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Show U. S. Has Best Opportunity To Enforce Peace in Worlcl By BAUKIIAGE News Analyst and Commentator Once again we face the high cost of savagery or pievent-ing pievent-ing it depending on how you put it. Billions more to run the government and the world, and to cover a stepped-up defense program. Talk of a 10 per cent increase in the budget for next year seems logical. As one cynic remarked, in the next war perhaps per-haps we ought to try to get on the losing side, and let the victors support us for a change. Discussion of the details and cost of a selective service and universal military training program has been going on for some time. Sentiment against drafting husbands and G.I.'s seems to be crystallizing. It would seem that G.I.'i might be fairly good material in an emergency emer-gency without having to learn the general orders over again, and without with-out having to reacquire precision in bringing the right hand smartly to the cap brim or lying down within a reasonable period before the arrival of a machine gun bullet. As to the husbands they aren't entirely expendable, of course all of Value of the Little Fish The little ones didn't get awayl That is what Secretary of the Interior In-terior Julius A. Krug is explaining as he spreads the mesh of one of the CD-foot nets used by commercial fishermen of the New England coast. i them. Probably the ! most effective thing ' congress could i have done was to . vote immediately for immediate registration reg-istration for everyone. every-one. The age brackets brack-ets and exemptions, after all, could be settled later. If the emergency arises or even approacheswe approach-eswe can talk details. de-tails. That is the "Fifteen million baby haddock that didn't get away," says Krug, who at interior secretary is likewise responsible re-sponsible for keeping a government eye on America's fish and wildlife, "would have been worth a million and a hi If dollars to New England's fishermen from March to mid-October of last year. They were caught in ordinary nets, killed and discarded." dis-carded." If the little haddock had managed man-aged to get away, they probably would have grown up, been caught this year and aold by the tame fishermen for a million and a half dollars." This was one of the things I learned aboard the Albatross III, only floating laboratory possessed by the United States, which goes into service this spring. She started out ffUiFA' it ! I kind of emergency we face, and no sacrifice would be too great to prevent pre-vent it. Right now proof of our willingness will-ingness to act is most Important Contrary to the general assumption assump-tion that all we need is a few pushbutton push-button experts and professors of nuclear science, any war that might come from now on would require a more extensive mobilization mobiliza-tion of civilian as well as soldier than anything which has preceded it. Meantime, there is a better chance to establish a solid and stable peace than there ever has been. The United Unit-ed States has a better opportunity to enforce peace than any nation ever had. We could, with comparatively compara-tively small sacrifice, start a preparedness pre-paredness program to prevent the "imbalance" of power against us, as they say in diplomatic language. In other words we could, without danger of actual conflict, since there is no power NOW (not tomorrow or next year, but NOW) strong enough to threaten us, establish a Pax Americana. And with the will to peace that exists In the world today, we could use that situation, not as the Pax Romana or the Pax Brit-tanica Brit-tanica was used to create enemies but to build an effective Pax Uni-versa. Uni-versa. America, in its strength could well afford to yield sovereignty to an international force. A period of tranquillity, enforced if necessary, neces-sary, Is what the world needs; time to reflect." Rome and Britain did bring a long peace of sorts; we can establish a longer one one long enough, perhaps, to build a permanent one. The principle is simple as a colleague col-league of mine is fond of saying "nobody tries to pick a fight with Joe Lewis." Early statements were made to the effect that it would cost an additional addi-tional 480 millions over what already has been budgeted for universal military mil-itary training. We now spend 650 million dollars a year on cosmetics. And the total time used in applying them, according to my private statisticians, sta-tisticians, divided into manhours of military training, leaves a generous surplus for home-work. I do not mean to treat lightly the world situation and the idea of a Pax Americana is not an empty one. Baukhage interviews Interior Secretary Julius A. Krng aboard the floating fish laboratory "Albatross "Alba-tross III" in Boston harbor. as a regular commercial trawler, was drafted, transformed into a member of the coast guard's Atlantic patrol, discharged and now is equipped equip-ped to do exactly the work commercial com-mercial fishermen do, plus a lot more (by her crew of scientists) which will help the fishermen do better. One of the tasks of the fish experts ex-perts is to see if anything can be figured out which will save the wastage wast-age created by catching the fish too young and thus preventing them from growing up to be caught and sold another year. The mesh in the net in the picture Is four and a half inches instead of the standard three-and-a-half measurement. meas-urement. Experiments have shown that use of the larger mesh saves 80 per cent of the under-sized fish, and does not reduce the size of the catch of the larger, marketable fish. But the commercial fishermen It is, In fact, the only kind of a peace we can be sure of until we have time to stabilize world conditions, con-ditions, until there is a fairer division di-vision of the bread, and the security se-curity in which to cam it and eat it; a cessation of the fear, suffering suffer-ing and anxiety which make men trade their heritage of freedom for the empty promise of protection , at any price. I sympathize with the people who oppose militarism in any form; but I do not accept as a valid syllogism: Militarism is bad; military training in America is militarism; therefore, military training in America is bad. Military training in Germany (the classic example) was the result of militarism, not its cause. Military training in America is no more related re-lated to German militarism than a hot dog is brother to a Dachshund. have to be shown. One of the many tasks of the Albatross Alba-tross III is to prove by actual demonstration demon-stration that this Is true. It is a big job. And the department of the interior in-terior has a big man at the head of it. The dwarf in the photograph to whom Krug is talking (according to figures on my White House pass provided pro-vided by the secret service) is 5 feet, 11 inches tall and I am standing on my two feet, not kneeling. Few Americans sipping their coffee, cof-fee, says Mid-America Information bureau, know that the berries from which it is made look a good deal like cherries. And for that matter, few Americans, sipping their Manhattans, Man-hattans, say I, know that the cherries cher-ries in them look a good deal like coffee berries. |