
is easier to pin down. It is this:
Since America must maintain itself
in a permanent state of prepared
ness, it must build itself a perma-
nent plant for defense production.
The base of the economy we now
have is the machinery and raw
material we now have. If we try,
for the long pull, to make that
base support both the civilian
economy and the required defense
production, the result will be col
lapse. The base must be expanded
Put it another way. If America
tries to meet the challenge of the
future with what it now has, it will
bleed itself white in the process
There is only one way out-growth
America must grow, and grow fast
in bone and Sinew. Then it can
devote the added portion of its
stature to Tending off the threat
of tomorrow. With the reSt-with
what it now has, that is-it car
hold the blessings of today. And
If the day ever comes when to-
morrow holds no threat of war
then Americas old and new
strength can be thrown together