The People's Voice

A Vital Question

At a gathering early this month in New York City, attended by a number of Nobel Prize winners in literature and other fields, Pearl Buck was one of a number who spoke.

Little publicity was given to the gathering and only one daily newspaper, so far as is known, gave the noted author's speech in full.

Mrs. Buck broached the question if somewhere during the past few months, the purpose of the war has not been lost sight of; if now, all of the interests of the United Nations are not centered completely on military activities and gaining military supremacy; that the gaining of a military victory has become the question of paramount importance.

It is only realistic, of course, to accept the necessity of a military victory as a prerequisite to all other matters. However, we must also realize that if in the process of attaining this, we lose all of the social gains made, if we lose all concern for human rights and values, the military victory may turn to ashes. When it is over, we shall have difficulty in showing a credit balance on the books of the world.

The thundering of the reactionary forces that we must win the war and then do our postwar planning is prompted by pure selfishness. They want to stay the people's march; they want to preserve their positions of unquestioned power and privilege. If they were sincere in their protestations of single-minded desire to destroy fascism and liberate the oppressed peoples of the earth, then why do they not now offer all of their resources to our country? Why do they still make every effort to profit at the expense of the government in its crucial hour? Why do they continue attempts to avoid taxes which they could pay without personal sacrifice and because of their influence and power, saddle the burdens they should assume without complaint, upon the shoulders of the people whose payments of the levies involve going without necessities of life? Can there be any evidence of sincerity in their concern over the winning of the war when their every action negates it?

Undoubtedly Mrs. Buck's expressions were dictated by her sympathies with the oppressed peoples of Asia and other subject countries. And her statements cannot be contradicted.

We can never afford to lose sight of what we are fighting for—a free world, a world where justice rules and consideration of human rights shall be the motivating force of the social and economic orders of all nations. That is what we hope that your son and mine are fighting for on the far-flung battlefields today. Let us keep that always in our minds and foster the conviction and strive to do our share to make it a reality.

Let us not fight this war in vain.