The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1943-02-18
No Substitute For Freedom

IL, we are 1IlO1S o1AO AAOAS oOONI
Freedom than we did in easy recent years.
But, as free American citizens, we have
found that we can meet the test for war.
We have found out that when it is neces-
sary we can get things done. The stark
heroism that our men have shown on the
fighting front is proof that we are not soft
We can still fight with the tactics our fore
fathers used with the indians and we can
fight with modernized machinery. Guadal-
canal and North Africa have proven that.
We know now with continuous effort that
we can win the war;
But in addition to the fighting front,
there is the home front, and on this front,
except for the production miracle of in
dustry there is still evidence of softness
and confusion of ideals. In some cases
group pickering has put the attainment of
personal comfort and security ahead of the
national welfare. This is far afield from
the ideals of the Pilgrims who landed on
Plymouth Rock. Even as our men on the
battlefields are now dying, the Pilgrims
died and suffered for one chief reason, to
establish spot on earth where individuals
because they were tough and because they
placed ideals before comfort. 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
aggression. There was an equally grave
question of whether we could do it with
out destroying free enterprise and repre-
sentative government. There were those
who believed it would take total dictator
ship to beat the dictators. The challenge
fell on industry The machines had to be
built by industry. Our natural resources
and our factories had to be modified for
war on a scale that wrought shattering
changes in technique and precedent. In
dustry knew that the cracker-box agita-
tors were waiting to pouncd upon the
country with revolutionary schemes at the
slightest sign of failure
1t is to the credit of thinking govern
ment officials that revolutionary changes
in government and industry were not
forced before free enterprise had chance
to show what it could do to prove that our
democracy was not failure. Our factories
did magnificent job. In matter of
MONTHS they underwent retooling and con-
version Today tanks, planes, guns, Ships
are rolling off the assembly lines by the
scores of thousands Our war production
has caught and passed the dictator enemy
who spent years producing for war under
an elaborate Economic security" program
which by it's very completeness had de-
stroyed Individual freedom the same
years that our industries continued to pro-
duce for Americas unregimented, peace
full Millions Back of the manufactures
stand American farm producers and dis
tr7butors, together with the metal and
coal mines, the oil, the power and trans
portation industries. They feed our war
workers and keep the materials moving
into the assembly lines.
The end of the war may be distant still,
yet it is in sight. Far-sighted leaders know
that the challenge of the postwar world
will be the toughest of all. 1t will be far
tougher than the facts justify because of
demagogic attempts to soften our people
with illusory social dreams of total "eco-
nonic security"
But industry is making it's plans. These
plans will have to be daring. Industry must
go on the offensive. 1t must show that
unprecedented production under system
of free enterprise is the only sure way to
build lasting peace under the banner of
individual freedom It must lay the ground
work for this production now. And it must