Evening star., 1943-02-23

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Democratic National Committee:
Today this Nation, which George
Washington helped so greatly to
create, is fighting all over this earth
in order to maintain for ourselves
and for our children the freedom
which George Washington helped
so greatly to achieve. AS we cele-
brate Washingtons birthday, let us
remember how he conducted him.
self in the midst of great adversities.
We are inclined, because of the
total sum of his accomplishments, to
forget his days of trial.
Throughout the Revolution Wash
ington commanded an army whose
very existence as an army was never
certainty from one week to an
other. Some of his soldiers and
even whole regiments could not or
would not move outside of the bor-
ders of their own States. Some
times, at critical moments, they
would decide to return to their in
dividual homes to get the blowing
done or the crops harvested. Large
numbers of the people of the COL
onies were either against independ-
ence or at least unwilling to make
great personal sacrifice toward its
attainment.
And there were many in every
Colony who were willing to CO.
operate with Washington only If
the cooperation was based on their
own terms.
Some Americans during the War
of the Revolution sneered at the
very principles of the Declaration
OF Independence. 1t was imprac-
tical, they said-it was 'idealistic"-
to claim that "all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain inalien-
able rights"
Cynics of That Day.
The skeptics, the cynics, of Wash
ington's day did not believe that
ordinary men and women have the
capacity for freedom and self-gov-
.ernment. They said that Liberty
and equality were idle dreams that
could not come true-just as today
there are many Americans who
sneer at the determination to attain
freedom from want and freedom
from fear on the ground that these
are ideals which can never be real
lied. They say that 1t Is ordained
that we must always have poverty
and that we must always have war.
They are like the people who carp
at the Ten Commandments because
some people are in the habit of
breaking one or more of them.
We Americans Of today know that
there would have been no success
full outcome to the Revolution, which
gave up liberty. had 1t not been
for George Washington's faith and
the fact that that faith overcame
the chickering's and confusion and
the doubts which the skeptics and
cynics provoked.
When kind history books tell us
of Benedict Arnold, they omit dozens
of other Americans who, beyond
pei ddNCiibulC vi d OOuht, "ClC dAoo
guilty of treason.
First Things First.
We know that 1t was Washing
tons simple, steadfast faith that
kept him to the essential principles
of first things first. His sturdy
sense of proportion brought to him
and his followers the ability to dis
count the smaller difficulties and
concentrate on the larger objec-
tives. And the objectives of the
American Revolution were so large
so unlimited-that today they are
among the primary objectives of the
entire civilized world.
1t was Washington's faith-and,
with it, his hope and his charity
which was responsible for the stam-
ina of Valley Forge-and the prayer
at Valley Forge.
The Americans of Washington S
day were at war. We Americans OF
today are at war.
The Americans OF Washington S