The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1941-08-28
THROUGH
n A z E [
E Y E S
.
BY
Hazel Brannon
John Temple Graves II, Birming-
ham Age-Herald columnist, says:

John Temple Graves II, Birming
ham Age-Herald columnist, says:
We're been carrying around in oul
pocket for a fortnight now a caro-
from Congressman Sumner A. Da.
asking US to vote on whether tn,
United States should (1) enter the
war, or ca stay out of the war
Everybody ought to be responsive t.
members of the nations Congress but
somehow we cant answer this ques
ton with one check mark as request
ed. And the more we think of Il
the less we believe anybody else can
either. And the more certain we are
that the congressman Is not asking y
fair question. Not many people are
ever willing to vote directly for mea-
2 sures which would mean war. Witness
the Gallup poll yesterday The only
fair question that can be put to the
American people now, it seems TO us
is this: "Do you or do you not be-
lieve in doing whatever is necessary
to stop Hitler?"
The President and a lot of other
administration notables have spent
a large part of their time lately dc
bunking the various newspaper and
magazine polls that show vast ma
jority of the American public I'M
alterably opposed to our further in
volment in the European war. The
present figure against involvement
Is about SO per cent.
We believe those figures are a
fairly accurate sample of real public
opinion today, in spite of the way the
polls have been worded. For the most
part persons for involvement will vote
accordingly in the polls.
We'd like to point out to Mr..
Graves that there is just as much
room for error in the question, "Do
you believe or do you not believe in
doing whatever is necessary to stop
Hitler?" There is more room for
error, in fact, because every person
has his own idea about what is nee
essary to stop Hitler. Some persons
might have in mind an expedition
AIRY force while other may think it
necessary only to continue aid to
England and let them do the fighting
Still others, and the vast majority we
believe, are in favor of building mp
our own defenses so that Hitler will
never dare try an invasion Of this
country or hemisphere.
Again Mr.. Graves takes Congress
man Lyndon Johnson. Texas, to task
for recent speech he made to young
Democrats. We quote:
"Hitler is winning his war all over
the world because his young people
are with him." Congressman Lyndon
Johnson, Of Texas, told the Young
Democrats the other day. Eve must
be rs fanatical as they are" The
congressman might have left out the
"fanatical." But his point itself was
supremacy well taken and needs max
ing now Ike none other. The sick
ness of democracy is the emotional
has come upon SO many Of us in
course of a postwar decade of an
archy and depravity and follow
ing one of pessimism and dreary pen
sioning. We don't want fanatics in
America but we do want men who
know what they think and dare what
they know. We don't want fanatics
but we certainly want enthusiasts,
men capable of believing intensely
and of going about on great oc-
casion. We don't want fanatics but
even less do we want the cynics
and indecisives and namby pambies
who have been destroying this coun-
try with their sickly negations.
Mr.. Graves might wisely have ad-
ded to the list of things we don't
want in this country that Of the ad-
ministration's present attitude of pro
claiming an emergency and calling
FOR sacrifices by the people but at
the same time continuing its own
little game of counting labor, en-
trenching New Deal socialism under
The guise of national defense and I'M
der the same guise wrecking small
businesses all over the country be-
cause of its failure to place res
ponsible man at the head of the
so-called defense program.
1t is time for the Administration
TO act like there's an emergency as
well as talk about it.