Milford chronicle., 1943-01-01

Because the following message is
so vital and because it was pre-
pared especially by the Industrial
News Review publishers for the
Chronicle. have turned my column
owe rthis week to publishing the
same:
= No Substitute For Freedom
AS free American citizens we
have found we can meet the test
of war. We have the ability to get
things done. We have courage and
daring. Our men have shown in
stark heroism that on the military
front we are not soft. We can fight
with the tricks our forefathers
learned from the Indians, and we
can fight with machines. Guadal-
canal and North Africa have proven
that. In brief, we can win the war.
But there is more than the mill
tary front. There is the home front.
And here, except for the prOduc-
ton miracle of industry, there is
evidence of softness, of confusion
of ideals. Group pickering has put
the attainment of personal comfort
and security ahead of the national
welfare. In many quarters desire
to eliminate human want 'at one
fell swoop has become an Obses-
sion. An agency of government has
even prepared a new bill of rights,
the basic tenet of which is economic
security. This new bill is proposed
as a supplement to the old bill de-
filming our liberties at the time the
United States Constitution was
adopted. 1t puts security on par
with freedom, on the theory that
the American people will abandon
freedom if they are not guaranteed
three square meals day. 1t i'm
plies that the American people, bit
ter from the great depression
and fearful of postwar uncertain
ty, do not propose to go hungry;
that if they cannot have their free
dom with full stomachs, they will
do without freedom.
If such is true, we have drifted |
far from the ideals the Pilgrims
carried ashore at Plymouth Rock.
Even a sour men on the battle
fields are now dying, the Pilgrims |
died and suffered hardship for just
one reason: to preserve a spot on
this globe where the individual
could be free. And they got that
freedom. They got it because they
were tough. Their ideals came first,
their stomachs second. Our men
are winning battles now because
they are tough. They are thinking
of freedom.
A year ago there was grave
question in the minds of millions
as to whether we could arm fast
enough to stem the tide of ag-
gression. There was an equally
grave question of whether we could
do it without destroying free en-
terprise and representative gov
There were those who
believe dit would take total die
tatorship to beat the dictators. The
fell on industry. The ma
chimes had to be built by industry.
Our natural resources and our fac
tories had to be mobiliZed for war
OH a scale that wrought shattering
changes in technique and preced-
ent. Industry knew that the crack
er-boX agitators were waiting to
pounce upon the country with revO-
schemes at the slightest
sign of failure.
1t is to the credit of thinking
government officials that .revOlu-
.ionary changes in government and
industry were not forced before !
rec enterprise had a chance to ,
show what it could do to prove that d,
,ur democracy was not failure. !
)ur factories did a magnificent job. :
n a matter of months, they under :
vent retooling and conversion. To- =
lay tanks, planes, guns, ships, are 4,
olling off the assembly lines by :
he scores of thousands. Our war
has caught and passed .
he dictator enemy who spent years !,
for war under an elab-
rate economic security" program 9
rhich by its very completeness had ),
estroyed individual freedom-the :,
anne years that our industries con- :,
nued to produce for Americas un- :,
egimented, peaceful millions. Back =
f the manufacturers stand Ameri- .
an farm producers and distribu- =
,rs, together with the metal and q
pal mines, the oil, the power and Il
industries. They =
ed our war workers and keep the
Iaterials moving into the assembly
mes. h
The end of the war may be dis u
mt still, yet it is in sight. Again Ii
q enterprise faces challenge. CT
: again it faces il against ala