Vagabond Editorials

By Jack Dionne

Harry Hopkins, chief of W.P.A., announces that he is going to collect a book of W.P.A. stories and jokes. Those I've heard would fill a family Bible. But, unlike the Bible, it couldn't go through the mails. Not even Hopkins' friend Farley would pass it. * * *

Poor old Farley is sad these days. They took the play away frocr him a few months ago and turned the big political thinking job over to a bunch of young radical amateurs. Politically wise Farley knew that this country isn't ready for purges. The young radicals know it now. And now (isn't politics a strange mess) all the Senators who were omitted from the purge list are trying every way to get on it. They want to be sure of reelection. And by the way, have you heard of the latest New Deal suit? Blue purge.

I've been tthinking **" ", ,"," that these are sad times to be living in, but the last few days (this is written September 25) events have occurred that made me proud to witness them. Czechoslovakia, f'm proud to know you ! When the history of these terrible times is written, the brightest page will be given to that heroic little nation which, forsaken by its powerful friends and facing the snarlings of a monster, refused to cringe before the bloodthreat, and called every able-bodied citizen to defend its borders at a speed heretofore unknown in the annals of mobilization. And-to the profound amazement of the great nations who had kowtowed before the threats of the scourge-the big, bad wolf showed the yellow fag. What may happen before these words are printed, no man knoweth. The world sits on a powder keg. But nothing can erase from the pages of history the story of the bravery of the Czechs in their hour of mortal peril. ***

Like the hero of old, they made up their minds that a man can die but once and it is better to be shot down fighting than destroyed after taying douh their arms; that a man can meet no finer death than "facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his gods." Such a nation deserves something better than the mercy(?) of a Hitler. ***

I'm not even sure that Hitler can lick the Czechs alone. Remember David and Goliath. Two million brave Czechs with their homes, their churches, their God to fight for, would take an awful lot of licking. Don't be too sure of the,German strength. Remember that before Hitler came the Germans were a God-fearing, highly religious people. Read the history of the Christian religion and see for yourself. Hitler has set the Reich up as the National religion, himself as the only power spiritual and otherwise, has condemned their Christianity and proscribed their religious beliefs. Remember that religion digs down deeper into the human soul than any other form of conviction. And never doubt that there must be countless millions of Germans who deep down in their hearts resent Hitler's dethronement of the God they adore and the religions to which they were taught from childhood to cling. I don't believe that such a nation will fight as one man. They are mute in Germany, because complaint means cruel punishment and criticism means death. But you can't stop a nation from thinking. And you can't take the love of God and the belief in religion out of people's hearts by the decree of a dictator. Someone, some day, is going'to start liberating the God-loving people of Germany. National Germany today is pagan. Czechoslovakia is a Christian nation. rr :1. ri

Something new with regard to home building and home ownership has been accomplished in the past few weeks by the illustrated weekly magazine, "Life." Something highly intelligent, practical, and well worthy of high praise. This journal is delighted with the opportunity of backing in on and unstintedly complimenting such an effort.

In the September 26 issue of "Life" will be f.ound a 22 page profusely illustrated department on the subject of "Houses For Modern Living," being an original and remarkable layout of designs for homes of varying cost, designed for this story particularly by famous American architects.

Here is the way "Life" went at it. Feeling, as stated in the first page of the department referred to, that while great and intelligent corporations are pounding away at the American public day and night, year in and year out, selling and creating a yen for automobiles, radios, refrigerators, furniture, boats, and devices of a thousand kinds for

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Fred J. Walsh Comparry selects this rrsv