The Wilmington morning star., 1941-02-26
Fair Enouuh
By PEcI,

are those of the author ana
may not always harmonizs
with its position. The Edit
FORT DIX, N. j., Feb. q
Along toward dusk of a hitt,.
windy day last week a gro,1n -
several hundred young civilians
moved along a frozen road psraNaI
to the railroad siding, carrvn,
small satchels and bundles. Msnn
of them were without hats ana
some wore jackets instead of over
coats. They we're more a cro,,d
than a military unit, although ,hsu
kept ranks of a sort, for thew bas
left home only that day to ioir
the army and, in all probability
to fight in a war against Hitler,
Nazi Germany and possibly Janan
and, before it is over, against God
only knows that mixed aggregatioo
of young men of other nationalitip,
and races. A soldier in uniform
walked ahead, leading the irre9,,.
lar column against the biting wind
and the absence of a band, the
absence even of a flag, empha
sized the dreariness of their in.
duction into the army of the United
States as darkness gathered over
the rows of winterized tents in
which they were to spend their
first night in the service. The
army was busy with other duties
and, after all, these new members
were guaranteed such physical
comfort as the post affords for t,s
others, including shelter under can.
vas, which is not as miserable as
it may seem in print, even in cold
weather, an issue of bedding which
now includes a mattress, and a
warm evening meal. After supper
they would return to their tents,
most of them strangers to one an.
other, and bed down for the night
in strange surroundings, beginning
a strange new life, and the next
day they would receive uniforms
and kit and begin to learn the
difference between a general and
a sergeant.
Many a Day
So it goes, and it has been going
for many a day, not only at Fort
Dix, which lies in bleak country
down toward the Jersey coast, ana
the picture of the struggling CT
villains walking toward a highly
probable war was reminiscent Y
those dark and bitter communist
cartoons OF the Art Young type Of
young men marching obediently III
to the nav of a monster la o&Ied
capitalist war. Yet this war has
been started by German Boisnt-
vism at the signal from BolsheIiSt
Russia, whose slightest d%isapproval
could have prevented the horrible
attack on Poland, and the capitalist
American nation only now, worse
luck, is beginning to make an army
to defend, not capitalism for It's
own sake, but the liberties which
exist only under capitalism
against the armies of the dictatorS.
That the free world of capitalism
might melt from under their t=eI
in the course of such a war. what
with the cost of arming and light
ing and drop them all into the
savage world of Hitler and Stain,
is a mocking possibility. Shou'l
that come to pass, the survives
would return from war to existence
under a regime uninaglndhF
worse than the discipline Of the
humane, diffident and rather con-
ciliatory officers of the new Amerl-
can army.
The cold, the wind, the gloom
of evening on a remote rural PLAIN
combined to stir in the lmaglh-
alton a sense of discriminahm
against these young Americans
called on to abandon their accuS'
toned life while other men, lndS'
tinguishable from them, including
men scarcely able to speak ne
language of the country, hurried
past, bound home from a days
work at high wages, building OAR
racks and warehouses for the
army. To lie sure, the first nlsn'
of a young civilian in the army
is always to be one of loneliness,
and the ordeal known as beas'
barracks at West Point, in wnicH
the recruits are taught etlquette
and squads east, is n that srao'
uate officers always remember
with a strange pride in their WI
moral gameness. And be it stio'
too, that the new men, individually,
seemed not at all depressed anu
made themselves at home win III
outward symptoms Of self-pily'
But the inequality of the sa':r
flee is too evident to be overlo >Aea
by any civilian, to say nothlns "a
the obviousness of this lneqda1nV
of the soldiers themselves. me
polite political pretense which c.
villains so eagerly accept at iese
value, that these soldiers WIZ
serve only a year and only lol
purposes of training. is at once
sedative to the soldiers ana a sop
to the conscience of the clVlld's;
That management or money "'ula
sulk or that union leaders Sooul'
be ~entreated not to sabotage she
manufacture of weapons, pi9hSs
and vehicles and thanked for Ao'
doing so is a wicked end dangerous
imposition on those who truaeEI
along the frozen ruts Of NV.
churned clay road this Wih,V4
night.