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Nile Kinnick correspondence, December 1942-March 1943

1943-02-24: Page 08

seems to me that a decent agreement is possible among these four powers. But whatever happens, if the U.S. ever permits any country to exceed her air & sea strength she is in damn fool. Frankly, I don't believe I am in favor of all this disarmament stuff, anymore than I am in favor of cancelling my insurance when I quit flying. Rickenbacker declares that the armistice will send home the most intense individualists the country has ever seen; that they aren't going to stand for all this "politicking" and bureaucracy. On the other hand Henry Agard Wallace says the men will demand that the gov't guarantee jobs & security; that if there can be total employment during war why can't their be in peace. From what I have observed in the service I fear Henry is closer to being right. There are too many Americans who don't yet appreciate the real value of liberty & freedom of enterprise. If the gov't continues to "take over" more & more who is going to be the arbiter in any complaints and disputes which arise? The tyranny and abuses of business and labor will then be present in the government itself and doubly hard to correct. In the interest of justice and public welfare I agree that a gov't should standby as a benevolent sheriff, alert and on the job, but I am suspicious of any extension of that power. Whenever the administration, or some other, becomes more impartial as between labor and capital this union mess will begin to clear up. The union movement has been attended with the same growing pains and abuses as the early history of the corporations. When Congress

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seems to me that a decent agreement is possible among these four powers. But whatever happens, if the U.S. ever permits any country to exceed her air & sea strength she is in damn fool. Frankly, I don't believe I am in favor of all this disarmament stuff, anymore than I am in favor of cancelling my insurance when I quit flying. Rickenbacker declares that the armistice will send home the most intense individualists the country has ever seen; that they aren't going to stand for all this "politicking" and bureaucracy. On the other hand Henry Agard Wallace says the men will demand that the gov't guarantee jobs & security; that if there can be total employment during war why can't their be in peace. From what I have observed in the service I fear Henry is closer to being right. There are too many Americans who don't yet appreciate the real value of liberty & freedom of enterprise. If the gov't continues to "take over" more & more who is going to be the arbiter in any complaints and disputes which arise? The tyranny and abuses of business and labor will then be present in the government itself and doubly hard to correct. In the interest of justice and public welfare I agree that a gov't should standby as a benevolent sheriff, alert and on the job, but I am suspicious of any extension of that power. Whenever the administration, or some other, becomes more impartial as between labor and capital this union mess will begin to clear up. The union movement has been attended with the same growing pains and abuses as the early history of the corporations. When Congress