Evening star., 1944-12-28

.
that The net Lowell Mellett.
meaning of his talk was that the
war could be carried on without
complete interruption of life as
usual in the United States.
I wondered then and I wonder
now if the President truly under
stood the people of his own country
when he indicated that approach to
the shattering business of war. II
would be presumptuous to say he
did not Elected four times by a
Nation that never has elected any
other man more than twice, he must
understand his own people and be
understood by them. He must know
what makes us tick, what we will
do and what we won't do.
And yet found myself appalled,
by the thought of our engaging in
that spirit in a war that might
mean the saving or destruction of
civilization There was in my mind
the brave resolutions of the Amer
ican Legion, adopted after the First
World War, to the effect that if
ever again we went to war con-
scription should not be limited to
the bodies of our eager or bewildered
boys; that next time we should con-
script property as well.
Sounded Reasonable.
People said to one another, why
not? If you can draft one mans
life, surely you can draft another
mans money. Nothing could be
more reasonable, but still we doubted
that 1t would come to pass. Govern
ments, our own included, always had
exercised the right to take a mans
son, but none had asserted the right
to do more than beg the loan of a
mans money-offering, indeed the
life of the mans son or his neigh
bor's son as security for the loan.
And this time it was to be the
same.
Nobody can say now what would
have happened, what the reaction
of the American people would have
been, had this war been made hard
for all of us from the beginning
What would have happened If we
all had been told, as the young men
of fighting age and capacity were
told, that we were each in the war
personally, whether we liked it or
not, that while we didn't have as
much to give as the young men,
the Government, acting for all of us,
was prepared to take everything we
cid have to give? Maybe we would
have 1jkeH n Movha not
Be that as it may, we've had it
the easy way. Apart from those
who have lost the men they love
or whose nights and days are tor
mented by fears for their men, we've
had it easy We've eaten we'll,
dressed well and kept warm in win
ter. We've had our vaca tions in
summer. We've made money, more
money than we ever made before, |
We've proved, or seemed to prove,
there's nothing in the notion that
you can't eat your cake and have
1t, too.
Some Speculation.
What's all this leading UP to?
Merely a little speculation as to
how long it will be before We begin
putting pressure on the Govern
ment to relax the new restrictions
and controls promulgated this
week.
Will our Congressman come back
after the holiday recess solemnly
asserting that this, that or the
other business is being ruined? viii
we be told that the national morale
is going to pot for the lack of horse
races or dog races? Are we going
to discover that We really can't
take it?
I doubt it. I believe instead 1t
will be found that We have been
given the one Christmas present
we've wanted most-an increased
sense of participation in the des-
perate fighting beyond the two
oceans. That desire has been with
us for a long time, but the disas-
trous setback suffered by our troops
on the western front has given it