The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1946-01-22

This column, which had been
published weekly for two years,
ceased firing" back in May,
1912, shortly after the ''Presi-
dents Greeting reached me.
Since then it has been mot dead,
only sleeping"
Now that wars alarms are
heard no more in the world and
I have returned to live again in
this beloved land / left so long
ago, l am going to try to rouse
this column from its lingering
sleep and get it going once more.
I'm doing business back at ''the
same old stand" where l worked
before the war, that is, am prac-
ticing law again and l hope to
continue it for some time to
come.
| managed to exc out a lean
living in this line of work before
the war, and I hope l can soon
get back in the groove" But l
don't think any man should linn
it himself to serving only him
self. He ought to try to help
other people some. He should
render service to his community,
his town, his city, his state, his
country. If everyone worked ex-
clusively and solely for his own
benefit, this world would be in
a much worse fix than it is now
inland it's in a pretty bad way
as it is. The Willingness of some
to help others is about all that
has kept the world from falling
apart.
The war against, Germany and
Japan has been won but the
battle of life" goes on. By crush
ing the most terrible assaults
ever made upon civilization, the
American people and their val
orous allies have not righted all
the wrongs in the world. We
have not even insured the future
of our form of government. In
defeating faScism we did no more
than prevent our democratic way
of life from being destroyed. We
simply secured for ourselves the
right to continue trying to make
a success of our form of govern
brought more freedom, more kind
ness, more security, more con-
tentment, more happiness, more
hope to more people than any
other governmental system since
people came out of caves and be-
gan trying to live together as
civilized human beings.
Our twin triumphs over thu
two most brutal nations tina
ever saddened the world with
mass slaughter have solved non,
of our domestic problems. Gu
! double victories have given NJ
new sineWs, no supplements o
strength to our system of gov
eminent. On the contrary, fou
years of furious and fatiguini
fighting have placed stresses ant
strains upon our government
such as it never has had to bear
Nineteen months of war be
tween April 6, 1917, and Novem
Der IL, 1918, dealt our govern
ment a body blow from whicl
| it had not fully recovered Whe1
Japan and Germany attacke
! America on December Z, 1914
The terrible times we suffere
through from 1929 to 1884 ca
be laid, in large measure, to tn
weakened condition that Worl
War 1 left our country in. I
just did manage to survive tha
awful ordeal,
| Four years of war, with 13
100000 Americans actively PAL
ticipating, is certain to have SAP
ped the strength of our countr
/ far more severely than 10 month
of war, with only 100000 cit
zens in uniform. The disparit
of the costs will, alone, show tn
vast difference between tn
damage that was done to OF
government this time and las
time. We emerged from Worl
War 1 with a national debt {
/ approximately $4,000, 600, 90
while we have staggered out
} World War II with a nation;
debt of about $272,000,000,000-
nearly eleven times as much
in 1918! Insolvency can ultimate
/ ly wreck a government, just {
it can wreck a business--thoug
not so rapidly nor so decisiVel
: About 55,000,000 American
| were working at the peak of wal
, time employment. At least 20
\ 000 000--r7aVbe moro of fhOS