This Should Be A Day Of Reconsecration...

The world-shattering event for which we have been waiting through five long years has at last become front page news. Hitler's downfall and the defeat of Nazi Germany mark the beginning of a new era, with more than a decade of oppression and violence wiped out in one blazing victory.

Looking back on the past three years of America's participation in the war, a number of factors stand out as definitely contributing to the final victory. Not the least of these was the steady stream of War bonds purchased by a freedom-loving Nation that refused to surrender its birthright.

Throughout the gloomy months that stretched from December 7, 1941, to today, many of us bought bonds to the limit. That investment has paid enormous dividends. It enabled this Nation to equip its civilian armies and to build up its resources to the point where by sheer weight they overwhelmed the enemy.

But the end is not yet.

Germany is defeated. That phase of the war is over.

But there exists still another menace to America that has not yet been erased, and a long and bloody road must be traversed before Japan capitulates. No man, particularly not the hard-headed and real­istic military leaders who are planning Japan's defeat, will hazard a guess as to the length of time it will take to knock her out of the war.

In thousands of American homes today there is both pride and sadness. From those homes came the fighting men who died to bring us thus far on the road to victory. But it will take more sweat and blood and greater individual War bond buying before we see Japan in the ruins her barbarian masters plotted for us.

The men on the ships in the Pacific and the sweating fighters in the jungles and on the beaches know that the war is far from over, and that many long months must elapse before they can call it a day and return home.

If we let down in our all-out efforts now, then we are letting down our men who are still doing the fighting and dying. Our War bonds, however, are an assurance to them that we are wide-awake and realistic concerning the issues at stake, and that we are not lulled into a fool's paradise by the assumption that the war is practically over.

Today should be a day of reconseoration to the stern task still before us. Let us celebrate the fall of Hitler by buying an extra War bond. And let us continue to buy bonds and still more bonds, for cash and through the payroll deduction and allotment plans, so that when the war is finally and completely over, we can assure ourselves in truth that we did our level best to hasten its conclusion.

Every bond we buy from now on must be earmarked with that determination.