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Show Pi: iHcleaned by Western Newspaper Union.) 'CAISSON'S ROLL ALONG IN A NEW TEMPO AS I SIT AT THE WINDOW of the room in which I write and watch "the caissons go rolling along" at some 40 miles an hour, it causes me to think of the changed tempo of war since the days in the 90s when I was engaged in and knew some- thing of soldiering. In those days and, in fact, on ! through much of World War I, the , caissons went rolling along at about ! four miles per hour, the speed of a j six-mule team when being urged by a husky "mule skinner." j In those days the cannoneers rode the caissons with iron rimmed wheels and took all the jolts of the highways and battlefields. War in those days was a slow, leisurely op- eration that could be bloody when ! one really got into it, but you could ' not get in or out so quickly. I The doughboys walked, and their I speed was not more than 10 miles I a day. An enemy 100 miles away I could not reasonably be expected to attack within less than 10 days, and that allowed time for preparation. I Yes, the doughboy walked and carried his equipment on his back. J Aside from the field and staff offi-I offi-I cers, about the only things that en-i en-i joytd the luxury of transportation j other than shank's mares were the company pots and pans in which were cooked the beans, the sow belly i and coffee, which, together with I hardtack, was what the commissary ' provided. I DEATH EVERYWHERE SETTING-UP EXERCISES were not prescribed for troops on campaign. cam-paign. The soldier got all the exercise exer-cise he could take care of without any of a prescribed kind. He did not need a lullaby or a crooner to I put him to sleep at night. He seldom waited for "taps" but was asleep at the earliest opportunity, and awakened only to cuss the bugler for blowing reveille. Washington, Napoleon, Wellington, Bismarck, Grant, Lee, Pershing, Foch and Haig commanded slow armies ar-mies as compared with the speed of today. In those old days you looked for death only on the ground. You would get behind a shield, but you did not also have to get under one. Today death comes on the ground, from beneath the ground and from the skies. As I watch the caissons go rolling along on rubber tires at 40 miles an hour, I realize the speed of war today and the need of youth to maintain that speed. I do not question ques-tion the worthiness of our cause. I do question the necessity of war in general; I question the necessity of destruction as a means of attempting attempt-ing to settle disputes. But at soldier age I saw glory and romance and adventure in the tramp, tramp, tramp of the doughboy, dough-boy, in the clatter of the iron-shod wheels of the caissons, in the pounding pound-ing of hoofs of the cavalry horses. The young men of today see the same things in the roll of the rubber-tired rubber-tired wheels of the great guns and trucks in which they ride, in the clank of the tanks and the whirr of the airplane propellers. We can be thankful that when we must fight as in this case we must we have youth that sees these things in the same way their fathers, grandfathers grand-fathers and great-grandfathers saw them in days that are gone. The caissons are rolling along to eventual victory because of the valor val-or of our American youth. AN AMERICAN LEADER AND A SOD HOUSE IN THE EARLY 1890s sod houses were not unusual on the plains of western Nebraska. They were houses with dirt floors, dirt walls and dirt ceilings. In one such house a man child was born of a pioneer mother. I cannot tell you his name, for to do so would be breaking a confidence. Today he is one of America's leading economists, econo-mists, occupying an important place in American life. At the age of six he began attending attend-ing school for five months each year. His school was a one-room affair, presided over by a young woman, who taught only the three R's. He wanted knowledge and he purchased it for himself, working his way through college and majoring in economics eco-nomics that he might find out what made America tick. He improved the opportunity America offered, and today is making every possible effort to maintain that opportunity for America's boys and girls the American way of life. SIXTY MILES AN HOUR and burn them up! We will never miss the rubber until our tires wear out Buy Defense Bonds DEBTS, BORROWING, AND BANKRUPTCY ON DECEMBER 15, 1941. the fed-eral fed-eral government debt was $56,731,-000,000. $56,731,-000,000. On December 12, the fed-eral fed-eral government's gold borrowings an obligation of the government-amounted government-amounted to $20,551,000,000. The bonded indebtedness of the local and state governments of all states was $20,246,000,000. That adds up to $97.-528.000,000. $97.-528.000,000. To tli at will be added new bonds to pay for war expenses, amounting to 125 billion dollars, bringing the total to $222,528,000,000. |