Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 11, Number 10, DeMotte, Jasper County, 23 January 1941 — Washington Digest [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Washington Digest

Roosevelt Foreshadows 'New Role’ for America i * Predicts World Based on Human Liberty; Latvian Minister to U. S. Awaits Rebirth of His Country.

By BAUKHAGE

National Farm and Home Hour Commentator.

(Released by Western Newspaper Union.) “Oh, t\ dream of Jeannie, with the light broten hair, Borne like a vapor on the summer air . . .** WASHINGTON. I heard that sweet, simple song the night after the President delivered his message on the state of the Union. It wasn’t a summer day. The Washington monument was a cold pillar in the sunlight, the Potomac a sheet of shimmering metal beyond bare trees. But that song, its beauty born of the suffering of Stephen Foster; the symbolic monument, and the echoing memory of the solemn voice of the President blended together to make an unforgettable moment in which I suddenly seemed to see a changing America, a nation stepping forward on a new and unknown road. I have said before that many of the President’s close advisors believed that he saw, growing out of the war in Europe, a new 7 role for the United States, the role of world leadership. Each .? day’s developments seem to confirm the belief that such is the part Mr. Roosevelt expects the nation «> play and that if he can he will direct -us in that path, the path he mapped in his two recent speeches. The America which produced “Jeannie with the lightibrown hair” had disappeared even before Admiral Dewey blazed the way to empire for America in Manila bay. The last vestiges of American provincialism were trampled into the mud of France by 2,000,000 pairs of American boots. We thought, and . some of. us fervently hoped for a while we were going to leave Europe to her own devices, after 1910, forget, if we could tfre white crosses we left •ht re and tend our own fireside. Isolationist Sentiment Weakens. We have tried for a year to stuff up our ears ad the roar of the Stukas but each explosion over Europe sounds nearer. The majority of letters which I receive are still very much against any step which would lead us into war but the congressmen coming ip for the new session report a weakening, of the isolationist feeling. 9 One thing was dear when the President delivered his’message to the joint session of congress on January 6. Although many minds there did not meet his, though much debate was to follow, it was plain that his plan to make America an arsenal for the democracies had majority support, that step by step he was doing the leading and step by step congress was followfing. I •watched the session from the floor of the house of representatives for radio has a little room at the side of the'chamber to the left of the rostrum. There was a long silence when the Presid/bn't was announced. The audience rose and stood with hardly a whisper. Finally the President appeared at the entrance just to the right of the speaker’s desk and walked-:slowly up the ramp between his aide and a s secret service man. Then came the applause punctured with only ja few of the shrill “rebel yells.” And throughout the speech, with few exceptions, the handclapping came only when the President emphasized a passage. Foreshadows New Role. But to me. the significant lines, the ones indicating that the President was foreshadowing this new 7 part he felt America must play, w 7 ere these: “In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. “The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world ... “The third is freedom from 4 want, which, translated into worid terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants —everywhere in the world.” Reading them over now 7 in cold type they don’t have quite the same effect. But perhaps you recall, $ you heard the broadcast, how he emphasized, climactically, the phrase in the world.” It w r as plain nis concern did not stop at our own frontiers, but “everywhere in the world.” Then he wont on to describe his “new order” quite as specifically as

Hitler has described his: “That is no vision of a distant rpillenium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called ‘new 7 order’ of tyranny which the dictators seek to ereqte with the crash of $ bomb. “To that new order we oppose the greater conception the moraborder. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign rjevolytions alike without fear.” Admirer of Wilson. It must be remembered that Franklin Roosevelt is a great admirer of Woodrow Wilson. We have forgotten what a tremendous following President Wilson's ideas had for a short time among the peoples of Europe. We only recall now hbwtragically his plan failed. I recall very well the tremendous ovatiOns Wilson w 7 as given in Europe. I am certain that Keynes is right when he: says that the peoples (not the governments) of Europe acknowledged Woodrow Wilson “not Os a‘ victor only but almost as a prophet.” i As I said, the world has forgotten this. But Franklin Roosevelt has not. It is within the realm of rea-; son that he feels, having lived and studied these chapters of history, that he may be able to avoid the pitfalls of the past and succeed where Woodrow Wilson failed as a world leader * * .* f ; Latvian Minister Retains His Post Alfred Bilmanis has moved. That was not highly important news in the diplomatic chancelleries of the world, although Dr. Bilmanis is, according to our records, a minister plenipotentiary to the United States from Latvia. But it will be of interest to more than one reader of,this column who has drunk lemonade in the Latvian legation in ■Washington, and trooped up the stairs, past the stained glass window to look uport the marvelous maiden of wax in her gay peasant costume and great amber necklace. For Alfred Bilmanis, like the former; head of the ,little Baltic country now'under Russian domination w 7 as a great and enthusiastic friend of the Four-H. For many years w 7 hen the Four-H clubs encamped in the Washington. Mall they met this cheerful round-faced man who told them about organization in Latvia which Carl Ulmhnis, president of the Baltic state had founded, patterning them after the farm clubs in this country. Ulmanis once before had been driven from his country by the Russian government. He came to America where he became an ardent student of our farms and our farm methods, our agricultural schools and the various activities connected wfith rural life fin this country. I Under Russian Yoke. Now Latvia is under the Russian yoke again and the 4,000 young people w'ho were members of the organization which President Ulmanis and his representative in this country, Alfred Bilmanis did so much to encourage, are probably all turned into “Young Communists” if they exist at all. Since the United 5 States government has npt recognized the recent seizure of the Baltic states by the Soviets, Dr. Bilmanis still remains minister of Latvia even if Latvia, as a government, no longer exists in Russian eyes. But he was 5 unable to maintain the old legation where he often entertained members of the Four-H and where guests loved to admire his art treasures w 7 hich he has collected through the years. The new legation into which Mr. Bilmanis and his charming Polish wife have moved is about half as big as the friendly one with the high front porch which he has had to give up. And there isn’t room downstairs for the big, brown leather chair that is his chief pride as a keepsake—Napoleon brought it back from Moscow. The chair is probably a comforting thought to Mr. Bilmanis, too, for it is a reminder that no Napoleon rules forever, and that when the modern Napoleons fall, his country will be free again. Mr. Bilmanis is certain of this. He believes England will win, the government of his co.untry will be restored and that he will be able to build his museum. Meanwhile he is second in command of his state for, before the Russians came in, his government, fearing the worst, drew up a secret document appointing their minister to London chief of state in exile.” Dr. Bilmanis would succeed him and so it is quite possible that America will be the starting point for another free Latvia, just as the former president secured his support and his inspiration here.