Evening star., 1942-09-24
Pep Talk Plan
Of Fighting War
Scored by Bard
America Is Still
Losing Fight, Navy
Official Declares
BY CLAUDE A. MAHONEY.

BY CLAUDE A. MAHONEY.
Decrying bitterly our national
optimism, self-pity and then
pseudo-pessimism about the war
and speaking more plainly than
any other public official on the
subject, Assistant Secretary of
the Navy Ralph A. Bard said
fatty in New York this after
noon:
eve are still losing this war.
It will take all we have got to
win. What are you going to do
about it?"
He told the International Con-
vention of the Industrial Union Of
Marine and Shipbuilding Workers OF
America that the type of realism he
advocated would no doubt be 4
'heart-racking plunge into cold wa
ter" but would remind us that not
since the Civil War has this Nation
been called upon to suffer greatly.
Hits Pep" Technique.
He hit at the pep talk" technique
that has as its purpose to scare EN-
little" and then give windup
about how our courage and deter
mination will bring us through all
right.
I'VE are still fiexing our imaginary
muscles and shouting: Wait till I
catch that lug who hit me when I
wasn't looking" he said. I'VE had
better stop for a moment and look
in a nat mirror to see II our gym
trunks fit U.S."
His address went much further than
a recent address by Elmer Davis, d.
rector of the ONCE of War Informa-
ton, who said we might .conceiv-
ably lose the war, and thereby Great
ed national sensation. It Is known
that the Bard address was. the SUBJ
ject of much discussion In the Navy
Department before its release and
after the release OF advance copies
to the press.
Reviewing the history of our ma
tional thought since Pearl Harbor,
Mr.. Bard said we needed a shot In
the arm to restore our jolted ego
after that attack.
Boast Of Gains.
THAT ego, the product OF the be-
lief that we were the peculiar chill
dren Of fortune, expressed itself in
the vague assumption that we could
lick any of our enemies in 80 days,
without skipping q full meal with
dessert, or missing Sunday drive
In the country" he said.
The recoil was manifested In our
pointing with pride at our resources
and without q blush" We fell into
the amiatle self deception Of using
percentages, he told the members
Of the CIO union. If two tanks in
10000 tank program rumbled out
of a factory where one had before
he reminded them, we gloated that
production was up 100 per cent.
After President Roosevelt had re-
minded the Nation that it was too
complacently optimistic, the trend
was to pessimism, the Assistant Sec
retary told the audience, adding
that we have accepted this line OF
thought as traditional advertising
technique-"the kind of message
which sells hair tonic and cure-alls
full Of terror in the first part and
reinsurance in the windup-the adj
which say you are most certainly
damned, but our product can save
you."
Words Hide Attitude.
When we say blandly that We can
lose this war, we are thinking OF the
statement as pure rhetoric, with
the assumption being that we, OF
course, can't he said.
I'VE have. of course, under the
| stress of this war, had a spiritual
rejuvenation of a kind" Mr.. Bard
added, "but I rather feel that our
spiritual revival Is little bit like
that of a boy who said his prayers
only when he had to sleep in q fold
ing bed.
I'VE have been wrangling for
months over a tax bill for 1912
which In plain language means that
we have been fighting over who i,
going to pay how much for this ca
tastrophe which has engulfed us
The pressure Of rival economic
groups, each armed with unassail.
able statistics to show how thai
group will suffer injustice If thu,
and so happens. has ebbed ane
flowed like the tides for 10 months
Il fail to detect a spirit OF sacri.
fee in these group gyrations before
Congress. Neither does it indicate
that We have spiritual grasp of oul
threatening fate when we sell bond,
to help finance a war of survival OF
determination on the promise o.
profitable monetary returns on the
investment. I see no fundamental
grasp Of our predicament in anti.
union employers who sabotage pro.
duction committees for fear that in
dustry will be Sovietized, nor In Ia
Dor union leaders who are 50 con
cerned about the competitive posi-
ton of their own little groups as Il
examine the war with regard to hov
their own puny fortunes will be af
fected II labor unity is achieved o.
jurisdictional lines are eradicated.
Becomes Fight to Death.
Il think our insufferable and ma
terialistic pride has rendered us In
capable of realizing fully that ii
German Naziism we are fighting [
monstrous thing that started out a
Goldman complex, and now i
fighting to the death, whether tina
Goldman complex still exists or not
In the desperate realization tina
Naziism and the deluded fools wh.
are backing Naziism cannot survive
| 1eee BARD. Page A-30.)