davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1943-12-22

ton, when France was the center of
European civilization.
Under the guidance Of Christian
pastors, France entertained herself
with such humane achievements as
sentencing youth to have his hands
cut off and his body burned alive
because he had not kneeled in the
rain TO do honor to procession of
monks that passed within his view
at distance of some SO or so yards
Though Christianity has been the
most humanizing influence, no wars in
history have been more atrocious than
religious wars conducted in the name of
Christ. From the history of the Thirty
Years War, between Protestants and
Catholics, there remains a word, THE
Swedish drink" The pious soldiers of
Gustavus Adolphus never went into
battle without falling first on their
knees. But when they entered villages
for loot their favorite procedure was to
stun barnyard manure down a peasants
gullet until he revealed where the village
treasures lay-or died
In Russia herself. when the Red
Army and the Bolshevist government
were battling the white counter -revolu-
tioil dlOeu ny lnc OUTSIDE WOTlQ, Jne war
against the "bourjui" was conducted
with unlimited terror and appalling
atrocities.
And in our present tendency to hold
the whole German people responsible
for this war, We forget the camps of
Dachau, Oranienburg, Sonnenberg,
Pappenberg the innumer-
able IS. A" cellars. steel rods, tortures,
secret executions, enforced suicides at
the brink of self-dug graves, by which
German resistance to Hitler was broken
or driven underground. and the tech
niques created and creatures trained for
the execution abroad of Hitler's policy
When Goering received the leading
Swedish industrialist in Berlin, years
before the war, and warned him to
Evening star., 1943-12-22

is vastly diminished. The Job of the
propaganda department is to kill such
doubts.
increasingly for the next 10 months
the CIO publicity will be devoted to
building up the "CIO Committee for
Political Action of which Mr.. Sidney
Hillman, White House favorite. is the
head. 1t is stated that this committee
already has fund of 100000 to use
in 1914 Its purpose is to elect candi-
dates for Congress in accord with CIO
views and to defeat all others. Its
ability to do either is largely bluff, but
the publicity is designed to scare can
didates into feeling that they cannot
take a chance.
The claim is that the committee has
no candidate for President, but it is
distinctly a Roosevelt agency All its
leaders are working for the fourth
term and the only difference between
their position and that of Mr. Earl
BroWder, the head Communist, is that
Mr.. Browder has come out openly
and they have not One reason for
this Is that there is an element in the
CIO which rather resents being de-
livered in advance. 1t is thought best
not to be too drastic with this element
Another is because the pretense of nom
partisanship is believed to make a dec
laration after the nomina ton more eff
fective than one, like Mr.. Browder's,
months in advance. But it is fourth
term setup just the same. Incidental
evidence of this is the numberSof New
Deal ex-Government officials who are
being absorbed in the CIO organiza ton.
1t, of course, is natural for the CIO
to line up with the fourth-term move
Evening star., 1943-12-22
Frank K. Kent

ment For years there has been close
political alliance between it and the
President. Mrs. Roosevelt is a member
OF CIO union and frequently ad-
dresses its meetings. It's present lead
ers are close personally to Mr.. Roose-
welt. 1t would be absurd for them not
to want him continued in power The
rank and file may not be solid for the
fourth term, but the CIO leaders are.
incidentally, there is considerable
chagrin among these over Brother
Browder's declaration They do not
lead and they wish he would keep
quiet.
AS for Congress. the effort Is to scare
its membership by making it appear
that the CIO is so formidable that it is
politically fatal to incur the enmity Of
its leaders. Congressman are foolish to
permit themselves to be thus bluffed
and bullied. The record shows extraor-
dinarily few cases where organized labor
influence has defeated candidates for
Congress-none in which it has elected
President, In the next election, there
is ground for believing that the infiu-
ence OF the labor lobbyist will not be
very potent. Partly, this is because
there is more political independence
among the rank and file, and partly be-
cause the rest Of the country is exceed
ingly resentful over the strikes and
much disguised with the way In which
the labor bosses have used the war to
grab for more power and more money.
Their opposition to a candidate may
prove an asset instead of liability.
Members of Congress might profit
ably consider these facts the next time
there are threats from this direction.
Evening star., 1943-12-22
A DISTINGUISHED Service

The American Red Cross has made
itself such an integral part of the
Nations total effort in this war that
it is idle to speculate on the relative
value of any particular phase of it's
manifold activities. But certainly
one of its really notable accomplish
ments has been the organization of
American women for volunteer
service. It's success in this field is
in itself fine tribute to Mrs. Dwight
F. Davis, under whose leadership as
director of volunteer services the en-
rollment of women has increased
from about $4,000 in 1910, when she
took the position, to more than four
million at work today Mrs. Davis
brought to the Red Cross an ex-
traordinary talent for leadership
and a fine perception of the varied
roles that women might play in help
ing to put the Nation on a war foot
ing. The invaluable functions being
performed now by such agencies as
the Motor Corps, the blood plasma
banks, the Canteen Corps, camp
councils for Servicemen, Volunteer
Nurses Aides, the production of kit
bags, garments, surgical dressings
and the program of arts and skills
for wounded soldiers in the hospitals
all stem from her organizing and
creative ability. One may appre-
ciate the depth of the regret ex-
pressed by Chairman Norman H.
Davis in accepting Mrs Dwight
Davis resignation because of ill
health. While she leaves her work
in capable hands, Chairman Davis is
speaking for all her associates and
friends in looking to the time when
her recovery again will give the Red
Cross the benefits of her wise coun-
sci In some capacity less exacting in
its demands on her time and energy.
Evening star., 1943-12-22

ernment OF Penaranda. But since
Bolivia's economic life is entirely
dependent on it's exports of tin and
tungsten, for which the United Ma
tions are at present the sole Gus
toners. there is scant likelihood that
Bolivia will rescind its declaration
Of war against the Axis and men,
bership in the alliance of free
peoples.
What is more likely is harassing
tactics toward invested foreign
capital and revival of boundary dis
putes with its neighbors, especially
with Chile, which bars Bolivia from
it's coveted outlet to the Pacific
Ocean. Bolivia has long been a dis
turbing element in South American
affairs. 1t may now become more so
if the new regime remains in power.
Evening star., 1943-12-22
Constantine BrO1Un

built in places where the japanese hope
to maintain themselves for long time.
The Japs' airplane factories are re-
ported to have been spread all over
the empire in Japan, Korea and Man.
chukuo and the Netherlands Indies.
The japanese expect some important
air raids against their own homeland;
hence, the far-fiung dispersal of their
plants. The actual Japanese plane pro-
duction Is not known because of this
dispersal, but a. conservative estimate
places 1t now at about 1000 planes q
month in 1914.
Refineries to produce the needed high
octane gasoline have been established
all over the empire. The navy yards il,
Indo-China, at Singapore and in the
Indies are working overtime. Because
Of the relentless campaign of the Amer
tcan submarines in their home waters
the merchantmen now being constructed
are Of the sampan type. Their loss is
relatively unimportant because these
wooden ships can be constructed rapidly.
The Japs' warship production still is an
unknown factor, but it is believed that
sizable number have been built.
1t Is doubtful that Japan has much
offensive power. But none Of the
specialists of Pacific warfare doubts
that their defensive power is greater
than that Of the Nazis Logistically
the Japanese are in a much better
position than their European associates.
Unless there is a formidable Allied
offensive to drive the Japanese out of
China and establish a satisfactory line
OF communications between the United
States, Britain and China our island-to-
island strategy must be maintained.
And that will prove long and costly
operation in view of the time the
japanese have had to perfect their
defenses and start an important pro-
duction of war material
Evening star., 1943-12-22

lean forces is unmatched even under
the most difficult conditions.
Stubborn enemy resistance and many
tropical illnesses have not daunted the
will to win Of our fighting men. Yet it
Is pointed out that we are still nibbling
at peripheric defenses which had to be
taken in order to permit much larger
operations in the future, but which have
not yet opened up the road to Toxic or
any other vital point in the Japanese
empire.
In the meantime, the Japanese are
organizing their defenses unmoleSted
by anybody or anything. The men who
are defending New Britain or have de-
Tended the Solomons or Gilberts were
written off by the japanese high COM
mand some time ago. The Japanese
do not bother much about the loss of
human life. Their soldiers must win or
die, and in the last year they have
died. They have no manpower short
age Their chief trouble at the outset
Of the war was production.
Evening star., 1943-12-22
Maj. George Fielding Eliot

So considered the Balkan peninsula
perhaps offers better opportunities for
divisionary effort than Italy does After
all, the real diversion in Italy already has
been effected-the whole Italian Army,
Navy and air force has been taken
out of the war, the German troops
have had to be used as requirements
That is real major diversion. The
Balkans may offer similar opportu-
nity-an opportunity to force the Ger
mans to expend disproportionate efforts
OH long lines of communication OF
course, one of the best kinds of diversion
Is one which is effected in whole or in
part by forces which cannot be used
on the main front. but which compels
the enemy to divert forces which he
could otherwise employ there. Ger
tainly the Yugoslav and Greek patriot
forces could not be used in Western
Europe: neither could the Turkish
Army: neither could the fighting power
OF revolving Bulgaria or disillusioned
Rumanian peasantry; yet diversion in
the Balkans might compel the Germans
to divert good German troops to deal
with some or all of these. in far greater
measure than would otherwise be neces-
Sary.s
=
Remember that guerrilla warfare is at
its best when it is being used in con-
nection with an organized military ef-
fort. Guerrillas whose operations can be
disregarded or left to future attention
in an area where there is no organized
enemy force become an acute peril
when they are operating in the COM
munications zone of an Army which is
carrying on distant and hard-fought
campaign Thus If the Allies could open
an offensive directed against the Aegean
Evening star., 1943-12-22
Letters to The Star
Christmas Reminds a Father
OF His BittereSt Bereavement.
r., r-l

OF His Bitterest Bereavement.
To the Editor Of The Star
In these days when by wireless, cable
and telephotographic reproductions the
horrors, Sufferings and worldwide
butcheries of war are spread before our
eyes, dinned into our ears and stabbed
into our hearts in an unending stream
OF lamentation, mankind seems to be in
the throes of universal convulsion.
Some ray Of hope must be found, even
in this welter of frightfulness, whereby
we may look forward to the re-establish-
ment of a. normal human existence.
Christmas supplies the one supreme
hope, namely, the child and confidence
in the coming generation
To me this season always brings into
consciousness a special longing which, I
suppose, quite generally is felt, longing
particularly poignant because it seems to
be perhaps beyond realization in my
case. In addition to belief in future
life, which I share with a host OF
Christians, there is the instructive sense
OF human continuity, bred in the flesh
and bone, coming down across the
countless centuries of mans struggles
and aspirations. This feeling is more
profound than the attachment to life
or to any earthly compensation to the
individual In nature it operates at
every level of plant and animal ex-
istence. In man it has become con-
scious desire that sets the pattern of his
life. I refer to the hope of continuity
in children. AS each one of us carries
the mental and spiritual inheritance of
the human race, SO each of us hopes to
transmit to a child not only a normal
body but the best of the treasured
wisdom of human experience to serve as
guidance and comfort and also to be
passed on with additions and better
ments to the benefit of coming genera =
tions still in the womb of the future.
Such continuity may be called an
earthly immortality, and rightly so, for
it is deathless so long as the hereditary
succession is unbroken. I remember as
If it were yesterday how eagerly I poured
my thoughts and feelings into the mind
of a young daughter, how brief the
space seemed for transmitting the racial
inheritance from the experience of an
cestors During the few years of her
life my daughter received this psychic
inheritance from me just as literally as
her biological makeup. She had become
the depository of my contribution to the
future. In very real sense I thought
to live on in her and through her down
the ages. But death broke the con-
nection and brought an end to that line
of racial transmission.
Christmas is not Christmas unless one
can bestow not only physical presents
but also transmit his spiritual inheri-
tances from the past. Age always hopes
that youth will understand the unutter-
ably urgent yearning to pass on these
fundamental experiences from the dim
past of mankind. Only thus can they
be preserved and only thus can We
achieve an immortality this side of the
grave. E. V. WILCOX.
Evening star., 1943-12-22
Not Seeking Statehood

Several times during the hearings
on the local suffrage bill, Chairman
McCarran has suggested that aspira-
tions by District residents for vot-
ing representation in Congress are
synonymous with pleas for state
hood and that the District cannot
become a State without a constitu-
tional amendment.
The Senator is correct in making
amendment of the Constitution
condition of statehood or national
representation for the District. But
1t is unfortunate that the movement
for national presentation should
be confused as meaning statehood
for the District.
There is not the slightest posi-
bility of obtaining statehood for the
District of Columbia and those who
advocate voting representation for
Washingtonians in Congress and in
the choice of President and Vice
President are not advocating state
hood. Statehood for the District
would be in direct conflict with ma
tional control of the Capital through
Congress as provided in the ConSti-
tuition: a wise provision that un-
doubtedly serves the best interests
of the Nation and of the District
and which should remain unaltered.
In seeking national representa-
tion, its advocates do not entertain
the notion of wrestling control of the
Capital from Congress or of reducing
the powers of Congress in any par
ticular, as would be implicit in
grant by Congress of sovereign state
hood for the District. They ask only
that the people of the District be
made small fractional part of the
National Government, which repre-
sents the whole Nation-of which
the District is a part-in exercising
exclusive jurisdiction over the Fed
eral City.
Citizens of the District meet in
every respect the conditions which
should entitle them to the rights,
privileges and powers of the citizens
Of a State But in order that the
Nation may retain full control of its
Capital. those rights and privileges
and powers which are inconsistent
with such control are waived. What
the people of the District ask is not
statehood, but the exercise by Con-
gress of the additional powers pro-
vided under the proposed Summers
Capper resolution for constitu-
tional amendment:
The Congress shall have power to
provide that there shall be in Con-
gress and among electors of Presi-
dent and Vice President members
elected by the people of the District
constituting the seat of the Govern
ment of the United States, in such
numbers and with such powers as the
Congress shall determine. All legis-
lation hereunder shall be subject to
amendment and repeal.
Evening star., 1943-12-22

down the barriers of civiliZa ton. One
must reread Wynwood Reades Martyr
dom of Man. or Aldous Huxley's Grey
Eminence" to remember that the most
horrible crimes against the human race
have been committed by peoples with a
high level of culture. No savage tribe
in the Roman Empire was so brutal as
the imperial court of Rome in the days
of its decadence, after period in which
humane Greek philosophy had con-
quered the Roman world. Most his
torianS since have tried to explain the
Neros and Caligulas on the assumption
that they were insane. But post
mortem on their brains probably would
not have revealed this. They were
psychotics, emotional madmen. But
emotional madness is simply the in
ability to distinguish between good and
evil-the elimination from the makeup
of all inhibitions, normally imposed
from childhood by education and re-
hgion.
Charles Dickens opens his novel. "A
Tale Of Two Cities with description
Of what preceded the French revolu-
Evening star., 1943-12-22

Islands, the sum total Of the diversion
of German fighting power from Western
Europe would amount, not only to that
necessary to defend the island strong
holds, but also to that necessary to deal
with the Yugoslav and Greek guerrillss
operating on the German lines of COM
munlcatlon, plus that necessary to keep
the Bulgarians from sliding out of the
war under the impact of the Allied blows
in the nearby Aegean, plus that neces-
sary to guard against the Turks sud-
denly switching to active belligerency,
plus that necessary to keep the rest of
the Balkans in hand. Whereas, If there
were no Allied threat in the Middle East,
doing much of the Balkan police work,
the Turks would not be looking for trou-
BILE, and only minimum of German
force would be required.
These are the reasons why the pres
ent time seems so favorable for a di-
version in the direction Of the Aegean
Sea, the gateway to the Balkans and the
Dardanelles. The employment of half
a-dozen Allied divisions in such an ef-
fort would certainly have the effect Of
diverting three times as many German
divisions from other fronts; or, in the
alternative. the Germans would have to
give up a great part of the Balkans al
together and retire to the line of the
Danube, which in turn would mean the
opening Of new southern front. with
the Turkish Army in line beside the re-
constituted armies of Greece and Yugo-
slavia, and the Germans even worse OF
as regards their electives for other
fronts
(Cosyright, ls43. N. =. Tribune. Yns)
Evening star., 1943-12-22

poSe are lSIOidll, IedCllOnalE ana
vicious. So often have such notions been
proclaimed that some of these labor
overlords now believe in them them
selves. One effect of this publicity is to
cover up the record. 1t prevents concen-
tration on the contrast between the no.
strike pledges and the unceasing strikes
with which the war effort has been
plagued from the start
1t makes it more difficult to see clearly
the contradiction between words and
deeds. Another effect is to magnify the
size of the organization and the power
OF the labor leaders to deliver millions
of voters where, when and to whom they
please. If doubt of the ability to make
good the threats which are the chief
stock in trade of the labor lobbyist en-
ters the head of the candidate for Of
flee, then the Importance of the lobbyist
Evening star., 1943-12-22
Christmas for Him

Because our tall young SON 80 loUed
this time,
Wen hang cdndled ,weah at each
dark SILL
Perhaps in mountain pass or junole
slime
He'll climb in memory the sno1o-bright
hill
And see the slender spruce Ue carry
back.
The tinsled tree ,DiH stand in its old
place,
With siluer star, and here his train
and track. :.
oh, to see his do1On-bent head at epe-
ming grace!
His heart must kno,D each dear thing
is the same:
His mother knitting by the open fire:
His restless Cocker, gold eyes on the
flame.
The lighted church Nth joyful Christ
mas choir
Our sacred pledge, ,uith song and gift
and tree.
He's fighting there to keep his home
land free.
IVY LINDSLEY.
Evening star., 1943-12-22
Dorothy Thompson

build up the defenses of Sweden against
Russia because otherwise we shall
occupy you to protect you in the coming
German-Russian war" he justified the
war on the ground that the Ukraine
alone offered Germany adequate LIE
bensraum.' When the Swede suggested
that the Ukraine was already occupied
by population of 50,000,OOO Goering
replied, I'VE shall simply sweep them
out"
Atrocities in Western Europe have
been bad enough, but in Nazi theology,
Western Europeans belong to kindred
races and are owed relatively decent
treatment The worst NaH hangmen
never have been sent to France, Norway
or Holland The farther east one goes
the more uninhibited is the terror The
massacre of Czech students of the
Charles UniverSity-the second oldest
in Europe-ts an uncontested fact, as is
the Lidice massacre. His eminence,
Cardinal Hlond, Archbishop of Poland,
testified in meticulous report to the
Vatican of atrocities committed in
Poland that battle the imagination. But
even Poles testify that the lands under
the jurisdiction of Alfred Rosenberg,
namely the Baltic, White Russian. and
Ukrainian territories, have known
terror before which even the treatment
accorded Western Poland is mild. The
fact is that the Red Army reconquered
Ukrainian towns that had been all but
depopulated-as attested by American
correspondents. No known or estimated
statistics regarding the number Of Rus
slams deported for labor to Germany
can account for this depopulation.
Thus, without any possibility Of judg-
ing the details Of the Russian trials,
there is no doubt that, on the whole,
the accusation is correct. The depopula-
ton of the eastern provinces has been
programmatic with the Nazis from the
beginning. And you can only depopu-
late wholesale by murder