Nome Observes
Fourth of Julv
J
(Continued from Page One*
energy to Irving :o explain away
their lickings.
Most of us can recall Hi'ler's
boast that the Br.ti-h Empire had
been crushed and soon would dis
integrate, We can remember when
he announced tha* German arm
ies in Moscow. Mussolini could no*
keep his mouth shot either. Have
any of you forgo*ten his dream
of empire and his shouts that the
Mediterranean was about to be
come an Italian lake? And then
there was Tojo. He told his Jap
countrymen that the infamous
Pearl Harbor attack had com
pletely smashed the American
fleet and driven it from the Pa
cific. Do you think Tojo still be
lieves that fairy tale? Tojo also
looked into his crystal ball in 1942
and proclaimed that the invasion
of the Aleutian Islands was just
a prelude to the conquest of all
Alaska and of the western United
States.
"They were wrong, all wrong,
because they were guessing They
were guess ng just as much as
were those half-hearted Ameri
cans who predicted disaster for
the United States and the United
Nations because of the initial de
feats suffered m France, in Rus
sia. in Africa, and in the Dutch
East Indies, in Burma, at Pearl
Harbor and on Bataan
"They were wrong, all of them,
because they sought to predict
the future on the basis of the
immediate present, because they
had no understanding of democ
racy and no appreciation of the
tremendous force and staying
power that derives from self-gov
ernment, freely exercised.
“They were wrong because they
were too blind to recognize the
mighty shock-obsorbing strength
that lies in American Democracy
and in the kind of liberty that
was given expression in the Amer
ican Declaration of Independence, i
They could not even imagine the
great cushioning power tha* self-1
government gives to a nation, the*
stamina to suffer defeats, to make
mistakes and be honest in admit
ting them, and then to come back
more powerfully than ever to tri
umph. |
“The enemy leaders forgot the'
basic principle tha* one battle
does not win a war. As a result,
they blasted, they made predic
tions of early vic*ory. and *hen
they began to make blunders. Hit
ter blundered first when he de
cided Britain could not recover
from France and Dunkirk and
could be gobbled uo wheneverm
the fancy struck him. He blun- 1
dered next when he decided Ger- 1
many was so s‘rong it could wage 1
' war on two fronts and win, and ‘
accordingly invaded Russia. He 1
blundered a third time when he
wrote off America as an impo- <
tent democracy which could be •
kept out of the European war by \
German U-boa*s alone. i
( “As for Mussolini, his rceord is .
one of continuing blunders from i
the day of his first cowardly at- ,
tack on France. The Japanese rec- j
orcl isn’t much better. They blun
dered in wantonly at acking Pearl
Harbor and overnight arousing in
all Americans a fighting hatred
that wll not be quieted until Ja
pan has been comple'ely smashed.
“Japan blundered again in
plac ng reliance on its island de
fences as permanent protection of
the Jap homeland. Already, our
significant Pacific fleets and am
phibious armies have knocked out
many of the suoposedly impregna
ble Jap strongholds and are now
ranging unchallenged ‘hrough
most of the Pacif;c.
The United Nations made plen
ty of blunders of their own and
*ook some trerific whippings in
early days of the war, but they
took them and kept right on
fighting and planning and prepar
ing. They saw to it that the men
and the weapons and the supplies
necessary to crush the Axis were
produced, on a scale so vast tha4
the Axis would no longer even be
gin to keep peace.
“And on the actual battlefronts
the armies and weapons of the
United Nations have been used
efficiently and well. Africa has
been cleared. The enemy is be
ing chased out of Italy. The Red
Army is hacking to pieces one Na
zi army after another in Russia
and shoving the remnants into
rout. In the Pacific the Japs have
long been ousted from 4he Aleu
tians, and more recently have been
kicked out of most of New Gui
nea and the southwest Pacific.
They have lost one Island chain
af’er another and are now losing
one of their greatest bases, Saipan
in the Marianas. They are losing
in Burma. Their homeland is un
der bombardment. We have the
initiative on all Pacific fronts
from Paramushiro to Burma, and
we are asking the most of it.
“Finally, in France the armies
of Hitler have been met in their
own European backyard and are
being beaten. The bat'le that be
gan on the beaches of Normandy
early las* month will end with the
conquest of Germany and the
capture of Berlin. No reasonable
man can predict how long it will
take. But we are winning and will
keep on winning. That much is
sure. The end is in sight, and I
hope earnestly and in all humil
ity ‘hat it will not be too long
delayed, that the cost of victory
w 11 not be too great.
In any event the cost of this
World War II. is going 4o be high.
The price alone in blood and mis
ery and suffering is beyond cal
culation. Your families and mine
and the families of our neighbors
—ordinary decent people who
want to live in peace quietly and|
usefully—are paying for it. And
none of us should ever forget that;
every wound, every dea’h, every!
bit of destruction is chargeable to1
rmr enemies—to Germany, Japan,!
‘he Fscists of Italy and the Quis
'ings of all coun'ries.
"It is fitting that on Indepen
dence Day we should take note of
he cost of winning while we re
joice in our vic'ories. The Amer
ican kind of liberty is expensive,
and rightly so. It has been earned
oy the struggle and courage and
sacrifice of our American people
for 168 years. It is a free and prac
tical liberty tha* requires a clean
and healthy world n which to
flourish. And when this war is
ended the world will be cleaner,
rid in part at leas* of the sav
agery, the lust, the rottenness and
the injustice that are the body
and the splri* of the Axis.
•'It is well for all of us in Nome
to remember that 'here is an
enormous amount of fighting and
suffering and misery still ahead.
When the shooting is far away on
'he other side of the world, it is
much too easy for some of us to
let the urgencies of our every
day jobs obscure our part in the
war, to cause us to forge* the
terrible and compelling needs of
the men in the front lines.
“We can help here in Nome,
all of us, soldiers and civilians
alike. The faster and bet*er we
do our work every day the more
of us there are who will become
available for vital work elsewhere
and for assignment in the armies
in the combat zones. The faster
we unload ships at Nome the
more shipping space we make
available for the task forces that
are engaging the Japanese in the
sou'h and central Pacific.
“By fighing his war in every
phase of our daily work, every
hour, every day, we can help ma
erially to bring closer the complete
and final victory. And when that
victory we will have proved again
that the American pat*ern of life
is sound, that there is great
strength in our kind of Democ
racy which believes in and pro
tects our individual liberties to
work, to play and to worship,
freely and in peace, with all our
neighbors.
Recently, a tank officer, named
Lt. Shatlain, had most of one foot
shot off in battle with the Ger
mans. He amputated the remain
der of his shattered foot with a
jack-knife, and while he waited
for death he wrote down his
thoughts. He asked a question. If
today those of us here at Nome,
both soldiers and civilians, can an
swer this question honestly and
say that we have done our full
X". — ' _' . _
DONOR — Shirley Temple,
who celebrated her 16th birth*
day by finishing a new film,
contributes to the Russian War
Relief campaign some of the
' clothes she has outgrown.'
part toward victory, we will have
earned the right to call ourselves
Americans on July 4, 1944.
Here is the question Lt. Shat
lain asked:
What did you do today my friend,
From morning ’till the night?
How many times did you com
plain,
That rationing is too tight?
When are you going to start to do,
All the things you say?
A soldier would like to know, my
friend,
What did you do today?
We met the enemy today.
And took the town by storm.
■- 1 " \ " --x
Happy reading it will make,
For you tomorrow morn.
You’ll read with satisfaction,
The brief communique.
We fought, but are you fighting?
What did you do today?
My gunner died in my arms to
day.
I feel his warm blood yet.
Your neighbor’s dying boy gave
out,
A scream I’ll never forget.
On my right a tank was hit,
A flash and then a fire.
The stench of burning flesh,
St 11 rises from the pyre.
What did you do, today, my
friend?
To help us wi'h the task?
Did you work longer and harder
for less,
Or is that too much to ask?
What right have I to ask you this,
You probably will say,
Maybe now you’ll understand,
You see—1 died today.
The dance took off about 9:00
o m. with a very good orches
tra, and the crowd had a marvel
ous time. Punch was served dur
ing h s event.
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