‘By ILYA EHRENBURG tand for peace A*. ENORMOUS burden has fallen on the shoulders of cach of us. A person has the right not ‘to take care of himself, to be carefree or reckless. Tte0S mot Or ouT Own fate that we are thinking Ow: upon us lies the responsibii- ity for all children, fair and dark, - for the children of London and Moscow, Paris and Peking, for the children among the skyscrap- ers of New York and for those who now wander among the ruins of Korea. Upon us lies the res- Ponsibility for all the lovers, for all the books of the world, for all the cities, for all factories. People ask in alarm: “Is is Possible that we shall have war again? ... Is it possible to live in sich confusion? Is it possible to bring up children, wondering / when a bomb will fall uon them? is it possible to think, to create, to advance human culture when the spectre of war has over- Shadowed it?” War is not an earthquake, not & stmoon—war is the act of peo- ble and people can prevent war. The danger is great. Everyone understands this. We have not Sathered here at a meeting, to talk, or at a discussion — to argue. Well-considered. words, Clear-cut proposals, decisions ac- ceptable to all are expected from “US! We must prevent war. This is the hope of all men, all women, Wherever they may live. tt is said that war is inevitable because the world has split into two worlds, because in Moscow there are other laws than in New York, because there are States where Communists are out- lawed and other states where Communists draw up the laws. In one of his speeches the President of the. United States of America said that the United States and the other states in- Spired by the same ideas felt the counter-reaction of a regime which had other. aims anda dif- ferent world outlook, This re- Sime adhered to a, false philos- phy. Mr. Acheson recently re- Peated Mr. Truman’s assertion: Many aspects of this philosophical — System, he said, in particular as it is carried out in the Soviet Union and in a number of other Countries, not jonly -evokes our antipathy but raises the question of basic Roncebuons ‘of good and evil, Lam quite willing to allow that from the viewpoint of Mr. Tru- man, Marxism is a “false philos- ophy” and that the Soviet system is repugnant to Mr, Acheson. I Shall not say what I think of Mr. Truman’s philosophy and what my attitude is to the ethics which determine the behavior of Mr. Acheson, However, the su- Periority of a philosophical system °r an economy cannot be proven by war, One hundred bombs dropped on 100 Soviet universities will not Prove that the pragmatism of James is superior to historical ®aterialism. War is not a con- ‘est of ideas and not a debate. War is the greatest of disasters, @ . [ stand for peace not only with the America of Howard Fast and Robeson but also for peace with the America of Mr. Truman and My, Acheson.” affecting all peopies, all manifes- tations of their culture, If Soviet books do not please certain American’ they can try to defeat these ideas with ideas, to stigma- tise books by books. As for bombs, they are powerless here. Those inhabitants of America who wish to preserve their econ- omy ,their ideas, their way of life, would act unwisely to rec- kon upon war; the events of the last 40 years have shown that war accelerates social changes, However, if war cannot protect the capitalist ideas, yet war Is certainly‘ not the. way to ‘social- ism. People who are striving to'go forward understand very . well that a mew world war will fling mankind back, destroying the material base which is neces- sary for the construction of a more perfect society. Not a single citizen who -sincerely loves the future will consent to pay such a price for the triumph of his ideas. : War is not the midwife of history, war destroys the flower of mankind, Waris alien to our Soviet philosophy, to our ethics our aspirations. For we have confidence in the future, and all the children of the world—not only the children of Moscow, but the children of New York, too— are our hope, our friends, our allies, I believe that way of life in the United States pains me not less than the Soviet way of life pains Mr. Acheson. Nevertheless I stand for peace not only with the America of Howard Fast and Robeson but also for peace with the America of Mr. Truman and Mr. Acheson, ‘I know that there ‘are many people in the world who do not like socialism. I hope that Mr. Truman and Mr. Acheson in turn know that there are not a few people in the world who prefer socialism to capitalism. We live on one planet, How- ever, it has plenty of room and - there is room on it for the ad- herents of different social syst- ems. They can come to an agree- Ment that no one will break down the doors of someone else’s house because of antipathy for the ideas of thesmaster of that house, and that no one will throw stones at a neighbour’s windows “just because the neighbour thinks differently, talks differently, lives differently, What people wants a repetition of the horrors experienced? Must Warsaw again see stranglers and fire makers? Must Paris again hear the iron march of occupa~ tionists? Must London again lis- ten to the roar in the sky and hide its children underground? Must the American people, who have known war mainly from pictures manufactured in Holly- wood, see fire, blood and death on their own land? Is it possible that we shall allow a new war, that we shall not be able to restrain those who are preparing it, who are not only breeding bacilli capable of killing. the bodies of people but who are encroaching on the souls of people, who are trying to poison the minds of millions, to inoculate them with the idea of national superiority, hatred for ether peoples, the will for mass murder? For the ordinary human being war is horror, it is the blood of children, the fixed stare of the mother who has lost her son; but there are people for whom war is salvation. They do: not conceal their designs, before the eyes of all they sit down at a table and tuck in their napkins. I will never say that urging for war comes from honest Amer- icans and it pains me that, in a city which is named after a great and noble man, murderers of children, murderers of people, can live, act and openly incite to crime. I cannot say that news- papers are made by irresponsible people. Calls for aggressive war do not come only. from the lips of repre- sentatives; official representa- tives of the [United States—min- isters and deputy ministers—calls for war. ‘ Two months ago the U.S. Secre- tary of the Navy, Mr. Matthews, suggested to his fellow citizens the following way to establish peace: “We must be prepared to declare war in order to compel cooperation for the benefit of peace. 5 quality new for true democracy Tarhat of initiator of aseressive war.’ In summer the Assistant Secre- tary of War, Mr. Griffith, said that back in 1947 he had already advised Mr. Truman to drop the atom bomb on the Soviet Union. If the Minister of the Navy of the Soviet Union were to pro- claim that it was necessary to declare war on the United States in order to compel it to cooperate he would beyond doubt be brought to trial, If the Assistant De- fense Minister of the Soviet Un- ion proposed dropping the bomb on America he would beyond doubt be taken to a clinic for _ Florida University, Dr, This will give us a . mentally diseased persons. Murderers are not made in one hour, murderers are bred, trained from childhood. Various Amer- ican children’s magazines carry comic strips showing how the “superman,” this new variety of the Nazi “Ubermensch,” kills Russians. The instructions for officers conducting military training in schools in the United States say: “The instructor should encourage the natural desire to fight and kill.” After this it is quite under- standable when the President of Nance, says: “We must’ conduct total preparations based on the law of the.jungle. Everyone must learn the art of killing.” Supporters of peace, we must firmly come out against the most dangerous, the most deadly wea- pon—against the propaganda of a new war. We must do this while the third world war can - still be averted. e > : If I am told that I am prejudic- ed, that I accuse only one side, I will reply: it is possible to find shortcomings and mistakes in our press. It is possible to point out that. one or another critic judges shallowly or unjustly, one or an- other aspect of the cultural life of the West, but never has a single political leader, a single deputy, a single journalist or teacher in the Soviet Union called for war against the United States or any other power. One can find in our news- papers sharp articles against the policy conducted by the United States, against the capitalist sys- tem, against an ideology which is alien to Soviet society. But no one will find in our news- papers urgings to drop the atom bomb on New York, to attack London, to capture Paris, In our schools hatred for other peoples, in particular for the American people, is not fostered. On the contrary, our teachers constantly remind pupils that, besides the America of Mr. John- son or General MacArthur, there is another America, which has given the world Lincoln and Roosevelt, Longfellow and Whit- man, the America of big scien- tists and honest, energetic work- ing people. I believe in reason, I believe in the scientist who gives all his strength to saving’ people from the severest illnesses. I believe in the poet whose burning spirit warms the nights of ditch-dig- gers and bricklayers. I believe in the seeds in the hands of ‘the gardener and in the heart of tthe mothers who know what it is to give life and to defend life. The people who are planning a new war have much money, much cellulose, many radio waves. But what are their words compared to the beating of ‘the human heart? We will not let war begin. We will remove the point of the gun from the, breast of man. In this we are. one oo Communists and Catholics, Lib- erals and Socialists, Russians and Americans, British and Chinese. : As one of the delegates -of the Soviet people, a people which has known the whole burden of war and which sincerely hates war, I clasp the hands of those whom it is desired to represent as our enemies, the hands of the Amer- icans, the British, the French, with a firm faith that there is no power which can break this hand-clasp. @ From the address made by llya Ehrenburg, world-famous Soviet author and journalist, to the Second World Peace Congress at Warsaw. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FEBRUARY 2, 1951 — PAGE 5 Te TRTeNTIN RMT RTM TTT] PT