Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 9, Number 45, DeMotte, Jasper County, 28 September 1939 — WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS BY JOSEPH W. LaBINE New Totalitarian Combination May Spell Doom of Empires; Stalin Acts as String-Puller [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]
WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS BY JOSEPH W. LaBINE New Totalitarian Combination May Spell Doom of Empires; Stalin Acts as String-Puller
EDITOR’S NOTE—When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) ——————————— Released by Western Newspaper Union. __________________
Territory taken by Poland from Lithuania (and previously by Lithuania from Russia), together with land lost to Poland at the treaty of Riga, is the Soviet’s first military objective in "protecting" Ukrainians and K bite Russians. Germany will probably take all Polish land formerly belonging to herself and to the AustroHungarian empire. Eastern Galicia, populated by Ukrainians, yet a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and highly cot eted by Germany, has a problematical future. Area in white may remain a Polish state.
THE WAR: Diplomatic Front Thoroughly vindicated this month are the astute international observers who have called Russia’s Josef Stalin the shrewdest diplomat of Europe, shrewder even than Germany’s Adolf Hitler who begged and won Russia’s friendship a few weeks ago. Like a remote control operator w'ho needs only to punch buttons. Dictator Stalin sat in his Kremlin palace and manipulated diplomatic machinery that responded like one-two-three clockwork in a sequence of events that sped westward from Tokyo to Paris and London, leaving the harried allies of Europe’s war in miserable shape: Truce. For five years stubborn Japan has fought an undeclared, informal war with Russia in the vast wastelands of Manchukuo and Outer Mongolia. Ambitious elsewhere, Stalin was not free to med-
die 1 in European politics or peck at the British empire so long as Japan remained n nuisance, put one upshot of the recent RussGerman nonlagg r ess ion pact was a hiore thor-
ough welding of world totalitarianism. Germany, already allied with Japan, intervened to start conversations between Soviet Premier ViaCheslav Molotov and Japan's ambassador to Moscow. Shigenori Togo. Result: A Jap-Soviet truce, welcomed in Tokyo because it meant Nippon could not only push her conquest of China but also oust pestiferous French and British interests from the Orient; Conquest. Thus freed, Russia turned westward. German troops already occupied half of Poland, vlhose defense was collapsing rapidly. While Dictator Stalin ran the show from behind scenes. Premier Molotov sent his troops, tanks and planes wheeling across the frontier to “take under their protection” about 11,000,000 Ukrainians and White Russians in eastern and southern Poland. Thus relieved (by pre-arrangement) from conquering the rest of that nation, Germany was in turn freed to turn westward. Result. Some observers believed 70 German divisions used against Poland were rushed to the western ftont, where silence still masked hostilities in the Saar basin. But both France and Britain knew their jdb was becoming more formidable hourly as the Nazi juggernaut began unleashing its full strength. Questions, Forecasts Unnoticed in this ghastly and growing conflict were the fate and fortunes of men-at-arms. Britain had lost 22 ships including the veteran airplane carrier. Courageous. Three hundred thousand men fought in the Saar, with thousands more on the way. Gdynia fell. Brest-Litovsk and Lwow were shambles. Warsaw, in even worse shape, negotiated her surrender. Paris heard the Russians were invading Lithuania, also that the Polish war had cost Germany 100,000 killed and wounded. (One dead was a grandson of the ex-Kai-ser.) France’s mine layer. Pluton, exploded in Morocco. But men were merely pawns in the game of war. While they died, their leaders fretted over a future which may make today’s holocaust
mild by comparison Nations with far-flung territories (France and Britain) suffer most when their enemies (Japan, Russia, Germany and Italy) are also far flung. While the harried allies had their hands full keeping mighty Germany at bay behind her invulnerable West wall, these things might happen: Japan. Under German coaxing. Dictator Stalin might withdraw his support of China’s long-suffering Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, thus paving the way for immediate completion of Japan’s war. Meanwhile the maze of European concessions and settlements in China could be wiped out because western nations are too busy at home to complain. Russia. With 600.000 men concentrated on the Afghanistan border, the Soviet could use this nation as a jumping oft place .in her campaign to establish rule over India. Meanwhile the Kremlin’s threat is luring Turkey away from her alliance w'ith Britain and France, thus closing the Black sea outlet which has been Rumania s sole hope of independence. Germany. Between hem the Reich and Soviet must divide Poland. If Germany takes only her pre-World war territory ASrr Map) and Russia takes only the land Poland took by force in 1919-20. a buffer state would still remain between the two powers—-provided a settlement can be reached in southeastern Poland, whose rich Galician lands are coveted by both Berlin and Moscow. Italy. Shattered was the popular belief that Italy would not only stay neutral, but might even come to the allies’ side. Observers still expected Benito Mussolini to promulgate a peace conference any day. but they also knew he had an ulterior motive. Italy wants the FrenchItalian port of Djibouti, entrance to Italian Ethiopia, made a free port; she wants control of the DjiboutiAddis Ababa railroad; she wants a
major voice in administering the Suez canal; she wants other assorted and miscellaneous concessions which the allies foolishly denied her after the World war. Choice. The four totalitarian nations might decide to strike first and talk peace later. Or they may poise their threats and then sue. Whichever course they take, Britain and France are on the spot; never in modern history have Iheir empires been so completely threatened. Probably the better part of valor is to fight and ignore totalitarianism’s peace offers. From experience, Europe’s democracies have learned appeasement merely whets the appetite and prolongs the torture.
LOUISIANA: Next Case When Dr. James Monroe Smith fled his Louisiana State university for a Canadian haven last summer, the U. S. lost no time sticking its foot into a messy state, political puddle. Resigned was Gov. Richard W. Leche, succeeded by the late Huey P. (“Kingfish”) Long’s brother, Earl. One after another of Louisiana’s politicians were caught in the trap, including Seymour Weiss, alleged political “powerhouse,” and finally Richard Leche himself. Rumor had it that U. S. Attorney General Fra°nk Murphy was merely using Louisiana as a proving ground to show the Democratic party was equal in purity to New York's rack-et-busting state's attorney and G. O. P. presidential possibility, Tom Dewey. Whatever the reason, the U. S. got its first conviction: Five Louisianians. including Dr Smith and Seymour Weiss, were found guilty of selling hotel furniture to the state university, not once, but twice. Basis for the federal charge; A check for the ill-gotten gains was sent through the U. S. mails. Immediately the federal prosecutors went to work on their second case, an open-and-shut matter of interstate commerce and therefore clearly under U. S. jurisdiction. In this trial, prosecutors hope to find Messrs Weiss and Leche guilty of conspiracy to violate the Connally “hot oil” law for allegedly piping contraband oil to Texas. DOMESTIC: It ar Talk In 1917 it was public opinion that forced the U. S. into war. In 1939, as in 1914. public opinion wants no truck with Europe's troubles. But America’s memory of the war is still so vivid that its citizenry’s judgment is more reasoned, less apt to be colored by propaganda from home or abroad. Even so, there is no unanimity. Representative of anti-war thought was the unprecedented radio talk by Col. Charles A. Lindbergh, whose congressman father committed po-
litical suicide by voting against war in 1917: “As long as we maintain an army, a navy .and an air force worthy of the name, as long as America does not decay within, we need fear no invasion If we enter fighting for democracy abroad, we may end by losing it at home.” This was a fine spirit, as was the Gallup poll finding that 84 per cent of the U. S. wants to keep American ships out of war zones (a tenet of the proposed neutrality act). But America was nevertheless plugging for France and Britain. Another Gallup poll showed 82 per cent of them thought the allies would win, (yhile 44 per cent (dangerously near a majority for so early in the war) favored sending U. S. troops abroad if it appeared Germany would win. Amid such befuddled opinion congress met to argue the President’s neutrality proposal: To repeal the present arms embargo and sell belligerents anything they want, provided they pay cash and use their own ships. Isolationist sentiment was growing, but so was “cash-and-carry” sentiment, simply a result of greater public interest. Most popular objection to neutrality revision was not that it would discriminate in favor of the allies (because they rule the seas) but that common sense overruled changing legislation after the war has started. Closer to trouble, more realistic in its attitude, the state department knew r it must move chessmen as belligerents moved theirs. Example: Russo-Jap rapprochement meant the Philippines might fall easy prey to Tokyo unless the U. S. delayed independence plans. No easy job awaited congress. Administration forces moved to limit debate and the nation both booed and praised. No problem ever deserved more thought and discussion, yet, paradoxically, this was a problem which seemed only to grow more confusing when pondered and debated. AGRICULTURE: Cotton Last December 84.1 per cent of the South s cotton - growing farmers agreed to limit the unrestricted sale of this year’s crop to 12,000.000 bales. Penalty: A fine of three cents per pound on all cotton sold above the quota. Announced in Washington by Secretary of Agriculture Wallace was another referendum on 1940 marketing to take place December 9.
POLAND’S PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE (?)
MOLOTOV Eves turned west.
TROOPS IN WEST WALL While allies had their hands full . . .
COLONEL LINDBERGH “... we need fear no invasion.”