Thursday, November 28, 1940

Site Ed. Note: Indeed, within days following the ensuing Thanksgiving, Cash's words of warning on this, his last one, would prove prophetic.

But Complacency Is Out Of Order on This Day

In Rumania terror and murder walk the streets and highways. The so-called government makes no noises about putting them down, but almost certainly they were ordered by it under directions from the monstrous city of Berlin.

In England the bombs fall. In Albania the Greeks die bloodily to drive the would-be enslaver into the Adriatic. In China rapine and the slaughter of innocents go steadily forward. On the seas there is murder also and men in ships wait in grim expectancy. Over three-quarters of the earth, there hangs the freezing shriek of children as they are blown to bits, the wail of widows and orphans.

But in America the roads are crowded with automobiles packed with people with nothing more pressing to think of than a game, and sit down to tables heavy with the traditional food of the day.

It might be as well, however, not to be too busy about congratulating ourselves save in the most humble spirit. There is no cause for smugness, for the assumption that America is somehow the darling of Providence. For what goes on in the world we have our full share of dreadful responsibility. Having won a victory, we turned our backs upon it, echoed the cynical words of Cain, denied the responsibility of power, adopted policies that greatly aided in bringing the world-including ourselves-to the brink of ruin. And now the danger lies again just over the horizon, and comes closer: and we begin slowly to realize that we must struggle for the victory all over again, may have to fight for it.

For our great good fortune today, let us be thankful. But let us also remember that the danger is indeed just over the hill and not assume that our fortune until now is only our just desert.

Which Reveals Something About the Vultee Case

One of the clauses to the contract which settled the Vultee Aircraft strike is particularly interesting. It runs to the effect that-

The particularly interesting part of that is the emphasis on the agreement that there shall be no organized attempts in slowing down or disrupting production. And what gives this its interest is the announcement made by Attorney General Robert Jackson that the FBI had furnished him with a confidential report that the strike was engineered by Communists.

We know that it is the policy of the Communist Party in this country to work hand-in-glove with the Nazis and seek everywhere to disrupt production of war machines, particularly those intended for Britain.

FBI is carefully checking every employer at Vultee as he goes back to work, in an effort to weed the Communists out. But the union would be doing itself a great favor by setting out to heave the Comrades out on its own account. Raymond Clapper fears that there are some elements in business in this country who still dream of turning the national emergency to account for the destruction of labor unionism. We can think of nothing which can make that dream have any hope of success, save perhaps for the unions to be so ill-advised as to allow themselves to be led into stultifying the national will to arm and to aid Britain, by the Communists, Nazis, Fascists or any of the fellow-travelers of this traitorous gang.