NOVEMBER 5, 1945
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
PAGE THREE
World Nearer Peace Now Than in 1919, Survey Shows
Today's Troubles Comparatively Small, Seven Faculty Members Declare
(continued from page one) organization. War creates nothing of value. It at best removes some hindrances to good living. If the victorious nations don't assume the responsibilities of making use of this opportunity, the result may be worse than ever before.
"The American people are more awake and informed as to what is going on in the rest of the world. Consequently they are more aware of the dangers, and their disposition is to be more pessimistic. However, after the last war many young men active in writing at that time were very gloomy in their thought about American life and life in general.
"We are getting the same reactions in many persons who want to forget about the war and go on in their usual way, which is very unfortunate."
The political scientist interviewed was Prof. W.E. Sandelius.
"The world is closer to world peace now than two or three months after World War I because of the terrible alternative, the atomic bomb," he declared.
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"I do not say this peace will be permanent," he said, "but I do believe it will last a long, long time.
The psychologist was Prof. Raymond H. Wheeler, who agreed the world is closer to peace today.
"The troubles and confusion within nations and among nations today are small compared with the disagreements which existed in 1919 over the League of Nations and Wilson's 14 points."
"Definitely not," Dr. Wheeler replied.
Was the failure of the London ministers' conference, which ended in a stalemate, significant in predicting the success of furture international relations?
"There is only one more nation left for us to fight-Russia," he declared. "It will be a long time before Russia would be willing to face another war, and sacrifice millions of men. The same holds true for other nations."
"We don't need to worry about war today."
Chancellor Deane W. Malott declared international peace is closer now and pointed out that the world today is "much more realistic" than after World War I.
"Back then, we were smug and indifferent," he said. "We thought we had just won the war to end all wars."
Today, new wars and new weapons have created a greater awareness in the average man of the problems confronting the world, the chancellor declared.
"The present United Nations organization," he said, "is for many reasons much more effective than the League of Nations was. One of the main reasons is that we are in it."
Recognition of forces and the fact that major nations must take the major responsibility are essential in forming a world-peace, the chancellor stated. And the United Nations organization has taken care of this.
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"There are arguments against this belief," Chancellor Malott admitted, "such as the great difficulty of knowing how to get along with Russia. Despite this and other arguments, the world is closer to international peace than it was shortly after World War I.
"I think there is a fair chance now for world peace," he said.
The sociologist interviewed was Prof. Seba Eldvidge, who answered "Yes" to the question.
Peace, he added, will depend upon a number of things, of which the
most important is the determined effort on the part of United States and Russia to understand each other.
"We judge Russia by our institutions and culture patterns; Russia does the same," Professor Eldridge commented. "Neither is absolutely right or absolutely wrong.
"We know from actual happenings following the last World War that there was no assurance of peace. Especially with the onset of the depression, European countries and Japan developed a war drive.
"In looking back, we recall the fact that the world was not ready and did not work out an organization for peace."
Robert Taft, Jr., chemistry instructor, was the sixth faculty member agreeing we are closer to world peace today than in 1919.
"Whether we keep that peace now lepends on world leadership," Mr. Taft warned.
After the last war, he recalled, the United States entered Russia with men and supplies and fought the revolutionary forces.
Today we are uneasy because Russia has emerged from the war a stronger nation and other world powers are not so strong, he said. Yet the Russian people are slowly recognizing greater democracy in their government, especially in the local government, and with the right world leadership they will not want another war, Mr. Taft added.
"All mations must recognize fundamental democracy in world trade and political relations with one another in order to maintain world harmony," he said.
Mr. Taft thinks it will be only a matter fo months before the atomic bomb secret is known to the world
"Science has never recognized boundaries," he said. "A discovery made by one country is soon made by others. So leadership rather than atomic power is the secret of world peace."
1. world is closer to peace today.
Prof. Robert McNair Davis, School of Law, also agreed the
world is closer to peace today.
"I think so because the proposed league of the United Nations has a better organization than the League of Nations had," he explained. "We are in a better position now than after the first World war because the United States already has adhered to the charter.
"I think some members of the United Nations are unduly suspicious of Russia. There aren't any people on earth who desire peace more than the Russian people.
"The American people are not nearly so isolationist as they were at the end of World War I. They are more determined now to gain world peace."
The historian interviewed was Prof. W. W. Davis, and he was emphatic in his belief that the world was closer to peace in 1919 than it is today.
"The world is nearer war now than at any time during the year following the World War I Aristice, even nearer war than it was in 1938," he maintained. "There will be no peace treaty for months, maybe years to come."
- * *
"Many persons hope that a League of Nations will lead the world," he said, "but as organized at present, it cannot preserve peace if any of the five so-called powers uses its veto.
"There is evidence that national governments today have broken certain fundamental principles of right and wrong, and have substituted in their place force in political expediency," he added. "We went to war to prevent a rise in Europe of a political organization which threatened world domination by conquest. We have finished this phase of the war with raising to power a more dangerous threat."
Greece have been desolated by gunfire and explosives.
"In 1919 one-fifth of France, Belgium, Poland, a small portion of Italy, Rumania, and Austria- Hungary were damaged by gunfire and explosives," Professor Davis said. "Today one-third of France, all of Italy, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Poland, Ukraine and White Russia, and Austria, and much of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and
"All important cities and railway systems of west and central Europe have been damaged. Crops cannot be planted in one-half of western Europe; Germany has been destroyed industrially; more than 10 million Europeans have moved from former homes, and all prisoners of war are condemned to slavery in certain states. Outside Russia, in Europe today there are only five established governments, all of minor states.
"Today France is split by impending civil war within the country, and serious rebellion in Asiatic colonies.
"The Indian problem is leading to civil war there.
"In Persia, Russia refuses to evacuate northern provinces which produce 90 per cent of the Persians' food," Professor Davis said. "Because of this policy, Britain refuses to withdraw troops from the oil field districts of the south.
If Britain lets large numbers of Jews go into Palestine, she faces war with 75 million Moslems within her empire and in northern Africa and Egypt.
"China is split by civil war. Some months ago she practically gave Russia control of Manchuria, economic key to China.
***
"From Manchuria China gets much of her iron, coal, and food.
Japan has been destroyed as a world power. Her industries are gone, her cities have been destroyed. Starvation this winter and next spring is inevitable.
"In French Indo China serious war is raging between the French and Anamites, and the seven million natives of the Dutch East Indies are engaged in a bloody struggle to expel all white people from their islands."
***
The other person interviewed who agreed that the world was closer to peace in 1919 than now was Prof. E. D. Hay, of the mechanical engineering department.
Russia is holding up the peace.
"After the first world war, we were the balkers," he said. "Now
"The urgency for peace is many times greater than after the last war. I felt then that we hadn't reached Utopia, but the general situation then was much better than now.
"Things looked good in 1943, but then peace began to fall apart.
"The atomic bomb is hardly a secret now, and it wouldn't take one of the Big Three to blot out an entire nation."
Russia asks for territory to which she has no right, he declared, and then agrees to drop the claim in exchange for something she really wants.
"The San Francisco conference bogged down more than the League of Nations," Professor Hay concluded.
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