OF TRUMPETS AND TRADE

At last night's Militant Aid to Britain meeting Professor Barton Leach, in delivering by far the ablest speech of the evening, called for "serious, thoughtful discussion" of America's foreign policy. Incongruously, he was followed on the platform by Professor William Y. Elliott, who pulled every oratorical trick out of his capacious bag in an impassioned emotional appeal to the he-man, red-blooded spirit of his audience.

Professor Elliott neatly disposed of the possibility that if England is to be saved, American troops may have to be sent to join the British in the fight against Hitler. He boasted that he had lived through the last war, and had found it "not much worse than the traffic in Harvard Square." And he added that in modern war, the soldiers apparently have a pretty exciting time, while the civilians are the real sufferers.

According to James H. Robinson's History of Western Europe, "during the World War . . . nearly eight million were killed in battle, and over eighteen million wounded. Of those who recovered, perhaps a quarter or more were permanently mutilated or crippled for life. The loss among the civilian populations was tremendous . . . perhaps seventeen millions of lives." These people would undoubtedly be glad to take their chances in Harvard Square, but unfortunately are in no position to say anything about it, being thoroughly and permanently deceased.

Professor Leach's cogent presentation of the case for militant aid cannot be disposed of so easily as Professor Elliott's childish toy-soldier complex. The Law Professor said that if England is defeated, the Nazis will penetrate South American via the barter route, following up economic with political infiltration, and setting up puppet regimes in state after state until the Panama Canal is threatened and the United States is left helpless, alone, and fatally vulnerable.

Nazi penetration of Latin America is a predictable certainty, according to Professor Leach. But another Harvard bigwig, Professor Alvin Hansen, is not so pessimistic. In an article in the October issue of Foreign Affairs the noted economist states that "an economic bloc consisting of the United States and all the countries in areas A and B"-that is, all Latin American nations except the five southernmost ones-"would have a solid foundation in the economic self-interest of all the countries involved. If it should be deemed desirable to include this entire area within in a single customs union, no serious problems would arise." He winds up with the following significant statement: "We may conclude, then, that the area which is complementary to the United States from the economic standpoint is, in its geographic position, exactly the area which of necessity must be included in any defense program which pretends to be at all adequate."

If Professor Hansen is right and his conclusion is amply buttressed with statistics the Leach-Conant line is knocked into a cocked hat. There is no reason why South America must, for economic reasons, fall prey to the Nazis. As Hansen points out, "The Western Hemisphere contains within itself all the essential materials men need for enjoying a higher standard of living than any so far attained." Going to war now just to keep Hitler out of South America is from the standpoint of national defense totally unnecessary. There's more than one way to skin a cat.