Evening star., 1943-10-24
A Voice From
The Country
Continued From Page CID

bols and folk tales and folk-charac-
ters grow out of the common sense OF
the common people everywhere. 1t is
all the more extraordinary because 1t
has grown up in the face OF years Of
propaganda directed straight against
Uncle joe" I've spent quite little
time trying to find out how it came
about and I've unearthed some facts
and come to certain conclusions.
1t has happened because Uncle
Joe" has come to be symbol Of the
greatness of the Russian people,
their courage and the magnificent
and victorious struggle they have
made 1t has happened, too, because
In world of people suffering, con-
fused, mistrustful, suspicious and
confused by the conflict between
fascist and democratic ideas, Uncle
Joe" has gone right ahead, saying,
"All right, fellas, let's lick the Ger
mans and then talk about milk on
every doorstep"
Uncle Joe" can show the goods.
He has, under his leadership, the
most united nation of them all, for
Russia clearly is fighting the war not
only as a nation, but as a people.
And Uncle joe hasn't gotten into
muddle like the one in North Africa
and the one in Italy. He hasn't
played ball with Darlans and Ba-
doglios. He has always had policy
ready when the emergency arrived.
Uncle Joe" has always known where
he was going. He knew when and
how to move whole cities and fac
tories. how to get from his people
whatever sacrifice he asked from
them.
No leader in history has ever had
more solid backing and trust from
his people. You don't get trust and
backing and popular strength from
the people by dictatorship alone No
dictator ever has. Uncle Joe's"
strength has not lain in his position
as quasi dictator; it has lain in his
strength of will and purpose, in the
soundness, simplicity and clearness of
his program, and the high quality
and devotion to the nation of the
men with whom he has surrounded
himself In other words. Uncle joe
has produced the goods and goes
right on producing them.
A Man of Iron.
Man of Irion" is a good name for
Uncle Joe" He has like the Rus
sian people. much of the quality
which characterized the American
pioneer. He has the same blunt di-
rectness, the same common sense,
the same trust in his people
A lot of Americans have wistfully
smelled out these things, along with
the knowledge, discovered slowly, that
in many ways Americans and Rus
slams are more alike than perhaps
any other two people in the world.
They are both romantic and gamblers
by nature, they are both fantastically
warm-hearted and hospitable. They
both love parties" that 60 on all
night.
But beyond these superficial like
nesses there are more fundamental
ones-that of all the peoples in the
world Americans and Russians think
big They conceive things on a
grand scale like the Dnieperspro and
Grand Coulee Dams. like moving
whole cities and populations in time
of crisis. Both countries are big and
rich. Neither wants or needs an en-
pire, because both already are en-
pires
There is a reason why eyes light up
and faces grin when Uncle joe is
mentioned. The American people are
not only discovering Uncle Joe" but
the Russian people as we'll, and most
of them, I believe, consider any peace
which does not include a close COL
laboration with Russia unthinkable.
A world dominated by Russia and the
United States would be a world, for
the first time in history, dominated
by two great nations which had no
need to seize territory or exploit other
peoples. That is something to think
about.