The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-12-26
Merry-GO-ROund

WASHINGTON, Deo, se-ExUepa Ger tAe mAnnaA yesterday was Q day when WashinetoN ena the OoV~ enment shut up shop Even eoreAOcTats, beng hes man need chrlstmas m fact, we aa ao We need nt ln order to think litle more about our Intends and eur nelghpors and the Man on the Crosa who wanted -and dled-to make better lte Tor ms telloW men
 So even a newspaper cclumnsst needs Christmas,
 fne the mailman however a colamnist is sup posed to work on Christmas Day, His public may not want to read Q word on Christmas, and he himself may be much more interested In his sons newly acquired electric train But that makes no oafterence the column must 90 on.
 There was a time, % years ego when had great dodge for avoiding work on ChrStmas Day. An insignificant reporter covering the state Department wrote letter to the Secretary of state just before Christmas every year, asking whether the United States was going to claim Christmas Island or sur render 1t to the British.
 Christmas Island is a pinpoint In the Pacific dis covered by an American sailing captain 100 years ago, and almost entirely neglecteo-so neeecteo n fact that Secretary of State Frank B, kelloee and later Secretary stimson always wrote 1Sck S.as Sney gave me lead on which could hang Christmas story about Christmas TSland-the island nobody wanted And, having written the story one day tn advance. I shut up shop and went home
 Times have changed since then. shortly before Pearl Harbor, Christmas Island became one of the coveted landing bases of the Pacifc-with both Brit ain and the United States claiming 1t,
 Yet in any other respect times haven't changed But regardless of airplanes, Pacific islands and modern times, | reneged on ecitorS yeSUeruay py abandoning that cramped keyhoe position under the Presidents desk and wrote about some of my own ideas in connection with these changing times and Christ's birthday.
 Editors who expected me to blast some scoundrel or expose some scandal from behind the scenes in washington were out of luck
 For there is no story either backstage or m front of the stage in Washington or anywhere else as important as the Christmas story. It's a simple story, told in Luke in less than 100 words:
 And Joseph also went up from oallee out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea unto the city of David which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of Davdo to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And So 1t was that while they there the days were accomplished that she should be delivered And she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manager; The above will stand out as one Of the worlds greatest jobs of reporting.
 Today. 1t wouldn't be handled 30 simply. birth that brought the appearance of wonderful new star and the visit of three kings would make banner head lines throughout the nation. Cameramen would Hash the scene on every newsreel-theater screen Radio commentators would give on-the-Spot interviews with mother father and innkeeper.
 Yes, on the surface at least, if the Christ child were born this year it would be different story However many things would De the same Joseph and Mary were displaced persons, forced to from place to another. Like the refugees of Europe they not the masters of their fate And like many of the European refugees also they were poor, and they were Jewish