Through no choice of their own, the American people constitute one of the last barriers that stand between a 5l-year-old vegetarian with a little mustache and world domination. ambitions,.S. Bach, Jun, in the "Coronet." Large as this now seem, it is only the initiation eventually ah pun E d zg able to control their destinies. mew battleship has been fitted towed into place, we shall rather formidable opponent for But whatever our future strength weapons, they will only represent total strength—or total weakness. -are to remain high on a perch into oblivion will depend largely upon those Great Imponderables which help settle the fate of nations and which have lose to do with tanks than with traditions, bullets than ballots, guns than guts.
In terms of the Great Imponderables the United States meets Hitler on more equal footing than did either Britain or France. Against us Hitler loses at the outset two of the most imponderable weapons which for seven bitter years served him well against the Allies. Greatest of these is the desire for revenge, which in 22 years has lifted Germany from defeat io delirium.
To whip his people into any future crusade against America Hitler will have to exploit some less irresistible emotion than pure revenge. Our part in the World War was fleeting; our part in the Treaty of Versailles slim. At best the German people fear us. At worst they hate us. Inevitably, the white heat of German vengeance which scorched the Allies will be a less compelling flame by the time it reaches us.
Forced by circumstance to rebuild the German army from the bootstraps up, Hitler was able to turn out the most thoroughly standardized war-machine the world has ever seen. By getting into the arms race late the Germans were able to, benefit from all the experimentation and improvements that had gone on before. As a still later starter Uncle Sam can now turn the tables on Adolf. Our very lack of modern material, especially for the army, should enable us to equip ourselves with only the latest and the best. Meanwhile Hitler will emerge from this war with a tremendous amount of material that must inevitably become obsolete, This gives us the rare chance—if we seize it—to outblitz the blitzkrieg.
American Leaders Not So Stupid Hi troyed. To say the least it is more than a little..embarrassing for Hitler to find that Mussolini claims to be sinking ships of which the Germans best friends, But then is in somewhat of a fix himself. Three ing The U. S. is also in the enviable position of a schoolboy who on the eve of a big exam gets a peek at the list of questions that will be asked the next day. For seven years we have witnessed the foreboding shape of things to come. The dictators may still have new tricks up their sleeves, but a great deal of their sleight-of-hand has lost its mystery. We have seen how pregnable "impregnable" fortifications are, The controversy between air and sea power has been partly solved for us. It would be a calumny to suggest that the American people and their leaders are so stupid that they now leave this seven-year preview without at least some understanding of what the show is all about.
On the other hand, we are imponderably burdened by the necessity of having to defend the most defenceless continent in the world—South America—together with the better-defended but' equally spacious stretches of Canada, Alaska and Greenland. Even when our own North American fortress is fully garrisoned, we shall find ourselves surrounded to the south by shockingly unarmed neighbours who almost without exception are incipient Fascist states.
Canada excepted, it is most unlikely that any of our hemisphere neighbours will ever an army even equal to the Four-Day Netherlanders, fortifications even approaching the Belgian, sharpshooters as eagle-eyed as the Norwegians. No matter how well we keep our own house in order, she houses down the street will be potential fire-traps.
1f public opinion has now at last caught u9 with its leaders, it is to be hoped that it will not suffer a future relapse and play ostrich again in the sands of Arizona, No important American publisher columnist or foreign correspondent has so far whitewashed Hitler because of his known kindness to children (German, "Aryan," Nazi) and animals (all breeds), welcomed the resurgence of German might as a peaceful portent, or slapped Mussolini on the back simply because he makes the trains run on time, Amang the lesser imponderables which on "M" Day may tilt the scales of battle for er against us are on the credit side our relative lack of any strongly entrenched pacifist move-following extract from the the week, written by an enemy commentator;—"Recent' reports from Gibraltar indicate that neglected by the The suggestion which it is'sought to convey is that Britain has suffered so much in the destroyer class that it is no longer possible to afford adequate escorts for convoys, The fact is, however, that the situation in the Mediterranean is £o satisfactory that destroyers can be detailed for other duties. The manner in which the British fest can. qo about its business in these waters landings could be made on Greek islands with-Sad tie congestive ense with which British any naval interference from the Italians amount to clear proof that Italian claims to be in strength should make us feel almost as much at home in*a tank as in an automobile. On the debit side we may find ourselves weakened by the premium, justified in the past, which we place upon short working hours and "getting fun out of life" when the paramount need is more work and less pleasure. We, who as a nation, number one civil war, several floods and a truly fearful World War, fin epidemics, as our greatest motional catastrophes, may also find it pyschologically difficult to realize day by day just how menaced our national security now is. As a people we have invariably looked down upon "turnners" and we may easily underestimate the ruthless abilities of foreign foes.
These then are some of our imponderable weaknesses, of our even greater imponderable strengths. In our rendezvous with Hitler and with any allies he may choose to bring against us, we shall find that given the proper military equipment, training and leadership the chances are that the American people will prove their imponderable greatness.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.