A ROOM OF OUR OWN

Follette, Isabel B. La

A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La Follette "PEOPLE who haven't some one actually in it, and I don't mean in Washington, have no right to a controlling opinion!" exploded a war mother in. a group...

...Yes, of course, I know—this is the point where the 'idealists' look shocked at such 'selfishness,' 'provincialism,' 'isolationism,' whatever they want to call it...
...Don't think they aren't going to have something to say about this when they get home...
...Already there are signs that Mr...
...He's a great student of history and he recalls what happened to Wilson when he got too far ahead of the people...
...Roosevelt has moved a bit further in on the limb as he interprets public opinion...
...came an explosion...
...I certainly agree with you," she concluded, turning to the original speaker, "that it would be a real asset to these planners if they could shoulder a gun and go out and spend a year on one of the fighting fronts, especially one that is short of the materials they figure so plentiful on paper...
...Yet Russia has told us what she'll discuss and not discuss, and Britain informs us that the Empire is to remain intact, which leaves us, as usual, holding the bag...
...A third took me to task for my "theory" that people are devoting their best efforts to the prosecution of the war...
...The Four Freedoms are just like passing a resolution through your organization—nice idea, everybody for it, no discussion and all that—but without any real meaning until you get down to cases...
...When the pinch comes, mark my words, it will be tested Progressives who have been used to fulfilling our obligations who will stand ready to do our part for others, while the reactionaries we all know in our own communities^., now so newly concerned for humanity, will be busy looking out for themselves...
...He's sitting back watching Mr...
...And F.D.R.—the most skillful politician ever to sit in the White House (and I voted for him three times, mind you...
...Talk—just talk...
...Try listening to a group of men who manufacture war materials—or read the Saturday Evening Post— and you'll see that they are already concerned with the question of how to convert their plants so as to continue their profits when the war is over...
...Willkie's Trial Balloons "Bosh...
...Just the same," interjected one, "I don't see why it would hurt to try some over-all plan with our Allies—" Mr...
...Yet our husbands and sons not only have to do the fighting but have had, in most cases, to sever completely their job connections at home...
...Willkie sending up trial bal- loons for him...
...Protecting Their Stake "And the worst of it is," she continued, "that it is these very people who not only aren't paying the terrible price of war but have actually 'improved their position' financially or otherwise who are now busy looking out for their stake in the post-war world...
...When the time actually comes to sit down and take stock of where we all stand, I have no doubt of our 'idealism' but if we make the mistake of contracting a lot of promissory notes for our men already going through hell, no one need be surprised at what happens...
...We feel that now we must think in terms of the welfare of the whole, but those of us who have spent years helping get progressive legislation onto the statute books and then into practice know you've got to concentrate on one step at a time...
...You never make real progress without knuckling down to actual cases...
...They take satisfaction out of MacArthur's successes but glide over the tragic fact that thousands of American men are scattered all over the Pacific waiting for materials to carry on the war with the Japs...
...knows what's going on...
...When The Pinch Comes "What these well-meaning humanitarians don't realize," observed an experienced leader in organized labor circles, "is that you've got to know just where you're aiming and each step of the way...
...When you are in a group who have no one actually in the fighting, just listen to them and you'll find that inevitably the talk turns to post-war planning rather than the painful facts we face today...
...Where are you going to begin, kindly tell me...
...They celebrated the 'fall' of Italy and debate details of the occupation, never facing the bitter truth that we are not yet as far as Rome and that our men are deep in bloody mile by mile fighting...
...It will be a good joke, and by no means impossible, to find him talking about American rights as well as obligations to the world, come election time...
...In our organization we think the day of fighting for the sole rights of organized labor is done...
...Why can't they be practical enough to see that any post-war commitments made now won't be worth the paper they are written on when the public reaction comes that is already in the offing...
...I'm just as concerned," she went on, "over the people of Poland and Czechoslovakia as anyone else, but we certainly aren't going to help them by biting off more than the country intends to chew...
...a group of women recently, while a "war widow" emphatically agreed and quoted her husband as saying that there is much bitterness among men overseas at the home-fronters trying to make further international commitments for others to carry out...

Vol. 7 • November 1943 • No. 48


 
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