THE HERITAGE OF SANITY

Evening Star, Issue 23745, 28 November 1940, Page 7

THE HERITAGE OF SANITY

In London a few days ago an American correspondent saw an old man “pull his dead son out of the rubble of a demolished house,” lay the body gently in a waiting ambulance, then turn andj without a word, begin “ digging again in the stones for the rest of his family.” He was one of many who took cruel blows without a whinr per. The correspondent wrote:— One simply cannot convey the spirit of these people. Adversity only angers and strengthens them. They are tough in a way we Americans seldom understand. That curious gentility among their menfolk confuses us. We underestimate them. For another side of the same picture turn to the Berlin despatch, which quotes a “ soldier-reporter ” who went over London with a German squad:— With jubilation our airmen are greeted hy their comrades. Again and. again they must tell about their experiences. ... Out of the men’s eyes shines the joy that comes from the success of a great raid. . . . Their eyes lit up as they heard of the fireworks show over there. The contrast is horrible. The words of the Nazi quotation are unmistakably those of a sinister adolescent who never has grown up and never will. Into the hands of hysterical children like this are given weapons to destroy the treasures of the ages. This war many phases, but in one of them it is certainly a struggle between infantilism and maturity, between insanity and cool sanity. Surely a psychiatrist, whatever the military men say, can have no doubt of tho ultimate outcome.—Editorial in the New York ‘ Times.’