Imperial Valley press., 1944-12-24
BENIGHTED WORLD CHANTS
PEACE ON EARTH


undertakes this Christmas to utter the
chant, 'Peace on Earth, Good Will to
Man" Or for that matter in extending
a greeting that never wears out with
usage, Merry Christmas to You" Not
that there isn't more reason for the spirit
of the occasion and the heral ding of that
spirit-for since the birth of the Prince
of Peace the world never has been so far
from peace.
With the entire world at war and with
thousands of men dying on blood-drench-
ed battlefields; with the spirit of hate
being taught millions Of men and with
these millions of men armed for death
and each seeking to kill the other, what
then of PEACE
None can escape, at least in their
thoughts, the irony of the day and the
season. 1t is a time of doubt even for
the strongest spirits. The day is ap-
preached with misgivings rather than
with sheer JOY at world at peace with
happiness as the one globe-encircling
theme.
We know and feel that there is some
thing incongruous, something false, in
the call to celebrate this great event.
When we know that when nations are at
each others throats, it is no time to enter
into a joyness that only can mark this
day.
In this attitude, it should be in a deep
sense of humility that we enter into this
holiday season, eliminating in the one
day. Indeed, it should be in sense of
shame as we look back over the centur-
les in which peoples of all climes have
Joined in doing homage to the Prince of
Peace For out of all these centuries we
come to this, the Twentieth, unable to
have drawn the true lesson from the
teachings given the world and on which
civilization has pretended to build.
No nation, no people, no person is free
from guilt for the condition of strife in
which the world stands today. We can
not say truly that our enemies are the
only ones guilty. To them we are enemies
and neither can they say 'the guilt is
not mine"
Everywhere the spirit Of love and
brotherhood has been trampled. No one
nation can escape that indictment. This
charge is not pertinent only to the pres
ent, when slaughter of human lives has
taken the place of peace and love of
mankind. 1t long has been forming and
only because of the season of Peace on
Earth is it brought forcibly to attention.
If out of this Christmas, as we con-
template the horrors of war, there can
emerge LIE acceptance VI liiC Cilei &c anu
a vow to wipe it out by revival Of the
true spirit of universal brotherly love
and quickening of the spiritual in our
selves, which then" would spread to all
peoples, then observance of the Day will
have been truly marked, and well.
There is, too, duty an obligation to
the generation just beginning that we
carry on. The institution of Christmas
must not perish, too, on the battlefield.
But when we repeat, Peace on Earth"
this time, let it be with our hearts on the
future, not on the past. Let us determine
that the generations to come may have
real and honest reason to chant those
heartening words. We have failed our
selves, but we must not fail the genera
tions to come.
Hitler has now been ruler of Germany
for nearly II years. This means that
practically every German from the age
Of to 80 is infected with the NaZi virus.
We must wait 80 years-if not a great
deal longer-before we can find really
anti NaZi Germany. - Eduard Benes,
president Czechoslovakia.
On Saipan we met the best. The men
we ran into were big, between 5-feet-8 and
feet tall, and weighing from 10 pounds
to more than 200.-Lt.-Col John F. Nc
Donough of New York.
tfITT QJTp WAV