The Ely miner., 1941-03-20

ing your bit to aid the totaItarian
governments.
Every Voice Needed.
Don't think that because you live
on a limited income In a rented
house and run just little over the
budget every month that your voice
isn't needed and isn't valuable.
Great national changes don't neces-
sarily come from privileged men.
Lincoln, Napoleon, Stain, Mussolini,
Hitler and countless others knew the
sharp touch of poverty and lived the
first third of their lives In obscurity.
The reason the dictators have
gained so strong q hold is because
nlne-tenths Of the men and women
they rule are abysmally ignorant of
what Is going on, of their own rights
and powers. Don't keep yourself IN
that group unless you want to see
our own country menaced by the
forces that are honestly convinced
that the dictators' way is the right
way.
Our share of citizenship now, as
American women, is to demonstrate
just what Is true democracy, TO per-
feet our own system. It is for US to
do away with unemployment, pow
erty, sluns, to discourage false phi
losophies, to upbuild the faith of our
great forefathers.
II you can do that for the smallest
spot IN the smallest Of our towns or
villages, you viii be doing an in
calculable service to America. The
ways Of doing If are infinite.
First Line of Defense.
Study unemployment and housing
and disqualification and sanitation IN
your own community, for instance.
Find out why youngsters in high
school and college are taking to Eu-
ropean ideas; gather the youngsters
into your house for debate and cof-
fee and doughnuts, once a week.
Stop lameuting that undergraduate
morals are something deplorable
and the half-baked Communism
those children are talking is really
frightening, and do something about
It. Let them know that under their
own Constitution they can introduce
any changes they wish; that it is
the miracle and privilege of democ-
racy that It can change and develop
with the changing world
Women who are unwilling to make
this effort, to uproot themselves
from the age-old laziness of not
thinking or acting at all In national
and international affairs, women
who don't know the names of their
representatives IN Washington. nor
how those representatives are vot-
ing on questions of vital importance
to every wife and mother. needn't
be surprised or Mortified If Ameri-
can democracy really does totter un-
der oppression from abroad. War
naturally destroys democracy for
the time being; the individual can
not have any opinion in war; he
obeys, and he does nothing but obey.
He serves In the ranks or IN the
munitions factories, he kills, is
wounded, dies, without one moment
of freedom This is inevitable.
A Plan Necessary.
But when the wars are Overland
someday they viii be ended, then it
viii be for US to build a new Amer
ica, even as they VIII have to begin
to rebuild shattered Europe. And
that VIII be the time for US to de-
eide between a dictator who VIII tell
US that he knows exactly what we
must do, or follow wise and safe
democratic plan of our own.
Unless we have that plan, and un-
less we have our own complete con-
viction that II is a wise plan, we
shall fail as so many other nations
have fallen, under the rule of some
dictator, probably completely m-
known to US now, but ready tc
spring UP with a scheme of rehabil-
itation that may be as false and
fanatic as that Of Germany itself.
This Is the time to make America
perfect, the democracy that VIII
stand IN a ruined world as an ez-
ample of what free men and women
may do. The part you choose 30
play IS important.