A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 27, 16 July 1952, Page 4

A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Before the FTrst World War Presidential and Congressional elections attracted little more than casual interest on the part of the general public in British communities. Until that time the American people were wholly absorbed in the development and exploitation of the enormous resources of their country. The United Kingdom and the Continent of Europe were of interest to them mostly as attractions for tourists, and promising fields for the marketing of their manufactured goods. In short, they were isolationists from habit and their way of life, rather than from political conviction. Isolation, however, became a violently contested political issue after the ourbreak of war in 1914. The history of America's retreat however, to convince American opinout the First World War, the interval of unquiet peace that followed, the Second World War, and the disturbed period since. It was not a steady movement. In fact it came to a dead ^top at the League of Nations, that ill-starred attempt to abolish war by peaceful negotiations. Tt is idle to speculate upon what the course of history might have been had America joined up as a full member. The fact that she didn't weakened the strength of the internaionai neace cause, and when Hitler ^ncj Mussolini became openly aggressive; the League, for all practical purposes, was as dead as mutton. It took Ihe Second World War, however, to convince Amercican opinion definitely and finally that isolationism was an impossible and highly dangerous attitude in a world rapidly shrinking in size with the development of high-speed aircraft, guided missil.es, and atomic weapons. That American forces participated in both World Wars in their later stages was due to the skilful and pursuasive leadership of the wartime presL dent — Woodrow Wilson in the first, and Franklin D. Roosevelt in the

second. Each had he chosen, could have kept his countryi out of the war by an appeal to the traditional policy of isolation. But each saw the danger of such a course. Today isolationism is no longer a live issue in America. The United States took the initia t.vc in Korea and l\j dispellea any idea that aggression would pass un"hallenge.i.

A llh . our neighbour dvnninion., Vustralia, we are now aiiied with the United otates in a Pa: Dvfrpce P'C t. Ou^ geographical is« iat on and ^paraliv. security vanis ed when Ihe war c-im* to the Pacbi: in 1941. Ihe troubled state of the wvld today leaves us stjll exposed to aggression. The Pacific Defence Paci is the logical corollary.

Thus it follows that political trends in America, as indicated in Presidential and Congressional elections, have become of much closer interest than formerly. We can recail the interet taken in President | Roosevelt's second and third terrn j elections in the critical days of the last war, and the sense of relief experienced at his triumph. So far as domestic policies are concerned, of course, these are entirely the business of the American people. Our immediate concern is with the foreign policy of the United States, and its possible reactions upon the international situation. Hence our interest in the impending elections. The fact should not be overlooked, however, that the election of a Republican as President does not necessarily mean a Republic Congress. It can happen, and has happened, that a President elected from one of the two main poliltical parties — Republican and Democrat — might be faced with an opposition majority in the House or the S'enate and find himself handicapped and embarrassed in carrying out his policy. However, much water— -some of it rather muddy according to reports — will flow under the bridge between now and November, when the Amefican people go to the polls.