Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-12-08

~
Mn. PIoKEkINa world shatter-
ing events.
Yes from time 10 time l write
something that I think Is news
For the most part. though oon l.
Generally / write about thinEs
tu.t because they seem inter
s.tinx. OR because they seem
good or entertaining. The war
Ia none of these.
You don't look at a rattle
snake because IL Is good or en-
pertaining. You look Mt II only
because 10 IL fascinating. Be
c.use IL In real, and dangerous.
II met q poisonous snake In
the xrass In my backyard In
Highland Park, certAinIy
wouldn't say, "How interesting.
But I certainly would watch H.
and destroy 1t by whatever
means I could.
The same with the war as IL
affects my own small orbit. On
the day that war breaks out, i
cant writo about the little
things that seem to he worth
writing about under ordinary
circumstances.
And 1 don't want 10 write
about the war. Nor am i a war
expert.
Yet just as I wouldn't want
/. TO find q snake In my yard, L
certainly don't see how to ignore
II. It's so.
~
Suppose were admiring sun
set. or painting the back fence, or
spading the garden, or cutting the
grass, or doing any OF the other
small things that make life worth
while, and then ] discovered the
snake. I'd hit II with the shovel
or the lawn mower or a stick
and 60 back 10 my trivial amuse
ments afterward.
The same with the war. Why &C
on trying to pretend that this is
a civilized world, and that the
civilities are the important things
of life? Until the war is ended
nothing in civilization Is as inn
portant as winning the war. We
can go back TO civilized things
Rfterward.
-
/, 7 first learned of the Japanese
: attack WheR an announcement
interrupted some music on the
radio. Then the program re-
suned, but ! am quite sure that
music pill not sound the same
until this WGr IS ended.
And IN almost the same IN
!, slant. things that had seemed Of
casual interest the day before
suddenly seemed Of paramount
importance. II icds only Sdtnr-
= ddv that man at General
Motors commented that the FBl
had begun posting permanent
guards at his factory, and had
been doing the same thing ut
other Detroit factories.
Saturday that pGs something
Interesting. Today 10 takes on
greater signifcdHce-it Just 20
happens that the feeling / had
wGs this:
"WeH. Washington certainly
sap this trOuble coming, and
I'm glad zoe weren't caught nap
ping"
Not caught mapping and YET
we still didn't know that the Jap
anese were quite so close 10 strik'
ing. For at the Ford Hour las
night lone of the rare ones witt
both Edsel and Henry Ford pres
ent. EdSel as a speaker, and Henry
in the audience not 30 seats from
where / SAT- G. w. Van Lopif
told me about an afternoon meet
ing in the same auditorium.
was the American Slav Con
ference OF Michigan. with Francs
Biddle. the attorney general o
the United States, speaking, ant
Mayor JeffrieS. Governor Val
Wagner and John Bugas, Detroi
head of the FBI, present.
IL was the first 60 tell them
that the war had started" Van
said. Il heard IL and rushed in.
and Biddle changed his speech"
CThe sentence in the origina
speech was:
cit il Of aid and comfort To
the enemy when n boycott Is
directed against small shop
keeper whose crime has been
that his parents or his ancestors
were German or Italian or Jap
anese." That last word Oi
course. came OUT
Sonar comes ia n flash
Until N ~ OUer, our rorid a
different, and poorer. And pc
the thing I wont most 10 do, n
the instant Of writing this, ~ n
90 dorm the hail 10 the city room
n find ont Wh1fs happened -
The bouy or so since 1 st1rfeS
writing fhis.
! snppose this coiVmH - driuel
BIT I'm putting II doWH jUst be
eause it's the woy I feel on ~
Day poy started.