A ROOM OF OUR OWN
Follette, Isabel B. La
A Room Of Our Own By Isable B.Lafollette's FROM the South West Pacific Phil writes, "Until I wrote the date at the heading of this letter, I had completely forgotten this particular date (his...
...In studying the sentences, I noted the same variances that I saw so often as Governor in passing on pardon applications...
...I haven't drunk any milk since I came here [nor did he at home, adds his wife...
...The men get excellent food, healthful places to sleep, all the necessary washing, toilet, and bathing facilities being of customary Army cleanliness, spic and span...
...Another milestone on the road, and all it means to me is the hope that I'll not spend any more away from you and the kids...
...Like Serving Time' "You may remember my long standing argument with a friend over the question of whether guts produces convictions or whether if one had convictions he thereby acquired the guts to stand up to them...
...The months and months and months that they have sweated and stewed is bearing its fruit...
...If nature warns of approaching danger (from maintaining a certain position) it is very easy to shift that position, or not take it at all, and rationalize an explanation which brings him back to the prevailing 'safe' herd point of view...
...I've read about half of Herridge's book, Which Kind of Revolution...
...I guess the pasteurized would be okay, but I do not know if this is uniformly the case...
...And we were even more explicit as to remedies than he is...
...For my part I think it more important to blaze new trails in the right direction than to enjoy the questionable satisfactions and opportunities of so-called 'success.' Because 'suceess' usually means that one has so compromised one's self that in order to stay 'successful' one must tack to every erroneous political breeze that blows across the sky...
...He's a fine fellow and I think he enjoyed talking with some one from home...
...But again it is a question of timing...
...Negley Farson will talk to us.' Hearing him brought back a host of thoughts about the Farsons, and the times you and I spent not only with them but in London, Moscow, Paris, etc...
...I got out the snapshots Morris took of our farm at Christmas 1942, and I certainly would like to see the place...
...And so we have...
...I still think that one of the best things I did was to prod bureaucracy until it finally got a large share of our Wisconsin prisoners outdoors in healthy, rehabilitating camps...
...The human species is still a long way from understanding and handling these problems of delinquency with intelligence...
...Remember those cold, damp, foggy days in London in Winter-time, and that little coal fire at Brown's Hotel...
...Misery loves company, and I think he enjoyed finding that there were other people who had had the same experience he has had...
...Visit To Rehabilitation Camp "I spent an interesting day conducting a group of correspondents through a rehabilitation camp that has been established in this area...
...But as I think of it, our life in peacetime was more or less exciting, too...
...Now I relish the sun in something the degree you always have and am actually beginning to notice nature in a way I was 'too busy to do' before...
...A Room Of Our Own By Isable B.Lafollette's FROM the South West Pacific Phil writes, "Until I wrote the date at the heading of this letter, I had completely forgotten this particular date (his birthday...
...Blaw Blaw, but instead, Mr...
...Guess we must be getting old, though I flatter myself that when I go off into one of these mental travelogues it is not because I am getting senile but just that you and I have been so fortunate to accumulate so many delightful recollections in our travels together...
...There is a maturity, a sureness, and a strength about the issues now that is remarkable...
...I judge he has been pretty homesick and none too satisfied with Army life...
...Yet nature is kind, when she works her normal process, in that as one gets older I think one adjusts to the inevitable far better than perhaps one thought he could earlier...
...T ISTENING last night to the radio for the evening -Li news from BBC (British Broadcasting Company) the announcer said, 'The weekly review will not be given tonight by Mr...
...It is excellent, especially so when I recognize that with some exceptions everything he says we said years ago...
...They were in perfect shape and as delicious as one could want...
...Anyhow, we are all ready to take a chance on it any time 'higher authority' gives us a chance...
...I have long since been of the firm opinion that courage produces convictions rather than vice versa...
...Those in this camp are under sentences that mean they will eventually be returned to Army life, that is, they have not been dishonorably discharged from the Army and hence will eventually be returned to duty...
...There is quite a dairy industry in these parts, but their method of handling milk, at least after it leaves the farm, is something to see...
...I note your reference to Decoration Day at the cemetery, and how Judy took hold of things and did the arranging...
...I find I have come around in my thinking a good deal nearer the philosophy I had when I was a youngster, or perhaps, better, as I have had more time to think and ponder my mind has taken up where I left off philosophizing many years ago...
...It was a fine show, and I think has an excellent morale effect in giving the prisoners a sense they are still in the Army and in time will be restored to duty...
...Rain last night and today, which will please all the farmers hereabouts...
...Why these people have gone on shivering all these years is beyond me—they really get cold, complain about how chilly they are, but don't think it worth while to put heat in their houses because 'the Winter only lasts three months.' I must concede that the days have sunshine which England never sees in Winter...
...There is no gainsaying the fact that there are periods of intense excitement in this business, marked off by longer periods of just passing time...
...As I reviewed all this, I naturally recurred to my own experience as a District Attorney and then as Governor, and am glad to see that in retrospect I think I did a reasonably good job in the exercise of judicial responsibility...
...It was a splendid idea to run that article by Herridge, and I enjoyed the rest of the magazine too...
...The human being is a smart animal when it comes to sensing—almost smelling—trouble a long way ahead...
...But I think it probably works both ways—and perhaps the ones at home will be somewhat jolted, too, to find that their 'heroes' snore, bellyache, and generally behave like other human beings...
...All this is a by-product of having to face up to death and getting a good, straight look at what is really important in life...
...Farms Minus Barns "The May 15 issue of The Progressive came yesterday and I took it to quarters with me last night and read it from 'kiver to kiver.' Morris and Mary are hitting their stride...
...In certain respects the past two years have been like serving time—I have often thought of the similarity...
...Two years is two years, and one gets into ruts of living and thinking...
...It's hard to adjust to the absence of barns...
...After we had visited the various shops, school rooms, barracks, etc., the Commandant put on a parade and review with all his personnel, M. P. Guards, and prisoners, too...
...As a good farmer, I trust you are interested in these observations...
...The camp itself is as neat as a pin and is in a fine setting in the country...
...Those who don't break under it will come back with a better set of values and a better sense of what they want out of life than they ever had before...
...Anyhow, I come back to thinking about the other hemispheres, and the vastness of the universes as yet only guessed at, and it gives one a perspective on the life of one individual that is needed in difficult times like these...
...In so far as I can, I would prefer to work with those aiming at the Lenin type of contribution than either Roosevelt's or Churchill's____ "Today is brilliant and clear with a real nip in the air at night and, just like England, no heat of any kind...
...I had a chance not long since to get out into the countryside, and really got a good look (from the ground this time since of course I have seen it all from the air) at farms hereabouts...
...T NOTE what you say Turner Catledge reports, and •*- it is undoubtedly true that one tends to idealize loved ones that are far away for considerable time...
...Bill Bleckwenn has started to use his psychiatrists in this work and I think may make an outstanding contribution in this field...
...On account of my waist-line I shall have to be guarded, but it certainly is a welcome gift...
...What gave him some comfort, and what I honestly believe, is that every one of us in this show is getting valuable experience out of it...
...He was here on business, and I arranged to spend the evening with him...
...In the Army, as in civil life, there is the disciplinary problem...
...It arises largely because those that sentence have different attitudes toward different offenses, and hence give heavier or lighter sentences not from objective but from subjective motivation...
...Now I recognize that one must not fail to be practical, and not withdraw into a world of dreams, but I think that a man like Lenin was far more important in human development than, say, a man like Franklin Roosevelt or Winston Churchill...
...Our boys, however, are great milk drinkers...
...You're right: as one gets older one is certainly conscious of the passing of time, and does a bit more thinking about the inevitable time when the next generation takes over...
...People have been taught a lot in the last few years by events, and after events have taught people they are willing, often anxious, to be told what happened to them and why...
...It may have its elements of danger and di-appointment, but I have a hunch that it will not be boring...
...The climate is mild enough here, as also in northern New Zealand, so there is no need of barns for the stock...
...Yesterday one of the Madison boys blew in...
...It is so largely a medical problem that when that approach is brought into the picture we begin really to get somewhere...
...It would interest you to see great, husky Americans drinking it down in large quantities...
...Yesterday those two grand cans of nuts arrived...
...Trust this doesn't sound too preacher-y, but it's just the ramblings of an old dodo 10,000 miles away from home...
...That is, most of the time there was something going on that held our interest...
...As you'll have noticed, for example, in my letters back home there is an appreciation of the weather I never had before...
...I rather think that the period ahead is likely to be more exciting than anything we have yet lived through...
Vol. 8 • July 1944 • No. 27
