THE DANBURY REPORTER
Established 1872
i LATEST MODE OF CHRISTENING
BATTLESHIPS
When a new warship is launched by the United
1 States Navy, the time-honored custom is, amid
the cheers of the gathered thousands of specta
tors, the crash of a bottle of champagne over the
bow by some appropriate and beautiful lady.
But when a destroyer was launched at San
Francisco last week, Mrs. Sullivan, the sponsor,
after throwing the champagne as a matter of
tradition, really christened the ship with hei
tears.
Mrs. Sullivan is the mother of five sons who
died aboard the cruiser Juneau which was lost in
the battle of Guadalcanal. The new ship was
named "The Sullivan?" who went down glorious
ly with the Juneau.
( The Associated Press account is as follows:
I "They enlisted together on Jan. 3, 1942; train
ed together aboard the (cruiser) Juneau, fought
( together, and when their ship was lost, they
,4* were together at the end", said Rear Admiral
Clark H. Woodward.
It was then, on the launching platform, amid
much navy gold braid, that Mum Sullivan's tears
began to flow. And Genevieve, sister of the five
Waterloo, la., sailor heroes, cried, too. There
was nothing Thomas E. Sullivan, husband and
father of the clan, could do about it except
squeeze Mum's hand.
"The ships of our navy are built with sweat and
toil," said Admiral Woodward, speaking to the
Sullivans and to the 5,000 workmen and their
families. •
"They are launched with anticipation and
pride, fought with coolness and with courage,
and when lost—ours go down with honor and
* with glory," he said.
So perished the cruiser Juneau last November
during the battle of Guadalcanal. Among- the
, crew who manned her were five brothers —
George Thomas Sullivan, Francis Henry Sulli
van, Joseph Eugene Sullivan, Madison Abel Sul
livan and Albert Leo Sullivan."
Admiral Woodward said it was the boys' spe
cial request that they sail together on the same
ship, and when he told how they died together.
Mum Sullivan lost the composure she had shown
during the tour she and her husband have been
making to the nation's shipyards and war plants
to urge increased production.
She was so unstrung she had to miss the ban
quet staged in the family's honor at one of the
city's big downtown hotels.
TO THE RESCUE—CHICKEN, PIG AND COW
It makes no difference whereof the blitz comes,
whether from suddenly metamorphosed citizen
ry alarmed over tightening and encroaching
draft regulatjons, or what not.
What we are interested in is food, and with de
, lightful pride we see the chicken, the pig and the
cow marching to the rescue. Never before has
"essential industry" so profusely blossomed.
The prowling wolf may as well slink back from
the door, we shall not starve with so much fried
1 chicken, ham and eggs, butter and milk on the
cuisine for the months ahead. i
Volume 72
Current Comment
Danbury, N. C., Thursday, April 8, 1943 * *
HOLDING THE INFLATION LINE
President Roosevelt has been the friend of the
farmer and the laboring man. He has been es
pecially wideawake to the interests of the farm
ers and during his administration farm produce
has sold high, placing the farmer in the strong
est position possibly in the history of the govern
ment.
But when the President vetoes the Bankhead
farm bill, he will doubtless incur severe censure
and criticism from several classes of farmers.
It may possibly be that as between farming, la
bor and business, adjustments are not yet ex
actly equitable or fair to the farmer in some in -
stances. We do not know about that.
But we do believe that the President has acted ,
wisely in his veto of the Bankhead bill. It is j
known that under the present conditions of war
the country stands on the rim of a most danger
ous inflation.
Everybody knows the colossal threat of infla
tion—how if you start increasing the income of
one class, you must continue up the dangerous
spiral. There will be no end to the cries for help.
Give Mr. Fanner more, and Labor will say, give
me more; then industry says, give me more and
so on.
It is simply not the time now to begin equitable
adjustments.
The nation needs every effort and every
thought turned to the work ahead of winning
the war.
THE ARCHANGEL OF MERCY
"I know not where His islands lift
Their frondied. palms in air;
I only know I cannot drift
' Beyond His love and care."
We have heard of a man who refused to giw
to the Red Cross.
It is inconceivable that in the human cosmos an
intelligent being should exist so lost to the ideal
of the Christian Bible that he could withhold as
sistance from the greatest agency in the world
to bring relief and consolation to the sick, the
suffering, the dying.
On every field of battle on all the war fronts
of the world, in the wake of fire, storm, pesti
lence or flood, there you will always see the Red
flag waving—symbol of practical help—its of
ficers, doctors, nurses, working, day and night
in the heat or cold, in the storm or flood, under
bombs under the raking fire of death and de
struction.
I
The Red Cross is not a money-making system.
Its head, one of the great business men of Amer
ica, a man who is able to command a fabulous
price for his service, directs without money and
without price.
The boy,, far from home, a prisoner, sick,
wounded, disconsolate, heartbroken, finds in the
Red Cross a never-failing friend who sees to
getting his letters sent home, sees that he gets
his home mail, sees that mother or friends back
home get the message of hope and cheer.
If there is an agency inspired and ordained di
rect from the Master, it is the great Red Cross
that is- everywhere in its power, its beauty, its
mercy and sympathy.
EDITORIALS
* Published Thursdays
WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT THE
FOREST FIRES?
Dangerous forest fires have raged in different
sections of the county this week, fanned by high
winds.
Two of these fires threatened Danbury serious
ly for awhile, one to the south, the other to the
north.
It is learned that each of these vicious conflag
rations was started by persons well known
among the people.
Whether a flame is started maliciously or
through careless ignorance, the effect is the
•ame on property-holders.
i The law requires that before you set out a fire,
you must notify adjoining landowners.
I The persons who started these fires notified no
il tody. The people who owned farm homesteads,
tobacco barns, etc., on adjoining lands were not
notified, but were iei't alone to take care of them
selves.
Many hundred acres of valuable timber was
destroyed. A number of tobacco barns were
burned. Many people had to go out and fight the
flames to save homes and other property. At
Danbury watchers stayed up all night on guard.
It is time the grand juries took notice of these
dangerous and destructive fires that occur reg
ularly every spring throughout the county. In
the Reporter of March 25 the District Game war
den impressed on the people the constant men
ace from forest fires which he said, burned over
5,300 acres of forest land in Stokes county last
year, representing a loss of over SIB,OOO.
A suit ;'oi damages lLs against any person
iwho through either ignorance or careles -tiess
'nuts out fire which damage-, hi; n> ighbur. Any
inerson who maliciously or cave!' Ay i»uis out
ifire in the forest, is subject to a term on !by
roads at hard labor.
Let the legislature tighten up on this iru-t im
portant matter in the life of the rural communi-
!ties, and let the grand juries make investiga
tions followed by indictments and rigid enforce
ment of the law.
i A NOBLE RIDDANCE
| The Ruml tax plan met the same fate that
the Rommel fight plan is about to receive in
| Africa.
When the British Bth army, the Americans and
; the French catapult the "Desert Fox" into the
Mediterranean they will do the suffering public
; about as much relief as old man Bob Doughton
(has done already by placing the skids under this
| crazy tax scheme.
! One of the leading commentators remarked
that nobody this side of Einstein could under
stand the Ruml income tax monstrosity. None
of the congressmen knew what it was all about.
The present income tax blank is headache
enough, God knows. Let congressmen evolve a
fair and less complicated system, which will bear
equally on every citizen.
* * * * Number 3,701