Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 12, Number 10, DeMotte, Jasper County, 15 January 1942 — Kathleen Norris Says: Old Way of Life Is Gone Forever [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Kathleen Norris Says: Old Way of Life Is Gone Forever

(Bell Syndicate—WNU Service.)

By KATHLEEN NORRIS

THE strangest years of her history and the greatest crisis she ever has faced are immediately ahead for America. She has always been a friendly country, willing to let other countries solve their problems and worship their gods in their own way, not afraid of her weaker neighbors any more than they were afraid of her. But all this has been changed, and we have “enemies” now, we are to be the world’s arsenal and to attempt to police the world. And you, the quiet mispress of a quiet household, have your share in the world of catastrophe, and must do your bit to pull us all out of a chaos into which the blindness and stupidity of the nations overseas have drawn us. They talked world brotherhood, world peace, world distribution of opportunities and necessities *2O years ago. But nobody meant those promises or took the slightest interest in their fulfillment; blockades went on; mandatory powers were not released; children starved and their mothers and fathers went mad for revenge. These conditions will be repeated in a few years when the war is over, for the men who are responsible for it are not dealing honestly with their peoples now, and are not apt to change afterward. No, they will retire, wealthy and unpunished, as they did 20 years ago, leaving sorrow and ruin and bitter change for all the rest of us to face. Make Family Unafraid. Your share is to make the little unit that is your family, and if possible your group, self-sufficient and unafraid. Begin this very day to change your house into a place to which a man and children love to return at night. No worry, no fears and complaining, no violent discussion of public affairk at your table or around your fireplace. Just the courage of a woman whose forebears have faced loss and change, and who will bear her own share of the burden when and if it comes. Make “I will be afraid of nothing” your first rule. Your faith will affect every member of your family. Yes, even if death is going to be your share, and the boy doesn’t come home from the wars, face it. Three .million American mothers will be beside you. Life won’t ever go back for any of us to what it was. But face it, and in love for those who are left, and who will grieve less, will suffer less, if you always show a smiling face, learn to bear the unbearable. ; For a second rule: Get out of debt. Whatever your income is, live on exactly two-thirds of it. Save; buy a little farm, and wheh you own it, buy another, to rent. Get your feet solidly on the ground for what is coming; for each one of us who can take care of a neighbor will have to do it then. Cut down everywhere you can. 4 Maybe your income is inflated now\ is much larger than it was before defense activities began. If that is so, try to live as simply as before, and invest in national bonds, or in those few acres of real estate that some day may mean a cellar full of your own apples and squashes and potatoes, closet shelves filled with preserved berries and fruits, chickens. And now for a third rule: See that the family income does not

come from just one man. You tyould feel yourself heavily burdened if you had a wife,-a boy and girl, an old mother, an occasional maid, a car, a home, insurance and taxes to maintain; and believe me, in the face of the clouds, darkening over the world today, yoqr man does. One of you, or better, two of you, ought to be helping out, in however modest a fashion. Share the Burden. One woman in my neighborhood w’ent to a contractor and had him turn her big top-story* into an independent flat, with a roofed outer stairway. Bath, kitchen fittings and stairway were the main expense; stove and plumbing cost her $912. But the husband, who had been getting $8 a day was now getting sl6, and sometimes more, and she could pay this off, and did pay this off; at the rate of something more than SIOO a month. Then she furnished it, buying new curtains, but otherwise merely extracting from the 12 rooms downstairs such tables, chairs and beds as she spare. This apartment rents for $75 a month and she says she could rent three of them. Now she has taken three back rooms on the second floor—yes, the boys’ rooms, both her boys are in the service. But she won’t let herself worry or grieve; she says she never thought life was easy, and that she thanks God for all the years she had her stfns. She is turning these three rooms into a sittingroom. bedroom and kitchen, and they are so pleasant, clean and roomy that even while the paperers are in there the suite is rented for a two-year term. This woman, strong, confident, capable, is ready for anything. Are you? Does your husband come home to an atmosphere of peace, courage, helpful planning? Is his mind at ease about W’hat would happen if he became incapacitated? Old Way Gone Forever. That old way is gone forever. But I believe in my heart that new light is shining behind the blackness of these clouds, and that in God's good time it will break through. I think we know more of the suffering of the world than we once did, and that we never again willingly tolerate the crowding, the cold, the hunger and poverty that the world has so long taken for granted. We may live more simply, but it will be more happily, too, if we can feel that the old day of contrasted luxuries and miseries is over, and men have learned that the real riches of life lies in sharing.

Women have a share in the world catastrophe. Make “I will be afraid of nothing" your first rule. Yes, even if death is going to be your share, and the boy doesn't come home from the wars—face it.