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223 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. vii (1942)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0223 and id is 1 raw text is: FOREWORD A NATION at war today against a major antagonist must be a nation con- vinced of the necessity for devoting the maximum of its energy and resources to the war effort or gamble dangerously with defeat. Victory requires a dearly held unity of purpose and a grim de- termination to sacrifice not only luxuries but also activities and goods which have come to be regarded as virtual necessi- ties all the way down to bare essentials. It is not enough that the people obe- diently conform to the letter of gov- ernment regulations concerning limited production and consumption under a system of priorities and rationing, limi- tations on prices, military draft, and wartime manpower demands. There must also be a will to win and a willing- ness to pay the price of victory. Universal ungrudging devotion of 130,000,000 people to the common pur- poses of war is not easy of achievement in a nation so extensive in area, so diverse in the origin of its people, and so varied in occupation and interest as is the United States of America. Under such conditions the impact of war, the very thought of war, arouses conflicting responses in the minds of individuals in accordance with their varied traditions, their fundamental be- liefs, and their economic and social interests. War itself is a most power- ful force for the accomplishment of national unity through the submergence of individual and group conflicts under the pressure of the all-compelling need for victory. Democratic justice as well as war necessity, however, still requires recognition of the fact that individuals retain their individuality in time of war and that economic and social groups with conflicting interests persist in the face of common catastrophe. The dis- covery and adoption of means for recon- ciling and adjusting such divergencies and conflicts through popular under- standing and positive social action is a challenge to the democratic ideal. So-called American minority peoples of divergent racial or relatively recent alien origin include many individuals who must be made more completely an integral part of our Nation. The United States is at war with countries in which millions of her people were born, and it is but natural that some ties of senti- ment should still persist. Even the American-born children of immigrants may be expected to have some sym- pathy with the traditions of their par- ents. The effort which has been made to inject doctrines of race into the war has not been without effect on the col- ored peoples of the United States, al- though this effect has been much less than our enemies might hope. Further- more, racial discrimination and preju- dice against foreigners, even to the sec- ond and sometimes to later generations, have aided in giving our minorities of alien and racial origin reason to believe that their interests and those of the Nation may not be identical. To the extent that these minorities remain un- convinced-because of their divergent traditions, ways of life, and the discrimi- nation suffered at the hands of the old- American white majority-that their in- terests are identified with those of the Nation as a whole, to that extent the Nation will fall short of achieving its maximum effectiveness in the war. This volume of THE ANNALS is in- tended to increase the understanding of American minority peoples in rela- tion to the war so that their special problems may be appreciated and their integration into the national body may be advanced by constructive, positive measures rather than by the repressive devices likely to be engendered by war spirit. The subject is, of course, much vii

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