The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn The 20-20 Vision Of Elmer Davis In the course of a long life, I have said farewell to many a good man. One of these made a habit of saying to his friends: "There...
...Davis's book was written in the shadow of McCarthyism...
...You have the feeling through all his writing and broadcasting that he has faith in the ordinary folks from whom he sprang...
...Generally, I have found this to be true...
...no matter how good a man is, someone will be found who will do his job better...
...He worked for the New York Times and for two of the great broadcasting systems...
...His constant return to the Founding Fathers is the result of an early bent...
...They use the names of our great men, but have no idea of what these men thought and no understanding of what they did...
...The know-nothing attack on the Supreme Court seems to gather strength from strange sectors of our population...
...If ever there was an exception to this rule, if there was ever a man for whom no substitute can be found, it is Elmer Davis...
...Davis led a busy newsman's life...
...You felt as you listened that in the end he would be on the winning side...
...He had rich and influential backers...
...He spent his youth among the Midwestern common people and attended a little Midwestern college...
...The notion which many seem to hold that McCarthyism is dead and buried is deceptive and dangerous...
...Too little has been made of Elmer Davis's scholarship...
...No matter how effective or how useful a man has been, after he has gone the world has wagged on...
...It was as if the very tones of his voice carried his guarantee...
...He might have been one of our greatest historians, but chose rather to fill a worrisome and difficult spot in one of our history's greatest struggles...
...We need as much as ever men like Elmer Davis...
...McCarthy is gone, but Jenner and Walter and their companions have inherited a good part of his mantle...
...His looks, stance, manner, tone gave assurance of complete honesty and profound understanding...
...In the Senate he was supported by men who, because they were more moderate and decent than he, will in the long run have more influence...
...But when you listened to the sharp, countrified accents of Elmer Davis, your faith rushed back...
...This man's calm analysis gave you reassurance...
...Elmer Davis came from the American heartland...
...In his book, But We Were Born Free, however, he shows a profound insight not only into American and British history but into the affairs of the ancient world...
...His father was a banker in a small Indiana town...
...Mr...
...In his youth and in his part of the country, the writers of the Constitution seemed very near...
...In his book, Elmer Davis quotes an article he wrote twenty years ago: "To admit that there are questions which even our so impressive intelligence is unable to answer, and at the same time not to despair of the ability of the human race to find, eventually, better answers than we can reach as yet—to recognize that there is nothing to do but keep on trying as well as we can, and to be as content as we can with the small gains that in the course of ages amount to something—that requires some courage and some balance...
...His choice of words constituted a running interpretation...
...Facing what seemed an unconquerable foe, they cried out: "Who shall deliver us out of the hands of these mighty gods...
...One of these made a habit of saying to his friends: "There is no one who cannot be replaced...
...There were times during the McCarthy era when un-American reactionaries swarmed about the Capitol and even the President of the United States seemed cowed by their clamor...
...Elmer Davis and Abraham Lincoln came from the same wide valley and had the same deep faith in the American people's ultimate devotion to liberty...
...During the war, he had charge of the 3,000 employes of the Office of War Information...
...As writer, radio and television broadcaster, news analyst and interpreter of current history, he functioned with a special sort of integrity...
...One fine thing about this man was that he spoke with a sense of power...
...It is true that in the form given it by the late junior Senator from Wisconsin it has been defeated—and for this defeat we owe a debt of gratitude to the great newscaster who has so recently gone from us...
...Reasonable men devoted to good sense and moderation have always been at a disadvantage in public debate...
...With cowardice so disgracefully common in the press, in'the Government, even in some of the universities, he called for courage...
...He was a busy and successful man at the very hottest spots in the world of news reporting...
...In general, the anti-libertarians are ignorant fellows...
...Then, realizing that outside help was unavailable, they braced themselves and said to one another: "Be strong and quit yourselves like men...
...One of life's useful lessons is that no one is irreplaceable...
...Their arguments lack the lightning flash which often makes the statements of totalitarians instantly effective...
...But McCarthy did not stand alone...
...On his last page he went back to the battle of the Philistines as reported in the Book of Samuel...
Vol. 41 • June 1958 • No. 25
