The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1942-04-23
Tells Of Life
In Ndzii
u
Prison Camp
Young Norwegian Talks
To Libby Audiences of
Conditions in Norway.
SAYS AMERICA MUST
WAKE UP OR LOSE WAR

Until such a time as our enemies
are as firm in their belief as we
are in ours, we will remain in
vincible.' With these startling quot
ed words of a German Gestapo of
ficer ringing in their youthful ears.
students at the high school audi
forum Wednesday morning wildly
applauded handsome, blonde, %
year old Ivan Jacobsen, Oslo Uni
versity graduate, for his stirring
and timely address, in which he told
of narrowing personal experiences
IN German occupied Norway but
few months ago.
Jacobsen, who broke his own arm
IN third attempt to do SO in or
der to facilitate his escape from
German political prison, spoke here
under the auspices of the Norwe-
gian Lecture Bureau, Washington.
D. c.
After three years of study at the
University of Washington, Jacob
son won fellowship to the Amer
lean University at Beirut, Syria,
but pulled Corrigan," he said
and went instead to Oslo, Norway.
landing there in 1889. After taking
his degree in economics at Oslo, he
became a clerk at the American
consulate there in 1941.
America Must Change
We in America must experience
change of attitude--We must ac-
complish that singleness of purpose,
that all out feeling, if we expect to
get any place, said Jacobson as he
described the attitudes of the Nor
Wegians previous to the German
invasion, saying that those early at
| titudes were much the same as those
prevalent in America today. To-day
the NorWegians have but one pur-
pose, We must get them (Germansl
out We must win Nothing
else at all matters
| If we had half the spirit that is
driving Norway today, nothing
could begin to defeat us The
war may be capitalistic mess to
you until it hits your family or
friends and then your attitude
changes. But you don't need a
weapon to be soldier ... Solidify-
ing the home front is your job.
When war comes, you can't act
ually realize it is war I was aWak-
ened out Of deep sleep one morn
ing to find my roommate shaking
my shoulder and saying, Say that
air raid alarm last night must have
I been real Look at the planes
coming over. Even when I saw the
sWastika emblems sweeping down
over the town and unloading their
hordes Of men, couldn't realize
this was war Too many things
4 remained constant, the landscape,
the familiar markings go. The only
things that made it real were the
puffs Of smoke, the people running,
few planes swooping low, until I
saw house burst and crumble and
two parents stand gazing at their
three dead children lying on the
sidewalk Then | knew what the
war meant"
Norway unprepared
Norway, short years ago the land
totally free of unemployment. with
Y idDoi dila ildplldi Itiki1iy DuL peace
fully organized, with its housing
problems solved to the point where
slums simply did not exist, with its
extensive medicine and hospitaliza-
ton programs on a low cost level
and with its established cooperative
systems of buying and selling,
thought to keep out of the war by
minding its own business and
keeping its nose clean"
Norway chose butter instead Of
guns and see what happened She
4 hadn't reckoned with the unac-
countable standards of her neighbor
to the south. Too late she found it
didn't help to keep her nose clean
J.. The Germans got such a hold,
not because Norwegians didn't
fight, but because they were not
prepared to fight when the invader
came.
"NorWegians put up magnificent
resistance for 81 days. Their 10 to
resistance was amazing and lasted
larrnr tl~ay, Hi +E,t rnxy 14L1y.