Evening star., 1942-12-07

AA~sAhs A'.~AS~s~ss' uIc. 1HC Olu
Man, meaning Uncle Sam, was q
whole lot tougher than they fig-
ured. They left him there to die
on the sands of>the Pacific, q knife
in his back.
They figured his children were too
soft, too rich, too comfortable. too
peaceful and too divided to get to-
gether and put the Old Man back
on his feet and in fighting trim. -
They were dead wrong, were thu
Tojos, the Hirohitos. the Hitlers,
the Goebbels and the Mussolinis,
and do they know it! 49,
Now, just one year later, Uncle
Sam scarcely shows scar where
the knife hit him in the back. He
is tougher than whalebone and get.
ting tougher with each ticking Of
the clock. o.|
Three million or more Of his
Sons-the ones whom 1t was propln-
esied would take it lying down-al-
ready are In an army that befora
very long will be the mightiest in
history. They are scattered all over
the globe looking for the guys who
punched the Old Man when he
wasn't looking. -.
y X \
The Navy that was supposed to
have had its back broken at Pearl
Harbor is still riding the high seas,
more than a match for any foe, and
far more Japanese men, of war are
gathering barnacles on the bottom
OF the ocean than ever were
damaged on that Sabbath when the,
Nipponese broke the laws of both
God and man.
The Old Mans air force, Just a
hedging a year ago, is an eagle to-
day, and as each minute passes his
talons get sharper and his screech
a little higher. Don't you ever
think that the Japanese have for
gotten that while the Old Man still
was bleeding from the stab in hi,
back he summoned up enough
strength to span that vast Pacific.
and drop bombs on Toxic, and
don't you ever doubt but that the
yellow men wonder what the Old
Man is liable to do with his full
strength, when he Is a mind to.
In the year that has passed sinee
Pearl Harbor, the Axis powers have
learned this, too
There isn't much difference be-
tween the spirit of America In Ia42
and the spirit OF America In l776.
The men on Guadalcanal, the men
IN Algiers, are true descendants of
the men Of Valley Forge, Ticonde- :
roga and Yorktown. From hamlet.
where trains don't stop. from cities
where subways roar, from plains
and from the hills, they have an
swered the call and pledged their
lives to avenge the Old Man in the
star-spangled suit. Read a roll call
OF the heroes since December 7 and
you'll flnd that our heroes come
from everywhere that Americans
live.
The Axis has learned this, too
America was known as a Nation
OF braggarts. We were always talk
ing Of having the biggest and best
OF everything. We could do any, :
thing better and faster than any
one else.
Well-we weren't talking through
our hats. We're proving it. Look
at our boat yards, Look at our
steel plants. Look at our airplane
factories. Look at our tank. gun,
and munition plants. Look ot our
wheat, corn, hog, COW, chicken and
you-name-it crops.
Look at our people. who, though
they argued and scrapped and quar-.
relied over isolationism and inter.
ventionism, made up overnight
when the enemy showed its hand,
and have done q wonderful job Of
standing shoulder to shoulder ever
since. y
Yes, all Americans remember
Pearl Harbor today. But the
chances are that those who created
that battle slogan for us will re-
member it-with deep regret-eveni
longer than we do. -
Distributed BY McNaught Syndicate. ,neh