STUDY WAR AIMS, HOCKING ADVISES

A plea that the people of the United States pay more attention to the "Primary causes and the ultimate of objectives of the war in Europe before we become further involved in it," was expressed yesterday by William Ernest Hocking '01, professor of Psychology, in an Open Letter to William Allen White, Chairman of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies.

Hocking's letter condemned "giving a blanket endorsement to the war aims of Great Britain before it is possible to know what in the concrete they will be," and urged that the interests of this nation will best be served by an "Independent view of what things we desire to support, and what things we are willing to fight for."

Non-hating U.S. Needed

In Hocking's opinion, "a non-intimidable, non-bribable, non-hating United States" may be the sole hope of preventing the mutual near-destruction of the European belligerents, each of which will continue to fight, he added, "so long as it fears that the other, whatever its professions, is secretly bent on reducing it to economic dependency."

Hocking advocated sustaining Britain's "power-to-hold," but suggested that "the most important task for thoughtful Americans is not that or exerting pressure to engage us in the European war."

Instead, he concluded, we must devote ourselves to the tack of "studying the difficult conditions for an enduring world-peace, and securing the incorporation of such conditions in a declared national policy." The letter will appear today in newspapers throughout the country.