Don Bate: author - traveller - newswriter - commentator

              DON BATEAuthor —Traveller — Newswriter — Commentator
A RECOGNIZED AUTHORITY ON WORLD AFFAIRS
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Don BateSpeaking before the Brooklyn, N. Y.
Rotary Club on South America
The Most Important Addresses of the 1940-1941 Season
True Pictures of Conditions Vitally Affecting All Americans
Must We Fight?A Brilliant Analysis of America's Stake in World AffairsOur Enemies From WithinAn Exposure and A DefianceFrom the Rio Grande to Cape HornFascism, Communism, Nazism versus the Monroe DoctrineWhere Do We Go From Here?(See other side of page)Hawaii, America's First Line of DefenseThe Paradise of the Pacific Becomes Its Paradox
A.W. MERRILL, SuperintendentE. W. BALDUF,  Director

DES MOINES PUBLIC SCHOOLSDEPARTMENT OF ADULT EDUCATION

629 THIRD STREETDES MOINES, IOWA

Mr. Loring Pratt
Mamaroneck, N.Y.

Dear Mr. Pratt:

Since dictating the enclosed letter to Frances Pratt, Don Bate has left us.  At his last forum, which was a Saturday luncheon meeting, we had a capacity crowd and Don Bate completely outdid himself . The letter to Miss Pratt was ot strong enough. At the close of the Saturday meeting, several of our veteran forum-goers said that Don Bate was the best forum leader and speaker that we have had since the beginning of forums in 1933.

I am writing you this to let you know that you can push Don Bate to the very limit and with the comfortable assurance that he will make good in a big way.

Sincerely yours,

E.W. Balduf

DIRECTOR OF ADULT EDUCATION

Hundreds fo similar lettersare on file from Advertising Clubs; –The larger Service Clubs;–Junior Colleges;–Universited;–Peace Groups;–Church and Civic Forums;–Union League Clubs;–American Legion Posts;–Women’s Clubs;–University Clubs;–Athletic Clubs;–Chamber’s of Commerce;–Private Organizations, as well many other groups. 


THE CHINA PRESS, NOVEMBER 3, 1935
SHANGHAI
Huge Crowd Sees Garner Party Land

Carnival Spirit Precails On Tender From Ship To Customs Jetty

EVENT IS FIELD DAY FOR NEWSMEN

Vice - President Takes Salute From Marine Guard-Of-Honor

by DON BATE

Amid salvos of carinon-crackers the blaring of brass bands and the huzzas of the crowd of spectators which was on hand when the tender from the President Grant pulled along side of the Customs Jetty the first road company of The Greatest Show On Earth, with Vice-President John Nance Garner and the Hon.  Joseph W. Byrns Speaker of the House of Representatives, playing the leading roles moved into Bagdad on the Whangpoo early yesterday morning for a one-day stand.

The supporting members of the cast included such well-known figures as Senators Joseph T. Robinson, of Arkansas; William H. King, The Silver Senator fom Utah; Burton K. Wheeler, of Montana; Gerlad P. Nye, of North Dakota; the brilliant, flamboyant Representatives Bertrand Snell of New York; Sam D. McReynolds, of Tennessee; Mr. William Allen White, of the Emporia Daily and Weekly Gazette; Major-Genetal Bryant Wells, U.S.A. retired, of Honolulu; Mr. Sterling Fisher, of the New York Times; the Hon. Harry B. Hawes, former United States Senator, and a host of other senators, representatives, and newspapermen.

Attractive Women Along

As all good shows should, the traveling company of "The Greatest On Earth" has a generous share of feminine pulchritude in the persons of the wives and daughters of the gentlemen who are en route to Manila where they will attend the inaufuration ceremonies of the Philippine Commonwealth, to be held there on November 15. The ladies were charming, genial entirely good-natured about posing for photographers, and their presence contributed a great deal to the gaiety ard pleasure of the occasion.

The sun also played its part making the American Congressional party's arrival in Shanghai a happy one, for as the launch carrying the newspapermen from THE CHINA PRESS chugged its way up the river to the Dollar Company’s Pootung Wharf, it rose in all its glory over the low roofs of the, warehouses on the Pootung side of the river to make the morning a perfect example of fall weather. 

It was a jolly crowd which greeted the newspapermen as they boarded the steamer. Most of the travelers were still in the dining room polishing off the last of their hearty breakfasts, but this fact didn’t prevent them from giving a real welcome to the press and posing for the photographers.

Carnival Spirit Prevails

And this high spirit of carvinal continued as the passengers left the vessel and gathered on the dock where they chatted informally

DON BATE

Returned to the Orient in the summer of 1940 to make a personal survey of the chaos and the hope of the peoples and the nations effected.

Where Do We Go From Here?

What Will Happen to American Interests in the Far East if Japan is Successful in Her China Mission?

That is the question that is bothering officials in our Department of State, brass hats in the Army and Navy, leaders among our Foreign Missionaries, tycoons in our oil companies and export houses generally, our Old- China Hands who are slowly drinking themselves to death in the foreign clubs and bars of Peiping, Tientsin, Shanghai and other Chinese cities, as they mourn the dear, dead days of long ago.

Is Wang Ching-wei a puppet, or patriot?

Would a victory for Japan mean the end of extraterritoriality in China? 

 Would Japanese business firms force western commercial firms to the wall?

Could a victorious Japan ever reconcile a defeated China and obtain real cooperation from her in building up a Pan-Asiatic Bloc?

Are Japan's ambitions in the Dutch East Indies inimical to the economic welfare of the United States?

Will the Japanese gobble up the Philippines once we give them their freedom?

Would a Russian dominated China be worse--from the viewpoint of the American businessman-than a China dominated by the Imperial Capitalism of Japan?

Having spent six years as an active newspaper man in China, Japan and the Philippines, knowing many of the leaders in all three countries, Mr. Bate authoritatively discusses these questions which are vital to all Americans.

When Vice President Garner visited Shanghai in 1935 the story was written by DON BATE of THE CHINA PRESS staff. Three years later, in 1938, Mr. BATE returned to Shanghai as a World correspondent and the CHINA PRESS paid tribute to him in thid feature article. .Manager.
DON BATE
Has sailed the Seven Seas to the Five Continents shown on the map.
He has studied the forces and directions of their various Governments. He has participated in the lives and customs of their peoples. 

DON BATE brings to American audiences a Sane World View: He voices goog judgement on the course of contemporary International History as he has seen it: He sets out in true perspective a wise Course for America in these preplexing hours.

Although the subjuect matter of these discourses is highly controversial it is the universal judgement of his hearers that Don Bate is both sound and fair.

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DON BATE
Returned to South America in the Summer of 1939 for a first hand investigation of the reports that the European Totalitarians are invading Latin America…
THE CHINA PRESS, FRIDAY, JULY 22,1938
SHANGHAI,
China War Still Front Page. 
News In United States, Says
Former Shanghai Journalist

Don Bate Tours World In Search Of Lecture Platform Material; Says Conditions In America Register Improvement

Present conditiond in the United States are not as bad as theya re being painted. The fact remains, however, that while times are not exactly prosperous, they are considerably better than they were tow or three months ago.

The person doing the talking is Mr. Don Bate American and a former Shanghai newspaperman

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DON BATE

who arrived in this city yesterday for a five-day stop-over before continuing a trip around the world.

Mr. Bates, who once signed thepay-roll on THE CHINA PRESS, answered the more or less lucrative call of the lecture platform in the United States shortly after the beginning of hostilities in China last year, and has been doing considerable talking ever since.

In an effort to get a new slant on the siruation in the Far East, as well as Euprope, he left the United States a few weeks ago with an around-the-world ticket in the pocket. He reached Shanghai via Japan and Manchukuo.

America Sympathetic

Americans today are sympathetic toward China and her cause, Mr. Bates told THE CHINA PRESS yesterday, "but that doesn't mean that they have any intention of getting themselves mixed up in the Far Eastern situation.

On the contrary, the average American today is definitely opposed to his country become embroiled in the China affair. He doesn’t figure that the stake the United States has in this land is worth it.

One very good reason that the United States will not concern herself in the China trouble to any greater extent, other than expressing Sympathy for China," Mr. Bates continued, "is the fact that the American Legion Is definitely opposed to U.S. intervention. And American Legion, as on of the leading political powers in
INTERPRETING WORLD SPOT NEWS
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(From Buenos Aires Herald)U.S.A. Foreign Policy
DON BATE URGES
HEMISPHERE
FRIENDSHIPS

I was not at all surprised when Germany and Russia got together. For two years I have been preaching the possibilities from the platform.  The one difference between the two countries is that one uses the, symbol of the hammer and sickle, and the other the swastika.

The proof of their plans lies in the fact that Russia eliminated M. Litvinov, former Commissioner of Foreign Affairs, in order that whoever dealt with Hitler would not be objectionable on racial grounds.

Lecturer

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Don Bate
DON BATE
International Lecture
IS LATIN AMERICA THREATENED BY EUROPEAN FASCIAM?
(Mr. Bate spent the Summer of 1939 in South America)

Hear This Recongnized Authority on World Affairs Present a True Picture of the Conditiond Which So Vitally Affect All Americans
BUENOS AIRES HERALD   Thursday, August 24, 1939
The speaker of the foregoing words was Don Bate, American newspaper man and lecturer, who arrived yesterday on the Brodin liner Anita on a holiday trip. Don Bate was formerly on the Syracuse Post–Standard and the New York Herald–Tribune. In 1924 and the two succeeding years he was night editor of the United Press in Shanghai. He spent four years in Hawaii. and two years on the China Press, first as marine editor and then as special foreign correspondent. As an active newspaper man he has roamed the Orient and Europe and made several around the world trips. He lectures to clubs all over the United States.

Don Bate stated that he believed that the United States could and should keep out of war, but whether she would or not depended on whether she had sense If we can do that. enough to follow a strongly isolationist policy, we can stay out, but if we play any other game, we will get into war. One might find that the people of the eastern seaboard were perhaps more incmed to favour a more sympathetic international policy, and that those on the west coast wanted to fight Japan.  However, the bulk of the nation, those living in the middle states, were preponderantly isolationist, and all over they would carry the vote.

As for North American relations South America, he believed the feeling in the United States was far less arrogant than it used to be. People were willing to consider South American problems, and were making efforts to put into effect the good neighbour policy by closer cultural, aesthetic, and commercial contacts.

The day of dollar diplomacy was dying, if indeed, It had not already died. In the future the United States was going to be more decent in her attitude toward the Latin Americans than ever before. He mentioned Carlton Beais and S. Guy Inman as two personalities who had made great contributions to a better understanding of Latin American problems.

He thought that solidarity for the defence of the Western Hemisphere would be more necessary because of what had happened in days than ever before. However, it would be strictly in the sense of co-operation between the United States and Latin America, and not a domination by the former.  If material aid were requested, she would give it.

The Monroe Doctrine would be interpreted very liberally, along the lines envisaged by such idealistic men as Monroe, Bolivar, and San Martin.

If any South American country sent an S.O.S. to Uncle Sam for protection against an ideological or military invasion, the United States would come as fast as the ships could be cleared.  The foregoing remarks he was making on the basis of his contact with hundreds of groups all over the United States, and he felt strongly that what he said about the American attitude was representative.

BATE TELLS YOU:

Of things as they are!

Uncolored by Propaganda

Unbiased by Prejudices

Unfettered by Censorships