Wilson Remembers Pearl Harbor Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Ellen Jacobi '43 penned the piece "Wilson is Capable of Service for Country," which appeared in the February 1942 edition of the Alumnae Quarterly. She deftly identifies the way that Wilson can support the war effort, and her suggestions on citizenship and engagement are as relevant today as they were 75 years ago. But perhaps most sobering is the prescience she shows in predicting a mass attack on New York City in her plea for us to never again be comfortable with complacency. The piece is transcribed as it appeared in the Alumnae Quarterly; all emphases are original. "Wilson is Capable of Service for Country" (February 1942) Ellen Jacobi '43 There is a rumor that the Japanese have henchmen flying their planes, that the Japanese have borrowed other people to do a dirty job for them. Is Wilson going to get someone else to do her work for her in this emergency? Wilson capable of doing all and more than is expected of her, if there is cooperation and realization by all of us that our very lives are at stake. There has been an awakening in the past few days. It is not enough just to wake up. It is too easy to fall asleep again as soon as the alarm is shut off. We have all shut our ears to warning. We have all said, "It can't happen here." Now we know it can happen here. Hysteria won't help. Sensibility won't help unless it's backed up by something constructive. Are we going to doze again, to wait until a bomb actually falls on New York? Even then are some of us going to say, "Why First Aid in Chambersburg? We are inland, out of the range of the enemy planes." What can be done in college? It is my opinion that we can do a great deal. First we can learn the difference between propoganda sent us by the enemy, and fact given us by our government. These terms often mean the same thing. The Webster definition of propoganda is "any organization for spreading a particular doctrine or system; the doctrine or principles thus propogated." Propoganda, therefore, need not always be false. Any form of advertising is propoganda. Let us be careful how we use the term. Secondly, we can learn cooperation. The enemy have it forced upon them. Let our cooperation with the government and college defense authorities be voluntary. It should not be necessary to draft us to do our duty as citizens of the United States of America. Remember that what we are fighting for is not only for posterity, but it is for ourselves, now. Listen to the radio, regularly, not constantly. Attend defense lectures. Read periodicals. These are things that which should have been habit before now. If there are First Aid courses, Nursing courses, etc., let's all choose the thing in which we are most interested. Don't sign up for everything and work at none. Let's give more of our "Coke money" to the Community Chest--it will be helping our own boys now. Remember, to win anything worth while takes sacrifice. Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Let's begin to give up things we like, and to do things we don't really enjoy. Let's show the doubters that a democracy can win, that volunteers can help, that we don't need the super-organization of a dictator-governed country. Above all, let's not lapse into a coma again.
