The Pittsburgh Press (December 24, 1945)
Editorial: Merry Christmas!
Let’s be courageous about it: “Merry Christmas!” For tomorrow is Christmas and, in the relative measure of things, it is merry. Turn back the calendar to a year ago and see for yourself.
Last year, our G.I.’s in Belgium stood against the Germans’ bitter fire in “The Battle of the Bulge.” The Nazis still held the Saar Basin. Our troops along the Moselle and Roer were a dreary distance from the Rhine. In Italy, the Allies inched forlornly northward toward the Arno.
In the Far East, our men were slashing forward on Leyte and had yet to reach Luzon. On Christmas Day, our planes bombed Iwo Jima.
Washington announced draft calls would be increased; tires would be fewer; some foods which had been ration-free were to be rationed; certain meats were to be put back on the ration list. Stock prices had tumbled and by January 3 horseracing would be blamed.
That was Christmas a year ago.
Today Nazidom has disintegrated; Tokyo obeys Gen. MacArthur; six million servicepeople have been demobilized. Today we buy meat, butter, shoes without stamps.
Today we are dismantling the structure of war and studying the architecture of peace. Mass destruction has ceased, and in the ensuing interval we behold an opportunity to bring all men into harmony, tolerance, forbearance.
Earnest men everywhere are eager to embrace this opportunity as their obligation, one they must and will discharge. Earnest minds are as one in believing that practical peace can be realized. It can be achieved by a faith in the goodness of the world’s little people, by a sincerity that recognizes no frontier.
With universal ardor for peace insistently at hand, this Christmas Day glows with a new potential all its own. It gives all of us every right to say: “Merry Christmas!”