A ROOM OF OUR OWN
Follette, Isabel Bacon La
A Room of Our Own We Are Americans Quoting from 1933 The Unlucky Numbers By ISABEL BACON LA FOLLETTE W'lTH events of the past few days I have thought again and again of Phil's words during the...
...Our Jews have agonized over the sufferings of their brothers abroad...
...There as "squatters" they subsisted in shacks cobbled together like Jackdaws' nests from whatever material they could pick up...
...Almost without exception people like ourselves in the countries of Europe where we visited a year ago expressed the advice, the hope, "Stay out of this European mess...
...We cannot escape the cold fact that if we undertake to straighten out Europe's affairs, we cannot expect any permanent solution if as before, we do the job and come on home...
...I came home feeling that we above all nations still have the power and the vitality to solve our problems if we put our minds and backs to the task, and that we can help the world better by doing this than in any other way...
...unemployment still gnaws at our vitals...
...When the news Of the Hitler strike came in, it was like a mallet blow on my head...
...Culture (what most people mean by 'western civilization') includes all the Innumerable activities of all kinds of people who having been fed and clothed and . housed, are free to do what they please with their spare time and spare money...
...themselves, to religious observances, and to going swimming...
...So far as Europe itself is concerned, further time and experiences only emphasize my earlier impressions...
...In Hungary the so-called peace is so bitter that the majority of people one talks with would welcome any kind of change, even war...
...Norway—wherever we stem from...
...All this has grown out of a peace which the United States, with the best intentions in the world, helped to make...
...I warned myself...
...Remind the lad who feels like going to fight in Norway of the disillusionment of those whose impulses carried them on a like mission to Spain...
...I am talking about the average person one meets in travelling...
...I am not talking of pacifists of which there are groups in every country...
...I couldn't then, and I can't now believe that the world's problems can be settled by building a superstructure on a rotten foundation...
...The results of the last World war to make the world safe for democracy left a profound impression in America, not only materially in the depression but spiritually...
...We have tried it, and that course has left us without a friend...
...You are the country that will have to preserve democracy...
...In England after Phil had been talking about what another war would mean to western civilization, a friend told me that one of the group commented, 'La Follette doesn't seem to realize that we must have a war every other generation.' In Germany one hears even among the younger people that 'anything would be better than this.' They would take a chance on war rather than endure their present suffering...
...This being true, where does our duty He...
...We are all haunted these days by the picture our radio-fed imaginations paint for us of war-convulsed Europe— the greatest naval battle of history, the fate of a proud, independent, disciplined people like the Scandinavians with their gift for mutual cooperation for the benefit of all...
...I leaped up and redoubled my efforts here in Wisconsin, my section of the "dyke...
...Germany...
...Our German-descent citizens have wept over Germany...
...How can we escape the conclusion that democracy, which we consider the highest form of civilization, has its very foundation in the life-condition of its people...
...Poland...
...More advanced peoples built cathedrals and palaces, and left behind them works of art that are still the wonder of the world...
...We found that generous ideals and actions are not enough...
...As a result, not one of these countries feels kindly toward us...
...Thousands of people, unable to pay rent and keep up the standards of what we call modern civilization, had moved to the outskirts of the city...
...As I traveled about I was constantly torn with conflicting sympathies, and came to the conclusion that the wisest, most-idealistic person in the world could not decide these conflicts in any way that would satisfy the people concerned...
...However...
...Let us wipe the, tears from our eyes and see to it that we do not fall them or our children...
...I had many such blows...
...When Phil and I were in Berlin In 1933, Germany still had on the one hand her high degree of culture, as defined by Mr...
...Now our Scandinavians are put on the rack as Scandinavia, to quote Mr...
...We do not think of these parent countries in terms of their governments: Germany is still Germany regardless of Hitler, just as Norway is Norway irrespective of its Nazi puppet, Quisling...
...convince him of how much we need him here at home, if democracy is to be saved...
...response to the suffering of Austria...
...The crushing of Austria, Czecho-Slovakia, Poland have torn at the emotions of their American descendants...
...Keep your eye in the economic barometer...
...Our racial heritages stir deep within us ir...
...I am afraid that many of us salve our social consciences by trying to settle Europe's problems...
...Then with the details pouring into us it was as if I had been jabbed with % red-hot poker...
...Keep pointing out to yourself and to others, I cautioned myself, the job to be done here...
...Remember, this was early in 1933...
...A Room of Our Own We Are Americans Quoting from 1933 The Unlucky Numbers By ISABEL BACON LA FOLLETTE W'lTH events of the past few days I have thought again and again of Phil's words during the embargo debate...
...youth is getting more and more restive as its energies remain bottled up...
...Farm conditions, according to latest statistics and my own knowledge, are worse...
...But no matter where our forebears came from, we all insisl that we are equally Americans...
...They think the stakes warrant the risk...
...Remind ourselves, in David Cushman Coyle's words, "The ancient Cro-Magnon race that lived in Europe before the dawn of history decorated the caves with pictures of mammoth and bison that have since become extinct...
...I came back from Europe convinced that good-will is not going to cut much ice...
...The South Sea Islanders, with plenty of food at hand, devoted their time to decorating their houses and...
...To stay out of war, he answered a questioner at the Town hall meeting, temporary war profits were not all we should be called upon to sacrifice: we would have to be prepared to give up the privilege of giving way to our sympathies...
...Doubtless because our pioneer background is so close, Americans have a strong impulse to "throw out the life-line...
...I. for my part, will devote myself to my little section of our dyke...
...It is an amazing experience for an American pacifist to visit the countries that were ravaged by the last conflict and to find that instead of having learned a lesson, they are still thinking in terms of solving their difficulties by further war...
...To keep the peace in Europe would mean a permanent policing job, a permanent responsibility of power and manforce across the ocean, The answer Is obvious...
...A friend showed us the answer...
...Our love, our loyalty here is unquestioned...
...As Phil says, it's much easier to get wrought up about the Turks and Armenians than to take a stand on a burning issue in one's own community...
...As I said to Phil the other evening, when I think of these individuals in their various countries of whom we grew so fond...
...But on the other side, for those who cared to see, there were the clearest evidences of economic breakdown...
...Streets of Berlin, block after block, held "for rent" signs, and we found ourselves asking "Where have these people gone...
...Whatever comes out of all this, me will need to look to you to show what democracy can be...
...Coyle...
...We see the Norwegians manning the fjords and mountain fastnesses of their hardy country, grappling with the invaders who literally "swept down like a wolf on the fold...
...Churchill, "draws the unlucky number in the sinister lottery...
...No one is satisfied...
...heaven knows when the crack will come and the swirling waters sweep them to destruction...
...I feel they are sitting by the walls of a dyke...
...Since 1933 what vicarious but very real pressure we here in America have had to endure...
...In 1933 one of these columns notes...
Vol. 10 • April 1940 • No. 16
