Newspapers / The Enterprise (Williamston, N.C.) / Oct. 5, 1950, edition 1 / Page 5
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^ e Said, ‘Ne^ er Again’ By Helen II. Hasburg In (he Christian Science Monitor Almost exactly thirty-years ago I stood, with my six-months-old son in my arms, on the Station platform of a small Nebraska town, trying to smile through my tears as the tr&in pulled out and I waved good-by to my only brother. I had come halfway a 0 cross the United States for what might be a last farewell, for he was bound for overseas and 1 World War I. Twenty-four years later, stand ing in my own front yard, again trying to smile through my tears, I waved good-by to my only son as he backed his car out into the street and drove awky. This, too, f might be a last farewell for his destination was an airfield in Tex- ; as and—eventually—World War! II. Only nine years later, just a few short weeks ago, I watched through the window—this time making no effort to control my tears—as my seventeen-year-old neighbor joined his two pals on their way to report for active duty in the Marine Reserves. Eve ry morning during the school year I had seen the three of them drive off together, but this time | could be the last time, for they were hound for Korea. Bitterly I asked myself ‘'Why0" I —Why three times in one genera tion have the mothers, sisters, j wives in this great peace-loving ! nation been faced with such j heartbreak? There can be but one answer. “The wrong leadership." But that in itself entails another question, which is also "Why?” For wrong • leadership is not confined to any one political party or any one group of people. Again there is hut one answer It is because we have allowed greed and selfish ness to dominate every phase of our national life and to desecrate i i the memories of all fho young tl lives we have sacrificed - -and are II [still sacrificing—in order that we1 1 may have business as usual, poli tics ns usual, life as usual. At the end of World War I, which was supposed to he a war to end wars, we withdrew into I splendid isolation rather than risk lowering our standard of living, and left the rest of the world to shift for itself. We plunged into a wild orgy of playing and spend ing and business as usual—only more so, for everyone was gam bling on the stock market-until the ; whole crazy house of cards col ! lapsed about our ears and we were plunged ihto the world’s greatest depression. And what did we do then? We blamed it all on the Republicans, or on the war, depending upon which party we belonged to, and then proceeded to follow the lead ership of those who “saved” us from complete disaster by setting the stage for another one. We had friends who, with their children, were sent home from Honolulu months before Pearl Harbor because it was considered no longer safe for them to stay there, and yet in our own harbor right up until December. 1941, we saw scrap iron being loaded for shipment to Japan! All during Word War II, pa triotic citizens gave of their time and their energy and their blood—to 1ho Red Cross, the civil ian defense, the USO, and with- ' held their criticism lest it deter the war effort, while night clubs, race tracks, black markets flour ished, and hitherto incompetent, unprincipled businessmen built up fortunes on ten per cent plus war contracts. Even after we had won this second World War, what did we do? We sat back and waited so that Russia might be the first in to Berlin; we let them enter the i scene when we could have finish ed with Japan without them, and hen we gave them Manchuria and he Kuriles And when the peace was finally signed, all we could think of was getting our men home as soon as possible and our selves freed from wartime con trols. We forgot the false promises made us by politicians—that nev er would our boys be sent over seas. We forgot all the graft and corruption between business and the military which had been clear ly exposed tr» the glare of pub licity. We forgot the hoarders, the profiteers, and the pinch of high taxes even as we watched the ships being launched in our har bor in elaborate, expensive cere mony whose cost was part of the ten per cent plus. Wo even for I got our infuriation when we over heard the wife of a shipyard worker say that she hoped the war wouldn't end too soon; she did so want to get her fut coat and their new car paid for! And this on thi' very day that one of our best friends had received a wire “Missing in action Yes, in 11145 the war was over and we wanted to forget It couldn’t happe n again! We had learned our lesson! "Let’s gel back to normal living as soon as possible.’’ That was our slogan. But today, just live short years later, 250 officers and men march ed down our main street on their way to the station, the iron gates closed behind them and for 250 families this is World War III Many of these men had already served long months in World Whir II They were just beginning to get back to normal living. They had married, and now they left I behind them young wives, little i children, and new homes being purchased on the installment plan | There was no band, no futile of forts to smile through tears this | time; only grim faces, tiny child i. ren tugging at their father’s pants ! I I through the bars of the station i gate, weeping women. ' In Minneapolis, where these men stopped for their physical examinations, the night clubs arc us gay as ever, the high-class res turants with their costly steak (Tinners are filled to capacity, and I why not'.’ The big business that runs mu count)'. 1 bn, that has no though for the heartaches, the broken homes, the broken lives | that big business is WAIt. It 1 means greater political power, I greater profit, greater pay checks i for those who can manage to slay 1 on the side lines What do a few young lives matter? We kill more people on the highways than we do in war anyway! It this the way Americans want it? I don’t believe it is. Three great wars' in one generation are just tbiT much tVn' an erC’.ghtwied people. We have in the past met irvy..-»W*i*«i.»- •• r.i-.s ’‘tVTT* perhaps betrayed us into think ing that this one will be met in all due time. Surely nothing else could account for the apathy and indifference of those who have not yet been personally touehed by this last calamity. Never in the history of thy world has there been any such crisis as that which faces us today. We must deal not only with the "Mad man of the Kremilin” but with organized crime within our own country. The vigilantes, in the gold rush days of California and the Klu Klux Klan in the carpetbagger era of the South, took over in protecting their families and their homes when their government failed them, but those were pio neering days when even thejCar olinas were farther horn Wash ington than Korea is now Thev knew, however, what we seem to loath to recognize, that there cah be no temporizing with criminals or fools. The time for a showdown is at hand. It cannot wait until after election. Business as usual, politics as usual, life as usual just don’t belong in the picture today! There is but one way to cope with the injustices in this situa tion and that is to tnke all profit out ot war. Only total mobiliza tion can do this mobilization of everything - resources, business, manpower, labor everything! War is grim business. Let’s make it grim! Why should one man be tortured to death in Korea or! spend the rest of his life forgotten m n veteran’s hospital while an other, he lie capitalist or laborer, leathers his own nest from the great national calamity? Have we the courage to take this step or have we grown so soft with easy living that we arc i already partially paralyzed by the | insidious poison with which Hus- j sia has already anaesthetized and! ttit'll gobbled up a large part of the world? I WE, and we alone, are respon sible tor our leaders. Only an a rousod public can save us now! A public that will rise in its wrath and demand that the time has come when we must put aside politics, religious bias, factional ism of all kinds, and show- the world that we are a united peo ple, united for the purpose of re storing peace and sanity to a world, gone mad! 1,000 ATTEND MRS. FORD S RITE* MORI THAN A THOUSAND MOURNERS at the funeral of the late Mrs. Henry Ford, 84, widow of the motor car pioneer, included the immediate family. Leaving St Paul’s Cathedral in Detroit (1 to r.) are: Mrs. Edsel Ford; Henry Ford, 2nd, and his daughters, Ann (left) und Charlotte. In background are: Mr. and Mrs. Benson Ford. Services were,conducted by the Rt. Rev. Richard F.mrich. (International Sonndphoto) * If Yon Dim'/ liny I'row Us Hoy brow Someone General Agent SECURITY LIFE AND TRUST CO \ ATTENTION FARMERS I MnFigL.a'S hlflCH M VHHL) HULTiUll SOLE nvtuv 'isr.oneso*M HORSES - CATTLE FEEDER SHOATS W A PAY TOP PRICES EVERY DAY *mi are going into the liiji I'allfe business lu* sure lo attend flu* Auction Sale Every Wednesday At I :00 I*. M.. Beginning October I I «ly invited. I lu* I a rye* I hiK'f‘i> will attend the aurlioii. We will furni animal, produce, machinery or similar items at these sales. have shipments arriving of milk-type heifers and milk cows. One it will have about 50 purebred Hereford heifers. 1-2 Msir South of CIiocchinilv ou l\ S. ! Red Rogers, Auctioneer i Bishop's Autograph AS AUfOG#APK is given by the I youngest bishop in the world. Bishop Young of Canberra, Aus- I tralia. Thousands gathered in a rain for the Catholic Hierarchy Con- | gress garden party at St. Mary’* College in London. (International) | Seedleaa Watermelon May Sot Re .4 Ooml Seller Scientists h$vc learned to grow f ■ ' i I *' ‘S “ . i., . ' 'll V t';' >1 v’! t . fU >t ■ ■ t J>i'V wonder whether it's practical to do so Horticulture specialists lltink that consumer acceptance of sec-dles watermelons would not be great enough to make commercial growing a good venture. The big item is the cost of seed. Since the seedless variety is sterile, growers must also raise both parent va rieties of seed to produce the new melon. Seed production requires twice as much land three times as much time and labor. If the grow its were to produce seedless mol- ■ mis commercially, the cost per melon would be at least five times as much as for regular melons. Red Ryder and his pals are together again in another outdoor action picture in Cinecolor, "The Fighting Redhead,” which will open Sat* tirday at the Marco Theatre. Jim Hannon plays the title role in the picture based on the famous McNaught Syndicate comic strip. WINTER WILL SOON BE HERE See Our l.iur Of Room Heaters WOOD GAS B. S. COURTNEY & SON COAL ELECTRIC I'urniturv Siurr 0)1 / Stori* Open Fridays Til ‘>:00 I*. HI. Your Deposits At Branch Bunking And Trust Go. Are Now Insured Up To $10,000 V- H—iustrud of $5,000 — your deposit* nrr now insured individually up lo S 10.000. This innruKc was no aeeident. Tin* exeelleul safely m-ohl of the hunks, since the |<Yd i ial Deposit liisuranee Corporation was established, is largely responsible. Itehiml ihui iwonl of safely lies pioil nuinagrinriil. Always when* there is good hank management there is senility ami safety for depositor's inonev. Seventy-eight year* of enuliuned operation and growth ti ll llu story of management in llu* llranrh Hanking & Trust Company. Sinre IH72 every poliry of llu* hank has pointed first to seeurily for the money of depositors. Deposit iiisuraneo is an extra proleelion wliirh we gladly provide as inemher* of tin* Knleral Deposit Insurnnee Corporation. Tin- I1'. I). I. C. was organized through national legislation — lienee llu- word “FKDF.H Al." in llu* name. Till* government dors not, however, pay tin* cost of deposit iusurauee. I In-funds ol thr Corporation — now ovrr a billion dollars — huvr hrrn aripiirrd through assrssinrnts hasrd on ilrposits of thr insurrd hanks. Since the establishment of deposit insurance BRANCH BANKING & TRUST CO. has paid $602,681.94 — the largest insurance bill we pay. Branch Banking & Trust Co. •mi: sni: i:\M.iiroir WU.UAlVtSTON, N. C. WILSON, ELM City, GOLDSBORO, FREMONT, SELMA, FAYETTEVILLE, WARSAW, WAl.l WE, FAISON, PIKEVII.LE, KINSTON, NEW BERN, TRENTON, PLYMOUTH. i | 1
The Enterprise (Williamston, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Oct. 5, 1950, edition 1
5
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