The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
The Home Front By William E. Bohn Is This What They Fought For? EVERYBODY—at least in print and over the air-waves—is conspicuously trying to de something- for the returning soldiers—and hoping...
...And thie difference probably explain* something that all the sociologists are talking about...
...One hour later Vishinsky reappeared and told the King his time was up...
...Apple pie—or peach or pumpkin or plum or mince or cherry—would have done just as well...
...But the pie is the artistic conclusion...
...They kicked be-·*¦»· restaurants ran out of things, and *· service was sometimes a bit elow...
...I take it that the blueberry filling was mentioned for the take of artistic completeness...
...None of this appeared in any Rumanian newspaper...
...The newsletter states, on the authority of certain Army circle* who were disgusted by the facts, that the bombing of Nagasaki served no military purpose and played no role in the ending of the war, which was virtually brought to a close by the destruction of Hiroshima...
...No microscope is provided and the process of subdividing this morsel into smaller parts for the purpose of transportation to the mouth la a delicate problem...
...At this time Russia had an estimated one million troops in Rumania...
...Not for everyone...
...Good pie, real pie, with crisp and flaky crust and plenty of juicy, flavorsome filling—that is what they dreamed of while they lived on K-rations...
...I want pie here and now—and I want enough of it...
...Now lied Star, the Soviet army journal, joins in the fun, adding a special Stalinist spice in formulation...
...But in the face of the marshalled forces of avid female* they fainted and fled...
...Kdward K. Barsky, wheelhorse of the innumerable Stalinist fronts...
...I recall that pie Is our national dish...
...Under the Stalinist understanding of democracy, vulgar publicity is forbidden...
...I shudder to think what these boys must think when at the end of their first meal the waiter brings the diminutive sliver to which the wa> has reduced our national desert...
...Millions of returning soldiers spend a few days or weeks in New York on their way home...
...These homecoming boys rush from the boat* straight to the altar...
...The story behind this sacrilegious affair has finally come out...
...Whereupon the opposition found its voice and pointed out that Groza represented about ? percent of the population...
...I am sorry to say, but for a good many of us...
...After all, there's r.othing likr enlightenment...
...Uncle Joe may start a little essay on the pies tf< other years...
...What the soldiers have asked for in those far places when home seemed nothing but a dream place was a piece of blueberry pie...
...It may be relevant to note that in the purges of 1937-88 Kres-tinsky, Lltvinov'i Assistant Commissar of Foreign Affairs, wa* executed and all but three of Litvinov' appointee* as foreign ambaissdors were "liquidated...
...But our lonesome member of the occupational force probably tasted Gretchen'a soup or roast or a dish of vegetable*, then shut his eyes to blot out her lack of charms and said to himself: "This one I must take home for a souvenir.'* What I am getting at is that these boys want to come home to a home—not to a restaurant...
...When I think of all the proprietors and managers of hotels and restaurants, and of the diminishing triangles which they place before us, I am in danger of violence...
...It did not indicate that our lighting men are narrow or provincial or sectarian in their taste...
...More than icecream, more than ham-and-eggs, more than the succulent hotdog, it ik the symbol among us of gustatory enjoyment...
...The> soldier on some desolate island would think of the moment when the pie cornea on as the time when he would really be at home with people whom he knows in all their ways sad turns of speech...
...For Thee The Beet Includes thumbnail (ketches of the leading personalities of the post-Napoleonic era: Castleresgh, Wellington, Metternich, Alexander I of Russia...
...Well, it isn't...
...What I am working up to is the "difference between home and a restaurant* any restaurant...
...Others are hustling about trying to get housiig projects started so the returning hero'will hare a place to lay his bead before all of his teeth fall out...
...A group of NY Time* writers and editors have collaborated on The Newepaper—It§ Making and Meaning, Some of the people who explain their special jobs are Anna O'Hare McCormlck, Arthur Krock, Edwin L. James...
...Perhaps our 'big business' is, after all, the Mount Ararst on whleh the ark of free civilisation is to rest after the flood...
...There has even been a lot of kicking about the rationing of gasoline...
...The United Auto Worker* is trying to take over the membership of the United Farm Equipment and Metal Workers, also CIO...
...In many a foreign place they have dreamed of the piece of pie which would form a part of their welcome home...
...He that debases it, reduces it, in any way dishonors it, is practically a traitor and the Provost Marshall's office should take note...
...A SMALL case of civil war ha* broken out within the CIO...
...Radesea was dismissed and a new cabinet appointed...
...On March 3 of this year, Vishinsky arrived in Bucharest with a demand that Michael remove the Radescu government as "not representative of the people and incapable of maintaining order...
...It comes when brute hanger has been satisfied...
...THE Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, already well-identified as a Commy front, has formed a new splinter group, the "Spanish Refugee Appeal," which is seeking to raise $750,000 for the comrades still in Spain...
...may wonder why they did not cry eat in their dreams for beefsteak or roast beef or lobsters or oysters...
...Heard on the Left By ROBERT TOWNSEND, JR...
...Then thsre is time for conversational roving...
...This is the gateway to the country which they, have defended...
...James Truslow Adams continues his apologies for Americsn capitalism in the latest of his innumerable book*, Big liueinee» in a Democracy, To quote the a u thor's introduction...
...Vishinsky was not pleased with ..ha one either, so three days later the exact slate suggested by Vishinsky was appointed: the present Communist government of Petru Groza...
...It is the economic heart of the eating process...
...Today at one of my favorite restaurants I made & rapid calculation...
...We have had the abundant life in this country for a long time...
...It meant America in a special sense, for this is the land where you can have more you need...
...To produce such imperceptible slices they must divide a pie into 20 fractions...
...Have you noticed the wave of marriage that is sweeping ever the country...
...And German females are s> far behind American girls in all that concerns looks and style and smartness that they are lost to view in the distance...
...Book Notes...
...We have had meat enough and gas enough and plenty of room on the trains...
...Tlte reason is significant...
...The Germans did almost every foolish and wicked thing in the book...
...Nowadays they call it the abundant lii'e...
...They wanted the railways to run more trains than there was room for on the tracks...
...The old names are present on both executive boards, including Dr...
...Helen Reid Bryan, executive secretary of the latter organization (and a former leader of the good old American League for Peace an<fSDemocracy), has as her executive secretary—and apparently, political consultant—Rita Malone, president of the Chelsea Club of the Communist Party...
...Mark Aldanov, the Russian novelist who** The Fifth Seal (a Book-of-the-Month Club selection in 1948) ws* violently attacked by the Stalinists and their literary fellow-travellers for its realistic portrayal of Soviet politicians, has written a new novel based on the life of Byron...
...very crumb ia precious and must be salvaged at all haxards...
...Don't let yourself think for a minute that I am talking about pin-up girls and kisses...
...One of the girls had volunteered to supply the magic which turns a mere vegetable Into a"tarca^f*ea«Wily delight.' When all the mixing'and it ? m.g and tasting and testing were done, the standard piece of the product served at our table was exactly a quarter of the full circle of rich goodness...
...More than one simple lad in uniform has told me of harVowing experiences in the liberated cities of Europe and in this blessed land of the free...
...WhEN Vishinsky, Soviet Vice-Commissar of Foreign Affairs and the notorious prosecutor of the Moscow Trial*, handed King Michael of Rumania the Order of Lenin, diplomatic eyebrows were raised and Lenin turned over once more in his grave...
...e Human Event» prints s report on the atomic bombing of Nagasaki thst ought to set the country on it* feet demanding a full Congressional investigation...
...Nevar Mind About the Sky I ? AVK always objected both to the preacher's and the revolutionist's pie in the sky...
...Address of the "Appeal" groups is 192 Lexington Ave., same as the street number of the Anti-Fascist Committee...
...Its original French version has already been hailed by Edmund Wilton in the New Yorker as the major fictional work so fsr begotten by the war...
...But one thing she haa overlooked...
...Sparing enough to dirty a fork means practically sacrificing one's desert altogether...
...Those German girls can cook...
...This morning's paper ar« all excited about our soldiers marrying German girls, Some old maid in one of the papers accuses them of treason...
...When farm equipment union officials jumped on this statement a* being an opening for UAW domination, Philip Murray assured them that It wa* simply a "recommendation" and not an "order...
...Not that...
...Miss Bryan, whose brother, George Bryan, is on the NLRB staff, undoubtedly was advised by her "consultants" to take a trip to Spain to study Franco firsthand, for she recently made application for a passport—which the State Department so far has ignored...
...We have eent the movie-queens all over the map...
...But with regard to all of these matters there has been little ground for protest...
...And perhaps leopard* change their spots...
...Some Congressmen are eager to see to it that the boy from the foxhole gets a Job, even if nobody else gets one...
...Dad may venture to tell how things went on in the other war...
...And as for kisses, it is the dear, good, generous girls of widely varied age* who have made those such a conspicuous feature of demobilization...
...Then rise the soul-satisfying fumes of good coffee and the pie is brought on—preferably by a big sister, or perhaps by a saucy little sister...
...Shortly after Michael got the Order of Lenin...
...It is to get the nourishment from it that the whole enterprise is carried on...
...With the whole country thus up-and-dotng to smother the GI with kindness tat moment hii foot crosses the line between the gangplank and the shore, it seems strange that all the bustling benefactors, have forgotten the one special thing which he really wants...
...I have commoted from New York to Wilmington, Delaware, every week and usually I have had a seat to myselt...
...Postscript: Democracy In Rumania firmly established, Russia removed some of her troops...
...Then came the denunciations of the Groza dictatorship by Byrnes and Bevin, and King Michael'* request that Groza resign...
...WhEN knowing foreign correspondents talk in pseudo-serious vein about the different understandings of "democracy" in the United States and in Russia, everyone knows they are making a sly joke...
...Laws have been passed and appropriations made to provide free entrance to classes which will teach him anything from barbering to broadcasting...
...Pie meant to him— net just crust and filling, smell and taste, ft meant comfort, security, understanding—all the things that make home...
...They knew what to do in the presence of the enemy...
...Andre Maltaux's new novel, his first sine* 1940, will appear in English next Spring...
...Comrade Malone, wife of Jacob Wino-cur, Commy leader of the American Communications Association, is also a member of the Stalinists' slate committee and is a leader in the Office Workers' Union...
...The latest move in this bitter jurisdictional battle is the issuance of charters for UAW locals in three Chicago plants of the International Harvester Company, where local unions of the UFEMW already art recognised collective bargaining agents...
...The dropping of the atom bomb on Nagasaki was a "purely experimental matter": scientists wanted more data.' • » 4 FrOM one who delves into such thing*, we learn that the latest official Soviet Encyclopedia omits any mention of Maxim Litvumv but does include a reference to Mike Gold, the fantastic Dally Worker columnist...
...Commenting on Soviet democracy's great step forward—the substitution of exclusive clubs for army officers in place of the former free mixing of privates and of-ficers—Red Star announces: "Under the present conditions of cultural enlightenment work, it is necesary to have sharp differentiation and separation...
...Braver men never were...
...Mike said he'd think it over...
...But any day now we expect a brief note saying Vishinsky has asked Michael to give back the Order of Lenin...
...ftt On Way im Which We Faded WE have fared pretty well during the Some ungracious guys grumbled *t*nt the meati*** Tuesdays and Thurs-*V» here In New York...
...The meat is the substance of the meal...
...The nice new name suggests that it is' something recent...
...There has been plenty of everything except pie...
...1 thought long about this the other day when 1 brought in a fat and shiny pumpkin from the garden...
...The CIO Executive Board stuck out its neck by calling for a merger of the two union...
...EVERYBODY—at least in print and over the air-waves—is conspicuously trying to de something- for the returning soldiers—and hoping to God that the veterans will duly note and reward with rotes...
Vol. 28 • September 1945 • No. 38
