Posted on 07/03/2008 5:07:49 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES:
Independence Day is probably the most cherished of our traditions. Governments elsewhere may come and go, their power and prestige my rise and dwindle, but the United States goes on with ceaseless vigor.
Let us not heed the words of those who say times have changed to such an extent as to have antiquated our Constitution and traditions. Let us ponder the thought on this coming Independence day, that we have progressed remarkably well in our national existence with them: that because dictatorship seems to have an upper hand temporarily is not adequate reason for us to abandon our free institutions developed over 150 years of progress characteristically American.
HAIG ANLIAN.
Union City, N. J., July 1, 1938.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES:
Behind the front-page headlines telling of marching armies, raiding bombers and frenzied diplomatic controversies throughout Europe and sia, it is interesting to note the increasingly active role played by women in what heretofore has been the manly game of war.
Until recently, the number of women in late history who actively engaged in warfare or directed the movements of troops in the battle has been negligible. Men were the fighters: women bore the burden of sorrow at home, comforting the children and managing the household.
Old Customs Waning
The European male is groomed for the defense of his country and the maintenance of his family. The girl is taught to provide on the farm and in the office, to prepare herself for marriage and the aftermath of war in the home.
But the weaker sex grows stronger. In Spain, women organize in brigades and venture from the responsibilities of domestic life to fight shoulder to shoulder with their men. In China, thousands of peasant women drop the hoe and the seed for the cartridge belt and the rifle. Mme. Chiang Kai-shek commands the Chinese air force. Russian women troop from the fields to don uniforms and march in squads on hundreds of parade grounds.
The chief instructor of Turkish flying and glider schools is the “Flying Amazon,” Lieutenant Sabiha Gokcen, adopted daughter of President Kemal Ataturk. To quote THE NEW YORK TIMES: “Her 365 pupils include thirty-one women and girls.” And feminine Europe joins “athletic” organizations for the betterment of youth to strengthen the body and drill the mind for “the day” when the duty of fighting men may be hers.
Not For Our Women
Where is the American woman in this picture? She is in the home or at the desk. Her uniformity with the man rises no higher than a battle of wits for an equal professional footing. She does not forge her way into the last face-saving sanctuary of proud man at the request of a war-fevered nation. Nor would she consent to sacrifice her standing for all the ballyhoo of preparedness. Respect and admiration coupled with gallantry and a sense of responsibility from man to woman has made her realize she is a happier and better person in the sheltered world of home and office.
Let the man face brutality. Femininity is perishable.
W. G. WEISBECKER.
River Edge, N. J., June 30, 1938.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES:
Certainly something has to be done to check the prevailing craze for mutilation of our language. I thought the peak had been reached when I read in the Congressional Record that a Senate resolution had been “messaged” to the House of Representatives. But this morning I received, in the mail, a letter containing the form of an affidavit I was requested to sign and have “notaried,” and at dinner, the other evening, a charming young matron asked me if I did not consider a proposed purchase a very good “buy.”
J. T. N.
Poughkeepsie, N. Y., July 1, 1938.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES:
The recent letter to THE TIMES from Harry C. Carr suggests the necessity for further clarifying the loosely used term “liberal.”
The President’s “fireside chat” clearly and accurately states the issue before the people in the coming campaign as being a choice between so-called liberalism and conservatism, so that a correct understanding of these terms is now of most vital importance.
Our American dictionaries declare that a conservative is one who, or that which, preserves; one who desires to maintain existing institutions: and that a liberal is one who favors greater freedom in political or religious matters.
But in practically every other country the terms have precisely the opposite meaning – conservatives elsewhere being those who are opposed to change in the direction of democracy, and liberals being those who seek to establish democratic institutions.
Not All Liberals
Paradoxically, our American so-called “liberals” advocate a planned economy and are doing everything in their power to break down the constitutional principles and to substitute for them the very yoke which true liberals in other countries are trying to throw off.
What the dupe of our false prophets of liberalism does not realize is that, under such a scheme of things as they propose, he would be practically enslaved, that he would be penalized heavily for any progress or monetary success he might attain; that the purchasing power of his hard-earned dollar would go down correspondingly with every artificial decrease in hours of labor and with every bureaucratic increase in wages out of line with production; and that the liberties he now takes for granted would be almost entirely gone.
Heretofore, under the American constitutional system, there has been no limit to the success which any humble citizen might attain, according to his talents, energy and ability, and he has not been penalized for his attainment.
That, from the beginning, was the conservative American philosophy of things, and it was upon that foundation that this nation was built and became the greatest land of opportunity in the world. By encouraging our citizens to become prosperous, by fostering a spirit of independence, instead of dependence upon government, we have developed our business and industry and our spiritual forces to such and extent that today American workers are the most highly paid and the most independent in history.
Reversing Custom
Following this same conservative program, we have in the past produced ample public revenue from reasonable tax assessments upon private property; and we have lived, for the most part, in peace and harmony among ourselves, without much covetousness, and without that unhappy and discordant thing called “class consciousness.”
But the tendency of our modern, new-style “liberals” is to throw all of this machinery of progress into reverse; to crack down with almost unbearable taxation on every citizen who shows the slightest sign of enterprise or prosperity, to cry down as an evil thing the altogether natural , commendable and normal profit motive, which always has provided, and always will provide, our incentive to material progress; and to encourage, by every means possible, a standing army of dependents upon government largesse.
Fortunately, the political pendulum swings eternally, and the American people, though temporarily misled by all this confusion of relative terms and by misunderstanding of the real meaning of the words “conservative” and “liberal,” show signs of beginning to think straight and clearly again. The bills for the planned extravagance, which has been called “planned economy, “ are beginning to come in, and it will not be long until they have discovered that the new-style “liberals” are not friends but enemies of their institutions.
JOSEPH C. SAMPSON.
Denver, Col., June 27, 1938.
Letter #2 “Women Abroad for War”
Letter #3 “Mutilated Language”
J.T.N was a real stickler for proper form. I wonder what he would have thought about Ebonics.
Letter #4 “Defining ‘Liberal’”
This one could have been written by an earlier Limbaugh, except he lives in Denver and not Cape Girardeau.
Very interesting letter for the year 1938!
Mr. Carr (letter #4) sure got it right.
I believe Mr. Sampson was responding to an earlier letter from Mr. Carr.
Thanks for picking that fly speck out of my pepper. I’m not as sharp as I used to be.
Sort of like this one.
bttt
CHEERS!
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