The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1942-09-11
CHURCHES AID ARMED FORCES

In many communities, Catholic,
Protestant and Jewish churches are
working together, and sometimes
the auxiliaries send home town
newspapers to the boys far from
home. Often they get together and
send Christmas boxes. When she
can not reach her own boys, many
mother gets great satisfaction by
cooking extra food and having boys
who are on leave, or boys from the
camps, come to her for Sunday din
ner. The churches are one of the
many organizations in every COM
munity working along these lines.
THOUGHTS OF WAR
Reading the galley proof of book
which is soon to come out by Her
bert Agar, gave me the courage to
think through some vague thoughts
which have been floating through my
mind these past days.
For long months past, people have
written many things which were not
particularly pleasant reading about
various of our children. That has
never troubled me very much, be-
cause so far as am concerned, if
you are satisfied within yourself that
you have done, as far as you could,
what you believed was right, the
worlds opinion mattered little.
Now, suddenly, over the radio and
a
good has been done by one of our
sons. 1t was evident that about this
time, his marine corps unit under
Lieutenant-C Colonel Carlson, would
be making use of its training. But
we knew no more than any other
people knew, whose children are
somewhere" at war.
am glad, of course, that our son
acquitted himself well. 1t would
never have occurred to me that any
thing else would happen. l am sure
that everyone of the men whom l
saw in that California camp, which
visited before they left, acquitted
themselves equally well. am
deeply grateful that our son came
through alive, but some men did
not, and in the performance of the
job they had to do, and which must
be done to free the world, other
young people of the enemy nations
were killed.
Somehow, I cannot free myself of
heavy heart, which must keep COM
partnership with the hearts of other
men and women in our own country
and in other countries all over the
world. With it goes a tremendous
sense of the responsibility which
must be carried by the older genera
tons for the world we now face.
AS things are, the war must be
fought to victorious end. It will
not have been worth the courage
and the suffering which come to
young and old, unless we face now
our fundamental failures of the past
Is years. We must want peace, but
not be afraid of war because our
fear OF war made us compromise
during these past few years with our
principles and our standards. We
must bring about economic security.
but first we will have to bring about
a change in our own moral fiber.
am not a sentimentalist Just
using fine phrases, the future re-
quires action and not mere CONVEX
sation. However, the action must
be based on a very clear under
standing of what our failures have
been in the past years, not only in
material things. Perhaps the real
failures have been more of charac-
ter and moral fiber.
If the democracies are to be sue
cessful, and the future world is to
be built on firmer foundation, it is
important to examine for the mo-
ment what kind of people we really
are and what are the standards we
live by, before we even try to solve
the necessary economic questions of
the future. Only thus can we justify
the sacrifices of youth.
PRESIDENT SEES A MOVIE
One night we had a few guests at
dinner and afterwards the President
firmly told US that he had to 60 to
work, but someone had provided
what they prophesied would be an
exciting film called: ''The Big Shot,"
so he agreed to stay with us for a
little while.
1t was not as much of a mystery
story as he had hoped, and when it
was over he sighed and said: 'sWeu,
now ! shall have to work little
later than ! intended to do and
went off into his study.