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Show TWO SIDES To Every Question "THE NIGGER IX THE WOODPIjLE" We often speak with justified pride of the three thousand miles of unfortified border between ourselves our-selves and Canada, and we express astonishment over the fact that somewhere in Europe war is certain cer-tain to occur every few years. There is nothing to be even mildly surprised at in either case. It would, on the contrary, be amazing amaz-ing if matters were otherwise. There are no age-old jealousies on this hemisphere; no historical causes for friction between its nations. na-tions. There is no struggle to maintain a "balance of power" and "economics" do not seriously clash. Except for the straightening straighten-ing out of a border line occasionally, occasion-ally, we have no territorial quarrels. quar-rels. Our only danger of war, therefore, would seem to be from without, and the Monroe Doctrine has been so far an effective deterrent de-terrent to foreign land grabbers except for the abortive attempts of France and Mexico and Panama. Pana-ma. No nation over here wants political control of any other. So we have no reason to fight. Europe the entire Eastern Hemisphere in fact is a "diametrical "diame-trical opposite." Her people are much like ordinary human beings (thank you!) They are perfectly satisfied to till the, soil, spin their yarns, manufacture and sell their wares, raise babies, eat, drink and be merry. But in every govern-men govern-men in Europe there is a cancer called by some the "Foreign Office." Of-fice." In the movies it would be "The Villain." This noxious, but necessary evil is the guardian of the archives; of the secret records rec-ords of plot and counter-plot; of balance and counter-balance. It is the thousand-year-old spider in the tangled web of international intrigue. Ninety-nine per cent of the new times rise to power in the various governments, which in peaceful nations of Europe, are ignorant of the intricate involvements which seem to guide every move of these "Black Widows." These new young governments take over the reins, intent for the most part upon rectifying the mistakes of their predecessor; upon building up the economic structure of their particular country; upon enriching enrich-ing their people and obtaining peace and happiness for them. As a rule, all goes well for a year or two and then the "villain" begins to whisper into the ear of the political bosses. To Bismarck or to the Kaiser or to Hitler the tempter recalls the days when the German tribes alone held , out against the legions of the Caesars, and when they alone finally crushed the Empire which had conquered all the world except them. He whispers of the glory of Otto the Great, and the so-named Holy Roman Empire, which he and his descendants founded; of the invincible armies of Frederick the Great, and their successful stand against practically all the rest of the world combined. He whispers of further conquest and of the necessity to control the free nations of Central Europe so that Germany may be in a position posi-tion to carve out her destiny as . the most powerful nation on earth. To dazzle the brain of the French statesman who before he took up politics may have been an honest farmer with no thought (and very little knowledge) of anything outside the geographical boundaries of La Belle France the wily spider flashes a mental newsreel of the glorious France of Louis XIV; of the Empire carv-by carv-by the greatest fighting machine ed out by the greatest soldier and of all time Napoleon Bonaparte and the Army of France. Why not again whispers the tempter? smash this German upstart, and who knows? Free then to control Continental Europe, why should France stand idly by and let her old enemy Britain profit by those very Colonial gains which she reaped at the expense of France? But these children in the art of intrigue reckon without the old master. These infants of the German Ger-man and French Foreign Offices, periodically forget the spankings they have received at the hand of their teacher, and again, and yet again, these juveniles drape them- selves for punishment over the knees of that Colossus of intrigue the British Foreign Office. The Foreign Office is the heart of the British political body. Governments Gov-ernments come and governments go, like old clothes, but the Foreign For-eign Office goes on forever. It Is steeped in, and saturated with, the theory that only by weakening Britain's potential rivals can the Empire hold Its position as mas- ter of the world. Into the crazy-quilt of bureau- cratic ambitions and ancient ri- valries kindly, innocent, good-natured good-natured old Uncle Sam was dragged drag-ged twenty-five years ago. What he was fighting about he didn't quite know himself. They told him the Kaiser was a bad man with horns who was going to swallow the world. They told him they had put their swords away forever, and then this ogre had come out and attacked them. They told him this was a brand new war that had nothing to do with the past; and that if he would help them hang this dreadful Kaiser man! there would never be another war. MORAL: Believe it or not, children, Uncle Un-cle Samuel fell for it; and alter all these years he is still walking with a bad limp. |