Newspapers / The Waynesville Mountaineer (Waynesville, … / March 26, 1942, edition 1 / Page 14
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The Following Editorial Is Reproduced From the Front Page of The New York World-Telegram of Its Issue of Thursday, March 5, 1942: Wake Up Ameriear It's Late!, .mmmm The nation needs to awaken to the full gravity of the peril that confronts it. It needs to appreciate how badly we have been defeated in three months of war. It needs to understand that it is possible for the United Na tions and the United States to lose this war and suffer the fate of France -and that this possibility may become a probability if the present tide does not change. It needs to realize that there is grave chance of the Japa nese pushing through India and the Germans driving through the Near East, to join their armies and resources in an almost unbeatable combination. It needs to get away, once and for all, from the comforting feeling that while we may lose at the start we are bound to win in the end. Only when fully aware of existing perils will the United States do its utmost. Pray God that awareness will not come too late, as it did in France! Production Director Donald Nelson appeals for vastly in creased industrial output on a 24-hour, seven-day basis 168 hours a week. Maximum production, in short Can we get it? Not on the present basis - not under the psychology of recent years. Not until we quit thinking in terms of less work for more money.-':; Not while there is greater concern about overtime pay than overtime production. Not while farmer politicians are more interested 'in higher prices than raising more essentials. Not while government bureaus Created to meet a depres sion emergency that is ended continue to grab for themselves money needed for armaments. Not while an army of federal press agents clamors to promote and perpetuate activities that have no present need or value. ;v V- Not while Congressmen try to put over useless canals and river schemes and take up time of defense officials clamoring for factories and contracts as if war were a great gravy train. Not while WPA, despite a shortage of labor, seeks to carry on projects which it doesn't have the men to perform or the need for performing. Not while CCC and NYA stretch greedy hands for funds to pamper young men who ought to be in the armed forces or war plants. Not while strikes hamper war production, despite a solemn promise that they would stop. Not while the life-and-death need for uninterrupted pro duction is used as a weapon to put over the closed shop. Not while double time is demanded for Sunday work which is only part of a 40-hour week. Not while a man can't be employed on an army project or in war plant until he pays $20 to $50 or more to a labor racketeer. ;;: Not while criminal gangs control employment and alloca tion of men to work on the Normandie and other ships along New York's vast waterfront. Not while fifth columnists are pampered and enemy aliens move freely in defense areas. Not while the grim job of preparing our home communities against air raids and sabotage is gummed up with a lot of high falutin', boon-doggling social service activity. Not while pressure blocs clamor for higher benefits, bounties and pensions. We will not get maximum production, in short, unless, first, we fully realize our awful peril; and, second, get over the gimmes of recent years. Gimme shorter hours, gimme higher wages, gimme bigger profits, gimme more overtime, gimme less work, gimme more pensions, gimme greater crop benefits, gimme more appropria tions and patronage, gimme plants for my Congressional dis trict, gimme fees and dues to work for Uncle Sam, gimme ham 'n' eggs, gimme share-the-wealth, gimme $30 every Thursday. France had the gimmes, too had them till the Germans were close to Paris. Then everybody went frantically to work too late. France has no gimmes today except gimme food for my baby, gimme a place to lay my head, gimme death. This space paid for by Judge Frank Smathers who has no "Axe to Grind" but who is interested in Haywood County and in winning the war to preserve the American Way of Life
The Waynesville Mountaineer (Waynesville, N.C.)
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March 26, 1942, edition 1
14
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