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FLASHBACK
FLASHBack 79 Years Ago This Month
Seventy-nine years ago this month, in December of 1941, The California Lumber Merchant was two days away from going to press when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and President Roosevelt declared America’s entry into World War II.
The industry—like the nation itself—was shellshocked. There was no time to revise any ads or stories, only time for Merchant publisher Jack Dionne to pen a new editorial and drop it into the middle of the issue. He wrote:
It seems hardly real—not in my wildest dreams— could I for the past 20 years have believed it possible— that I am sitting down to my typewriter, just as I did in April 1917, to write to my fellow lumbermen and fellow Americans, the same stern words that I wrote then: “Our Country Is At War.”
Even with the terrifi c reports that are coming over the radio every few minutes as I write, it still seems unreal that such a thing should be. That old, old folly— “It Can’t Happen Here”—has been caught falsifying again, and how bitterly.
The English language seems appallingly futile in trying to describe the total surprise, the total amazement that came to the American people when the fearful news began coming in over the airwaves. Neither is it possible to describe the wave of indignation that immediately followed. I saw it happen once before, and nothing in history is more dramatic to watch than a swelling tidal-wave of anger that develops when a great nation suddenly discovers that it has been made the victim of treachery unspeakable, barbarism and infamy immeasurable.
The American people are the maddest right now they have ever been in all their history. That wave of indignation expresses itself throughout the land in a million definite ways. All else is forgotten. A week ago this nation jawed, and argued, and debated a score of problems that then seemed vital. In the wake of the Japanese attack, those matters today appear no more
CERTIGRADE premium grade wood shingles were marketed in a Ripley’s Believe It or Not style. THE DECEMBER 1941 front cover was sponsored by Southern front cover was sponsored by Southern California lumber distributor George E. Ream Co.
important than a last year’s bird nest. This people is united in spirit and determination, convinced that there is a tremendous job to be done, and that only through the complete unity of every stratum of Americanism, can it be successfully and promptly accomplished.
We stand united behind our President, our Government, and our flag. What happened at Pearl Harbor—regardless of how it happened—has drawn this nation into one fi rm mind and mass, as nothing less tragic could have done. We have but one national idea now: we have a war to win.
Come what may, we shall win it. It may be that our start looks slow, and their start looks fast. But wait a little until “our team gets rolling,” as they say in football, and God help our enemies.
Americans are springing to arms by the tens of thousands. Whether they be 20 years of age or 50, seems to make no diff erence. Everyone wants a hand in wiping out our foes, and establishing once again a world where decent people may live in peace. With faith in ourselves, our President, our Government, our nation, and our God, we are taking up the gauge that was thrown down at Pearl Harbor, and will not cry “Enough” until the necessary job is done. Let us fl y “Old Glory” over our places of business and over our homes, and get the glow and determination that however prosaic the duty of each of us may be, that duty will be accepted proudly and gladly for our country’s sake, and that we will all help in the great task to be done, loyally and helpfully, without grudging or fault-fi nding.
The lumber industry of the nation shifts immediately from a defense to a war basis. No industry shall serve its country better in this great emergency. Watch the lumber industry team roll, too!
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