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IDEAS ARE COSMOPOLITAN.-They have the liberty of the world. You have no right to take the sword and cross the bounds of other nations, and enforce on them laws or institutions they are unwilling to receive.-But there is no limit to the sphere of ideas. Your thoughts and feelings, the whole world lies open to them, and you have the right to send them into any latitude, and to give them sweep around the earth, to the mind of every human being.

As We Go To Press

-Henry Ward Beecher

Negotiations For Peace

ARE WE DEVELOPING a stalemate complex toward world affairs in general, because of the Korean war and the still unprepared state of western Europe? Such a mental attitude can only stifle fresh incentive and retard negotiations for peace.

As truly as the United Nations is a medium for discussion with our adversaries, need for such discussion is evident, despite long and futile attempts toward a truce with the Communists and the advantages taken of daily.

Following hard upon the visit of President-elect Eisenhower to Korea, his conferences with cabinet members to be, and his exchange of views with General MacArthur, has come an expressed wish on the part of Stalin to meet Eisenhower. This report by The New York Times has awakened a barrage of skeptical opinions in Washington and elsewhere. Are we going to walk into another boobytrap? is asked.

In the first place it seems poor consistency, after The Times has sent its message to the Kremlin in an earnest effort to help the cause of peace, to receive an answer and promptly dub it phony. In the second place, as there will be no cessation of warfare in advance of arbitration, it would seem psychologically sound, therefore to assume the Soviet response sincere whether or not we entertain doubts of the probity of the Communists. Our newspapers impair opportunities for effective deliberations when they play up their uselessness by headlining "trickery," "traps." Let us not seem more undignified than our opponents. Above all, let us not be defeative and, conscious of our sore spots, throw brickbats at the wrong time. It is worthy of note that Soviet Russia is not insensitive to propaganda, and as widely as the offer of Stalin to meet Ike has been disseminated among the subject peoples, just as widely, we may be sure, has Washington's offishness been reported.

The matter of exchange and release of prisoners is at the center of the deadlock of truce negotiations for ending the Korean warat least from outward appearances. A large proportion of the North Koreans and Chinese soldiers in the hands of the United Nations forces have vigorously opposed being returned, and our government has placed itself on record against such return, bringing possible death or severe punishment to these men at the hands of their own leaders. Very largely in the opinion of our military and civilian leaders, the P.O.W. transfer, more than any other factor, impedes negotiations for peace.

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It would seem posssible to overcome this obstacle by a proposal from the United Nations--one designed in the interest of mutual fairness and ostensibly in that of the prisoners.

If not already considered, would not the following proposal be equitable from all points of view as well as diplomatically sound? Under terms of truce and adequate guarantees, both parties to the present conflict might engage to return all prisoners with the understanding that they be assured of complete freedom, immunity from punishment upon any charge of disloyalty or cowardice, with discharge from military service and permanent restoration to civilian status.

In view of the extreme hardship endured by the prisoners and loss of physical and mental abilities, subsequent rehabilitation for service would thus be avoided,-a measure likely acceptable to the prisoners themselves. Violation of the guarantees would be avoided as evoking world-wide condemnation and dangerous reactions behind the Iron Curtain.

The advantage of such a proposal lies in its ostensibly bilateral nature. If there is the slightest desire on the part of the enemy to end the Korean war and prevent a general conflagration throughout the world, this type of offer may afford an opening for deliberation on a new basis. By the suggested terms each side gains. The cost of maintaining prison camps, largely borne by the United States, is a heavy item and a drain upon active personnel.

If we, officially or unofficially, invite conferences, the least we can do is to credit acceptance as sincerely given. We are still a long way from agreement with our adversary. And what seems most needed at present is some kind of workable proposition. As interminable as the discussion has been in the past, all means of reaching accord have not been exhausted. Let us not exhaust our patience entirely. The price would be as great for us as for them.

(Cont. on page 12)

A Christmas Message
For The New Year

Chet Huntley

ABC Radio and Television Commentator

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring happy bells, across the snow!

Ring out old shapes of foul disease,

Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace!
Ring in the valiant man and free,

The larger heart, the kindlier hand!
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be!

[blocks in formation]

-Lord Alfred Tennyson

blessings and the benefits of peace are discounted? Not one.

The message of peace and goodwill is a powerful one. It is, of course, the essence of the Christmas holiday. The story of the Nativity, of course, we all know.

But it has seemed to this reporter that the reader of the Nativity in order to better appreciate the story has to start from a frame of reference. Society, it seems, was in a state at that time, somewhat comparable to the state of the world today. Only today's is worse. Here we are in the midst of the

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bloodiest century in the known history of the world.

In that part of the world there had been much talk and speculation about deliverance and a deliverer ... a savior or a Messiah. There had been soothsayers and priests who had forecast the arrival of this great leader, who somehow would lead his people out of the political slavery, out of cruelty and harshness of Rome, out of their confusion.

In other words, there had been considerable preparation for the arrival of the Messiah.

Thus, when the announcement was made that the Savior had appeared, that instead of arriving in a chariot and with legions of troops, he was an infant, born in a manger in Bethlehem, his arrival announced by the angels, well there were the ingredients for a tremendously emotional story. And it was tremendous. Those who believed in the Christ-child were awestruck. Some were afraid . . . frightened.

But what was the one message given to the people of that part of the world that night when the Christ-child was born? Peace on earth... goodwill to men. It had meaning then . . . and after 19 1/2 centuries it still has its tremendous impact.

How to spread this appeal of Christmas over the whole year . . . that is our problem.

We are told that wise men came to the manger that night in Bethlehem bringing gifts.

Have you ever wondered about the feasability of wise men in this 20th century perhaps bringing gifts to the peace table? What would happen do you suppose if, instead of coming to the conference table with a purpose of getting or securing as much as possible, what would happen if the diplomats. came to the conference table, each prepared to give something or yield something in the interests of world peace. The proposals of sacrifices in behalf of peace could be put in a container . . . all of them spread out and surveyed simultaneously.

But I suppose there would always and forever be one who would hold back something thinking that the next fellow would be extending himself too far . . . so wait and see what the others had to offer.

There was the small boy the other night at a children's party at the ABC-Television studios. The cast of Space Patrol was part of the entertainment. The 3-year old asked his parents why the villain of the piece was so well behaved ... why didn't he fight with the others? He settled enthusiastically for the explanation that people. don't fight during the Christmas

season.

But they do. They may wonder, during the Christmas season, why

they fight .. more than they wonder any other time of the year.

We might hope that we, as a people, found in our stockings this Christmas a new awareness of a big job we can no longer delay. I would call this task a development of spirit.

Pope Pius said it in his Christmas message to the world. From countless other pulpits and platforms a similar appeal has been made. Pope Pius said that the mechanization of man must give way to the spiritualization of man.

There is no doubt about the place of this country in the rankings of technological and mechanical ability. Our laboratories, our shops, foundries, and factories continue to turn out, in an endless stream, all the miraculous accomplishments of science and technology. We have machines that respond to electric current, to the pressure of steam, to the controlled explosion of combustible gases, to the impact of a gleam of light from a star or a tiny tube. Our machines will respond to the pulse, to heart beats, to the tightening of human muscle. We have machines which respond to heat, to earth tremors, to variations of humidity, and the amount of dust in the air.

But how do we respond to variations of the spirit?

We're not talking completely about a religious awakening or re

birth. Rather, this reporter would put our spiritual needs under the broad and general heading of a need for the development of better human beings.

It can be done, you know. We haven't been trying very hard, actually.

We've been concentrating, almost to the exclusion of everything else, on the building of bigger, better, more efficient, more powerful machines. In order to build these machines (everything from children's toys to skyscrapers) we have concentrated on a materialistic kind of education for our children. We have concentrated on teaching them how to make a living or how to be a success in a technological age, and here and there we have thrown in a few brief rules on how to be a good citizen.

It is time we gave this question some very serious consideration . . .how long we can continue to so educate ourselves and our children and keep our civilization alive. Human needs, we're beginning to sense, go beyond the training for a job and a bit of training for citizenship. Isn't it high time we thought about training our children and ourselves to be better human beings?

Frankly, there doesn't seem to be a single profession, trade, skill, or occupation which would be immune to this training need. Doctors, engineers, bacteriologists,

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