This exchange of Daily Bulletin letters to the editor went far to solidify the “Canteen Spirit” that by fall 1942 had become unstoppable. As a Canteen worker would tell This Week magazine in 1943: “North Platte hasn't any big war industries. I guess you could say we've started our own — exporting morale.”
To the Supporters of our local Canteen: Yesterday’s paper brings out the statement that the Canteen will have to close if $200 per month is not forthcoming from the people of North Platte and nearby communities. It seems to me that now North Platte has received its beneficial publicity from Honolulu to New York and that if only coffee, cigarettes and plenty of reading material were given these boys as they pass thru our city that the friendly Canteen gesture would be there — this surely wouldn’t cost $200 per month, nor would it entail the vast amount of work and expenditure that it takes to serve hordes of cakes, cookies, fruit, fried chicken, popcorn balls, as we have in the past. Now that school has started, busy mothers find it hard to take time out to assist with the Canteen effort; too, we are approaching the holiday season, which means more time and money to devote to your household (nearly every family has one or two boys in the service who are depending on you at Christmas time) [and] this all takes extra time and money; most of us are affiliated with church and patriotic circles, which make their demands upon our time and money both for the Canteen and other worthwhile causes. … Our boys do need tanks, planes, trucks [and] guns if we are going to win this war (this need is far greater than birthday cakes, wedding cakes, etc., these are all very fine but are not needed). Uncle Sam is asking you and I to conserve and to save: To the writer, the money invested in the Canteen by our city would bring quicker and safer returns if invested in war bonds to buy the ships, planes [and] guns which your boy and mine need and need right now — Let’s keep our foundries working. Why not limit our Canteen work to coffee and cigarettes and plenty of magazines (those all men really like) and cut the Canteen bill in half?
To All American Citizens: As I read the letter in your paper in regards to the Canteen, I was surprised that a mother of two boys in service (or even one) could feel that guns were all it took to win a war. Are we going to be like some of the countries we are fighting and say “You Have a Birthday? So what! There is a war on. Here is your gun, get out there and do your duty.” No, I don’t think we can do that. Were you ever at the Canteen? Did you watch the homesick boy receive a birthday cake, on his birthday, and watch the tears come to his eyes and hear him say, “Gee, I thought I wouldn’t get a cake this year. I am so far from home.” Well, folks, I have seen this very thing many times, and I think if you would come down to the Canteen and see what is going on there and read some of our letters from the boys, you would see how much a few little things like these can help him to be stronger and feel that he hasn’t given up all in vain. True, it costs money to hand out these treats daily, but I don’t believe anyone that has donated to this cause has deprived himself to any harmful extent in doing so. … So let’s not forget the moral support along with the guns, and all do our bit by giving up a few more pleasures once a week and keep this Canteen the best in the United States.
Thank you. [I am] a Canteen worker. I am also a Soldier’s and Sailor’s mother.
Signed, A Soldier’s and Sailor’s Mother (Mrs. C.A. [Esther] Tebbetts) Daily Bulletin | Oct. 7, 1942
Mrs. Charles D. [Jessie] Hutchens Daily Bulletin | Oct. 8, 1942
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