George Middleton, age 11, of Visalia, Calif.) for his question

Why ,was the United Nations formed?

The basic aims are set forth in the Preamble to the great Charter of the United Nations. It begins: We the people of the United Nations are determined to save future generations from the scourge of war. These noble words were stated by the victorious allies who defeated the axis nations ‑ Germany,, Italy and Japan. The prime object, then, of the United Nations is to abolish warfare as a means of settling the problems between countries.

Warfare has been with mankind since the beginning of his history. In the pasty most people accepted the idea as a necessary misfortune. A few men dared to speak of a world without war but they were considered dreamers But ours is a century of great enlightenment and people all over the world are beginning to envision the end of warfare. Perhaps, a hundred years from now, the history books will truly be able to call World War II, the Last War.

But all this is a noble dream not quite come true. The wisp men who drew up the great Charter of the United Nations know this and they knew that a lot of practical planning is necessary to make a dream corm true. These ideas are made plain later in the Preamble. It status that the nations who signed. the Charter are determined to reaffirm faith in human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the rights of men and women and nations, large and small.

This means that the U.N. aims for peace of a special kind. The peace enforced by a bully nation under threat of war is not peace at all. Neither is a peace enforced by a government upon its unwilling people. The U.N. does not stand for so-called peace of this kind. It states clearly that true peace must consider human rights and the rights of nations.

This U.N. ideal is the greatest project ever undertaken by mankind. For it aims to change man's thinking from the path taken by his ancestors. It aims to tame the warlike feelings of nations and turn them in opposite directions. The Charter itself is full of rules as to how this can be done. It suggests that the representatives of nations talk around the conference table ‑ no matter how angry they feel with each other, no matter how much they would rather fight. Since the Charter was signed. in 1945, goodness knows there has been plenty of talk and some of it very bitter. But sensible people do not expect to tame all man’s wildest impulses in 14years.

 The wise men who drew up the Charter also knew where their ideals would lead. A world at peace, or oven walking towards peace, has time for luxuries. The Preamble ends by stating the aims to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom. And progress towards these luxuries has already been made in the United Nations.