Evening star., 1942-02-09
OId-Foshioned Patriot
Protests O.C.D. Waste
Volunteer Worker Declares
Her Neiehbsrs Are Not
'Coshing In on America

To the Editor Of The Star:
see by the papers that made q big
mistake in getting born into a family
that taught me that patriotism was
something that you use for your ooun-
try. Here I grew up, a poor ignorant
girl, holding that. idea all the time, and
I never thought for a minute that
could make patriotism q career, not to
say paying business. So find myself
today, holding about q $1,000 a year job
that my boss says is full time, which
means that sweat away at it about 10
hours a day as near as I can figure,
though never in my old-fashioned life
have thought Of watching the clock or
asking for overtime. And this quaint
out-of-date notion of mine about pa
triotism-I find I have that too, but
haven't much else, except a year-old car,
a two-year-old fur coat, an eight-year-
old typewriter, a dog and an income tax
blank. But still I wasn't making any
holler.
And then we get into a war. Good
ness, goodness-how dumb am! A COL
lege degree and lot Of postgraduate
work and beginning at the bottom of my
profession and climbing up the ladder
none Of that has taught me thing.
I should have been blond night-club
singer. For when that war broke loose
just went down to my Civilian Defense
Committee and volunteered. Sure,
said, can give my time. Also, I said,
can give the use Of my car-tires and
all. And so I got an assignment spotting
planes, which means that I put in q
six-hour trick week, beginning before
sun-up in the morning and going on
until noon, sitting out in a pup tent in
a cornf1eld IL miles from home, putting
720 miles a month, that is, on my
aforementioned tires. Sometimes it
SHOWS and sometimes 1t rains, and some
times again 1t blows itself up real gale,
and q pup tent in such weather Is no
night club, can tell you.
But I didn't think it was anything to
do, for everybody out my way Is doing
the same or likewise. And nobody is
getting paid $4,000 or $1,000 year for
it, either. Or anything. Nobody is
breaking even. II it comes to counting.
On the box which serves as a table in
the tent, just for the public information,
there Is little jelly jar with a slit in
the lid, and we poor old-fashioned Amer
ican patriots put in some of our change
every time we do trick, to pay for coal,
electricity and-yes-the telephone serv-
ice for 'phoning in plane warnings to
Army headquarters. We didn't even ask
the phone company to kick in to that
extent. A girl who Is an arrested tu-
berculosis case helped me once and an
other time my partner was a retired
officer in his 70s. Why don't we get paid
for this? Why? Because we would ever
lastingly boot the daylights out of any
body that suggested paying us. We
weren't brought up in the New Deal. We
don't count our patriotism that way.
And then I got another assignment,
Mr. Editor. was asked to take over
mittee, for the headquarters setup pre-
scribed such . job. So, along with my
regular job I've been doing some writing
for the papers along patriotic lines, press
releases. feature stories, and doing the
leg work and the tire work that goes
into such effort, too. Pay? don't even
get q by-line. I'm not blond night
club singer I'm not q $1000-a-week
movie star. I'm just an American wom-
an with her own old age to provide for
and problem on her hands about meet
ing her income tax. That's all. My
neighbors are the same way. We never
thought of cashing in on America. We
wouldn't If we did.
But this is what we do think: Being
Americans, we own our stockholders
share in this country. And we don't
like the way the dividends are being
squandered on court favorites at time
Of public danger And, being Americans,
we think we have a right to say so.
This business has made us all mad and
If we tried we could get still madder.
K. W.