‘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

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