Winnetka Local History Digital Collections

Winnetka Weekly Talk, 30 Aug 1924, p. 7

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WINNETKA WEEKLY TALK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 1924 7 Fire Drills and National Defense Day An Editorial published in the interest of Winnetka's Defense Day Program The . people who advocate fire drills for children attending school are not necessarily fire bugs or incendiaries. Neither are those who advocate a na- tional defense day in which the able- bodied men of military age are asked to gather at a convenient community concentration point, necessarily Amer- ican Junkers intent upon Prussianizing the American people, and determined that we shall go to war against some one at the earliest possible moment. It does not create in children a de- sire to be in a school building when it catches on fire, because a fire drill is held once or twice a year. Neither does such a drill make the teachers who supervise it instruments of hell and ene- mies of humanity. National Defense Day is a fire drill. Its main purpose is to give the individu- al citizen the most elementary of lessons in what would be required of him in case of public necessity. All it asks him to do is to gather with his fellows for two or three hours and then go back home. He isn't asked to kill any one; he isn't asked to endanger his own life; he isn't asked to endure hardship; or to put up with any inconvenience, All that is expected is that he may gain a trifling knowledge of the problem ia- volved in so simple a thing as calling able-bodied men together in any organi- zation that distinguishes it from a mob. The pacifists are objecting to national defense day. They are afraid it will get men to think in terms of war. They are alarmed lest the fun of playing sol- dier for a few brief hours be so cxhil- irating that those who participate will never again be satisfied any where but in the army, and that as soon as they get back home they will instantly start a campaign to begin war against some nation, it matters little which. It is just as sensible to expect that a fire drill in a school house will encourage children to become incendiaries. If the moral mind of the child is sufficient to resist such a temptation, why should one de- spair of the mature man and admit that he is lost for all things except bloody war, once he meets for a few hours with other men in the name of national de- fense? But, it is shrilly proclaimed, the plan is to mobilize an army. Army nothing ! A Bryan army, maybe. One of these armies that spring up a million strong over night. That isn't an army. Jt isn't even a first class mob. During the late war be it remembered that the United States declared war early in April, and it did not even land any troops in France till four months after, and such as got there then were of the regular army, and these were not trusted even in unimportant sectors of quiet zones until another four months. The United States was in the war eight months before any of its soldiers fired a hostile shot, and it was in the war more than year before any but regular army soldiers were permitted within cannon shot of the front lines. The English and the French contend- ed right up to the days of St. Mihiel that America didn't have an army, never could have one, and that the men it was sending over in soldier's uniforms were fit only to be assigned to fill va- cancies in the English and French arm- ies made by the war. That's what they thought of our "army;" an army that had been more than a year in the making; an army that had drilled, and drilled and which when it went into battle knew not how to take care of itself, was largely ignorant of the tech- nique of war; an army that succeeded simply because the men composing it were naturally fighting men, who had never learned how to retreat, and knew but one command, and that was t> ad- vance. That army--if you can really call it an army, altho it never was in any fair sense of the term--did a won- derful work, and America is immense- ly proud of the way it acquitted itself : vet in the doing of that work thousands of as fine young men as ever breathed air were sacrified unnecessarily, because our army was not an army, but merely a bunch of determined boys who could not be stopped by neither man nor devil. In the light of that experience in 1917- "18 think of the effrontery, the absolute dishonesty, and the brazen insincerity of terming the proposed gathering Septem- ber 12 as the "mobilization of an army." To go back to the fire drill in the school house simile, one might as well say that the children who are marched out of the building in response to a test alarm were the fire department of the city, and that the life object of each child thereafter would be to remain a member of the city fire department. Is it a wise thing or an unwise thing that the men of this nation should know at first hand some of the problems in- cident to the military defense of their country? Does such a knowledge invite belligerency, or is it rather calculated to bring home the seriousness of such neat- ters, and make one cautious rather than impulsive? If war is the hell it is gen- erally said to be, then reasoning minds would be filled with added caution at the contemplation of its machinery, and be more inclined than ever to be care- ful how they tampered with a loaded gun. The general public may enjoy seeing a fire, but there isn't much pleasure see- ing your own house burn down, cven if you are helping the firemen to put it out. There may be a certain excite- ment in war, but for those who are called upon to face the enemy's attack the prospect isn't so alluring in the ma- jority of cases that there isn't general rejoicing when war has ended. It wasn't just pacifists who celebrated the Arm- istice. It was an entire nation, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, men in the army, men on the ocean--every American sang hellelujahs from a bursting heart as never before or since. A fire drill is not an incentive to start a conflagration. A national defense day is not an incentive to war, but a precaution and an insurance against it. --A. T. Burrows, in the Urbana (I11.) Courier, July 29, 1924. EXTENDED HOLIDAY Officials and clerical workers of the Village hall will have an extended week-end holiday. The office will be closed all day September 1, Labor Dry. obo ode obo eke ole ob ood ob of of oe ode oe eo ob oe oR oe ob oe oo LX Cut Flowers Potted Plants Hachels- flowers for all occasions. dedodododoobdododdodokdoh hod odokoh db obod 290 Greenwood Avenue GLENCOE Glencoe 155 oe oi oe obo ole fo oe ob ode oe oe oBe os oe ode oe ode oof oe of oe oe of of of oe oe of oe oe Boge odeodooboob odokokodob of of oF oF oF of oo of of of of of ode oF oF oe oe ob obo ob of of fool 551 Lincoln Avenue "The place where eating is a pleasure" Cameo Restaurant and Lunch Room It's Easy and besides it's almost as handy to drop into the Cameo Restaurant and Lunch Room for your meals as to put your feet under your own table. Why not try it? Joe Stoner & Co. SS o> om we e Indu Beauty Shop g we 2 818 Elm Street Winnetka 2176 z ed N ETHEL M. TAYLOR, R.N. z 2 Real service is rendered to the patrons of this shop. 2 gx Antiseptic Shampooing, Electric Hot Oil Scalp Treat- © ments, Marcelling, Water Waving, correct care of the & 2 Skin, Expert Facial Massage. = 5 g CLT TT TT Ti ETT EE REE ER Te ToT TT PLP FP FO WR, Caddies Turn Players in Annual Indian Hill Event Caddies at the Indian Hill Golf club did something besides carrying sticks and retrieving elusive balls Monday of this week. The boys were the guests of the club in the annual Caddy tour- nament and banquet and, needless to 22% a "good time was enjoyed by all'. Special tennis events for Labor Day at the Indian Hill club were an- nounced as follows this week: Singles events for men, women and juniors; "Racquet Wielders" contest for boys and girls; "Ball Chasers" contest for older boys and girls; Junior "Ball Chasers" event for boys and girls under 10 years of age. The 1924 club championship will be held September 10 to 15 and will con- sist of singles and doubles events, ac- cording to G. J. Higgins, tennis pro- fessional. SIX LAKE SHORE AUTO SALES Sales Room and Service Station 1010-16 Chicago Ave., Evanston, III. Telephone Winnetka 164 Puts you in immediate touch with the COMMUNITY PHARMACY 574 Lincoln Avenue, North of Elm Street, where you will receive courteous treatment and very prompt delivery service. | North Shore Club Opens Formally on August 30 The formal opening of the North Shore Golf club, on Glenview road, will take place Saturday, August 30, with a dinner-dance in the evening, and qualifying rounds in several tourna- ments, during the day. Members of the club entering the tournaments will initiate the new golf serving you at a time when expert and efficient service is so badly needed obligates us to do everything as nearly perfect as pos- sible. You can rely upon us. We Understand bebuil ) FUNERAL ¢ AVE. ¢ 2 pol CHICAGO Evanston course on Saturday. Those qualify- ing in the early rounds will play for the championship on Labor Day in two ball mixed foursomes and an 18 hole match play. Kathleen Air Specialist in Child Training for Piano Study Principal of Winnetka Branch of the Columbia School of Music Phone Winnetka 974 S. Biseth LANDSCAPE GARDENER 379 Hazel Ave., Glencoe Telephone 1095 I specialize in making New Lawns and Re-making old ones. Now is the time to get ready for Perennial Plant- ing. I solicit your work and guarantee satisfaction. Phone Winnetka 32 16 Prouty Annex WINNETKA TEAMING & SUPPLY CO. L. J. HAYES, Prop. GENERAL TEAMING AND EXPRESSING, BUILDING : MATERIAL, DRIVEWAYS, GRADING AND BLACK DIRT Residence Phone 426 Winnetka, Illinois \ SNA AN ANN NN NN NN NN NN NNN 1082 Ash St. NN INTERIOR DECORATING High Class Work O. M. HENDERSON Phone Winnetka 481 EE Yi PAINTING ¢{ / 3 4 / ¢ [ ¢ # Winnetka 5 HERES DERE. SR a mm 344 Sign Painting <I R55 550 Center St. of all kinds. Tubes and Special colors mixed. LEARN TO PAINT ALL THINGS I HELP YOU, SAVE MONEY, COME HERE RASMESEN'S PAINT STORE. PAINTING - DECORATING Sign Painting sea McMENEMY & MARTIN, INC. Real Estate Directed by I. M. Taylor, former Renting Manager of Harold Bradley and Company We are offering a very complete list of furnished and unfurnished apartments and houses for the approaching Son. Investment Bonds Renting Department A telephone call will bring you helpful personal ser- vice in the selection of a winter home. WRIGLEY BLDG. NORTH SECTION Telephone State 2616 me A

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