It Has Happened Here

"Calling America . . . Goebbels calling America . . . Listen America . . . Do you see that you are beaten? Has your confidence been shaken? Now do you realize that past performances don't mean a thing? That potential resources won't do you any good? That American institutions will not stand up against a youthful, fighting faith? That blitz tactics can succeed? After all, the Cardinals won."

The little man may not have thought of that line yet, but it is a good one. In recent years the superiority of the New York Yankees has been one of the firmest beliefs in American thought. People had faith in the Yankees as they had faith in their folk lore: Joe DiMaggio's bat was the modern equivalent of Paul Bunyan's axe, Joe McCarthy in the Stadium was like U. S. Grant was Vicksburg. Now the idol has fallen, and millions have become cynical. If the Yankees can lose, what can you believe in?

This catastrophe cuts the other way, too, for it can strengthen American morale. Blind self-assurance has suffered a moral blow; the era of short-sighted faith is gone. Joe Gordon caught off second is as unlikely as Douglas MacArthur caught off Australia. Bill Dickey's throwing into center field is as impossible as a Flying Fortress missing its mark. Those things just don't happen. But Gordon was tagged out, and Dickey did make a bad toss. If that doesn't jolt our complacency, nothing will.