Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-11-29
u, S. Citizens
Must Feel
As Americans
Should Have Passion
for Our Country
BY BENJAMIN DE CASSERES


millions of the inhabitants
OF these times:
To feel in the American way.
BY feeling in the American
way / mean that the idea Of
personal liberty and the pre-
cious heritage of our funda-
mental institutions must 60
deeper than mere brain and lip
knowledge.
The words United States must
become part of the emotional
life. The love of liberty must be
passion. a feeling. an ecstasy.
The Bill of Rights lthe greatest
political document in existence)
must glow in the blood. and the
resolution TO preserve ii against
all the subversive clements in
our country must be part of the
Self-preservative instinct in us
preservation al any price
That's feeling in the American
way Naturalization papers in
tho trunk will not Just donor.
among the native-born, an "Oh
yes. | know the Constitution
let's 60 to the movies"
We are a patriotic people in
the main, but unless we know
why we are patriotic il is merely
a mechanical patriotism.
When you shout ..Hurrah for
the United States of America"
Let both heart and lips say it.
particularly the heart for the
heart has reasons of its own of
which the mind and lips know
nothing.
OF LATE our playwrights have
" taken to spoofing murder
and the Immortality of the soul.
Is that symptom" of some
thing or other that is not So
cially or religiously kosher. or
is it really milestone in mans
progress toward a more rational
relation 10 these vital subjects
For. after ALL all humor is
form OF progress.
In books and in the movies
We have had the Thorne Smith
Topper" series in which ghosts
come back, lap up cocktails,
break up homes and generally
show themselves utterly unre-
generate and "unSaved."
There, too, is the current
movie. Here Comes Mr.. Jor-
dan.' in which the ghost. among
other cock eyed adventures.
comes back for prizefight
which makes him the champ of
the world.
Wholesale murder is kidded TO
a fare-you-well in Arsenic and
Old Lace" play which demon
strates once and for -all-that-
horror is just the way you
look at it.
Now a still more original
ghost-and-murder story has hit
Broadway-"Blithe Spirit" 1t
is out of the fantastic skull Of
Noel Coward. and it is side
splitter, besides being a hay
maker for mediums. ="
Briefly, after a seance in the
house of Mr.. and Mrs. Con-
domino. Mrs. Condomine No. /,
who passed away. comes back as
a full-fledged ghost and after
hanging around for a while de-
cides TO bump off her still very
earthly husband so that he will
no longer be the side-kick of
the second Mrs. Condomine, and
SO Condomine has to live with
the ghosts Of his two wives.
Just how he gets out-ef this
weird scrape shall not be I'M
folded here. You'll all see it
some day in the movies.
"Blithe Spirit" will destroy
your fear of ghosts, for they.
according TO Mr.. Coward. are
dumb. earthbound, rotten lot, on
the whole. And l quite agree.
This is a literate, deftly han
died play, the best yet-because
the most artistic--of all the
Spoofs on tragic subjects.
To answer my first question.
I think these plays are good
spiritual and mental fare. Ger
tainly "Blthc Spirit is caviar.
nR. MAX NORDAU. a once
~ upon-a-timc cclc brated
German writer and buster-up-
of-things-in general. wrote
book entitled Conventional Lies
Of Our Civilization. In this
book Doctor Nordau took al
most everything for ride"
that we conventionally hold
sacred mainly because we are
so mentally lazy that we cannot
think our way out OF our social
StraiCiacketS
Doctor Nordau, were he alive
today could supplement his
book with some conventional
political lies of our civilization"
-So-called. Among them would
be:
That China is democracy
That Russia is fighting for the
freedom of the workers of the
world
That the South and Central
American republics" are re-
publiCS
That solemn campaign prom
ises are solemn campaign
promises
That the United States gov
eminent is not at war.
OF course there would be
L., ,F 49, I.-.ft