St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1952-10-03


between a Soviet system which
tells man where he must work
and an American system which
says that he can't work at all ex-
| cept in certain limited capacities
and in certain jobs. The Com
munists tell their citizens where
they may live by direct order.
We're little nicer about 1t. We
do IT by "gentleman's agreement"
But the net result is precisely the
! same. OF course, sometimes we're
not so nice about 1t either.
Two weeks ago. one block
! from my home in Kansas City,
! Missouri, a house recently bought
by a Negro veteran Of World War
III was bombed for the third time
for no other reason than that he
wanted to live in a home and a
neighborhOod of his own choos-
ing.
In parts of Russia there
are no hospitals. In our country
there are hospitals but only GER
tain people may use them. The
same is true OF schools. bowling
alleys. hotels. Oh yes. and
churches too. In our nations capt.
tai, the other day, a Negro man
was beaten for sitting in a park
that had customarily been used
by white persons exclusively.
Il cannot help but feel that II
is high time we approach the real
problem-that we devote atten-
ton to combating the real dan
ger~-the type Of Communism
that is deceptively American in
appearance but which Is much
more insidious and damaging than
that labelled Soviet Russia.
The time has come when we must
recognize that the threat to our
way of life is not nearly so much
in forces from without as II is in
weaknesses from within.
I'VE have inexorably and in
evitably reached the point where
our self-willed blindness is eat
ing at the very foundation of our
national structure. Repair of that
damage is the business of every
American. And II Is a job that
cannot be approached with half
hearted enthusiasm. II cannot be
accomplished by slavish commit
mcnt to the status quo. Life as
usual" including the luxury of
race prejudice Is most assuredly
part of a past that cannot be
resurreCted
I'VE Americans, at times. can
be incredibly contradictory. We
exhibit the most amazing inven-
tive and developmental genius
We revere initiative almost as a
religion. Yet, in utter contradis-
tinction. we see ourselves clinging
tenaciously to the past at points
that simply refute all logic. We
make convenience shibboleth
and expedieney an evasion rather
than virtue.
1T is no profound observation
to state that on such "A course lies
disaster II there has ever been n
time to challenge every single
ounce of our ability our bedrock
, integrity our commitment To
our basic principles It is now.
There Is no such thing as a neo-
democracy We either have it or
we don't have IT, We can accept
that democracy shall be the
American Way OF Life or we can
set about the job of creating
substitute for 1t built from the
evasions, the moral compromises
and the prejudices that we have
allowed to develop. But the result
viii neither be American nor a
way of life. II will be the calCu-
lated exploitation the personal
indignities the iron-handed rule
by the advantaged OF the disad-
vantaged the lightly-held obi
cation to moral responsibility
the lack of dedication to high
principle the progressive de
terioration of spiritual and social
values that we now conveniently
characterize as Communism.
May we be mindful Of the re-
Sponsibihty that destiny has
thrust upon us Whether we like
IL or not, we have no choice but to
make democracy work. For if
democracy does not work. the flu
ture Of mankind hangs In precar-
iOus balance indeed We have his
torical evidence that the guiding
principles of mankind change
little over the centuries As they
were in 1887, so are they today. 1t
is for us to provide the visible ex-
ample that those principles have
moral strength, substance and in
tegrity 1t is for us to prove that
those principles can successfully
challenge men to respond to them
with the best there is in them. II
is for us TO reaffirm, by our &C
tons, that those brave Missionaries
OF 1887 followed by equally brave
Missionaries of our own generation,
accurately set out the values that
are important among civilized
values that they are not
only willing to die for, but, more
important, to live by"
Mr., Davis is general manager of