THE DANBURY REPORTER
Established 1872 Volume 71
Of People and Things
LETTER TO SANTA CLAUS , .!T
Dear Santa:
Please do not bring me this Christmas fire- j
works, air rifles, tooting tin horns, deafening
blares. I
These are incidents of the old-time Christmas,
dear Santa, when the world lay down Christmas |
eve night to sleep in peace and security and hap
piness till the gay morn, then to rise and cele
brate.
Oft in the stilly night when Dad had thrown on
the last hickory log and banked the fires for the
night, have I lain awake and listened for your
jingling entourage as it swept across the frozen
hills to bring joy to a thousand homes.
Then at dawn I heard the merry Christmas
bells. This was the signal for celebration and hil
arity and riots of fun and jollity as the kids
awoke to say "Merry Christmas to all."
Now, dear Santa, the scene has changed. Our
country is sorely troubled. At the hearthstones
of a hundred thousand homes memory and sad
ness brood for those who are gone. There are va
cant places at the table.
Dear Santa, please bring me back my brother
who is somewhere on a foreign strand, away
from home where we miss him so. Is this a time
for fireworks, for boisterous shouting and cele
bration ?
But, dear Santa, we are proud of nim—how
handsome he looked in his uniform. We know he
will do his bit for the country which we all love
so well. Ten thousand times we will surrender
our pleasures and give our best rather than our
people and our beauteous land should become
the victims of the cruel and treacherous foe thai:
is trying to crush us.
. But we do ask you, dear Santa, to protect him,
to safeguard him in the midst of the dangers
that encompass him, and to keep him ever in the
simple faith of our mother as of the days long
p.go when we knelt at her knee In the twilight to
say "Now I lay me down to sleep."
How futile are the dubious doctrines and phil
osophies of this modern day when compared
with the teachings of that Book which "has been
recognized so beautifully by our great army,
when its leaders are presenting every soldier
and marine and sailor with a copy of the Bible,
and our great President fit to conduct
a Thanksgiving service in the White House.
Please, dear Santa, lead our magnificent arm
ed hosts onward—ever onward—to Victory.
Let the white dove of peace fold its wings once
more over our country.
At last may the gallant fleets loaded down to
the water's brim be moored safely back in the
home ports and may our splendid boys view
through the lifting mists Old Glory waving
triumphant from t!\e ramparts of the castle of
ouj*'dreams .and listening to -the eres
ccrdo playing
Elj> Ameiica?'' * "• / . '**■ ■
• " 'v.•. WISE POLITICIANS ""t y^rj
r, "ISw -•• v"" .':7 V '»*■
not fools:
of this proposition we reifer. you ;to
thcifr' i^Sjptective' statements "in the newspapers in
Danbury, N. C., Thursday, December 17, 1942
DANBURY'S FIRE HAZARD
At the risk of being considered officious, the
Reporter would warn the people of Danbury of
our fire danger, which is serious.
With a very weak and doubtful supply of
water, and with no organized protection against
flames, the town runs constantly a serious risk
especially on cold nights and days when spigots
ere frozen.
Danbury has a number of large old buildings, j
each a fire trap. If fire breaks out in a home or
business place, with a high wind blowing, the
; county seat could # be destroyed in a few hours.
Citizens would stand by practically helpless.
i The most particular and constant caution is rec-1
'ommended wherever there is a stove or electric
wires, or kerosene lamps.
Every family would do well to keep tubs or
pails of water standing by as a reserve in case of
emergency.
The danger is imminent always.
THE TRAITOR PETAIN
One of the first acts after the victorious allies
I have hanged Hitler and Mussolini should be to
punish Marshall Henri Petain who we read has
'agreed to Hitler's proposal to raise an army of
French to fight the allies.
Petain's actions ever since he lay down and be
trayed his country when the Germans invaded it
have been cowardly, yellow and traitorous.
He is an old man, but he is not too old to suffer
for his crime of collaboration with France's ene
mies and for his hostility to England and Ameri
ca who are battling to strike off the shackles
from the heroic French people.
Future historians will record the infamy of
this old scamp in words that burn with contempt
and execration.
THE BEAUTIFUL SNOW
It is falling again today, the third snowfall of
the winter.
White, pure and unpolluted is this quiet soft
mantle that settles over the land of peace— the
home of the star-spangled banner.
What a contrast is offered by the crimson snow
of the vast steppes of the Ukraine where the de
fenders of home fall with the invaders, and what
a pity that the beautiful snow that comes in the
season of the birth of the Prince of Peace should
be dyed red with men's blood.
which each of them declared he would not be a
candidate for Republican President in 1944.
Gallup's poll, which is generally considered un
cannily accurate, shows that the man now in the
white house the favorite candidate of the peo
ple for President in 19.44.
Of c.ourse v it is qujte a,long-time till : the ' next
presidential,-election, and much water will go un
der the wheel 'before another President elect
ed; But it will- take a lot of the old
wfreel against ffife♦current:• -• * 4 '* ' :v •' v
this better tfi&ir *£)ewey, Taft
and Vandenburg.
EDITORIALS
Published Thursdays
THE DYING WPA
Let the bells toll. The WPA is dying.
Its creator administers a lethal dose. He creat
ed it. Let him kill it.
His is the responsibility for its birth. His must
be the reward for its virtues.
If in its evil, the WPA should die, if its usful
ness is over, let it gently cease to exist. Let it
softly, unobtrusively, breathe its last like a spent
stabbed giant that has made his last great fight,
and won.
The WPA was the outstanding gesture of the
New Deal. It was an institution that brought sav
ing grace to a nation in extremis.
The early 1930's saw the country reeling on the
rocks of its master depression. No one to throw
out a lifeline. The populace discouraged, hope
less, desperate.
Widespread unemployment dammed the chan
nels of trade and traffic. Business was rick unto
death. Countless thousands of idle men and wo
men walked the streets and the highways with
nothing to do but condemn the hour of their birth
lor their country's undoing. Revolution was show
ing its sinister lineaments, and plotting for the
overthrow of government and .übiety. Suicides
everywhere. Desperation, despair, chaos.
Then what happened ?
I The Man of the Hour appeared on the scene.
He called for a rope to toss out into the seething
flood for the rescue of those who were perishing.
| Congress under the dynamic leadership of
Franklin D. Roosevelt passed the law to give
! work and pay and hope to the masses who were
: :n need of succor. Clothing, coal and food for
those who were freezing and starving.
| Then began that cruel, unfriendly fight on the
|WPA. Intrenched privilege condemned it. The
j upper bracketeers denounced it and instituted
jwar on its provisions. Political dopc-ters of an
party derided it. Bi;r tux-payers openly
jproclaimed the ruin that would follow FDR's
j raids on the treasury. The nation with its 30
|billion dollar income could not stand the exnense
|of thp feedinc and clothiner of millions of peo*
| pie who should earn their living and pay the cost
of their subsistence.
Today the country with its $110,000,000,001) in
come can stand anything.
! Of all statutes passed during tie present gen
eration the WPA has been the most discussed
and the most cussed.
Today when we see the flush of health in the
cheeks of the country which was rescued, shall
we place on the brow of its savior a crown of
thorns, or shall we hand him the diadem of life?
FIRECRACK ER NI ISA WE
I The Governor of North. Carolina is roqiu.- ting
thai .all good citizen- I:.?ep their bow* fi\V.i ,j,..0£
ing fireworks this Christmas so;:--in..
« He sa.\ s he has had letters tronva lftrge niim
;bei of- people-requesting a bun, on .this-danger
ous and foolish practice of the kids-, but that
j there is noiaw to prevent it, >;et he kindly asks
the-co-operation of those who have ,sense- and
reason the4ast 3 words are oui*s)/'
D&ngerbtis fo life anicf property-
out of place this serious time.
* * * Number 5,682