The Redwood gazette., 1918-08-21
IN DEFENSE OF CHRISTMAS

IlIil, dlCIlOQSA tIuo IOl iiO AQ0 ON00Su
their dire intention. This year they
are beginning the season early think
ng no doubt that by persistent cam
paign long continued, they can ac-
complish their gloomy designs upon
him.
The Council of National Defense
proposes to join the anti Christmas
party by urging the public to con-
fine Christmas giving this year to
postcards and letters" It's fell pur-
pose is not only to make the innocent
joy out of the day, but to inflict a
positive nuisance and aggravation in
it's stead.
postcards and letters" indeed! The,
postal card is the lowest form of ep-
istolary intercourse in existence; it
is the makeshift of the illerate and
the inconsiderate: it is meaningless
and senseless, fragmentary, exasper-
ating and u-forgiveable as a means
of conveying human thought.
AS for letters, since the writing Of
anything better than a perfunctory
business communication is almost lost
art II this country, not one person
IN thousand can write one worth
reading, so why encourage banalit;es,
particularly as they are sheer waste
of time, ink and paper, not to mention
postage?
1t is bad enough to attenmnt to
murder Christmas without adding in
suit to injury by making the day one
of full WEAKNESS, devoted to decip-
herring cryptic handwritings, an eff
fort which, when accomplished, yields
no return worthy of the effort.
A certain class eminently practical
people, who always secretly resented
the coming of Christmas because it
made the world less somber, and en-
abled its inhabitants to ignore their
troubles for at least one day on the
calender, began to advocate the abo-
lition of the usual Christmas obser-
vances and festivities the first year
of the war. Their excuse then was
that, since there was so much suffer-
ing and sorrow in Europe, it was i'm.
proper and u1becoming for Americans
to make a show of happiness For
tunately, their efforts were u-1success-
full; they were unable to turn Christ
mas into day of mourning and gloom.
One of the most touching Incidents
recited by Brand Whitlock in his ar
ticles on Belgium during the earlier
years of the war is Christmas cele-
bration given to the children of Brus-
sells by Lewis Richards, an American
then living in that city, on that ter
rible Christmas day of 1914 the first
passed by the Belgians under the iron
rule of Germany.
Had any of the persistent anti
Chri riSfy, raor1a -.
at that time, as fortunately they were
not, they would doubtless have depre-
Gated and discouraged this celebration
as being most inappropriate and in
opportune; they would have said that
the money it costs could much more
wisely have been spent for food for
the hungry, and that the adults who
attended it ought not to attempt to
make merry when there was such
grievous distress and suffering. Yet
six hundred Belgium children were
made happy by these festivities and
shock the Gradgriads to know that
some of hese wee mere toys, which
the children could neither eat nor
wear, a very terrible waste of mon
ey needed for food and clothes.
The Bellman does not know and
does not care to know the reasons gil
ven by the Council of National De-
fense for its proposed campaign in
favor of postal cards and letters as
substitute for Christmas gifts. Pro
badly it contends that the money
might better be invested in Thrift
Stamps or Liberty Bonds, or be given
to the Red Cross or the Y. M. c. A.
a substitute for it is as logical as
that, with the world at war, Christ
mas giving it not justified, and that
substitute for wheat bread
All of this is no doubt true enough,
but it quite misses the whole spirit
of Christmas giving. The people OF
the United States have already read
justed their Christmas buying to war
conditions. They no longer buy use
less trash, as they formerly did, for
Christmas presents. Their gifts, ex-
cept for the children, are generally
staple articles which are needed ard
wanted; very little of the holiday
spending now goes for frivolous rc1-
essentials. Why shouldn't they give
their presents at Christmas as usual
and thus make the day happier?
There is altogether too much attemp-
ted interference with such things, too
much desire to regulate somebody or
something to suit the notions of 9TH
ers, and vastly too much effort to take
the joy out of American life and sub
stitute guinness and anticipato,y
pessimism If the people who are all
for regulating everything according
to statistics and logic and what they
call "sober facts" could have their
way, they would take the optimism
and resiliency out of their greatest as
sets-the very characteristics that,
reflected in the boys at the front are
already counting heavily against the
enemy.
Why not let Christmas alone, and
permit the people to 1joy it IN their
own way, without supervision, sugges-
ton dictation or any kind of inter-
ference from bodies no wiser than
the which are ambitious to meddle