The Daily Alaska Empire

Air-Raid Alarms
(New York Times)

Terror is the first weapon of the Totalitarians.
They have used it again and again and again, with
tragic results, on every battlefront, from the streets
of Paris to the hills of Chungking. They would like
to turn it now against their greatest and strongest
enemy-the people of the United States. The east-
tern coast has had only a "dress rehearsal" air-raid.
But the possibility of raids persists on both coasts
of the United States. And it is clear that the Total-
itarians would like to use such raids to throw us into
a state of panic. They are not so foolish as to be-
lieve that the mere threat of bombs falling in our
city streets will cause us to surrender. But they do
hope to accomplish other results, of great value to
them. They hope to create a popular clamor for
"defensive" measures-a demand that we "keep our
ships at home to protect our coasts"; a demand that
we divert a large part of our productive equipment
at once into the manufacture of anti-aircraft guns;
a demand, above all, that we stop "dissipating" our
strength by sending planes and guns to Britain and
to China, and that we "keep our weapons for our
own protection."

The American people have too much common
sense and too clear a view of what is happening in
the world to fall for this obvious strategy of the
Totalitarians. The worst possible "defense" in this
hour of great danger would be to do just what the
Totalitarians want us to do-namely, try to hide
behind the oceans and "keep our weapons for our
own protection." The reckless folly of such tactics
can be illustrated by a single powerful example. If
we had withheld from Britain the planes and guns
she needed for the protection of her islands it is
certain that those islands would now be held by Hit-
ler-in which case he would have acquired air bases
in Iceland and at other points perhaps still closer
to our Eastern coastline. And in that case we should
have had no mere "dress rehearsal" air raid. Long
before this time we should have had the full fury
of an air war over our great cities.

The only possible "defense" against the type of
war which the new Barbarians have perfected is a
ruthless and overpowering offensive carried in full
force to the centers of their industrial production.
We can rely upon the intelligence of the American
people to recognize this fact, and to understand the
real purpose of the present threat of Axis raids. No
threat on earth can drive us from our policy of all-
out aid to every enemy of treacherous Japan and
every foe of Nazi Germany.