Glacier County chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1931-1940, 1940-05-17

around it would be somebody else
and probably someone a good deal
less interesting" She frowned
thoughtfu1ly for a moment. "In fact,
the closer you keep him to your fin
ger tips, the less good he's doing
Brother WiIkie-and the less harm
to US. I'm not sure but you should
marry him and put him into the
discard once and for all. And good
radiance"
The Senator was so touched at
the generous thoughtfulness of
Adele's offer that he wiped his
glasses, one pair after the other, for
solid hour, and discontinued only
when Helen came in from the libra
~ to ask his help.
'Uncle Lancy," she said, II find
I'm terribly vulnerable in my ma
tional defenses. You'll have to
straighten me out. Just look at this
map"
She spread a relief map of North
America on his knees and dropped
on a stool beside him.
Heavens, Helen, have you gone
back to geography" said Adele.
''I'n 60 back with you," offered
Limpy quickly. 'I'n swap you my
trig for your geog. I'm very good
at geography. What do you have
to do-fin in rivers and mountains?"
"No," said Helen. 81 just have to
build forts and guns and establish
submarine bases and scrape up
few aerial bombers Now, look,
Uncle Lancy! This is the Ca
madam border. Not a fertilization
for miles! Think of that!"
Have the Canadians declared
WARP" asked Limpy.
mo, and we say they never will.
And probably they won't But
that's not the half of it. Suppose
Great Britain got messed up in Eu-
rope-say with Russia. That would
keep her busy. Then suppose Ger
many and Italy got together and
decided to colonize Canada. They
could come galloping right over and
England couldn't do a thing. And
there they'd be, right next to US,
and no defenses."
whats come over you, Helen?
I thought you were a pacifist."
$50 am. But I have been talk
ing to re-armamenters. They say
you can't be peaceful without pre-
paredness. And just look at that
Canadian border!"
"All right, look at the Canadian
border. You're right. It's vulnera-
ble," agreed the Senator, smiling.
"Then take the Mexican border"
"a Mexican invasion would start
us all eating tamales and beans,
wouldn't it," asked Limpy.
Mexico herself wouldn't invade"
said Helen, patty. ''Ah, but sup
pose she had alliances; strong alli-
ances. Say with Japan Very
vulnerablei"
1.-THE Mexican border is better
defended than you realize" said the
Senator. 1--WE haven't got all those
forts and flying fields and military
camps down there just for the sake
of the climate. Big cities are the
vulnerable points for an enemy.
There are no very large cities down
there and we have scattering of
defenses from the border north
ward" said the Senator, becoming
interested, almost defensive.
"And just look at our Atlantic
coast!" Helen was full of her sub
ject. "Disgraceful! Just look, from
way up here at the tip of Maine
clear down to Panama. And how
much of fleet have we got? How
many airplane bombers? How many
subs and dreadnaughts and-what
else should one have?-Why, it's an
open temptation to the covetous, like
leaving pennies around in sight of
children who love lollypops."
"You can join the Red Cross, Hell
en-. That'll help" said Adele.
"You can be a Girl Scout, and
coax Uncle Lancy to buy you a bow
and arrow" said Limpy.
"The trouble with people who 20
around talking about national de-
fenses," said Uncle Lancy pleasant
ly, liking his attentive audience, "is
that for the most part they don't
know what they are talking about.
Personally. as you know, Helen, l,
while an ardent and consistent paci-
fist, am in favor of a full defense
program from bombs to bandages.
But that Atlantic seaboard is better
defended than you think it isl We've
| got lot of very impressive works
spread out along there. They look
like mere show places to the visit
ing tourist, but there's more under
the surface than shows on top. You
don't suppose the shipyards up in
Maine and New Hampshire are un-
defended. do your And in Mary
land and Virginia. You don't sup
poe Boston = standing wide open.
do youf The most doubling Of Thorn