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Show THE AMERICAN WAY Rembering The Forgotten Man T$y George Peck " Things portend for the "FOR- GOTEEN MAN." This year of 1944 well may be the most vital and important in the history of this nation. This is the year that our two major political parties select their candidates for the Presidency, and in November the voters choose between these' two candidates as to who will occupy the White House for . the following four years. The electorate at the same time will choose a new lower House of Congress, and also select some new Senators. The "FORGOTTEN MAN" WILL GET A HEARING AT THE POLLS. This year may also witness the cessation of hostilities in Europe, and find our Armed Forces poised for a knock-out blow at Japan. and it has just about made up its mind that it will, put up with being pushed around by government govern-ment officials as long as the emergencies exist and not one minute longer. It is our opinion that historians histor-ians of the future will record 1943 as the end of a short but perilous era a decade, during which America travelled far along one the pathway to State Socialism, Social-ism, abandoning the principles of initiative and thrift which had made her the outstanding nation in all the world's history. The year 1943, despite its many industrial strikes and the humbling hum-bling of the Chief Executive by John L. Lewis, saw a vast improvement im-provement in the attitude of union un-ion labor, a disposition in its part to clean its house of the racket- carry the fight to the enemy when it is forced to do so. Mussolini Mus-solini has already found that out; we feel that Hitler, if not yet completely convinced, is rapidly learning "it; and we suspect that Hirohito is beginning to sense it. All things considered the events of 1943 would seem to indicate that 1944 will be a most vital and important year for America a year in which the "FORGOTTEN MAN" WILL COME INTO HIS OWN not the "FORGOTTEN MAN" as depicted by the present administration, but as the one described by William Graham Sumner some forty years ago: "Such is the FORGOTTEN MAN. He works, he votes, generally gen-erally he prays but he always pays. He is the clean, quiet, virtuous, vir-tuous, domestic citizen, who pays his debts and his taxes and is never heard out of his little circle. cir-cle. Yet who is there m society of a civilized state who deserves to be remembered and considered by the legislator and statesman before this man" The Congress in 1943 began to remember this too-long "FORGOTTEN "FOR-GOTTEN MAN" if all signs do not fail, it will give him even more consideration in 1944. Yea verily, things portent for the FORGOTTEN MAN. Yes, all things considered, 1944 shapes up like a pivotal year. Looking back in retrospect to the year 1943, there is much to be seen there for the "FORGOTTEN "FORGOT-TEN MAN." One of the outstanding outstand-ing accomplishments of the year on the Home Front was a resumption resump-tion by Congress of its former and proper functions; it mani-fescted mani-fescted a determination to get back to that wise system laid down by the Founding Fathers under which government was divided di-vided into three branches the Executive, Legislative and Judicial. Judi-cial. It began to consider the "FORGOTTEN MAN." Almost of equal importance was the awakening of the American people in 1943. Rationing and other limitations while accepted by the public as necessary war emergencies, have given it a real taste of bureaucracy in action, eering element which has been bleeding it and kicking it around. The dues-paying "FORGOTTEN MAN" of the unions began to assert as-sert himself The nigh-micarulous, record-breaking record-breaking war production of American Amer-ican industry during 1943 was a high-spot and something to which capital, management and workers can well point with pride. Each did its part and did it magnificently. magnifi-cently. It would be remiss to omit mention of the performance of the American railroads as one of the outstanding achievements of the past year. But transcending aU these things were the heroic exploits of our Armed Forces in Africa, Italy, the South Pacific - and the other battle arenas. Our Armies and Navies backed by our industries demonstrated that a Democracy can wage successful war can |