AT CHRISTMASTIME
At Christmastime LAST Christmas was tough enough. Painful enough. With the world preoccupied with Jbombs and blood, no one with a conscience could talk easily of peace on earth, good will to...
...We are talking right now about whether we shall continue to feed the people of Europe or not...
...This revolutionary action by Gen...
...The meaning of Christmas, we suspect, comes down to giving the J?est of what you have to give of yourself to those you love and care for and realizing, as Fred Rodell points out so beautifully in his own way in the leading article in this issue, that the only security man has is his inner security of belief and confidence in himself—for then he is free of fear and can reach out to help others...
...With the world preoccupied with Jbombs and blood, no one with a conscience could talk easily of peace on earth, good will to men...
...Two New Deal-ish commentators for the liberal Chicago Times— Irving Pfiaum, foreign affairs editor, and Carleton Kent, columnist, agreed in print last week that Gen...
...Douglas MacArthur's far-reaching order to the Japanese Government to separate church and state and to abolish the militarist doctrines of the Shinto cult is the most cheering Christmastime news in a world otherwise sick with militarism, imperialism, hate, and power politics...
...This magnificent start toward building a progressive, democratic Japan deserves the unstinting support of every American liberal...
...In terse, specific language, the American commander directed the Japanese Government to cease its financial support of the Shinto cult, ordered the removal of the aggressively militaristic and imperialist doctrines from Shinto, and prohibited the teaching of Shinto concepts in the public schools of Japan...
...Just back from a survey of Europe, where she found women grappling with immediate problems at home over which they can exercise direct, effective influence, Miss Phillips had some sound and sensible advice for American women's clubs...
...Christmas is the time for remembering some of life's good things—like friends and clean white snow and carols and yulelogs and bread broken together from spicy kitchens—and for wishing (although it's part of the times to call it corny if you dare to admit it) that every day could be as full of the glory and excitement and promise of Christmas...
...MacArthur's program in Japan establishes him as "one of the most successful liberal reformers of all times...
...They know that when you start to rebuild a world, the place to begin is at home...
...The initial steps to smash the Japanese military machine were followed by a program for guaranteeing civil and political liberties...
...But—and in spite of the appalling commercialization of the season here at home—it's still the magic season, when men and women dare to hope that all people are brothers under the skin, that the stars in children's eyes won't be "mowed down" into despair by adulthood...
...And now comes the order to smash the war-breeding hold of Shinto...
...Men are still fighting and killing each other in too many parts of the globe, and the bitterness and hunger in Europe scald decent people's souls and hearts...
...Strong confirmation of this judgment of ours came last week from Lena Madesin Phillips, president of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women...
...Miss Phillips' sage counsel ought to be number one on the agenda of many a "do-good" (the farther away the better) organization, and could also be pondered with great benefit by certain "liberals" in Congress who are concerned (and rightly so) on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays about the plight of the peoples of the rest of the world, and oppose, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, needed progressive legislation for America...
...But'they know that hungry people are revolutionary people...
...MacArthur comes as a dramatic climax to a program of democratization which has followed logically from the American commander's historic pledge aboard the U. S. S. Missouri to pursue a course based on reconstruction rather than revenge, on help rather than hate—a course whose goal was to be the building of a free, democratic, peaceful Japan, instead of a Tatter, brooding, revenge-minded nation such as we are making again of Germany...
...Then came the decrees for encouragement of labor unions and cooperatives, to be followed by orders for smashing the power of Japanese monopolies and the financial oligarchy...
...Cheering News For Christmas GEN...
...Then in turn came the program for breaking up the feudal land system and the encouragement of small, independent farmers...
...Everyone in the world needs something worth remembering and hoping for...
...We'd better get down to work on our own children, labor problems, color question, and a few more things, instead of always ranting about saving the rest of the world...
...QTEP by step Gen...
...Sitting in the comfort of their clubhouse or the home of a member, they shudder when madame chairman reports on race tension in the Orient or hunger in Europe, and after passing an appropriate resolution, adjourn without bothering to discuss or act on the tensions and insecurity across the tracks in their own town...
...Said this white-haired, Kentucky-born lawyer: "The women of Western Europe are far more realistic than American women in tackling the problems of peace...
...MacArthur has built the foun-^ dation for a new and democratic Japan...
...A Merry Christmas to you all...
...They know better than we do that the world does not move by talking—that you must back up your talk by doing...
...This year, with the "war" over, talk of peace at Christmastime is still ironic...
...We talk about it, but we don't want to do the work that produces these conditions...
...Sound Counsel THE Progressive has often complained that too many of America's women clubs—and other organizations, for that matter—lose themselves in vague causes for the rest of the world, but have no time or energy for the urgent problems of their own community...
...They know better than we do that you are not going to have a peaceful world unless you have jobs and decent living conditions for all groups of people...
Vol. 9 • December 1945 • No. 51
