A ROOM OF OUR OWN
Follette, Isabel B. La
A Room Of Our Own Isabel B. La Follette **TT OW do you feel about us?" I asked a young ,JLi man recently returned from the war in the Pacific. "Does it impress you that we are too comfortable—too...
...Far-off soldiers are in no position to speak for themselves, and administrative power, being human, always tends to operate on the basis that "the wheel that squeaks the loudest gets the grease...
...Too many otherwise intelligent people do not appreciate the value of criticism, of "His Majesty's Loyal...
...The manner in which each of us handles his and her own lot depends on our individual qualities...
...But as Phil says, the other pastures always look greener...
...Then you don't resent the fact that we aren't miserable enough ?" I prodded him...
...It's been good for her...
...In government this is vital if our services are to improve to keep abreast of the problems they were set up to handle...
...I remonstrated...
...The administrator may not like the form of the criticism, but if he is sincerely interested in the work he will welcome suggestions for improving it...
...A friend loves to tell of two middle-aged women in the last war who were overheard arguing as to what one was suffering worse...
...From what we hear, the men meeting the terrible responsibilities of battle are measuring up magnificently...
...Sympathy is good medicine, but what's 'good for' me is something else again...
...Strength-Giving Dream The armed services have the responsibility of prosecuting the war...
...The 18-month rotation plan, while it may affect only a fraction of the men, had a fine morale effect in that they Could see that someone was thinking in terms of relieving them from year after year over there...
...The Value Of Criticism I rebelled...
...Sfnce we women by both nature and experience (now watch me get a batch of hot letters on this...
...At the same time we must exert what pressure we can for recognition of human values on behalf of the men who cannot speak for themselves...
...Don't you dare say that to her...
...Anyone who has been through what she has, doesn't care to have even her husband assume one's unlimited endurance...
...This is a fact we have to face...
...And of course our own lot is apt to appear harder than the other fellow's...
...They figure they are willing to do their share but that it isn't fair that they should have the dirty end of the load indefinitely...
...No-o-o," he replied thoughtfully, "But then, I wanted to come back and find things as near as possible to the way I left them, and it isn't so bad as I feared from what we had heard over there...
...Sympathy Is Gaod Medicine "And the ironical part is that many of the boys here are eating their hearts out to get across," I commented...
...Wherever their lot casts them they do not flinch...
...However, we civilians have to recognize the fact that there is a limit to human endurance...
...The best of blue-prints have to submit to the test of trial and error...
...The human beings involved are mere units in a vast machine which must cope with the enemy...
...Opposition," as it is called in England...
...Does it impress you that we are too comfortable—too much business-as-usual...
...Mainly, though, it takes the form of soreness that so many of the servicemen at home still have their comforts and their furloughs while the fellows over there have to do without either...
...Strength is not of the body alone, but of the spirit...
...Any broad-gauge administrator will tell you that constructive criticism is the hardest thing in the world to get...
...No, but there is a lot of resentment among the boys...
...Those of us with men overseas are doing our best to "keep things the way they were when I left"— actually an impossibility of course, but a strength-giving dream...
...An Army husband home on leave after two years' absence commented in response to our admiration over the way his wife had met particularly difficult problems during his absence, "Yes, she's been marvelous...
...It makes me sore as a boil when someone comments anent my responsibilities during Phil's absence, 'But of course Isen can manage—she is so strong.' Doggonit, I feel like a poor frail women who can scarcely make the grade...
...One finally clinched the argument to her own satisfaction by wailing 'You can always get another husband, but I can never have another son!' " This "morale" problem is indeed a knotty one, since the exigencies of war upset our carefully nurtured attempts at fair-play and equality of opportunity...
...Since, however, human beings are in themselves highly complex organisms about which we still have much to learn, no authority has the infallible recipe for success...
...The boys leaving homes on any given street never know where the fates of war will take them—perhaps to a desk-job in a neighboring city, or to a slit trench on one of the far-flung battle-fronts...
...We are finding, for example, that while the working mother's time and energy helps war production, her absence from the home creates new problems in the form of juvenile delinquency...
...are primarily concerned with the human values, we not only have the individual responsibility for nurturing them in this period but we likewise insist on their significance in the war program...
...It is in such places that intelligent criticism has a function to perform...
Vol. 8 • April 1944 • No. 15
