Letters

An Atlantic Union?

To the Editor

I was very greatly interested in the splendid analysis of the Communist dogma by Prof. Sidney Hook in the March issue. It is of the utmost importance that our people learn, before it is too late, the true nature of this force which is unalterably determined on our bloody destruction. The war has been on for years. It is only a question of what weapons the Communists determine to use where and when. The extent to which they will seek to achieve their end by social revolution within nation after nation, or the timing of their armed attack on any particular nation or group of nations, is of secondary concern. It is fatuous to claim, as some do, that any proposed line of action will (future tense) "split the world in two." That irreconcilable split is already in existence—is inherent in the Communist dogma itself, and has been in effect ever since the Communists first came into power.

We are faced with the dual problem of giving human freedom a moral dynamic that will make mankind consciously strive towards an increasingly real and effective democracy, thus defeating Communism ideologically, and meanwhile of restraining Communist aggression, so that, if at all possible, the Communist threat may be defeated without actual war. As Professor Hook has so well stated, "We can contain their threat by developing through the concert of democratic powers an overwhelming preponderance of force, so that if the communist state undertakes a hostile act against the West, it will know it risks destruction. At the same time we have got to do our best to clean up those sore spots in our economy which are the breeding grounds of agitation."

I see only one possibility of achieving these two objectives. If and when the Senate ratifies the Atlantic Pact, which has just been signed, and the North Atlantic Alliance comes into being, a joint resolution will be introduced into Congress calling on the President to invite those nations in the Alliance to send delegates to meet with ours in Federal Convention, to explore the possibility of developing a more effective union of their strengthmilitary, economic, industrial, scientific, and moral.

If this convention is held and produces a proposed constitution for a North Atlantic Union, composed of the members of the Alliance plus perhaps some additional democracies—a Union comparable in function and structure to the Federal Union our original thirteen states formed in 1787—then this constitution will be submitted for thorough debate in all the nations concerned.

If, after that, the Union is organized, it will, I am confident, create conditions which will restore the economic productivity of Western Europe, raise the standards of living of hundreds of millions of people, including our own, eliminate the existing prevalent sense of insecurity and frustration, and give to untold millions a hope and purpose in life.

In so doing it will both correct the conditions which make Communism seem attractive to so many, and permit the easing or removal of many existing governmental restrictions in various lands, thus increasing human freedom. It will, through the complete integration of the military establishments of the nations in the Union, permit radical re- ductions in their combined size and cost, and will also make unnecessary a continuation of the Marshall Plan loans, thus radically cut- ting government costs and taxes. It will elimi- nate the fear motivation in international re- lations, permitting the Union to support those in any nation who are seeking to promote human freedom. It will create a power bloc so much more powerful than the Communist bloc that it may well bring a sharp halt to Communist aggression, and by so doing buy an extended period of peace. And it will give the world such an effective demonstration that democracy is not decadent, as the Com- munists have claimed, but is vital and re- surgent and effective in providing a high and rapidly rising standard of living, and in pro- viding freedom too, that we can anticipate throughout the world a great moral wave of recognition that democracy is a vastly more desirable way of life than that of Communism. This moral wave cannot be prevented from penetrating the iron curtain. We can anticipate, therefore, that it will result in the Russians themselves—96% of whom are not Communists—rising and eliminating the Politburo and all its evil brood, and in the disintegration of international Communism.

Only by this formation of a Transatlantic Union of the free can I see the possibility of defeating Communism ideologically, and so preventing the destruction of our civilization. And only by this do I see a possibility of avoiding open war. If we directly seek "peace" either by disarmament or by appeasement we will be destroyed and lose both peace and freedom. If we seek, first, freedom through the union of Atlantic democracies, we will preserve freedom, and may also avoid war, while achieving real peace.

I believe Dartmouth men, and all liberals, should support the resolution calling for this Federal Convention. It is our great hope of preserving our way of life.

Syracuse, N. Y.

Commends Hook Lecture

To THE EDITOR:

After reading in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE Dr. Hook's lecture on International Communism, I am impelled to write commending your editorial comment that this lecture is "must" reading for every Dartmouth man.

I should like to go a step farther. So clear and forceful an exposition is this of the philosophy and practice of the Russian Soviet brand of communism, that I wish it might be possible for it to be made available in pamphlet form for every teacher of social science in all our schools. I offer this as a suggestion.

Upper Montclair, N. J.

Support for Mr. Ham

To THE EDITOR:

Public-spirited and Dartmouth-minded William H. Ham '97 uses his Class Notes (March '49) to voice a greatly needed protest against civic apathy—as demonstrated by Hanover's neglected business section. Having for some time agreed with his verbally expressed sentiments along these lines, I now applaud his graphically illustrated demand for immediate refurbishing of Main Street.

Princeton gained a charming and harmonious shopping area some years ago by remodeling a shabby row of stores facing Nassau Square. And Stony Brook, Long Island, has the most attractive shopping center I have seen—a crescent-curved row of stores, library and post-office facing a common adjacent to a museum and an old inn. Both of these projects use a variety of materials in the facades: common hard-burned brick, white-painted brick, shingles, siding and field stone. Display windows, somewhat reduced in size, are often divided by muntins. The design restricts signs to a modest size—after all, everyone knows where the drug store and the toggery are located-and brightly lighted signs are taboo. T. Bayles Minuse '26 assembled the property at Stony Brook and directed the improvements, an endowed memorial.

Hanover's Main Street, treeless, unplanned, shabby and crassly commercial, represents an extension northward of the ugly business centers one drives through—those of the manufacturing towns along the River. A thorough and carefully planned face-lifting job would bring some of the atmosphere of Dartmouth to the now-blighted southern approach, the main point of entrance and egress or visitors. Experience indicates, as Bill Ham points out, that such improvements would prove a profitable investment.

New York, N. Y.

Seeks Student Poet

To THE EDITOR

About fifteen or twenty years ago a student of mine one day showed me a poem he had written, called The Piano-Tuner. It was a delightful poem, which ran about like this: When I was a little boy there stood in a corner of our living-room a gloomy looking piece of furniture which was never used. One day a man walked in who opened it, took the sides off, tapped on the keys and brought out of it sounds which became more and more beautiful. After a while he called my mother and she played a lovely tune on it: I looked at the man with wondering eyes: he had brought life to something that had been dead. When he left I watched him cross the street and knock at another door, where he was going also "to put life into something that had been dead."

Recently I have been trying in vain to identify and locate the author of this charming piece. Would you be kind enough to publish this letter in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE? Perhaps the author might recognize the product of his youthful Muse and be willing to communicate with me, which would give me a great deal of pleasure.

Hanover, N. H

Too Much Company

To THE EDITOR

If Steck's letter was the best of what was apparently a multiplicity of letters protesting Cardozo's mild political discussion, I feel even more depressed than I did at the report that only two members of '32 admitted a nonRepublican preference. I have come to expect that sort of approach from the impoverished elderly brokers of Westchester County, but not from young (?) Dartmouth men from the dynamic lands to the west.

I don't think that class columns are fitting vehicles for political argument, but I can't help but agree with Cardozo that the '32 figures were so startling as to invite comment inextenso, including speculation as to how such results could have come from the products of Dartmouth. I believe one purpose of the College is to teach men to think, and I hardly feel the facts of today are so clear as to lead nearly all educated men to think alike. I should doubt, moreover, that such an overwhelming pro-Republican ratio was stacked up at either Yale or Princeton, to name two towers of wealth and privilege.

Though in the last four successive Presidential elections I have managed (with some difficulty) to line up with the losing side, 1 am not particularly glad to find so much company there. Some of them, I'll bet, are there for the wrong reasons, and that does reflect on Dartmouth.

Arlington, Va.