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    Crucible of a Generation

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    but they cannot altogether alter it.” 7

      To Walter Lippmann, the philosopher king of the punditocracy, the whole aim

      of Japanese diplomacy had been not to promote peace in the Pacific, but to iso-

      late the Chinese and create an irreparable breach between China and the United

      States and Britain. Lippmann advised that there could be no settlement in the Far

      74 Last Week at Peace: December 1–6, 1941

      East other than a general settlement that respected the interests of all the parties.

      Anything else would be a repeat of Munich. It would, moreover, set the stage for

      the nightmare of two generations, a war between East and West, a war he did not

      hesitate to label a war between the “yellow peoples and the whites.”

      America’s Role: Political Responses

      American public opinion continued to be fiercely divided. America First

      announced that it would campaign actively for Senator Wayland (Curley) Brooks

      of Illinois, a leading isolationist. Its polls, it said, showed members unanimous for

      action at the polls and clamoring for a firm front against the “interventionists.” 8

      A stalwart among the isolationists—or, as they preferred to call themselves,

      the noninterventionists—was Colonel Joseph V. Kuznick of Chicago, who had

      commanded combat troops in France. He announced his resignation from the

      American Legion. In his opinion it was misrepresented by a handpicked Execu-

      tive Committee, most of whom had never seen overseas combat. Worse yet, the

      Executive Committee had surrendered to the New Deal, in Kuznick’s view part

      and parcel of “an un-American hell-bent-for-war administration.” Only one-

      third of the Legion’s members had actually fought in World War I, he grumbled,

      and three-quarters opposed fighting Nazi Germany “just to save Bolshevism.”

      The statements of a small but vociferous section of the Legion were representative

      neither of its own membership nor of the American people. 9

      *

      While the Soviet Union was engaged in massive defensive battles from Leningrad

      in the north to Rostov to the Caucasus in the south, the American Communist

      Party and its allies were also embattled. Deep suspicion of its members and its activ-

      ities was interwoven in the continuing debate about America’s role in the war and

      in the world. In New York, Actors’ Equity Association was in the process of submit-

      ting an amendment to its constitution barring members of the Communist, Nazi

      or Fascist parties or their sympathizers from holding office in or being employed

      by Equity. A January 9 final vote would require a quorum of 750 paid members

      present; if there were fewer, the council would be empowered either to accept the

      vote of a majority or to order another referendum. Also objects of the amendment

      were members of the Communist Party of the United States, the National Socialist

      Party of Germany and the Fascist Party of Italy, and in a basket clause, sympathiz-

      ers with or persons who knowingly and willingly advocated the overthrow of the

      government of the United States by force or other unlawful means. Such persons

      would be ousted from the union. 10 There were tangled loyalties involved here. The amendment provided for the ouster of members of the Communist Party of the

      Soviet Union at a moment when the Soviets were basking in favorable public opin-

      ion occasioned by their sturdy defense and now offense against the invading Nazis.

      *

      In a letter to The New York Times , Merle Miller, later to become the biographer of Harry Truman, sounded a strident call to arms. He spoke in the name of

      Wednesday, December 3, 1941 75

      his generation arguing that their fathers had not succeeded in a “war to end all

      wars.” Indeed, they had lost the peace to a group of “disillusioned old men in the

      United States Senate.” But that hardly proved them wrong, Miller wrote, citing

      the heritage of the Revolution and the Civil War.

      His generation Miller labeled a generation of idealists, but idealists who were

      hardheaded enough to know that, together with the youth of England, of Rus-

      sia, and of China, they could set free the conquered countries and the world.

      His generation, Miller wrote, might shrink from the sound and the fury, from

      meaningless slogans. But, speaking as one of draft age, he did not hesitate to claim

      that the majority of his generation were unafraid of the struggle for freedom. He

      echoed the President’s words that his generation had a “rendezvous with destiny”

      and assigned to it Lincoln’s well-known words that America could “nobly save

      or meanly lose the last best hope of earth.” He closed with his own words: “As

      courageously as we can, as wisely as we are able, we mean to say that, and now.” 11

      Joining Miller in calling for action, author and ex-Soviet agent Jan Valtin had

      told a Houston audience that America would have to adopt the methods of the

      totalitarian states, to learn that it could chop off heads, too. Democracy was all

      very well but played into the hands of the enemy.

      *

      In addition to the suspicion of communism, there was always abroad in the land

      latent anti-British sentiment. This was based in part upon Ireland’s grievances;

      in part upon concern for those hundreds of millions in the British Empire who

      did not enjoy the freedoms for which it was ostensibly fighting; and in part upon

      Americans’ distaste for so many manifestations of the British class system. But,

      Valtin assured his audience, it was not necessarily pro-British or pro-Russian

      to join in the struggle with those countries as allies. It was simply a matter of

      the preservation of America’s own freedom and of its own daily life. Until the

      Germans invaded Russia, he said, communists had been a menace to the United

      States. As soon as the war was over, they would be so again: they would resume

      their aims and their activities. Valtin spoke for many when he argued that it was

      a case of fighting now or fighting later, alone. 12

      *

      There were, to be sure, other voices, other opinions. No one is or has been more

      highly esteemed in America than its mothers. To slap the “Mothers” label on

      any activity or opinion is a much favored method of gaining public support.

      An organization calling itself Mothers Mobilized For America, Inc. (the notion

      of incorporation also lends solidity) sent letters of “condolence” to mothers of

      American sailors whose sons had been lost in the U-boat attack on the U.S.

      destroyer Reuben James. These letters did not stop at expressions of personal sorrow or sympathy. They intimated that it was not the German U-boats but the

      administration in Washington that had been responsible for the loss of these

      lives. This, The Oregonian editorialized, was “utter shamelessness” exceeding any boundary of isolationist criticism: it smelled of Nazi propaganda and might just

      as well have borne the label “Made in Berlin” and been mailed with a Nazi

      76 Last Week at Peace: December 1–6, 1941

      stamp, so typical was it of the work of the “jabbering Herr Goebbels.” There

      would always be in America, The Oregonian said, dupes for such transparent

      ploys. Even if they were not real fifth columnists, only unwitting fifth colum-

      nists, they needed to be dragged out into the light. 13

      *


      Yes, the war and its impacts were the talk of the town. In New York various

      groups gathered to consider its progress and its prospects. The Namesake Towns

      Destroyers Committee of the English Speaking Union was meeting at 4:00 p.m.

      at Rockefeller Plaza. A dinner honoring Dr. Israel Goldstein, held by the Inter-

      faith Committee for Aid to Democracy, was paralleled by a dinner at the Waldorf

      Astoria for the British War Relief Society to aid British children, and a 7:30 p.m.

      dinner at the Commodore Hotel honoring Russian Counsel Victor Felduishiny

      of the American Committee for the Settlement of Jews in Biro Bidjan.

      Economic Indicators: Massive Defense Spending

      America was going back to work and the new demand was for swords, not plow-

      shares. The New York Times listed previously unpublished government contracts.

      Transparency was important as a protection against self-serving and under-the-

      table dealing. Improprieties in government contracting were, as they had always

      been, a continuing concern.

      Instead of its standard printing presses, R. Hoe and Co., Inc. of New York

      undertook a $1,900,876 contract to produce gun-recoil mechanisms, while Otis

      Elevator Company contracted for $1,930,400 of gun mechanisms and castings.

      Growing armies needed more than guns, as indicated by a contract with Supe-

      rior Linen Company for sheets, blankets, pillows, towels, and the like. Materials

      had to be moved and they would be, to the tune of $860,000 for Mack Truck

      parts and $827,049 to La France Truck Corporation—historic producer of fire

      engines—for trucks, and more trucks.

      If many suppliers ventured into new product lines, Antoneri Fireworks Com-

      pany of Rochester was only doing what came naturally in supplying a million

      dollars’ worth of ammunition. But in the early stages of a great defense buildup,

      the real urgency was in machine tools and other essentials of the production lines

      that would be critical in filling all the other contracts. This was typified by con-

      tracts for a modest $2,600 with Manning, Maxwell, and Moore of Jersey City for

      drill presses, punches, and shears; with J. H. Williams & Company of Buffalo for

      forgings and dies for $6,410; for $4,211 with Ole Engstrom of New York City

      for punches and dies; and with Producto Machine Company of Bridgeport for

      $15,850 for milling machines. The largest of the contracts reported that day was

      with New Haven’s High Standard Manufacturing Company for over $10 million

      for guns.

      Democracy’s arsenal was gearing up and producing the spectrum of goods

      and components necessary to make fighting vehicles, planes and ships. Thus the

      Navy in the month of November was growing at the rate of a ship a day, with

      Wednesday, December 3, 1941 77

      thirty-three vessels completed in November, including the mighty battleship Indi-

      ana , destroyers, submarines, submarine chasers and auxiliary vessels. 14 , 15

      This scale of activity enabled William T. Witherow, chairman of the National

      Association of Manufacturers, to tell the opening session of its annual convention

      that American industry had already finished and delivered a volume of defense

      goods greater than had been specified in the government’s plans. Indeed, since

      March 11, 1941, when the first Lend-Lease bill had been enacted into law, industry

      had supplied nearly $10 billion in equipment against orders for $9.3 billion. “No

      matter how frequently the specifications are raised,” Witherow told his audience,

      “industry will produce to meet them.” The importance of the defense program

      was brilliantly illustrated by Witherow’s closing remarks, an unusual acknowledg-

      ment by an industry group that “only the unthinking can find fault with stricter

      government controls required to accomplish this titanic defense task with the

      speed necessary to do the job on time.” 16

      What was more usual was the warning by Senator Walter F. George of Georgia

      that federal taxes were nearing the danger line; that any increase would hurt the

      nation; and that the costs of the defense program must be spread over generations. 17

      The products of the defense program were on display for a day in a special

      defense train, one of three touring the country, that would be open at Houston’s

      Southern Pacific Station to local manufacturers and others interested in taking

      part in the defense program. More than 700 local manufacturers and machine

      shop operators were expected to visit the train in groups cycling through it every

      forty-five minutes.

      Other special groups would be formed of OPM representatives, city council

      members, and other officials not only from Houston, but also from Mississippi,

      Arkansas and Louisiana.

      Liberty and Justice for All: In the Matter of Race

      The contrast between the American promise and American performance was

      evident every day in the area of race relations, and it often took extreme, not to

      say grotesque, forms. In Jacksonville, Texas, the Central Texas Colored Meth-

      odist Conference in convention condemned the unjustifiable, indefensible, and

      horrible slaying of Matt Flournoy, a seventy-year-old black farmer, in the very

      courtroom where he stood trial on November 24 at Lufkin for the alleged assault

      and attempted slaying of Ray Morehouse, a nineteen-year-old white woman.

      Flournoy was stabbed to death in open court. His assailant, Ray’s twenty-five-

      year-old husband, was charged with the killing and released on a $3,000 bond.

      The Conference wrote to the U.S. Attorney’s office lamenting the negligence of

      the officers in the court and their failure to protect Flournoy. It asked in turn for

      a thorough investigation of the case. 18

      Was there hope for justice in such an environment and in the face of such

      attitudes? Modest progress appeared on the same day in a Georgia courtroom

      where a prison camp warden was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the

      death of black inmate Lewis Gordon. The victim and twenty-one others had

      78 Last Week at Peace: December 1–6, 1941

      been confined in a “sweat box” for eight or ten hours. The warden had left the

      camp after ordering the punishment. When the prisoners cried out that they were

      dying, the warden’s deputy had refused to reverse the fatal order.

      The defense made the unlikely claim that the cause of death was shock from

      cold water poured upon the dying inmate in an attempt to revive him. This did

      not go down well with the jury, which took only forty minutes to return with its

      guilty verdict; the warden was sentenced to three years in the penitentiary. 19

      *

      For blacks in the South, the first priority was survival in a world where a black

      defendant was stabbed dead in the courtroom and a black prisoner became the

      victim of prolonged confinement in a sweat box. Against the odds, there were

      African Americans who fought to maintain their dignity, their sense of pro-

      portion, and a degree of participation in the system that so degraded them.

      Mrs. Mary Lee had written to “The Pulse of the Public,” the letters column of

      The Atlanta Constitution , expressing her fear that an increase in the number of

      “negroes” registered to vote was a threat—she did not hesitate to say it pl
    ainly—

      to white supremacy. Her letter evoked a penetrating response from Benjamin J.

      Davis of Atlanta. Mrs. Lee ought not to be alarmed, he wrote. White supremacy

      was nowhere in danger and she ought to look on Negro voters not as a menace

      to white supremacy but as a complement to real democracy. If white supremacy

      was unable to take care of itself, he observed, then it ought to get out of the way

      of real democracy.

      Mrs. Lee would do well, Davis wrote, to inform herself of the facts—that

      Atlanta had been so thoroughly gerrymandered that no ward had the possibility

      of a black majority. So Mrs. Lee, whom he had the grace to describe as “this good

      woman,” would do better to help her neighbors qualify to vote.

      The deep sense of inferiority imposed upon blacks over three centuries of sub-

      mission is evidenced in Davis’s forthright declaration:

      I am a Negro man and I confess that the Negro is not prepared to take over

      and run this government and the white man has no cause to fear calamity

      if he has faith in his own intelligence. . . .

      The Negro, he continued, didn’t want to dominate the white man, but taxation

      without representation was as onerous now as it had been in 1776. All the Negro

      wanted, he concluded, was a fair voice in a system administered in the interests

      of all and not only of a part of the people. His closure was as eloquent as it was

      simple: “The Negro wants a working democracy based upon the principles of

      Christianity.” 20

      Deflationary Times: A Lingering Depression

      If delivery of goods for the growing defense program was measured in the bil-

      lions, there were millions of Americans whose economics were on a humbler

      Wednesday, December 3, 1941 79

      scale. In Carrollton, Georgia, following a custom that had outlasted the memory

      of the oldest inhabitant, the first Tuesday in every month was Trading Day.

      Trading Day this week found a crowd of more than 200 milling around in the

      wagon yard between Louis Heatin’s mule barn and the Masonic Hall. What

      they brought to trade were the fraying and hard-worn goods of a hard-pressed

      peasantry. They brought their dogs: rabbit dogs, coon dogs, fox dogs, and bird

      dogs. There were all manner of musical instruments, guitars, banjos, fiddles, and

      mandolins. On display were broken shotguns crudely wired together. There was

     


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