Looking back, Woodrow Wilson
was re-elected president in 1916 on a platform that he had "kept us
out of war" and on the implied promise that he would "keep us
out of war." Yet, five months later he asked Congress to declare
war on Germany.
In that five-month interval the
people had not been asked whether they had changed their minds. The
4,000,000 young men who put on uniforms and marched or sailed away were
not asked whether they wanted to go forth to suffer and die.
Then what caused our government
to change its mind so suddenly?
Money.
An allied commission, it may be
recalled, came over shortly before the war declaration and called on the
President. The President summoned a group of advisers. The head of the
commission spoke. Stripped of its diplomatic language, this is what he
told the President and his group:
"There is no use kidding
ourselves any longer. The cause of the allies is lost. We now owe you
(American bankers, American munitions makers, American manufacturers,
American speculators, American exporters) five or six billion dollars.
If we lose (and without the
help of the United States we must lose) we, England, France and Italy,
cannot pay back this money...and Germany won't.
So..."
Had secrecy been outlawed as
far as war negotiations were concerned, and had the press been invited
to be present at that conference, or had radio been available to
broadcast the proceedings, America never would have entered the World
War. But this conference, like all war discussions, was shrouded in
utmost secrecy. When our boys were sent off to war they were told it was
a "war to make the world safe for democracy" and a "war
to end all wars."
Well, eighteen years after, the
world has less of democracy than it had then. Besides, what business is
it of ours whether Russia or Germany or England or France or Italy or
Austria live under democracies or monarchies? Whether they are Fascists
or Communists? Our problem is to preserve our own democracy.