Crucible of a Generation
Page 9
their own ideas about justice, war and well-being, and an orderly commonwealth
of mankind.
48 Last Week at Peace: December 1–6, 1941
The Reverend Allen E. Claxton of the Broadway Temple Methodist Church
of New York was hopeful, but in a very nonspecific way. He thought it possible
that out of the suffering and cruelties of today a new world was being born. He
thundered against oppression, invasion, tyranny, and cruelty, but was confident that
even under intolerable conditions and with labor, effort, and pain the new Chris-
tian era could emerge, sealing the doom of injustice and tyranny.
To Dr. Ralph Sockman at Christ Church, Methodist on New York’s Park
Avenue, the world crisis was grading humanity according to the quality of its faith.
Those of low faith might fall into hopelessness and self-indulgence, while those of
a high-quality faith would see in the present tumult the working out of a divine
law of moral harvest.
Dr. Samuel Atkins Eliot was minister emeritus of the Arlington Street Unitar-
ian Church of Boston. Speaking at the Unitarian Church of All Souls, 80th Street
and Lexington Avenue, he urged people to be more “tomorrow-minded.”
Happiness, he said, was not a matter of material means but a sense of progress
toward our goals. Greet tomorrow, he urged, with the expectation of a divine sur-
prise that might reveal the way to go, the truth to trust, and the life to live. These
generalized prescriptions did not address the critical issues that that Sunday morn-
ing faced, not only by the faithful attending these services and sermons, but indeed
all of the people who lived under the dark clouds of war and prospects of war.
America’s Role: Divided Counsels
If the churches largely confined themselves to spiritual prescriptions, opinions
as to America’s role in the world at war were sharply divided. There was never
any doubt as to where the Chicago Tribune would stand. It thundered against foreign attachments, alien partnerships, and other loyalties. The American people,
it said, would have been horrified in an earlier age if it had been suggested that
the United States intervene in European conf licts. But there had been a change
of policy under President Wilson, leaving the country caught up in “a circle of
cause and consequence” as old as the hills in Europe. There was nothing new
in what the President and Secretary Hull were saying. It had all been said by
President Wilson and Secretary of State Lansing. As to England, it was simply
following its age-old policy, a policy that had found it in opposition to Philip II,
Louis XIV, Napoleon and Kaiser Wilhelm.
The Tribune had more to say in its editorial pages. Under the title “The Red
Carpet” it observed that while the European monarchies might claim to be
engaged in a crusade for democracy, all the while bleeding white the U.S. Treasury,
none had done the United States the compliment of adopting its form of govern-
ment. No monarch had abdicated, no titles had been abolished.
The fact is singular but not at all inexplicable. The Europeans know that
if they adopted our system they would promptly lose out. Their strength is
not in their democracy but in our snobbery. The minute the White House
could no longer roll out the red carpet for the reception of royalty and the
Monday, December 1, 1941 49
moment that the New York snobs could no longer bob and curtsey, the
high pressure campaign to destroy the country for the benefit of foreigners
would languish. 10
It is clear that the spirit of Mayor Carter Harrison was alive and well in Chicago
in December 1941.
*
A less emotional analysis of the issues could be found in the letters to The New
York Times . Jack D. Roberts found lacking the “moral incentive” that would stir
the imagination and validate participation in a new war. The generation that
fought the last war, he observed, had done so in the belief that the next genera-
tion would never have to make their sacrifice or repeat their experience. Look-
ing back, calmly and dispassionately, he could see that the hopes in which the
last war was fought had smacked of the innocence of the Children’s Crusade. He
now spoke the unspeakable, that those who had died in the Great War had most
certainly died in vain. No, he thought, it would be extremely difficult, if not
impossible, to generate a “burning moral purpose” to sustain a new war.
*
J. A. Leighton of Columbus, Ohio, examined the thinking of Midwestern iso-
lationists. They thought, he observed, that Roosevelt and the New Deal were
nearly as bad as Hitler and Nazism. They nourished an intense dislike of Great
Britain as essentially selfish and ungrateful. Was it not a case, they asked, once
more of pulling British chestnuts out of the fire?
There were those who thought that Hitler might win the war but that his
system wouldn’t last long. In any event, they believed that the war was none of
America’s business, stating the classic proposition: we can live alone and like it. To
the Midwestern isolationists the true American leaders were Lindbergh, Hoover,
and Senators Wheeler and Nye.
Having reported his findings, Mr. Leighton took a firm stand. The whole
future of liberal civilization, he said was at stake. The choice now was to fight or
to lie down and be trampled on by as powerfully organized, scientifically equipped
a tide of tribalistic tyranny as had ever threatened the human race. Evasion he said,
was impossible. America must stand up and be counted or lie down and be walked
over. There was no middle place. There was no place to hide. 11
*
Perhaps the clearest, most straightforward statement of position could be found
on the editorial pages of the Houston Chronicle . Reviewing Japan’s aggressive
moves and threats, it concluded that “to any serious minded person in the world,
this pattern spells war unless someone backs down.” But, it said, the American
government’s hope to avoid war in the Pacific ought not to be at the expense of
its principles. It should not sell out its Asiatic friends and allies for a temporary
settlement. It further warned that turning over Asia to Japan meant turning
FIGURE 5.2 See color plate section.
Courtesy of Northwestern University Library World War II poster collection, N18.2:P94.
Monday, December 1, 1941 51
Asia over to the Axis. The United States could not in conscience retreat; but
unless Japan backed down, the results could be dire—“world-wide destructive-
ness increased to a vast degree.” 12
*
The New York Times took a more limited view in its editorial “Our Marines Out
of China.”
Any American would have been proud had he stood in the crowd on the
Bubbling Well road in Shanghai the other day when the first contingent of
the Marines marched down the Bund on their way out of China. For this
is the closing of the book on a great record. 13
Of course the book was not closed but just opening.
What that withdrawal meant to The Times was not lack of interest but precau-
tion. It would have been unwise to leave in place hostages to a possible e
nemy. 14
*
Ordinary people cherished loyalties and deeply felt concerns. They were stirred
to action on whatever scale was available to them. Bundles for Britain was seek-
ing a million signatures and contributions to be f lown to Great Britain for pre-
sentation to Queen Elizabeth. She would distribute the funds as she saw fit,
preferably to bring Christmas cheer to “unfortunate British children.”
New York’s butlers, maids, and cooks from private families formed the Private
Service Division of the British War Relief Society. They had in fact collected
$13,500. They were to hold an entertainment and dance at the Riverside Plaza
Hotel, 253 West 73rd Street, on Thursday evening, December 4. Herbert W. Pea-
cock, Miss Ann Morgan’s butler, was Secretary of the Division and was accepting
ticket orders at Miss Morgan’s home on Sutton Place. 15
There were, of course, those who thought differently. A call was issued by Miss
Hazel Whitney, acting executive secretary of the Youth Committee Against War,
for the Fifth National Youth Anti-War Congress to be held at the University of
Chicago and the Chicago Theological Seminary from December 27 to December
30. 16 A continent away, in Santa Barbara, California, Joseph Scott, president of the Archdiocese Holy Name Society, told 3,000 members of the organization to pray
for world peace.
Liberty and Justice for All: Opportunity American Style
But issues of war and peace did not monopolize the editorial pages of the nation’s
newspapers. The Atlanta Constitution made a stirring plea for equal opportunity in education. Whatever his talents, it said, each child was entitled to an equal opportunity to develop his talents; indeed that precept was axiomatic to democracy.
There can be no equality of opportunity while one child enjoys the advan-
tages of free education in the best schools a prosperous city can provide
52 Last Week at Peace: December 1–6, 1941
right through grade and high school while another child who happens to
have been born in an impoverished, rural backwoods county can attend
only a one-teacher school that goes no higher than the sixth grade.
And this was true not only within the state but across the nation. The
South had a higher birth rate and lower incomes than other wealthier
states. Conclusion: A far seeing program of federal aid to education would
equalize educational opportunities across the land. 17
That the axiomatic precept of educational equality might apply across the rig-
idly confining boundary line of race seems never to have occurred, either to the
writer or to the readers of this statement.
*
The Oregonian addressed a humbler concern. It cited a young Marine in Iceland,
weary of fish, who yearned for a hamburger. Something ought to be done about
it, the paper editorialized, concluding that hamburgers should follow the f lag. 18
Economic Indicators: Labor and Capital
For the successful completion of the ambitious National Defense program, the
cooperation of management and labor would be a necessity. This is what Wil-
liam Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, told members of the
American Bankers Association at its annual convention. He pointed to the stake
both labor and capital had in the preservation of the free enterprise system.
What Mr. Green did not mention was any reference to the labor disputes in
basic industries that were then pending. The railway brotherhoods had refused to
accept the conclusions of a presidential fact-finding board, leaving the process one
step away from a strike. Only by President Roosevelt’s personal intervention had
the coal unions’ demand for unionization, rejected by the Mediation Board, been
referred to a newly appointed Arbitration Committee. Uncertainties aroused by
labor strikes and the crisis in the Far East were adversely impacting financial mar-
kets. The stock averages were dropping to their lowest level since June 1940, when
there had been a major break responding to the collapse of France and doubts
concerning Britain’s ability to survive. There had been a rapid recovery, but the
markets had now plumbed the levels of June 1940 and reached the levels of June
1938, following the Nazi seizure of Austria. 19
*
The concern for a railroad strike testified to the importance of the railroad system
to the American economy. Alco, the American Locomotive Company, adver-
tised its new SteamLiner locomotive under the headline “Hitched to a Star.” The
SteamLiner had been chosen to power the newest and fastest daytime train, the
Empire State Express. The ad also pointed to other famous trains powered by Alco
locomotives. The majestic roll included the 20th Century Limited, the Commo-
dore Vanderbilt, the Southwestern Limited, the Detroiter, the Ohio State Limited,
Monday, December 1, 1941 53
the Pacemaker, the Mercury, the Cleveland Limited, and the James Whitcomb
Riley. The Pennsylvania Railroad was offering a seventeen-hour round trip from
New York to Chicago for a $27.25 fare aboard the Trailblazer, and a round trip to
St. Louis in twenty and a half hours on the Jeffersonian for $31.70.
But a new challenger was entering the lists. TWA advertised “Sleep your way
to Chicago” aboard a midnight Stratosleeper. Passengers could board at New York’s
LaGuardia Airport at 12:45 a.m., sleep in a Stratoliner berth, and be in Chicago
before breakfast for a full business day. The airline listed ten other daily flights.
Diversions: Arts and Entertainment
The best-seller list evidenced a keen interest in the world at war. It was led by
William L. Shirer’s Berlin Diary followed by John Gunther’s Inside Latin America and Pierre van Paassen’s That Day Alone . These serious works were lightened by
Clifton Fadiman’s collection, Reading I’ve Liked , and Deems Taylor’s A Treasury of Gilbert & Sullivan .
Fiction was presented by acknowledged masters of the genre, including The
Keys of the Kingdom by A. J. Cronin, Saratoga Trunk by Edna Ferber, and Windswept by Mary Ellen Chase.
*
War and threats of war did not dim the lights of Broadway. No sick man, the New
York theater presented a dazzling array of stars of the first magnitude in vehicles
offered by veteran playwrights and composers. Among the female luminaries,
Helen Hayes was appearing in Maxwell Anderson’s Candle In the Wind , Gertrude
Lawrence in Lady In the Dark , Ethel Barrymore in The Corn Is Green , and Judith Anderson with Maurice Evans in Macbeth. For comedy there was veteran producer George Abbott’s Best Foot Forward , Ethel Merman in Cole Porter’s Panama Hattie , Danny Kaye in Let’s Face It , and burnishing Broadway’s traditions, George Jessel’s High Kickers featuring Sophie Tucker was practically a showbiz anthology.
Boris Karloff was appearing in Arsenic and Old Lace , and Noel Coward’s sec-
ond offering of the season featured an all-star cast including Clifton Webb, Peggy
Wood, Leonora Corbett, and Mildred Natwick in Blythe Spirit. Other comedies
included Junior Miss , My Sister Eileen , and Cornelia Otis Skinner in Theater!!! . For drama one could see Paul Lukas in Lillian Hellman’s Watch on the Rhine and The Land Is Bright by George S. Kauffman and Edna Ferber. 20
A much-anticipated event was the opening at the Winter Garden of Sons o’ Fun
with Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson supported by Carmen Miranda and Ella Logan.
Patrons were advised to come at least a half hour before the curtain “when the fun
begins.” Tickets for the opening at $8.80 were the priciest of the season, though they
would revert to $4.40 for the best seats in the house during the piece’s Broadway run.
*
In what were then called “photoplays,” audiences f locked to see Cary Grant and
Joan Fontaine in Suspicion , Edmund Gwen and Sir Cecil Hardwick in Laburnum
54 Last Week at Peace: December 1–6, 1941
Grove , Nelson Eddy and Risë Stevens in Sigmund Romberg’s The Chocolate Sol-
dier , Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland in They Died with Their Boots On , and Skylark with Claudette Colbert, Ray Milland, and Brian Ahern. 21
*
But whatever the interests and the diversions of this Monday, they were over-
shadowed by the knowledge that America would rise on the morrow to a world
in f lames and that the f lames were creeping closer and closer.
Notes
1.
New York Times , December 1, 1941, 1
2.
Atlanta Constitution , December 1, 1941, 1
3.
Atlanta Constitution , December 1, 1941, 2
4.
New York Times , December 1, 1941, 1
5.
New York Times , December 1, 1941, 1
6.
Oregonian , December 1, 1941, 1
7.
Denver Post , December 1, 1941, 8
8.
Chicago Tribune , December 1, 1941, 1
9.
New York Times , December 1, 1941, 14
10. Chicago Tribune , December 1, 1941, 16
11. New York Times , December 1, 1941, 18
12. Houston Chronicle, December 1, 1941, 8
13. New York Times , December 1, 1941, 18
14. New York Times , December 1, 1941, 18
15. New York Times , December 1, 1941, 17
16. New York Times , December 1, 1941, 11
17. Atlanta Constitution , December 1, 1941, 6
18. Oregonian , December 1, 1941, 6
19. New York Times , December 1, 1941, 27
20. New York Times , December 1, 1941, 15
21. New York Times , December 1, 1941, 15
6
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1941
A World in Flames: Close at Hand
If Americans were spectators on the sidelines of thunderous combats taking place