Daily Post - 30.09.1943, Page 2

I
D AIL Y POST
DAILY POST
BlaCahringurinn.
ia published by
Editor: S. Benediktsson.
Offiee: 12, Austuratrœti. Tel.
S71B. Reykjavík. Printed by
AlbýOuprontemiSj an Ltd.
Thursday, Sept. 30, 1943
...... 1 "■ ■" "
fiood Neigbor Policjr
“We wish no victories but
those o£ peace, no territory ex-
cept our own, and no sover-
eignty except sovereignty over
ourselves, which we deem inde
pendence.
“The smallest and weakest
member o fthe family of na-
tions is entitled to the respect
of the greatest empire, and we
^leein Ithe observance of that
respect the chief guaranty of
the weak against the oppressi-
on of the strong.
“We neither claim nor de-
sire rights, privileges, or pow-
ers we do not freely concede to
every American republic. We
wish to increase oiir prosperity,
\ expand our trade, and grow in
wealth and wisdom, but our
conception of the true way to
accomplish this is not to pull
down others and profit by
their ruin, but to help all our
friends to common prosperi-
ty and to growth, that we may
all become greater and strong-
er together.”
❖ ❖ *
“Freedom may come quickly
in robes of peace, or after ages
of conflict and war; but come
it will, and abide it will, so
long as the principles by which
it was acquired are held -sacr-
ed.”
Edward Evertt, American
orator and statesman (1794
—1865).
* * •
PEACE IS TOTAL
“All war in these times is to-
tal, in the sense that, once it
has begun, no country in the
world can be certain of not
being drawn in. All peace is
total in the sense that no na-
tion in future can afford to be
indifferent to the condition of
its neighbors.”
Viscount Halifax, British
Ambassador to the U. S.
:J:
The Association of American
Railroads reports that more
than 8,000 miles of railroad
track were built in the U. S.
in 1942.
U. S. SmalljTown Quietly
Fights A War
• A stranger at first giance
finds no evidence of a world
war in Mt. Carmel, Illinois, a
typical inland American small
town thousands of miles from
any fighting front. But Mt. Car
mel is quietly and effectively
at war.
What has taken place in Mt.
Carmel, with its population of
7,000 living along the Wabash
River some 230 miles (368 kilo-
meters) south of Chicago, has
taken place in a thousand oth-
er towns like it.
The town appears the same
— the automobiles on the main
street, the shipping, lawns be-
ing cropped, trains shunting
back and forth in the yards of
the town’s two railroads, the
policeman directing traffic.
Something in Their Faces
But there are other things.
Almost all the men between 21
Carmel’s 16 churches helped
send missionaries to those plac-
es and that her son was just a
boy.
“He writes every day,” she
said, “but the mail comes just
once a week, seven letters at
once. We open one each day.”
A sunburned farmer mispron
ounces “Gestapo” with a quiet
wrath and loathing in his vo-
ice. A mother, wiping her flour
stained hands on her apron, —
says, — her two boys enlisted.
She had a German name, not
uncommon in Illionis where so
many Germans settled. “I am
glad they enlisted,” she said ve
hemently, her eyes not quite
dry.
“What they are doing in Eu-
rope—you live in a quiet place
and try to make something
for your children and then it is
gone. I think about the Polish
mothers, and the French moth-
Here is a view of Mt. Carmel, lllinois, a typical Ú. S. small town
thousand of miles from the fighting front. But Mt. Carmel is
quietly and effectively at war. Out of its 7,000 inhbaitants, many
of its sons are at the battlefront, but those left behind contri-
bute thei'r share and accept the sacrifices of war without grumbl-
ing.
and 30 are gone. A great rily
can conceal its loss but a sn.ail
town with the boys gone seems
to miss an essential part.
The women have something
in their faces. They are quiet
people, keéping things to them
selves. They buy less meat. —
They seem determined to get
along with whatever they can
obtain, and without grumbling.
The woman whose son was
on a little island in the South
*
Seas recalled that some of Mt.
ers—yes, and the German mot-
I hers, too. Why should I be spar
ed and sit quietly and see that
all the good things are being
lost?”
A minister said — “They say
people are quiet people and it
would bother them to be told
so many things about our small
towns, our narrowness,, our ig-
norance, our stolidity,” he con-
finued, “but, then, one thing
would matter—our strength,
the strength we had a long
time ago when we made all this
out o fthe forest.
“Would the women be able
to watch their children die, and
then take up a gun in their
hands? My grandmother did
that. Would we put barricades
in our streets and throw ker-
osene bottles to stop the tanks?
Would we burn our comfields-
and slaughter our stock and dy-
namite our oil wells? Or would
we give up? .... Mt. Carmel
what is deep inside of them.---
it is there, remember that. This
is their land. When they go a-
way to war, they go quietly, —
without bitterness and without
hate, like a man who repairs his
hous when it wears, and then
they come back just as quiet—
ly.”
People Carry Out Orders
Residents of Mt. Carmel are
not docile people; they came
from many places because they
wanted their freedom as they
saw it; a people who will do a.
thing quickly only when they
see the need of it. So, when-
a blackout was ordered they
carried it out intently. But the
war was 5,000 or 6,000 miles
away.
“They’ll go through with it,”
explained the editor of the local:
newspaper, a soft-spoken man
who glanced out of the window
with pride as he answered qu-
estions about his fellow towns-
men.
“Do they grumble?”
“They do not grumble.”
“You would not say they
hate?”
“They do not hate, either..
Hate is to slick. This is deep in-
side of them. Anger, perhaps.
Hardly any of the women cry
when they boys go, but their
faces ... . ”
Yet to the casual glance Mt,
Carmel seems unaffected by
the war. Coming over the Wa-
bash, over a million acres of
cornfields, the sun warms the-
town each day, and at night
there is a moon over the river.
On Saturday nights, the two
motion-picture house are full.
If the Gestapo has marked
Mt. Carmel and analyzed it, the-
report might read: “Of no ac-
count.” There are a thousand
(Continued on page 4.)