FGDYTHJNJKGTRD
Let's be Realistic About Britain by lita and starts, une week we are in a tizzy about Russia's "cold war," and the next we are hav- ing cat fits about some plan to bring democracy to the Chinese by putting (he arm on Chiang Kai-shek. For somere-ason or other, there is little realistic attention to one of the most important items in our foreign policy ^namely, how to adjust ourselves to Great Britain and the British Commonwealth.
This doesn't mean Ihal the British get no atten- tion over here. They get plenty, bul loo much of it is impulsive, inconsistent, sensationaj and lacking in appreciation of present strategic realities. For ex- ample, Elliott Roosevelt, whose book As He Saw It has horrified admirers of the lat« President with the thought that F. D. R. may bave resembled the man pictured by bis son, represents his fatber as disliking British imperialism so intensely that hé spent aa mucb time at tbe various Big Three conferences confounding Cburcbill as hdlting Hitler. We are at liberty lo doubt that, in the critical days before American troops had landed in Europe, Mr. Roose- velt was more interested in taking colonies away from England than in dt;priving the Nazia of their European slaves.
The important thing ia lhat the son of the late President expects to improve his fa- ther's position in bistory by so representing him.
In our moralizing about Britain's imperial sins, we shall have to make up our mind to talk about tbe Briti,'ih Empire as it exists now, and not as it used to exist or IS supposed io have existed. For example, Lalk of British imjjerialism is unenlightened if it doea not take account of the facts tbat India now baa a government sufficiently independent to be headed by Jawaharlal Nehru; that Great Britain has de- cided to withdraw her forces from Egypt—a riiky decision indeed, in view of the use the Russians are making of both the Arabs and the Zionist movement to bring about Soviet control of the Middle East und the Mediterranean. Nor should it be forgotten that tbe British Commonwealth includes the dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, whose aspirations and poUtical Systems in many ways resemble oura. Account also sbould be taken of instances of co-operation with tbe British, such aa lhe Caribbean Commission, which ior more tban four yeara has been trying lo work out a better economic deal for tbe peoples of the West Indies under American, British, French and Dutch control.
The work of this commission is a useful model for similar programs for "colonial peoples" elsewhere.
Undoubtedly we shall have important disputes with Great Britain in the future as in the past, but tbey will be argumente about trade, money, immi- gration, air travel, the rigbt to trade in crown colonies—the same kind of argumenta that various interests in our country carry on among themselves all the time. Nevertheless^and we say this in full appreciation of the social revolution which is being attempted in England—tbe disputes will not involve niatler» which strike at the roots of our freedoms or assume that our system is so nearly dead on iLi feet that tbe ordinary amenities of discussion can be suspended. We are not advocating an alliance with Britain against Russia, a proposal whicb the British would probahly shy away from anyway, but we are eaying that our relations with the most powerful of the surviving democracies in tbe world ahould be conducted in a responsible manner, with an eye to American and global welfare, and that the goodwill of the British Commonwealth should not be frittered away by tempting but uninformed attacks and di- versions of tbe sort whicb claused Mr. Bevin to re- mark wryly that Britain's record in two wars did not "call for a justification of our existence every five minutes." Wbat is left of a free world iiä too desperately threatened by the totalitarian wave to permit tbis nursing of old wounds.
Extra! Supply and Ueniaod At it Again!
H ERE'S a headline from The New York Times of a few weeks ago:
MEAT PRICES DROP • As SUPPLIES RISE AND BUYERS BALK That summarizes the way trading has been done for thousands of yeare, ever since Esau needed a plate of soup so badly that he offered his birthright for it. For centuries, prices have risen when every- body wanted a lot of what there wasn't much of, and they have gone down when people with some- thing to sell tripped over one another trying to catcb tbe same sucker. The human race hae always taken tbia sort of thing for granted. Now, after centuries of so-called progress, this aimplt: truth be- comes a headline on Page 1 of The New York Times.
THE SATURDAY EVENINC This Flood-Control Project Wasn't on the Cuff W HEN the spring rains start washing down the Ohio, Mia.souri and Missis.'(ippi river basins next year, residents of nine Weslern Ohio counties will not he obliged to grab (heir cots, frying pans and chicken coops and scramble for higher and drier ground.
Theu- security was assured by their own action thirty years ago when the Miami Conservancy District completed live dams and improvements of channels in the Miami, Stillwater and Mad rivera.
There bave been no serious Hoods in the district since 1917, altbough neighbors in the Ohio Valley each spring prepare to pack up and leave with the first thaws and heavy raina.
Unbelievable as it may be to many American communities today, the Miami Valley tbis year completes tbis course in self-treat ment for a .?100,- 000,000 flood headache without once calling in Dr.
New Deal or any of his interns. The local remedy was applied after a 1913 ilood swept through the rich agricultural lands and busy industrial centers of Dayton, Troy, Middletown and Hamilton. Four days later, as they kicked at the mud and debria, the stunned citizens counted the actual damage at $100,000,000, plus 400 lives lost, buflinesa aa stag- 188 nant aa the pools of dirty water in the streets, thousands of head of hvestock drowned and tons of good black dirt gone forever.
Despite this heartbreaking disaster there was no anguished cry for aid from Washington or the state capitol at Columbus. lYue, tbe refinements of Federo!
aid had not been thought of then, but Congreas was oniy too happy to logroll n hodge- podge of river and harbor bills to reUeve localities of the costs of local improvements. Instead of calling on the logrollers, the thoroughly drenched Miami Valley citizens took the quaint stand that controlof the river was their job, and nota legitimate burden on the taxpayers of Montana or New York.
All they aaked from the lawgivers at Columbus was permission to form tbe conservancy district, witb power to levy taxes for the purpose of keeping the rivers from their doors and barnyards. "That permi.ssion waa granted by the state legislature.
No appeal of any kind went to Washington, and the only entrance of the National Government came when a Federal district court ruled Lhat tbo United States had no objection.
The district iaaued almost $34,000,000 in bonda.
Proceeds were used for construction of dams and THE CvRTis PUBUSHING COMPAÍÍT 'ROS a.K-CVHTIS, Pmidmt, I8S3'1933 BEN HIBBS-EDITOR ROBERT FUOSS • MANAGING EDITOR MARTIN SOMMERS BEVEBLY SMITH • > • FOREIGN EDITOR WASHINGTON BDITOR ASSOCIATE EDITORS K.
N.
ORANDT ROBERT MITRPUY iUCHAnu TimUELâETH EDCAR SNOW STUAHT ROSE MARIONE UERRICKSON W. THORNTON MARTIN WESLEY PRICE DEMAREE BESS JOHN BAILEY JACK ALEXANDER ROBERT M.YODER FREDEtllC NELSON PEGGY OOWST ARTHUR V.
BAUM ERNEST O. HAUSUt ItARLEY P.
COOK H. RALPH KNIGBT • ASSISTANT TO TBB EDITOR KENNETH STUART • ART EDITOR FRANK KILKER • ASSOCIATE AKT EDITOR Ü. H. BORCSTEDT • PUOTOCBAPHY EDITOR channel regulation, and that ended the ñoode Io the Miami Valley.
In this engineering project the!
were no extras such as hydroelectric power, swank fishing and recreation resorts or resettlement pro ects.
Flood control was what the Miami Valle people paid their money for and âood control what they got.
Today, as the district prepares to levy the fin assessment for retirement of the last bondB, tl flood-free communities, farms and individuals ( tbe Miami Valley are pretty proud of their accon pUahment. It's theirs and they paid for it withoi outside help, advice, second-guessing or the noatrum of the District of Columbia achool of medicint Equally pleasing to most is the fact that the distnc provided no plum tree for anxious job seekers. Onl fifty-six persona are employed on the entire projec hardly enougb to staff the public-relations office b almost any Washington bureau you care to naiD Pigs iü Y\% or ¡N Thej?
A GLANCE through tbe index of Harris on Tl i\.
Pig, a book published sixty years ago, produo the provocative reference, "Jealousy an aid to feei ing." Turning to the page referred to, the readc finds a story reproduced from the American Agri culturalist about a farmer who invariably took thi prize at the county fair for raising th& fattest pigi "The secret he kept to himself, but being watchi by someone determined to find it out, tbe diacova was made that jealousy is a grand appetizer 6 hogs.
First the pet monster was allowed to fill hin self to his heart's content, and wben his appetita wa satiated, a half-stiirvcd shoat was led into the by a side door. The fat one would at once begin tl fight it ofT, and, meanwhile, to gorge himself simpl to prevent the poor squealing victim of unaatísña craving» getting any food. This was a daily prpgrai and the result was as stated." This scientific discovery, which goes back to son important philosophical sources, haa ßo many a||pl cationa to affairs, foreign and domestic, that it :
probably juHt as well to leave the drawing of moral to those who enjoy that sort of thing.
PrinWdlnU.3.
