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Show Willkie Emphasizes Heed r For U. S. to Direct Peace W. I f Dedicates His Life to Arousing American J h Leadership in 4AII-0ut Offensive for Global Peace When War Ends.' f By I5AI KII AC.H Ami Analyst mid CoininvnUilnr. UNI' S.rvUc, 1343 II Street, N. W., Washington, I). C. r...'rrj So:e: In in exclusive interview wuh likr:.ti. Wentlel Willkie dit-comm dit-comm his ' blueprint tor the tuture" In tre to!loing article, Willkte disposes ot the thi'd P.i'fy question and discusses Arr.eitrs s ioj in the post-war peace. Wendell Willkie has cut cut a hutje, nrw job for himself. Tlift revelation came to me in one startling, rapier sentence, hurled across his desk us I sat opposite, an unsuspecting, inquiring reporter. It is the biggest Job Willkie ever tackled. Bigger, I am sure he believes, be-lieves, than being President, even in wartime, would have been. It is not the Job of leading a third party. I have his word that he considers con-siders formation of a third party impossible. It is the Job of arousing America to leadership in an all-out offensive for a global peace when the war ends beginning now. With his well-thatched head und his square shoulders silhouetted against the flashing panorama of the East river below, Willkie talked to me In the ollke of his law firm on Broad street in New York. A Jangling telephone interrupted occasionally, occa-sionally, he paused to give quick answers to pencilled notes from his secretary, but he kept his mind on far horizons as he answered a list of 14 questions which I had prepared. pre-pared. The remark that convinced rue that he means business was a part of his answer to the ninth of my 14 questions. After he had stressed the necessity for more American leadership lead-ership in the war effort of the United Nations, I asked: "What will happen if the United States doesn't take this leadership you say Is necessary? How will it affect the war? How will It affect the post-war world?" American Leadership Willkie has a habit of looking you In the eye. He doesn't often gaze into space and meditate before he speaks. "If there is not a United Nations united command and united council, with America playing its part In the leadership I mean political and moral leadership as well as military leadership it will mean that the war will last longer, many more lives will be lost uselessly . , ," By this time his words were staccato, stac-cato, each sharply emphasized, the words of a man who wanted his hearers to believe. The last phrase came crescendo: ". . . and the world will revert to the old spirit of nationalism." Then he turned and looked at me Intensely: "That's why I have dedicated dedi-cated my life to this job." TTtofe words and the way they were spoken convinced me that Wendell Willkie, whatever his political polit-ical ambitions might be. had drawn a blueprint for his own future that was wider than the map of the United States. "We have to get started now." he said, "we can't wait until the war is over. We have to begin to build the machinery step by step. It Isn't a thing that will come full-blown out of the bottle." "What are you going to do about It?" I asked. Third Party Again "I am going to speak, I am going to write, I am going to try to convert con-vert the country to the belief and 1 am going to work within the framework of the Republican party toward the adoption of this Idea as a policy." "What about a third party?" I asked. "The formation of a third party Is legally impossible," he replied, Impatiently Im-patiently brushing aside the political implications. He returned to the question of a war nnd peace policy. Just what is tins "policy"? Mr. Willkie made that petty plain In his report to the nation. He said: "To win that peace throe things seem to be necessaryfirst, we must plan now for peace on a global basis; second, the world trust be free, economically and politically, for nations and for men that peace ).,ay exist i:i it; third, America must play an active, cor.structive part in freeing it and keeping its peace." Willkie warts, immediately, a full statement of post-war aims, an extension ex-tension of the Atlantic Charter so written that ail the nations of the globe will be assured that all are to he co-benellciaries. He wants, immediately, a real United Nations united command and a united council coun-cil ("no second class allies"). Out of this, American leadership will automatically develop, he believes, be-lieves, because of the "reservoir of good will" which America has built up on her non-imperialistic policy. The immediate creation of a unit- j , . . . eu command ana a united council, Willkie said, will provide the proper machinery for carrying the war to a speedy victory and form the nucleus nu-cleus of the world organization which can establish and maintain the global peace the ultimate objective. ob-jective. The necessity for action now, Willkie Will-kie stressed again and ugain. On Organization More of his own ideas came out in response to questions on specillc issues which I felt he had not clarified in his report to the nation. I asked him how he expected to provide security for the small, dependent de-pendent nations and the colonies if the great nations surrender their political power over these quasi-dependencies. quasi-dependencies. "We cannot expect to restore the economic boundaries of the world after the war," he said, "but we can see that the small, dependent peoples are allowed to benefit from the revenue of the things they producethat pro-ducethat they are not exploited. There will have to be an international interna-tional police force to provide for their security, but we must see that these countries are provided with Cfinitntim knnllk n J -J SI.HI1UUIIM, uwauii unu truncation, paid for by their own resources, until un-til they can be built up to the point where they can govern themselves. It may take centuries. That doesn't matter. But there can be no peace in the world until problems like the problem of India are settled under international arrangement, with the obligations to such nations guaranteed guaran-teed by some kind of an international interna-tional group. But we cannot wait for an organization to be formed. The United States must start by guaranteeing such obligations, later bringing in the other nations of the world." "Can Russia be fitted Into the democratic picture?" I asked, "and how should we avoid forcing our brand of democracy on other nations na-tions which might not want it?" Russian Cooperation Willkie answered these two questions ques-tions in one. He said: "Russia can be fitted into the international pattern. pat-tern. I believe Russia will cooperate. co-operate. It can then be left to work out its own internal affairs. This nnnlies to nthnr nntinna as i-ll Ti,a point is that we must shift the leadership lead-ership as it is today from an Anglo-American Anglo-American leadership to a United Nations leodership. Then the United Unit-ed States will naturally assume the lead because the other nations will automatically turn to us for guidance." guid-ance." "Should there be encouraged nongovernmental non-governmental groups to work out a post-war program now?" I asked. "Certainly," he said, "the more discussion the better. People all over the country should be encouraged encour-aged to speak their minds on the subject Universities should take it up. Radio and press must do their part Public opinion is formed in the home. You and I may have a wider Held for expressing ourselves, but public sentiment itself must be built through Individual discussion." My time had long run out but not Mr. Willkie's patience. When I left I had the feeling that I had been consuming the first hour's worth of a lifetime dedicated to the building of a new world. If the gentleman behind the paper-littered paper-littered desk overlooking the East river is as convincing to others as he was to me. perhaps something never dreamt of in Its philosophy is about to come out of that comer of Manhattan bounded by Broad and Wall streets. |
