Box 16, Folder 8, Document 74

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Box 16, Folder 8, Document 74

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THE ANSWER: The best bill of goods any nation has ever had; the only bill
eoods by which any nation can survive; the only bill of goods by which this
son has ever lived—Decency! > .

And what is decency?—the right to live and die without fear; the right to
- among friends and family; the right to die in peace amidst quiet tears, hoping
find a place beside God.

This is worth fighting for; this is worth killing for; so that good people

-y keep their world a decent place in which to live and die.

The world belongs to the good people. Every highway and every sea lane
‘tbe open to the good men and women of every land so they may pursue hap-
ess, with its bread and laughter, finding God in their own way, be it in a garden
ag flowers or-in a temple among strangers. In the dank darkness settling over

‘tof the world it is getting on toward midnight. Past that zero deadline looms
‘awn splashed with blood, streaked with hate.

That dawn must never come. That dawn must and can be stopped by the

sited States,

Hitler has spit in the face of every decent man and woman in the world.
has spit in the face of every child, in the faces of the men and women who
‘uw God, be they Jew, Protestant or Catholic.

Hitler must be killed and all the others who would be Hitlers. must go

*) him to his grave.

The United States must declare war against Germany and with this decla-
' add a simple clause condemning to death Hitler and his agents. The inter-

nal gangland must go.



***, the declaration of a citizen, a citizen who

“*eountry, his family, his friends and would

them intact.

“seen much about praying but since this
© world I have been praying for my coun-
ve that she comes through but will make it

“=ff good peaples and good countries to come

* wht

‘dawn of another day, a lasting day of

Eee ares nd Lal, = : i
_/**seG betore save in some emergency affecting
In my own dangers I have always been
s meselt, fecling that I'll be forgiven this
* 4 Uungs only for my family.
‘tkeney falls upon my country and I pray
fee ate fot enough,
* 28a strike frst. One doesn’t fight a snake
' Bas struck with its deadly fangs. Those
‘ proved fatal to fourteen countries the

-' eager walk in the garden among their



_

, at

us who do not understand a great many
SM We don’t understand the hesitancy,
sy, T don't understand the kind of free
Aone I don’t know what free speech is...
Mt Misfactorily defined. I know what free
was defined by a great Justice whose

name I have forgotten. In handing down a decision he declared
that free speech, even under a Democracy, did not permit a man
to yell fire in a crowded theater. I don’t understand why we are

permitting men and women, high in the walks of American life, -

to scream fire in a crowded theater—the fire of isolation, the fire
of appeasement, the fire of defeatism.

There are many things I don’t understand but I think that’s
unimportant.

When I was a child I didn’t always understand my parents
but they were invariably right. I have read the Bible and I don’t
understand all of it. I don’t always understand my country but
I am willing to follow it passionately and |. ally to my grave.

I have a feeling the world will be decent again and the
United States will help its gallant brothers “nugland and China
to make it so. If it takes the rest of our d. ys, let’s at least be-
queath our children a decent world. That's a mighty fine legacy
to leave behind. It’s the legacy we inherited.

it’s close on to midnight ... another dawn is about to break
through.

_ Mr. President and Congress, we are awaiting your march-
ing orders, Surely there is a job for every man and woman in
the United States to do at this zero hour.

RUSSELL BIRDWELL

New York City, July ro, 1942

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