The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1945-05-24
By r
Bell syndicate.-wNu Features.

A FEW days ago I was in
~ a group of young women
L Awho were gathering
wraps and parcels as they dis
persed after a club luncheon.
"How many of you," I asked
them casually, "have been to
the blood bank lately?"
Lately! Out Of 10 Of them, only
one had ever been, and that more
than a year ago. These we're healthy
young women, busy, Of course, bur-
dened with responsibility for homes.
kitchen. babies, school-age chill
dren, to be sure. But not so bur-
dened, not so busy but what this
confession Of theirs constitutes the
most terrible indictment that Ameri-
can women ever have had to face.
It constitutes the most shameful
reproach that after-war memories
will ever bring US. a shame never to
be forgotten and never to be
wiped out; that the Red Cross and
the medical corps have to beg US
for this life-giving blood. and that
we refuse it.
My own blood burns when I
think Of it, and I wonder how we
will explain it to the returned SOL
diers someday; how we can ever be
happy again knowing that magnif-
cent young lives have been sacri-
feed because we, safe and warm
and we1l-fed and free from fear.
just never gave a thought to the
blood bank.
"Oh. I've meant to, and Marcia
and I talked about it." these young
women said cheerfully, but it's so
hard to get around these days. We
were going to. remember, Jean?
And then we didn't! Oh, yes, the
blood bank. That's wonderful. isn't
it? Mother says they didn't have
it in the last war, and that thou
sands Of lives were lost. Do let's try
to get to it this week. or sometime"
Marines Attack.
The day before this conversation
I had happened to see a movie reel
Of u marines taking possession of
a tropical beachhead. as they have
done so often. Past the camera
flashed the line Of young faces, as
the heavy boots squelched in the
mud and fixed bayonets glinted in
the fast-falling rain. Such fine,
strong faces. earnest and trusting
and hard with the desperate cou
age and resolution Of the attack.
And ever as we looked this splendid
vigorous body and that one fell in
the swamp. never to walk again in
the pride and confidence of youth!
Our boys have seen grim sights
in these war years. they have SUI
fered all the agonies to which hu-
man flesh is heir. They have seen
children mad with hunger, and
dead with hunger; seen homeless
thousands Of ONE and old people
seeking despairingly for food and
shelter. They have seen their own
friends fall and die. or carried
away on stretchers, moaning,
bloody. inhuman wreckage. They
have known inconsistencies more bit
ter than death; known months. not
hours or days. of loneliness and
doubt.
To have these men pick up a
paper from home and read that the
Red Cross must solicit donations of
the life-giving stream that alone will
bring some of them home, is in
tolerable, and we ought not to tol-
crate it!
In every gathering Of men and
women - at mems luncheon clubs,
women's club meetings.. lecture
halls, movie theaters, indeed in the
actual churches. why doesn't the
chairman or speaker ask those who
have contributed life to our dying
men to raise their hands? Or bet
ter yet. ask those who have not
given their blood to the white