Evening star., 1941-09-05

- &s& man with an an
McLemore. nouncement Of
his itinerary coming from the White
House and with Mayor and Governor
lined up in advance to meet him
at the city limits and whirl him
into batch of luncheons and din
ners, where the mimeographed
speeches are as bad as the food.
The Government should send a
plain man on this junket, some level
headed gent whose eyes and ears
1t respected. He should beat around
in an automobile unheralded and
unknown. Send him of in a good
repaint job, with a set Of nice re-
tread tires and with instructions to
find out what the fellows on the
farm, in the drug store. in the small
shop and here, there and every
where are talking about, thinking
about, and how they feel this coun-
try is being run.
Let this Government listener eat
dinner in tourist-cabin dining
room, put air in his own tires in a
cross roads filling station, lounge
around a dozen or two hotel lobbies,
buy necktie in a hole-in-the-wal
haberdashery, mingle with the crowd
at a race track, sit in the bleachers
at a ball game. and buttonhole
citizens on the street in this town
and that.
He'd find out a lot about this
country. I know, because I've just
done 5000 or so miles in my car.
The Government man would learn,
for one thing, that the folks would
like clean explanation of why the
Q. P. M. Is in such a mess. They
Just can't figure out how an organ
ization with such men as Knudsen
and Stettinius in it is so handcuffed.
They have come to believe in Knud-
sen. They rate him as a he'll OF an
industriahst and a man with tre-
mendous energy and sincerity, and
they wonder what sort of place
Washington is when 1t can bog him
down. He is the man they have
been sold as the top organizer in
this country and they resent what
they consider the kicking around
he is getting by little guys when
they never heard of them before.
If Knudsen isn't being showed
around, if he isn't being badgered by
a bunch of sharp little Johnny
come -latelys named Joe, Moe and
Gus, then the people should be told,
because they sure enough do think
he is. The Government needn't ex.
pect 100 per cent defense co-opera.
ton until the average citizen be-
lieves Washington is cooperating,
and isn't filled with men working to
protect themselves rather than the
/ country. r
The Government man would hear
lot about Army morale, and how
much of 1t is due to the poor quail
ity Of the Reserve officers. Nearly
every one you talk to knows some
! Reserve officer who gives him a
laugh. I ran across so citizens who
knew Of this liquor salesman, this
lawyer, this hay and grain dealer.
this dental equipment manufac-
| turer, who was in the Army and
wearing the bars of a captain, the
leaf of a major or the eagle of
colonel.
I ran across a hundred who had
had letters from friends or rela-
tives in the Army which told of be-
ing under the command of Reserve
officers who scarcely knew pom
toon from a platoon and who were
in such terrible physical condition
that they had to rest between
salutes.
The Government man might very
well run into some Regular Army
officers who feel pretty sore about
the Reserve officers. More than one
officer who has made the Army his
career finds it hard to adjust him.
self to accepting as an equal in
knowledge and pay a man who has
been practicing another profession
for years and who gets lost the mo-
ment maneuvers aren't confined to
paved highways.
Here is another question the Gov
ernment man will hear people ask
ing one another: How are we ever
going to win this war?" They'd like
to know that. They don't feel that
we'll ever be defeated. They have
been told how that can be averted.
But" they ask, when is some one
going to tell us how the United
States and Britain and Russia are
going to end it? What tactics are
to be used?"
Too many people can see nothing
but stalemate, and this country
never was one for tie games. 1t
likes q decision.
So. let the man set out in his car
from Washington; let him hit the
48 States and learn the things that
are puzzling the people.
Then. let them be cleared up.
Until they are. we, the people Of the
United States, are going TO wonder
at our work, and not whistle.