Show VOICE A voige FROM THE COUNTRY Us S dollars can t halt cataclysm facing world editor editors s note this Is the third in a series of articles on current problems by louis bromfield one of america americas s leading writers by LOUIS BROMFIELD released He leased by features there are times when some of the men in positions of power or influence in this country seem like pitiful ant like figures confronted by a vast wave about to overwhelm them which like canute they are commanding to stand still their voices loud out of all proportion to the roar of the oncoming wave because we all are standing near them still seem puny and insignificant what they are crying out to the wave approaching them is we will pay you to subside we will give you billions of dollars ando raw materials and manufactured commodities if you will simply sub side and behave yourself they are trying to buy off what is a world cataclysm the world Is far worse off than even the loudest calamity howlers of the state depart ment have implied the two world wars the vast increase of 1 w 0 r id population during the cen tury the industrial tl revolution with its evil social results the dire shortage of food in the world the demoralization bromfield and chaos ot of most governments the t h e es of russia in a ing world are not merely incidents ot of comparative historical inesm cance to be repaired overnight by a few billion dollars recalls past history together and they are in tile ble with many other intimations of disaster they form a great wave of history such as destroyed carthage and brought about the fall of rome they represent a revolutionary change in world society as great as the disappearance of feudalism or the inauguration of the industrial age and the rise of the british em pire there Is no way of dissipating the wave confining it reorder or order ing it to cease the best we can do Is to put out stout anchors against the storm adjust our selves and hope to survive as people do in a hurricane the wave is everywhere evident in the orient the near east russia and europe to fling ourselves against it to think that we can buy off or even postpone its approach is simply a folly by which we weaken our own forces unfortunately per haps tragically the responsibilities for our defense are largely in the hands of men who still are thinking in the idiom of an age which is al ready past and will not return withstanding the wave it is possible that we as a nation may be able to stand as a rock in the path of that oncoming wave sur biving it as rome survived the wave which swept her world as barbaric carthage challenged her power and security we shall not do so iffe deliberately weaken ourselves in in s s picayune efforts to halt the wave I 1 mean by picayune efforts tour four billions loaned to england and dissipated quickly 20 bil lions poured into europe to van ish perhaps without result over night or even billions and bil lions more waves of history like earthquakes and hum hurri canes are not to be bought off they are simply not in the market the unrest the perpetual strikes the unwillingness of british coal miners to produce more the despair of absurd and destructive nihilist philosophies like existentialism the inertia and the despair of whole peo pies the prevalent philosophy of bv hv ing from day to day the evil tactics of russia in exploiting all these ele ments and many more are all a part of that wave of history money will not cure the despair of a twice defeated germany germa y it will w not get more work out of the e british brals h coal miners who constantly seek more and more pay for less and less work in a desperate nation on the verge of bankruptcy it will only permit the miner to relax a little more before the final catastrophe which may engulf us as well it is that the abler and more honest European leaders are show ing some recognition of this fact purge Is necessary to soar into the realms of philo history there thele come times when a purge of men and nations seems necessary and inevitable when man is forced to depend upon himself alone and to develop inge guity energy leadership and indeed a whole new soul in order to save money aloney null will not get more work out of the british coal miners who constantly seek more and more pay for less end and less work in a desperate nation on the verge of bankruptcy himself and his country A europe which is unwilling to give up art arti fici filially ally pegged currencies campli bated customs barriers a britain which still seeks to re establish car aels and century closed trade areas has not yet reached the ca tharsis thansis out of which new strength new character new hope is born forced into socialism on the one hand by poverty and disaster brit am still clutches with the other the decaying remnants of the cen tury imperialism which brought her in another age great power and wealth that imperialism lies les be hind the advancing wave of history gone forever the humanitarian responsibility for food lies les almost wholly upon our shoulders and so long as civilization exists and christian morality has any weight cannot be avoided we cannot look tor for humanitarianism in the moral and ethical vacuum rep resented by soviet russia the men in moscow in themselves a horrible manifestation of the wave will use their wheat politically they will even sell it at a high price demand ing in turn american dollars be cause their own pegged currency has no real value in the world russia overestimated despite its ruthlessness and real ism soviet russia is not a power comparable to this nation As wal ter lippmann has pointed out the satellites and the nations russia has ved up are in their present state liabilities rather than sources of strength essentially russia is only a potential power which can fall into disintegration quickly in the face of another war it is not impossible that the balkans and central europe can tall fall within a generation into the desolation of 0 the thirty years war that possibility too is a part of the wave of history we shall not stop the wave by pouring out billions and billions carelessly or perhaps generously or under any other circumstances we can however perhaps keep intact a citadel about which world civi civilize liza tion can rebuild itself we shall not do so by economically weakening ourselves the quickest route to the destruction of democracy is that of economic depress on to weaken yourselves ourselves in a futile attempt to halt the wave of bistok history y is the surest way to death of democracy and in the end of western civilization |