The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-04-22
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER

By WESTBROOK PEGLER
NEW YORK-President Roosevelt recently
endorsed an observance under mixed religious
auspices, Protestant, Catholic and Jewish, of
Home week or, if you like Family week. In
doing so, he ran over the list of familiar
virtues Of the home and of the family as the
basic unit of civilization. 1t was one paper of
his with which no opponent of his adj
ministration could find the slightest fault It
is pity, however, that this institution should
have found that high percentage of their
be in need OF propaganda and promotion for
revival because until the war began to disrupt
homes ours was country in which the home
and the family enjoyed the most favorable
conditions.
The subject is a touchy one for, at last
reports, one marriage in six ended in divorce;
but divorce means broken homes and those
who study delinquency among children and
examine the records of convicts in the prisons
house found that high percentage of their
clients came from broken homes They sus-
pected that disruption of the home by divorce
had been rather more, than less responsible
for the waywardness of the children. 1t is
acknowledged to be a tragedy when the father
or mother of a family is removed from a
home by death but out of consideration for
the feelings of the many parties to our many
divorces by which children are denied the care
and guidance Of one parent, usually the father,
we read little consideration of these tragedies.
The clergy touch up the subject now and
again but that is the end of it, nor have
any helpful suggestion. Yet the fact remains
that the home has suffered terrible damage
in the divorce courts, in many cases for fri
volous reasons, and we have seen some states
of the union devising laws so as to attract
divorce trade for the benefit of the keepers
of hotels and saloons gambling houses and
dress shops
In this time Of war, the home ties are
put to much greater strain. Some youngsters
marry in haste and under emotional influence,
and many Of them will not get along when
the boys come back In the case of a man
who is taken from an established home
for one, two or three years the danger would
seem to be less, but still a home without a
father is not wholly home to the wife or
children. Then, too, great numbers of civil
ian fathers have left home to work in the war
industries, and many mothers have made such
arrangements as they could for the care OF
their children, to work in the plants, with the
inevitable result that the home is neglected
and the training and discipline of the young
sters seriously impaired.
The dictator states can consistently draft
their married men and women for war labor
because, in their belief, the child exists for
the state and the state is the parent with
the right to raise the young ones. But when
it is proposed in this country that women as
well as men be drafted for war work and
thus relieved of the conscientious problem of
deciding what and how much to do for the
country, clearly the American home is threat
ened with something like obliteration More
over, even without children, the home is no
less the basis Of civilization.
The argument is familiar that poverty is an
enemy of the home and the family, and sc it
is. But it does not follow that character can
not conquer proverty, for if that had been so
40 years ago and earlier in the United States,
the home and the family would have gone to
smash with very little salvage The living
standard. as to comforts, security and the
family nest-egg was such would be called
poverty today but families did hold together
and divorce was so rare as to put humiliation
on the children of parents who decided
that they could not hit it off and therefore
called it off Nor does it follow that comfort
even riches, protect the home and bind the
family closer for the most scandalous casual
ness has been noted for many years among
few key families of seaboard society, many
of whom today would have trouble decid-
ing lust who they are anyhow or what their
relation to their kinnery. For these reasons,
New York friend of mine calls Park Avenue
Tobacco road, and its inmates rich white
trash