Two Editorials for 4 July 1942

The 4th of July had always been an occasion for newspaper editorials.  Today I'm adding two rather different editorials from 1942.  The United States had been in the war for seven months, and things were not going well.  The Milwaukee Sentinel carried a rather typical editorial titled “Our Nation’s Natal Day” with general claims of how the nation needed to draw on its traditions to face the new crisis.

The Eugene Register-Guard took a more interesting approach. In an editorial titled “The Crisis Calls for Realism,” it frankly admitted that the war situation was grim.  The Germans were advancing on Egypt, the Japanese toward India.  And the Russians, while demanding resources, were unwilling to help us in the East.  It ends by complaining about “hazy thinking” in Washington.