◆ SpookStack

. l (4 Wee FTOMGEDL does g0L —— “BE ~any Tate — urge nd : te Europe — but. certainty wi to Ne? at feems Willing hint that a wolf of @ome sor. may be soon at the door — & Savage wolf with ‘wings. «He To Frighten ‘¥ Americans ~ Bowdoin Professor x : Deplores Talk | . ", Sweclal Detpatch te The Press Herald | | | d Sees Attempt _ Brunswick, May 23—Lashing out at those who he alleges are Meking to confuse a well-meaning and honest public With nightmare apparitions, ‘of, Newton P. Stalikmecht, associate Professor of philosophy at Bowdoin College, in a chape! address today urged the students to mature their” opinions and make them heard. He quoted from a recent address by Ad-, miral Yarnell that the United States! 4s safe from foreign invasion, '.Prof. Stallknecht termed the recent talk by Col. Charl dbergh as honest, intelligent, c ageous opin- fon, but added it a bit tactlessiy. Presenled “Why then sll these alarms?” ask Prof, Stalikmecht. “Why all this ed from high schoot to Congress of} winged warriors descending upon ts?: ny this attempt io torture the pub- lic? Have they not heard enough al-, ; y ready? Why repeat Orsen Welles’ hor-' rible fairy tale about the Martians? S}\ That, to be sure was an accident But! N~\ there is nothing accidental about its’ AN repetition. } i _ “df the people desire to involve us! tm war for reasons of economics, of; International morality or sheer pres- : tige, let them speak out but their critics must require them to State thelr true reasons, And they should refrain from confusing a well-mean- ing and honest public with nightmare *pparitions. We all know that the state of the world 1s bad enough as wt ois without such fantastic dis- tortions “One. “It is my belief that an effort now being made to frighten. tn American people. We hear from the President of the United Btates a Bublic statement of the flying times from Greenland to Maine and from Bermuda to New York City. And these scem merely to be offered as evidence oe cannot possibly atand_algof. } trom the European conflict. To be, H ewe ee ee clearly wants us to believe that the United Btates is really considered in danger. He advocat:- a vast arma- ment of airplanes — five times what ope géeera! considers adequate for defense. This armament is to be bullt, Under war-time measures which sus- nd competitive bidding, and some labor regulations which im recent years have been’ prepared to protert the forgotten man. “Now of course we do not know what the Administration's next move will be. In fairness, we must edtinit that it may not be an unwise one. Bui it will be most unwise and unfair it it involves any further effort to frighten the public. A frightened pub-. Ue means a confused Congress that @ares not appear to ignore popular, excitement, And such a Congress is: likely to do the wrong thing. No. leader who frightens his people is a truly Democratic leader, ; “Not so long ago one Jeader tald us that grass would grow in the streets if be were not ¢lected. And soon other leaders may be telling us that foreign bombs will be bursting in sir if they are not reelected. - “Bince I have gone so far it #p- pears only fair to you that I state more fully my opinions concerning our proper attitude toward the war. Iwill not aay that the European, war {s no concern’of ours. It is very obviously a cause of great and dis- tressful concern. We talk, these days, . Of little else and we must take an intelligent stand concerning i. “The war abroad is a painful mat- ter for all of us—it is inhuman to laugh at it or even to try to forget} it. Tam sure that everyone here Is’ Teady to contribute generously to the Red Crass funds and to offer help to refugees when the chance arises. Americans have experience in or-! ganizing such assistance and such: help can be offered with a clean con-{ science, i “Bui there is no ground upon i Which our own Government has a! right to interfere in this war. Our. Government is not a militant benev-. olent society for policing the world. Since we have proceeded according to that assumption, we should not sud- deniy desire to enforce law ;and order” on a erand écale in Europe or Asis. To desire to do so under these cir- cumstances ig nothing but militant. éentimentalism—which is at once the. worst kind of sentimentalism and al- most the worst kind of militarism. “With reasonable foresight and good leadership we may insure our safety and the continuity of our civ- flization for years to come and this ds the only end we ‘should instruct our government to puTsuee. This ie not all, We should make certain that Qur government heare our Instruc- tions. There are involved in such a iolicy Many special problems. Proba- Bre Igss of much foreign trade 1s one of them. But even this is a smal! Price to pay for the sanity and _ amgalasame. living which w certam seriously to impair.” ee nee et fees co LEE Fl X