The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-08-12
A Fathers FareUeu To His Soldier Son

(BiIl is William H. Purcell, Jr. son of w. Henson Purcell, man. aging editor of the Daily Amer
 ican, West Frankfort, HI. This article is reprinted from the daily American of March 9, 1942.
 Well, Bill. your number is up. You are going to the army. There is a job of serious, nasty, uncivilized business to be taken care of and you have been assigned part in it.
 The task is unpleasant, repulsive. The assignment is different to any thing that you had planned. Yet, it is privilege as well as a respon- sibility. For only Americans-the finest of the nations manhood-are eligible to march with Uncle Sans armed citizenry and to participate in this grim game of war.
 There is, now, but one thing to do. Make the most of it. Be soldier in every sense of the word.
 I told you, as little curly headed boy, when you started to school that I wanted you to endeaVor al- ways to be the best in your classes had no idea that you would achieve that distinction. I had not been that calibre of student before you. But that kind of aiming never has a bad effect on the score.
 Then, when you grew up and was thinking of your first job, I told you that, even though you were em- ployed at nothing more important than ditch-digging, I wanted you tc try to be the best ditch-digger or the job. I had no idea that you would achieve such top-rank stand ing in your chosen vocation. I had not. But ambition and the will tc get ahead never kept anybody down
 Now, as you march with millions of other sons from millions of other American homes, want you to put all that you have into this business of soldering. It matters not whether you ever wear bars or stars if you are man enough to be a good sol dier. And being a good soldier means more than drilling and marching and f1ghting-and dying.
 It means living-in mans world as a man should live.
 There is an inclination on the part of too many men, once they are in the army-aWay from the in- fluences of home and family and reputation-to cut loose, 10 the galts There is in the army, as in civilian life, every type of manhood and ot every social strata. Every man IS on his own. The choice is yours.
 Men, like water, ultimately seek their own level-in the army as else where. Don't lower your standards Bill.
 Then, there is the matter of sol diering. The fellows who have diff ficulty with army life are those who refuse to adjust themselves to the rigid discipline that, although quite stern and harsh, is as neces- sary as are guns and tanks and planes. The ives, sir" men are those who get along in the army.
 To attempt to buck the game is folly. The army is bigger than any man in it. Failure to become 6 working part of 1t is the worst mis- take any soldier can make. Army life is not easy. To cultivate men tai feeling of resentment and sel. pity can only make 1t more diff ficult. That is true of any station in life.
 So, hope, Bill, that you will b' able to accept your lot in this grin business aS just another chapter II life's exacting school of experience and endeavor to get our of it some thing worth while; something tha will help in the years ahead.
 You can always find that some thing if you search diligently 10 it. Never cease searching.
 I am saying these things to you not because you are different to tn