Atlanta Daily World

The Air, The Radio And England

THE WORLD GOT its lesson nine hundred years ago in the strength and power of Great Britain. That empire upon which the sun never sets, set its last lesson in that brilliant defense of Lord Nelson at Trafalgar when he sent around the world that momentous phrase: "England expects every man to do his duty." The English have done that and for nine centuries England has dwelt in a status quo of invulnerable safety.

The Roman empire of ancient days died in another era and under different circumstances. England might not now be menaced but for the turn over of modern invention involving the airplane and the powerful communication of radio signals. Through these mediums the enemy comes over to attack. The radio and the airplane have completely revolutionized the world.

These agencies are in evidence on every hand and with men flying around in the clouds spying on our camps and relaying messages to their directors a new era dawns in warfare which, for once sets aside that memorable axiom of Napoleon to the effect that God is on the side having the longest guns.

While this is a war of guns, guns are performing a minor place in the scheme of things. It is more of a war of master minds, electrical maneuvers, strategy and enforced by power contraption that took off at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, when its makers, the Wright brothers, were pitied as crazed maniacs.

It is now apparent that the first World War we fought and named a war to end wars was to the reverse, a war to begin wars, for that is exactly what it did. Once more men see the futility of coercion. Coercion has always found its counter actors. It in the end confirms nothing. Through the coercive terms of the treaty of Versailles we got our Hitler and the attendant unrest of the world.

The Germans finally acceded to these terms with no intention whatever of living up to them. We had Germany on her knees then, only to turn loose the monster enemy to uproot all we had done and spent for world peace. Thusly it is seen that we not only lent nations in Europe money they could not pay, but GIVE THEM A PEACE THEY COULD NOT KEEP.

Historian tomorrow may record this incident as an attempt that perished down the centuries, listed as the Spanish Armada, then the forces of Napoleon and finally winding up under the brilliant Nelson at Trafalgar.

For this after all may be the war to end wars.