La Grange Journal (La Grange, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 11, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 14, 1946 Page: 7 of 8
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Fayette County Area Newspaper Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Fayette Public Library, Museum and Archives.
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L946
Thursday, March 14,1946
LA GRANGE JOURNAL
LA GRANGE
BUSINESS
DIRECTORY
KOENK EIMEBIL HIM
FUNERAL DIRECTORS
EMBALMERS
A. W. Koening G. A. Koenig
Telephone 244 Telephone 33
PROMPT AMBULANCE SERVICE
VOGT & CO.
“ELCO”
'PHONE 28
“THE QUALITY FEED”
Prompt Delivery
DR. IVAN KNOLLE
Dentist
Over La Grange Drug Store
LA GRANGE, TEXAS (44-tf)
HATS
CLEANED AND BLOCKED
SUITS
CLEANED AND PRESSED
JOE HOEFER—La Grange
Dr. J. C. Guenther
General Medicine aiid Surgery
Office Telephone Nd. 409
Residence, No. 393
F. J. GUENTHER, M. D.
GENERAL PRACTICE OF
MEDICINE AND SURGERY
Office: Opposite LaGrange Hospital
Telephone, Office No. 361
Hospital, No. 65 Residence, No. 411
DR. A. H. REBSCH
OPTOMETRIST
Eyes Examined
Glasses Fitted
Record Building
Tel. No. 353 LaGrange, Texas
Dr. Arnold J. Danlek
GENERAL DENTAL PRACTICE
X-RAY *
Otto Hunger Building
Telephone: Office 175 Res, 156
LA GRANGE, TEXAS
SURGICAL MEDIQAL
Open to the Profession
LaGrange Hospital
Telephone No. 55
German and Bohemian Spoken
X-RAY LABORATORY
ABSTRACTS 'MAPS
Fayette County Abstract
Company, Inc.
John Schroeder, Manager
Old Masonic Bldg., Opposite
LaGrange Journal
Phone: Office, 281 - Residence, 209
Dr. M. Strehorn
CHIROPRACTOR
Office Over Meyenberg
Drug Store
Telephone No. 72
LA GRANGE, TEXAS
Subscribe
The
La Grange
Journal
fJcmouow 4
GWEN
IRISTOW
THE STORY THUS FAR: Spratt Bar-
tons, motion picture producer, met and
married Elisabeth, whose first husband,
Arthur Klttredfe, was reported kUled la
World War I, but who later appeared In
Hollywood and secured a job with Spratt.
Under the name ol Kessler, and with his
dlsficurementi, he was not recognised
and became a good friend of the Her-
longe. bile Elisabeth, Cherry and Dlclt
were helping Margaret, Kessler** ward,
decorate her Christmas tree, she told
them about the man who killed her moth-
er. Kessler later told them the troth of
Nasi Germany, how Margaret*! parents
were driven to suicide, and how thou-
sands of children were killed before they
could contribute to mankind.
CHAPTER XIX
He jerked himself back angrily.
He had given her the chance to be
happy and she had used it; if happi-
ness brought its own penalties that
was not his fault or hers. She had
a great deal to lose. Nobody knew
what the war might do to this coun-
try before it was over, and the whole
fabric of her life and her children’s
future might be ripped to shreds in
the days to come. She had made
that clear to him when she said, “If
my world is shot to pieces again I
can’t go back and start over. I did
that once.” Elizabeth did not sus-
pect that when he heard her say
that he had nearly burst out sobbing
with defeat. He had been so sure,
back in 1918, that when he gave her
the chance to start over it was the
chance to build for permanence.
Now he had no consolation to give
her, or to give himself—nothing but
a desperate courage. There was
nothing to do but go on telling her
what he had already tried to tell
her: that in the final analysis life
consisted mostly of doing things one
did not want to do, and the only way
to keep any self-respect through the
whole wretched business was to look
squarely at what had to be done and
then go ahead and do it.
Now he had to tell Dick the same
thing. Not tell him to go to war,
that Dick was ready to do; but he
could understand from the boy’s
awkward little letter that now Dick
wanted to be told what it was all
about. It would be so much simpler
if Dick could be left with the idea
that it was merely a matter of kill-
ing Japs and Germans before they
killed.
Kessler turned to his typewriter,
holding the paper with his thumb
and forefinger while he turned the
platen with the other three fingers,
made steady by the pressure of his
palm. He wrote:
My Dear Dick,
Can you come around tuiuiay aft-
ernoon about three? Margaret is
learning to skate and will be at the
ice-rink with her playmates, so we
can count on not being interrupted.*
I’ll be very glad to see you.
Your friend,
Erich 'Kessler.
Dick i.i,,ved at ten minutes to
three. They did not waste any time
on preliminary courtesies. Dick had
r lot to ask and he immediately
otarted asking it.
“You see,” said Dick, “I’m just
about to be eighteen, and as soon as
I’m eighteen I’ll get into the service.
Maybe I’ll join up before then. I
kind of like the Marines. That’s okay
—I’m not saying I’d join the Ma-
rines if there wasn’t a war, but there
is a war, so that’s what you do, ^ie
Marines or whoever will have you.
But there are some things—” He
hesitated.
“The day of Pearl Harbor I was
so mad I could have lit into every
Jap gardener I saw and it burned
me up to think I couldn’t do any-
thing about it. I just wanted to kill
them. I still do. The Japs, I mean.
I never did get that excited about
the Germans, I guess it was be-
cause they were going after other
people but it was the Japs who had
tried to sink the whole Navy when
the Americans weren’t doing any-
thing to them. The Germans—I
don’t mean because you’re a Ger-
man, anyway you never do seem
like one—but I’d been hearing about
Hitler practically all my life and I
guess I’d got kind of used to him.’’
“I suppose you would,” Kessler
observed thoughtfully. “You were
eight years old when he burned the
books.”
“Well, I was pretty innocent my-
self until just lately,” Dick con-
fessed with confiding wisdom. “I
thought wars were just wars, be-
cause somebody had to run the earth
and it had better be your side than
their side, and mostly wars were
fought to take care of trade and
profits and it was principally the
Morgans who got us into the last
one, and we’d n‘#ver have been in
this one if the Japs had minded their
own business. Now I see that’s not
right, you can’t go along letting
things happen the way they are hap-
pening, things like Margaret I mean.
But what I want to know is, what
can I say to my mother and father?
{ can’t just go off and have them
smiling and shriveling up inside
the way'they are doing. Don't think
my mother has said anything to me,
Mr. Kessler! She hasn’t. She won't
•ither.
“Let her and your father under-
stand that you know what you’re do-
ing,” Kessler answered. “Don’t let
diem believe that you’re going off
Tinning, as you express it, just
» put an end to a lot of toothy vil-
itrw because mass hatred happens
to be the emotion of the moment.
It’s not merely that they have a
right to think better of you than that.
But if you expect them, and the rest
of the decent people in the worl^ to
get anything from this war except
more destruction and suffering, if
you want it to be something more
than just another war, you’ve got
to have an idea of what you want it
to bring about. Even if you know
what you want you may not get it,
but if you don’t know, this certainly
won’t be anything but just another
war,”
“Well, wnat do we want to get?”
Dick demanded. He laughed uncom-
fortably. “I guess you think I’m
pretty silly to ask that, don’t you?
I guess you think I ought to know.”
“No, Dick, I don’t think you’re
silly not to know. We who are
older than you ought to be wiser, but
sometimes we feel we don’t know
anv more than you do. I’ll try to
tell you how it looks to me. That’s
all I can tell you.”
’“Go ahead,” said Dick. He added
with an embarrassed grin, “I guess
I’ve been talking a lot. But now
I’m listening.”
Kessler turned his cane under his
“Don’t get too discouraged about
your country, Dick.”
hand and looked at it, then raised
his eyes again.
“Dick, the sweep of history
doesn’t take much account of indi-
viduals. That’s hard for us to real-
ize, because we are individuals and
we can’t think except in terms of
ourselves.” ,
“I guess it didn’t,” Dick acknowl-
edged. “But Mr. Kessler, what’B
that got to do with us?”
“Don’t get tco discouraged about
your country, Dick. The United
States has a standard it’s trying to
live up to—of course you haven’t
reached what you’re aiming at, but
you’re closer than you used to be.
Look back and you can see the idea
coming—slowly, painfully, cruelly,
but always on the march. The
American Revolution was part of it
and the “French Revolution another
part. They went as far as they
could, but not as far as the idea was
destined to go. The American Revo-
lution was a war for liberty, but it
didn’t finish the fight—haven’t you
ever read about the howls that went
up in this country, long after the
Revolution, at the suggestion of free
public schools for all children?”
Dick shook his head. VI thought
they always wanted schools in this
country.”/
“Not for everybody. There were
opponents who said compulsory
schooling would break up the home
by taking children away from their
parents and putting them under con-
trol of the state. There were others
who said it would destroy the or-
dained order of society by making
the working classes dissatisfied with
the position in which God had placed
them. But the schools came, be-
cause they were part of the current
toward human equality.’’
“Gee,” said Dick. “You khow,
you’re encouraging. The place is
getting better, isn’t It?"
“Of course it is. Whenever you’re
tempted to believe it isn’t, you might
remember that it was in 1870, a
good deal less than a hundred years
ago, that the State of Massachusetts
was hailed as an enlightened leader
of progress when the legislature
passed a law- that children under
twelve should not be allowed to work
in factories more than ten hours per
day.”
Dick nodded slowly. “I’m begin-
ning to see it.” He wrinkled his
forehead, and exclaimed, “But right
now, I don’t mind telling you, that
big idea sure is up against • lot.”
Kessler nodded too, in agreement.
"Suppose I try to tell you why It’a
up against so much right now.
Shall I?”
"1 wish you would.”
“Well, you see, a few year* ago
the idea had gone so far that In
WNU
MATVftU
several of the most powerful nations
of the world, people were actually
asking one another if any common-
wealth was benefited by keeping
part of its citizens in compulsory
degradation. In cases where they
wore still doing so—as with the Ne-
groes in this country—they were
ashamed of it and made excuses for
it. The march toward human free-
dom seemed to be going along very
well. But then, certain persons,
more farsighted than their neigh-
bors, looked ahead and saw what we
were headed for. The result was a
long, long way ahead, so far ahead
that most of us never thought about
it, but for those who did visualize
it the very suggestion was so dan-
cer ous, such a threat to all nations
and all established institutions, that
something simply had to be done to
stop the march, and quick.”
“Gosh, go onl” exclaimed Dick.
“What’s that suggestion you’re talk-
ing about?”
“Can’t you see it? It’s very log-
ical—simply the suggestion that if
a country could be improved by re-
leasing (he talents of its people,
might not <the world be improved ny
releasing the talents of all its peo-
ples? That’s a terrible idea.”
“Why?" Dick asked with ingenu-
ous defiance. .
“Don’t be so simple-minded, Dick!
Why, that contradicts everything
we’re used to. It takes away our
colonies. It drives us out of places
where we’ve invested our hard-
earned money. It means that the
coolies no longer have any respect
for their betters. It makes us ac-
knowledge we are no longer called
of God to meddle with the private
lives of the heathen. It turns us
upside down and flattens us out and
leaves us no better than anybody
else.”
Dick considered this, slowly and
soberly. At length he said, “I be-
lieve I get it.” He turned it over
in his mind again, then ventured, “It
means—‘all men are created free
and equal, endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable rights—’ it
means all. Not just us. Every-
body.”
“Most of the important facts of
life are very simple, once you make
up your mind to look for them, but
they’re often very hard to accept.
Like that business of loving your
neighbor as yourself, for instance—
it’s very difficult to admit that he’i
as much worth loving as yourself.
Most of us hate nothing so much as
an idea that threatens our good opin-
ion of ourselves. We don’t like own-
ing up to it that if the earth belongs
■to us, it also belongs to the Chinese
coolies.”
Dick began to laugh suddenly,
then he sobered again. “Cherry said
once that Mr. Wallace thought this
war was being fought for the coo*
lies. We laughed when she said it.
It sounded preposterous. But you
mean it really is?”
“Why yes, though not many of us
are willing to admit it. But that’s
what we mean when we say we’re
fighting for human freedom.
“This country is still uncertain,”
said Kessler, “because it has gone
into the war on the side of history.
The people know it’s the right side,
they’re fighting valiantly for victory,
but they’re frightened at what vic-
tory will mean.”
“It will mean—?" Dick stopped.
“That Americans will have to go
on, marching through more blood
and pain toward a goal they are not
sure they can bear to reach. You
are fighting for the coolies, Dick,
not because you give a damn what
becomes of the coolies but because
you care a great deal about what
becomes of yourself. You don’t dare
not to fight for them. They’ve come
so close to you that what happens
to them touches you already, and
will touch your children even more.
Don’t stop to think of this now if it’s
too much. I know it’s terrifying. Go
on and fight for your country. That’s
what is being asked of you now.’
“I want to think about /it,” said
Dick. “IJjut you don’t think I’m r
•dope because I’m—well, kind of
shocked, do you?”
Kessler laughed • little. “Of
course not. It’s the most shocking
conception that has, shaken the
minds of men and women since they
were asked to believe that on the
other side of the earth people were
walking upside down. If you said
you weren’t shocked by It, I
shouldn’t believe you.’
Dick rambled among his own
thoughts for a moment. At length
he inquired, “How did you come to
think of all this?’
“I was pretty badly hurt in the
last war,” Kessler answered frank-
ly. “When a man’s life is so vio-
lently changed, he has to do a lot
of thinking. At first I thought in
terms of individuals, each learning
to manage his own problems. But
when hell broke loose again I had
to start thinking all over, not in
terms of individuals only but in
terms of the human race. That'a
all."
Again Dick was silent. He thought,
contemplating himself, the world,
and himself again. Finally he said,
“Well, I’m going to stick to my
own country awhile. I like Ameri-
cana and you- can say what you
please but by and large I do think
they’se more decent than other peo-
pi«.
CTO M COHTINVKDI
-—
=
SSjj
i
n
i
H
i
M-m-m muffins! No sugar,uo Shortening needed!
U you yant to set compliments the
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ALL-ESAU Muffins. They're tender and
testy, and they take no precious sugar
or shortening. Yet they’re packed
with good nutrition!
3 cups Kellogg’s 1 egg
au.-i*ax X cup sifted flour
H cup molsisses 1 teaspoon soda
IVfc cups milk teaspoon salt
Add x.iLLoqo's all-bran to molasses
and mUki let soak for 15 minutes.
Beat egg; add to first mixture. Sift
flour, soda and salt together; combine
with all-bran mixture. Fill greased
muffin pans two-thirds full. Bake In
moderately hot oven (400*F.) about
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Good Nutrition, tool
all-bran Is mad* from the vital oirma
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One-half cup pro-
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Serve ALL-B RAM j
dally I
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mm
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N»W» I
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Thst’s good news indeed.
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Priebe, Charles W. La Grange Journal (La Grange, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 11, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 14, 1946, newspaper, March 14, 1946; La Grange, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1004365/m1/7/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Fayette Public Library, Museum and Archives.