Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1941-08-14

trated millions (tinder for the propo-
gandists- Left and Right pro-
pagandists). We are little business
men, professional men doctors, law
yers, teachers, preachers) clerks and
mechanics, farmers and day laborers,
who do not know today what, if
the morrow will bring.
We are Supposedly obliged to live
in houses Cor shacks in Slums) to
eat bread Cor that which passes for
bread), meat, butter and milk and
fruit. We are because the law re-
quireS it and the northwinds COM
pei it) supposed to wear clothes.
1t is not news" to you, Mr.. Poll
tician, that for the past ten years we
have not been getting decent sup
ply of such things. We have not
been getting as much as we actually
produced, to say nothing of what
we could have produced. Much that
we have produced, as for example,
cotton, simply because we have not
and do not receive the means with
which to buy them.
There is no controversy on those
points. Why drag in statistics, which
nobody pays any attention to, to
prove them? The bald facts stare us
unblinkingly in the face. Whether
it's twenty billions or ten billions
that's lost annually because of our
inability to buy doesn't matter. There
shouldn't be any. And there wouldn't
be any if you would do your lawful
duty.
Your present greatest concern, Mr..
Politician, appears to be as to our
attitude on preparedness" and ode
fense". Well, we're for them. But
we believe that preparedness means
much more than front-line equip
ment-more than battleships and
bombers. Dependable home-line SOL
idarity depends on home-line securi-
ty, security for the humblest citizen.
1t is there, we believe, that our all
out preparedness must begin. We
cannot have brave, courageous, de-
pendable home-line without home
line security.
These facts have been demon
strated in Europe. We have seen
country after country "capitulate"
to the invader. The readiness with
which some of them gave up amazed
us. The feebleness of resistance up
on the part of others dumfounded us.
The ease with which the invaders
subjugated them overwhelmed us.
How do they do it? we asked. What
is the magic?
We concluded, and correctly, that
such invaded countries were infested
with spies and traitors. We dis
covered, with rising indignation, that
all spies were not foreigners. Some
of them, it is true, may have been
constituencies traitors and yielded to
the ''temptation" of power" But
this cannot account for the whole
sale ss-surrender-the mass-wel-
come (momentarily) to the invader.
It's hard to look upon the man who
betrays his own country with calm
ness. But one wonders if a great
many people had not come to look
upon their" country as not theirs
at all. We wonder if the fact that
many millions were under the heel
(even though a soft" heeD of a
ruling class, or caste, an industrial
or monetary olegarchy, had anything
to do with taking the heart out of
the common soldier. We wonder if
many did not say, Why should we
die for our 'boss" and his country?
Hitler had said it would not be
necessary to send spies into another
country. "We shall find such men;
we shall find them in every country;
we shall not need to bride them," he
said. That seems to have been too
true. 1t ought to be significant. 1t
is significant. It is obvious that
there are plenty such men in this
country today. Some of them may
be disgruntled men, men whose am
billions have been thwarted. But
these alone could do little harm.
The danger lies in the millions of
hungry, homeless creatures
who see no hope for the future. Those
millions of honest, though deluded
men, give power to the few who are
dishonest.
Among them are university and
college graduates-men who have
spent years preparing for careers but
who are doubly fortunate if even
small percentage can get jobs as
attendants, elevator
boys or flunkies at lunch counters in
chain drug stores. 1t is not diff
cult to convince" such men that
real" loyalty and patriotism means
smashing conditions, destroying the
system" that bars their paths to
opportunity.
I'm not apologizing for traitors
and spies-not in any measure justi-
flying them. I'm trying to find what
seemed" to them reasons" for their
behavior I'm trying to point out
that revolutions are not made abroad
and imported into country full
panoplied and with banners unfurled.
They grow out of native soil (even
though from "foreign" seed), are
nurtured in unhappy conditions and
cultivated by unkept pledges and
forgotten promises.
It was, if half the truth were
known, because of internal conditions
that some of the European countries