Evening star., 1943-01-23
The Political Mill
Droft Appeal of Oxford Group Key Officials
Should Be Decided on Merit Not MudsIinqinq

Admiral Richard E. Byrd, U. S.
n. who has been in Washington
between overseas assignments
and who has been strong in sup
port of the work of the Moral
Re-Armament Group, received
by cable from members Of the
House of Commons and from
labor and industrial leaders in
England statements declaring
that great mistake had been
made in that country. They
asserted the large e-scale morale
building civic and industrial cam
paigns then being directed by
these men we're having marked
effect and have had to be dras-
tically curtailed.
In England. it is said, some of
keymen have been allowed to
continue their work, at least
part time, by receiving appoint
mentS as flre-fighters. Many
members of the group in the
past have enlisted in the armed
services, many of them were
already in the armed services
and some have been drafted. And
already many of them have given
their lives.
1t is equally true that many of
the men of the group in this
country have entered the serV-
Ices already. The immediate
question is whether the organi-
zation shall be compelled, to all
intents and purposes, to abandon
its programs of morale building.
which has been in operation in
many of the States, at many of
the airplane factories and in
other fields of war industry.
1t has been suggested that
these men, if inducted, could
continue their work of morale
building. Well, when you are in
the Army, for one thing. you
have plenty to do learning to be
a soldier. And much is done
anyway to maintain the Army
morale.
Work Proved Helpful.
The Moral Re Armament
Group. through its literature,
You Can Defend America" and
Come Wind Come Weather:
through its show, also named
You Can Defend America" and
particularly through its personal
contacts. has done much to i'm
press upon the producers, men
and management alike, the vital
necessity of getting things done.
What it has been able to do, not
only to maintain peaceful rela-
tions, but also to put an end to
sloWdoWns, undue absences from
work, etc, has been very helpful.
How essential such efforts are
and of how much value is Illus
trated by a letter written by a
U. S. Marine on Guadalcanal
which was read to the Senate
by Senator Tydings of Maryland.
The marine was writing to a
friend in the Brewster airplane
factory in California, where he
himself had been formerly en-
ployed. The letter said in part:
Dear Jim: I am here on
Guadalcanal; it's little different
here to what it was working on
the second floor. Remember how
We used to hang out between the
toilet and the first aid? Well,
we sure wasted many hour, and
Jim, many's the hour I regretted
this. We were trapped in a tri-
angle near Coma, IS of us, and if
we had had a few planes to blast
the Japs from the hill facing us,
we'd have been o. K, but accord
ing to word from Australia, we
Cidnt have enough bombers to
reinforce our position, so we had
to take what the Japs gave us
from three sides. There were 47
OF our little group killed; and,
Jim let me tell you If l were on
the second floor now, I'd shoot
dead every loafer that would
hang around the toilet or that
didn't work.
We'll, anyway, l8 of us fought
our way out of the Jap trap. and
next day we were reinforced by
300 marines. Out of 720 Japs We
took two prisoners. Seven hun
dred and eighteen will never say
'banzai' again.