Correction
Before I continue with this week’s article, I need to correct an error made in the 1962 yearbook. Published on pg. 3 with the following photo:
Photo 1. 1962 Graduate listed in Row 2, photo 2 was incorrectly listed in the yearbook as Lynne Gaston. A kind reader who knew her well told me that the yearbook listed her name incorrectly. Her name should have been listed as Lynne Casto. I want to thank our reader for making the correction for me. Should anyone find an error in anything I submit in the future, please let me know immediately in order that I might correct it as soon as possible.
**********
Now for this week’s article…
I have but one photo for this article, but this one photo should say it all, and then some.
This article was written and published in the West Union Record on March 23, 1944. I thought you might find it interesting today.
One of the greatest documents, if not the greatest document ever created by our nation’s founders.
In Greater Danger Than Ever Before?
“We believe the liberties of the people of this country are in greater danger at present than they have been at any other time since the foundation of the Republic. We believe it in spite of the fact that ten million men of America are in arms for the purpose of preserving those liberties. While American soldiers are fighting on foreign battlefields to preserve American liberty and the American way of life there are powerful influences here at home working quietly and stealthily, but none the less effectively, to destroy American liberty and to replace the government established by the Revolutionary fathers with a socialistic or collectivist form of government.
More powers and rights of the states have been taken over by the Federal government or have been surrendered to the Federal government during the last dozen years than during all the previous history of the Republic. During the past twelve years, more than two thousand bureaus have been established by the Federal government. Established for what purpose? To regulate the direct the lives of the people of the United States.
All these bureaus make their own laws and prescribe the punishment for their violation. It has never been successfully refuted that many of the bureaus are run by Communists and Socialists.
Every laborer, except a farm laborer, must have a number furnished by the Federal government, and unless he has a number, he is not permitted to accept employment. A bill is already pending in Congress that will include farm workers. It is also designed to provide security for everyone from the cradle to the grave. Under its provisions, there is regimentation for ever one from the cradle to the grave. Also, pending in the Congress is a bill that provides for the conscription of men and women for labor.
In view of all these facts, can anyone well deny that the liberties of the American people are threatened as never before in all the history of this country? If all the aforementioned measures now pending in Congress become laws, can there because of subjugation by some foreign power; but they will lose them because of carelessness or indifference or lack of vigilance while they are probably enjoying a high degree of prosperity. While the people are at work and prosperous, they are not so jealous of their rights and liberties as they are in times of stress and depression. While they are busy working and making money, they do not pay much attention to what goes on in Congress; they are not easily alarmed by any threats from Washington to their way of life or to their rights under the Constitution. They seemingly take it for granted that freedom once won can never be lost.
We take pleasure in quoting the following able editorial from the Industrial News Review.
Before the war, most people held one hope in common: That their children would enjoy greater opportunities and live fuller lives than preceding generations. For more than 150 years, that hope was realized because the people were free. But now for the first time in the history of the nation,
the future is problematical, in spite of the fact that nearly 10,000,000 American men are under arms pledged to maintain American liberty.
We are faced with a bewildering growth of centralized government which is in no way incident to the war emergency. If present government planning is carried out, the lives of coming generations will be shaped in Washington instead of through individual effort.
Even now, agencies of government are planning the expenditure of billions of dollars to provide ready-made futures for the citizens of tomorrow. These futures, if realized, would consist largely of make-work jobs on government projects. In addition, there is steady pressure for the gradual broadening of socialization of industry – which would mean more ready-made futures, more jobs on the government payroll.
Illustrative of this pressure is the trend toward government domination of the natural resource industries. If the coal and metal mines, oil, power, and transportation, are brought under the control of government, the means are at hand to bring the entire productive capacity of the country – and the jobs and futures of all private citizens – under government dictation. Individuals in every walk of life are voicing concern over expansion of the Federal government. Their fear is that coming generations will be deprived of the opportunities for personal achievement that have marked the history of this country. Not only individuals, but clubs, churches, and civic organizations from one end of the land to the other, have organized to fight for the reestablishment of constitutional government.
Typical of these is the Kiwanis International and its “Keep America American” program. The thought behind the movement is well expressed in the words of O. S. Cummings, past president of Kiwanis: “Ten million Americans are in the armed forces of our nation. Into our hands they committed the destiny of the civil affairs of our nation – just as we committed to them the destiny of our nation’s military affairs. It is our solemn duty to ensure the America to which they return is the same kind of an America they left.”
Our future as free citizens is threatened – for the first time in a century and a half.”
**********
I shall leave you to ponder these words written to a war weary people almost eighty (80) years ago, as WWII raged on. Does this article appear relevant today? Were they overreacting then, just as some say many of the American people are overreacting today?…
I can only say that in my humble opinion, the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same.
God Bless
Patricia Richards Harris
Doddridge County Historical Society