World Film and Television Progress (1938)

boy: When he was in the graveyard the girl saw him there and asked the grave digger about him and he said he was French, and she went home and told her mother. girl: The priest really did soothe the young man because he so truly believed it was his duty. Mary Tudor believed she was doing the right thing when she chopped off people's heads. girl : The picture showed the inability of the priest to satisfy the questions of this man. After all the priests and the church advocate that to go to war is all right, and in this picture it showed that the church advocates war. girl: The priest told him he did not commit murder, that he had done his duty. Well, he did. He must protect himself. This is not considered murder when war is declared. They could not go to war and not kill. To the church murder is one thing and war is another. boy: In the first place, anyone who has ever been in the leading churches of to-day knows that the church never stood for war. What it does stand for is that every man must protect his own home, his children, wife and family. This is the manly thing to do. It is one's duty to one's family and one's God. They (the church) do not advocate war. boy: "Must protect your family and your country". This is a fine thing, but I think that all this stuff about "Americanism" and "Hail Hitler" is one of the big things that causes war. A man can stand by his country, but I don't think a country can ask a man to give up his life for it. If a person does not believe in war he should not go to war. leader : How about this? What would happen? many : He goes to jail. girl: Their families get down on them if they don't go to war. They cheer them when they go. girl : If you are married you don't have to go to war, do you? boy : I think it is pretty low of a person who has been born and brought up in a country and has been protected by American citizenship all his life. I think the least he could do is to go out and fight for his country and protect it with his life. girl : When people heard about the terrible things which the Germans did they got worked up. The atrocity stories were not true, and there were some on the other side. boy: When Sherman rode from Atlanta to the sea what would you have done? Wouldn't you have protected your home, wouldn't you have gotten out and fought too? Don't you think people should fight to protect their own homes? girl : It is all right when you are on the defensive, but there is no excuse for offensive. boy : "The best defence is an offence". boy: Why should a man when he has helped to build up his country try to tear it down by going to war? girl: I think the mother and father of the German boy were natural. The father was inclined to be bitter because his son had been killed. I think the mother was very wise about it, and very human. boy : Perhaps because the mother had been home she was more concerned with the home, and the father had outside interests in business, perhaps his income was cut. Perhaps this would have something to do with his antagonism to the French. But the mother was concerned with the family rather than with countries. boy: It is typical. The average man feels this way about war. There is a great difference between the man and woman in this case. 1 think the man would not have acted this way, but the woman is O.K. The man's hatred was too deep. girl: There are sentimental men and sentimental women. It depends. girl : He felt it on his conscience because he had helped the war, and felt bitter, therefore. But the mother did not have any hand in it and thus was not so bitter. girl : I think she felt just sorry about losing her son. I don't think any of them felt bitter towards everyone. girl : Do you think he had the courage to tell the family that he had killed their son? leader: What about the father saying his heart was with the young men now? boy : He changed because he wanted to show the young men the mistake the older men had made. girl: He wanted to show the older men the mistakes they had made. boy : Something that impressed me was the obvious need for education and understanding between nations, because the realisation did not come to the young man who had killed the man until after he had done it — after the war. Education must be done before war takes place. leader : How much understanding is there between American and Japanese, for instance? boy: There are Japanese teachers going through our schools to-day, 35-40 of them. It shows there is something going on. girl: How do we know which way they are going to use that information? boy: How many boys in the group would have gone to the war rather than to prison? Four Boys out of a Mixed Group of About Fifty Showed Hands. leader : Have people gone to prison rather than to war? various voices: Eugene Debs, Bertrand Russell. girl: My grandfather went to prison because he had three sons he would not send to war. boy: It seems to me that the intelligent people were those who did not go. boy : How do you figure that? boy: One of the big troubles with Europe today is that most of the intelligent young men were killed off in the war. Lots of the best men were killed in the war. girl: Somebody said that intelligent people do not go to war. But the young people do not know. They would be called dumb for not going. Older people might go to prison because they could think it through, but not the young people. One need hardly comment. More discussion of this type and fewer short cuts to knowledge like the map in my old school room or the one in that school house in Wisconsin, and there might be more wisdom. recent war film : Franchot Tone & Spencer Tracy in 'They Gave Him a Gun. (M.G.M.) 29