The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-12-28

buzzing with new information and plans and counter-planS were being made. Occasional air raids added to the tenseness. One overworked Captain said to me tiredly This is pretty tough. bet over in AlgierS they don't even know there's a war going on.'
 A few days later in Algiers, I was at General Eisenhower's head quarters. His overworked staff was about ready to drop from exhaus- ton. Food was terrible, much worse than at the front. One day, one of the staff officers who hadn't slept fo~ two days, said to me You know, eI bet people at home don't even know there's war going on.'
 PLEASANT SHOCK
 So now I'm home. I've been with tE, army so long in combat zones that I feel as the Army does that people to the rear never know there's a war going on. But I've gotten a pleasant shock since com- irg home. People here in America quite definitely do know there's a war going on, and believe me they rc doing something about 1t.
 In the war zone we hear about one big strike, and wt swear at labor and grouse about people at home. Since I've been back, I've been to about 20 war plants and the manner in which men and women work there has made me realize that for every one man who has been on strike, there have beer five or ten thousand breaking their backs over lathes and drill presses I've sen men and women work in plants in Britain and Russia; ] never saw people work harder, more intelligently, or more loyally, than our own American workerS-men adn women. We neve hear about that: we only hear about the oc- casional strike.
 We forget that most of the work CTS in wal plants have sons, broth CTS or relatives in uniform and they're breaking their neckS to pro duce war weapons that will help them. We forget that every war bond drive we've had has been oversubscribed, and it isn't because everyone at home is making plenty of money. Taxes cut that income down so that when you buy a war bond now, you're really got to dig, I've seen long lines waiting in front of blood clinics; people giving blood, sometimes more often than their health permits. I've sen them dig ging deep for money to give to the Red Cross.
 NO JOKES
 I used to hear jokes in the war zone about rationing at home. Re- member those songs we had in the Sicilian messes: Don't vast food, l boys. Remember the folks back home are rationed." We used to laugh at home rationing, and figure that the folks were probably squawking be- cause they coudl only get steaks three times a week. Well, I've been home several months now, and l have yet to hear anyone squawking about rationing. Rationing isn't severe, but you do have to stand in line, and you don't get steak or roast beef very often, but all I've heard people say is How lucky we are things aren't really tough" And if things get really tough, I'll bet you 50 cone you still won't hear any squawkS.
 Have you heard about the war profiteers? I used to hear about them when was in Sicily and Italy, but since. I've returned I don't hear about them. Somebody in Washing ten is doing a pretty good job. May be it's the President. Maybe it's the whole triple threat team of Govern ment, labor and industry. It would take Houdini to hide one cent of excess profit these days and just in- cidentally, very few people are try- ing to grab anything they are not etnitlsd to.
 We coudl complain about lot of things at the front. but we couldn't complain about our equip ment. Stop raplng the folks back home Believe 1t or not. 90 per cent of them wish they were there with you. Give the people at home . break. What the hell-they're our allies, aren't they?