To the average American, the Nazi seizure of Austria demonstrates three things.

First, the futility of contracts or treaties with dictator nations. Nobody can deny that Friday's invasion was a direct violation of the Berchtesgaden agreement. There Hitler agreed with Schussnig on the independence of Austria. Certainly nobody can deny to an independent state the right to conduct a plebiscite on a question of fundamental policy. Yet Schussnig's announcement of a plebiscite resulted in the seizure of Austria and control by Hitler.

Second, it demonstrates that treaties signed at the point of a sword are worthless. This climaxes a series of violations of Versailles by Hitler. In no instance have the other signatories to Versailles even more than mildly protested.

Third and most important, it demonstrates the futility of war as an instrument for settling international controversies. Twenty years ago we were in the midst of a gigantic struggle to preserve democracy in the world. We gave our blood, our lives, our money and our resources. Twenty years later, we see the torch of world leadership being seized by the world's leading dictator.

We cannot deny the fact that Adolf Hitler today is Europe's leader. We tremble at what he will do next. We know what will become of religious liberty in Austria, both for the Jews and the Catholics. It just will not exist. We know what will happen to freedom of speech and of the press. They will be suppressed. Democratic processes for 7 million Austrians are extinct.

The probabilities are that he will press into Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, and then on into the Ukraine.

Events are moving rapidly in Europe these days. The old Continental intrigue is too fast-moving for the average American to understand. England thought that by substituting the realistic actualities of Chamberlain for the idealism of Eden, she could stem the tide of the onslaught of the aggressive dictator. Just two weeks later she found she was too late. France has thought throughout the years that she could rely on the Steel Ring about Germany. She now faces its collapse. Even Mussolini looked with patronizing friendliness on his imitator. He now finds that the student has outgrown the master.

What does this all add up to, so far as America is concerned? Certainly disillusionment as to what can be accomplished by the instrument of war. We tried to preserve democracy in Europe once by going to war. We know now that that method does not work.

I have been saddened by the events of these last three days. So saddened that I took solace in the source from which I always find comfort when it seems that the going is too rough to withstand. I went to the essay of Emerson in which he says: "This law writes the law of cities and nations. It will not be balked of its end in the smallest iota. It is in vain to build or plot or combine against it. Things refuse to be mismanaged long. Though no checks to a new evil appear, the checks exist, and will appear. Nothing arbitrary, nothing artificial, can endure."

Of all forms of government yet conceived, democracy furnishes the most useful agencies for fighting arbitrary and artificial mismanagement.

What we must do is to protect and preserve democratic methods in America. No doubt we will be importuned again to spend our resources in a futile effort to correct conditions in Europe. The inevitable law of which Emerson speaks will take care of Europe.

What we must do is preserve Amerian democratic processes to care for our own. History shows that democracies have disappeared when they failed to care for their own. Futility has ever been the nemesis of democracies.

Never in the world's history has it been more necessary than it is necessary for democracy to work here and now. That we have an abundance of local problems, nobody can deny. Quarrels exist between labor and industry. This is the time when those quarrels should be submerged for the general good. America's position must be consolidated.

If the rest of the world wants to involve itself in a general brawl, that is its business. The successful advance of civilization depends on the maintenance of democratic institutions SOMEWHERE. That place should be here. Let us turn our hands to that task, so that no outside influences can turn us from it.

Labels: Danbo, switchover, Гром победы

¶ 3:05 AM