The Pittsburgh Press (January 22, 1941)
Opposes FDR’s lease bill, urges ‘hot-foot’ for Willkie
Editor, The Pittsburgh Press:
I am an American, 60 years old, and a mill worker. I have read your paper for years and I think I am entitled to do a little talking as well as the politicians.
In the first place, I think the President has no right to give government property to any nation. The President is working for the people and if he does not do as the people want him to, they should have the right to fire him.
I also think Willkie should be given the hot-foot. The people do not want him meddling in government affairs. I voted for him but I am glad he did not get elected. We just had the wrong man on the ticket.
I think it was all fixed between the Democrats and the Republicans for Willkie to run, so if he would happen rton get elected we would have the same policy that our President is promoting.
MARTIN LEWIS
Route 3
Niles, OH
Foresees stormy seas ahead for Roosevelt
Editor, The Pittsburgh Press:
President Roosevelt needs courage, for the coming four years of his administration will be the most complicated in the nation’s history. He will face a storm at every turn. Many who have pledged to stand by and aid in every possible way in unity and cooperation have already turned color like the autumn leaf, causing bitterness and strife in this difficult time in the world of today. I am glad for our aid to Britain in every way possible in supplies but turn the key on the nation’s bank and guard our ships on a wreckless sea.
MRS. JULIA EATHORNE
723 Penwood St.
Race for worldly goods is between all peoples
Editor, The Pittsburgh Press:
I am an appreciative reader of your fine paper, Your editorials are worth reading and show honest reflection. The Press also contains many unbiased views of your columnists through the truths they ponder may not please some.
I do not always agree with Mrs. Ferguson. She must hate the men the way she belittles them so unjustly at times. She usually puts women on a pedestal, especially the independent working woman who chooses a career at the expense of the younger generation who needs work for themselves and often to help a meager family budget. How does Mrs. Ferguson figure luxuries help the economic system, more than the necessities of household needs, children’s care, medicine, food and even shoes? Surely these add up to the cost of luxuries, and home needs must constantly be replenished.
Why don’t employers investigate a married woman’s income before hiring her so that young people who sacrificed (not to mention parents) may find their start and place in life?
There are a good many carefree people who forget their responsibility in the world. We can’t blame the Germans for being the only greedy ones. The race for worldly goods is between all peoples and classes. The only difference is in the methods they use.
I am for the home people who work and try to keep their families together and teach their children to become honest upright citizens who believe in fair play.
MRS. R. A. JOHNSTON
Bellevue, PA
Banishment of warmakers seen as way to end war
Editor, The Pittsburgh Press:
Wars have gone, wars have come, but wars have never settled any question permanently. Out of any struggle grows a desire “to get even” – sometime, someplace and somehow.
The ordinary citizen of any country has no desire to become involved in a bloody struggle extending over two or three continents. He is dragged into the mess by a head of state who is anxious to secure for himself more land, more people, more natural resources, or more power and glory for himself. War is derived from the brain of one or a small group of men.
No nation whose people have been accustomed to all the privileges of freedom can stand idly by and watch the world fall under the hammer of a tyrant. So that nation becomes involved. War may destroy the British Empire and the German Reich, but this destruction cannot make this world war proof. War-minded leaders must first be exiled. Hitler has always been anxious to start a world war and end up a world conqueror. Leaders, such as this man, must never be allowed to rise to key positions again. People must be on the alert for characters who are going to start machine gun fire over someone else’s border.
Germany today, and the Germany of 1914, certainly illustrate this point. Kaiser Wilhelm was anxious for “a place in the sun.” Hitler has thrown a bomb into the affairs of Europe because he and a very small group of his “beer hall” associates hope to rule the world.
The German people will never realize a profit from this war. Only grief, suffering and hardship will follow. Poland, Austria, France, Czechoslovakia and Belgium can do them no good. Wages will not be increased; concentration camps will not be abandoned; and Hitler will not allow any more freedom.
This war must be fought to the finish, and it must be won by the British Empire in order that freedom may be restored to the subdued peoples of Europe. This war must also mark the end of men who rule for themselves rather than for the masses. No government that does not guarantee her subjects life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness must be forced out of existence. It is far better to be a poor nation and enjoy a president, than to be a rich one and obey a tyrant.
ELNORA J. CRAMER
Blairsville, PA