The potters herald. [volume], April 01, 1943, Image 4

About The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982

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PAGE FOUR
Sebrins, Ohio.
w:
THE POTTERS HERALD
OFFICIAL JOl'RNAT, OF
August 20, 191S.
Park, Calif.
New Jersey.
NATIONAL HKOTlli:KHOOI OF OPKRATIVE POTTERS
aiul
EAST LIVERPOOL TRADES & LABOR COUNCIL
Published fvery Thursday at East Liverpool, Ohio, by th« N. B. of O
P., owning ami operatinp: the Best Trades Newspaper and Job
Printing Plant in the State.
Entered at PostofTice, East Liverpool, Ohio, April 20, 1902, as second
class matter. Accepted for mailing at Special Rates* of Postajre
provided for in Section 1108, Act of October 13, 1917, authorized
General Office, N. B. of O. P. Building, W. 6th St., BELL PHONE 575
HARRY L. GILL Editor and Business Manapcr
One Year to Any l'.trt of the United States or Canada. ——$2.00
RAPES
I '^nr^lC-C^UNCLl)
President—James M. Puffy, P. O. Box 6, East Liverpool, Ohio.
First Vice President E. L. Wheatley, Room 215, Broad Street National
Bank Building, Trenton, New Jersey.
Second Vice President—Frank Hull, 6111 Pacific Blvd., .Huntington
Third Vice President—James Slaven, Cannons Mills, East Liverpool,
Ohio.
Fourth Vice President—Charles Zimmer. 1045 Ohio Avenue, Trenton.
Fifth Vice President—George Newbon, 847 Melrose Avenue, Trenton,
New Jersey.
Sixth Vice President—George Turner, 400 Monroe Street, East Liver
pool, Ohio.
Seventh Vice President—Charles Jordan, 176 East Virginia Avenue,
Eighth Vice President—Joshua Chadwick, Grant Street, Newell, Weet
Virginia.
SecreUu-y-Trrusurer—John D. McGillivray, P. O. Box 6, East Liver
pool, Ohio.
EASTERN GENERAL WARE STANDING COMMITTEE
Manufacturers A. G. DALE, FRED SUTTEP.LIN, JAMES TURNER
Operatives, E. L. WHEATLEY, WM. E. YOUNG. EDWARD SEYFIERT
WESTERN GENERAL WARE STANDING COMMITTEE
Manufacturer.-! ~M. J. LYNCH. ARTHUR WELLS
Operatives, JOHN McGILLIVRAY. LOUIS PIESLOCK. F. IIAYNES
EASTERN CHINA WARE STANDING COMMITTEE
Manufacturers BEN I). IIARDESTY, E. K. KOOS
Operatives, E. L. WHEATLEY, JOHN T. HA Lit A UK, Jr., WM. OWEN
WESTERN CHINA WARE STANDING COMMITTEE
Manufacturers BEN I). IIARDESTY, E. K. KOOS
Operatives, BERT CLARK, H. R. HAISLOP. JOHN McGILLIVRAY
DECORATING STANDING COMMITTEE
Manufacturers, ROBERT DIET/,, Sr.. BERT HARKER, MARGARET
PARKER.
N. B. of O. P., JAMES SLAVEN, HUGO MILLER, ROLAND HORTON
SPEAKING OF RACKETEERS
HAVE FOli months been leadinp: in our
daily papers horriferous stories about labor
racketeering. Seems some union officials have
been gouging, and Congressmen, columnists, and
editors demand an end to it. No sincere laboi
union official will take issue with such a com
mendable aim. If any labor official is dishonest he
should be jailed.
One nmedy proposed is to make all labor
unions publish their financial statements and re
port to the government periodically. A law to
accomplish this and much more is being con
sidered. This bill is so vicious and so far-reaching
it must be killed.
But, oh, yes we were speaking of racketeer
ing. You didn't see much, if anything, in youi
favorite daily about it, but recently the House
adopted an amendment to the independent offices
bill which will compel the Home Owners' Loan
'Corporation to liquidate its affairs and go out of
business.
This quiet little amendment will effect a .$-1.r)0,
000,000 treasury grab for securities corporations,
of course, at the same time'Causing several hun
dred thousand little home owners to lose their
properties.
The IIOLC was created early in the Roosevelt
administration to save big lending agoncios which
were loaded with defaulting mortgages. Had th
government at that time not gone to their rescue
they would have gone to the wall. At the same
time the government saved the homes of about
a million small owners.
Now, however, busiin s lias improved, real
estate values are on the upgrade, and the cor
porations which welcomed government interven
tion 10 years ago now want to regain the gilt
edged securities and mortgages Uncle Sam took
over. They do not, however, want the shaky ones
and that is why if this steal goes through tin
little fellow will be holding the bag and their
defaulted mortgage..
USKS IS THKOTTLIM)
/MJIi W AR Ei'TTMtT has two main divisions
manpower and production. We Select those
best qualified for military service and leave war
production and maintenance of national life to the
rest. From now on very individual must con
tribute to winning the fight for free institutions.
Efficient handling of manpower problems will
be conditioned by cooperation of voluntary or
ganizations of management and labor that in
fluence local action and the effectiveness of the
governmental employment agency, the United
States Employment Service.
lloth labor and management iiave assumed
their responsibility, but the Employment Service,
although federalized and transferred to the Man
power Commission, is throttled by lack of funds
and by restrictions on personnel standards and
salaries that tie them to local contacts and portend
continued limitations 011 the-development of the
Service.
Congr..-s ha a!.-. :mK made generous provi
sions for the ."trnied forces and their equipment
for battle. Quickly and with equal ampleness Con
gress should give the manpower recruitment am"
placement services
iu
means
4
f»»r
their vital function
We have a large population, scattered over a
vast territory, almost all of whom are engaged in
some kind of useful work. Practically all our mail
population will be in the work force as soon as
the military call to service reviews those 18 anc
11) years of age. Fifteen million women are in the
work force and more must come.
-reat
performance of
To accomplish 1! program, conserving the
national welfare a 11 as meeting its urgent
immediate needs, the United States Employment
Service must have funds and control over its
personnel. Immediate responsibility rest upon
Congress for funds and cutting the restrictions
that prohibit action above the local level.
SOCIAL INSURANCE is the first step in post
war planning it is an essential guarantee to main
tain private industry. More than 20 million people
now in the armed forces and war industry will be
seeking jobs after the war. We must provide un
employment insurances for them if we wait, it
will be too late.—Labor's Monthly Surrey, AFL
TWO PLANS —TWO PROMISES
FN SPITE of the differences in the scope of the
two plans, the resemblance in spirit between
the program of the National Resources Plannin
Board and the English Beveridge plan is striking
Yet there are a few further analogies between the
IAVO
plans which deserve to be stressed because
they have received less attention. First of all, it
s no coincidence that both plans had almost iden
tical origins. The governments of the two great
democracies at war realized that, in order to sur
vive and to secure a lasting peace, democracy will
lave to offer economic and social security to the
peoples after this war.
When, after long-drawn out and thorough
studies, the plans were finally published, the re
action in the two countries was quite similar. In
both countries, labor greeted the plan enthusi
astically. This was only natural, for it is labor
which is bound to suffer most from economic and
social insecurity. And it is labor in whose minds
the tragit history of the misery and humiliations
which spring from want and insecurity, is most
leeply engraved.
On the other hand, business and other con
servative groups in both countries have not con
cealed their distrust of the plans. Although a
many enlightened business and conservative
waders are fully aware of the urgent need of
reeting post-war problems with constructive
plans of economic and social security, the major
ity of them are apprehensive of government en
croachments in the field of distribution of wealth
and of private business initiative.
The two plans will now be subjected to the play
of political forces, and their ultimate fate will
depend (»n those forces. Strong as the grip which
conservatism Still holds on the peoples of most
countries may be, there can hardly be any doubt
that the urge for security, which is felt so deep
ly in the hearts of all the nations, will eventually
prove stronger than the powers of the past.
The United States and Great Britain are not
just two members of the family of nations. They
are destined by their role in the war and by their
political and economic weight to play a leading
part in forming the world which is to emerge
from its repercussions in the rest of the world.
The I'ritish government was well aware of this
fact when it had the news of the publication of
the Beveridge plan broadcast to all the world, but
especially to Germany. It know that the news
would fill the peoples who have been subdued by
fascism with new hope and confidence in a future
led by the Western democracies.
National and international policy will be close
ly interwoven in the post-war period. In the At
antic Charter, the United Nations have pledged
themselves to strive for freedom from fear and
want "for all the men in all the lands." Yet to
attain this goal, they will have to begin at home.
To establish an international order devoted to the
ideals of peace and security, the leading nations
of the world will first have io establish systems of
economic and social security in their own lands.
Both the Beveridge plan and the program of
the National Resources Planning Board which
President Roosevelt recently submitted to Con
gress are designed to be the cornerstones of such
security systems. The world anxiously awaits the
fulfillment of the promises held out in these two
plans.
FAKK LKTTKRS AGAINST LABOR
gHNATOIl AULLAkl) F. TYPINGS, of Mary
land, was caught out on a limb when he quoted
a letter supposed to be from a Marine on (Juadal
canal complaining that 47 of our men had been
trapped and killed near Gona because American
workmen had been laying down on the job and
there were not enough planes on Guadalcanal to
drive off the Japs.
Tydings got his speech oil' his chest and
amused his colleagues, some of whom knew that
Gona is not on Guadalcanal, and some even knew
the letter was a hoax written by a man in Hemp
stead, L. 1., who never saw either Gona or Guadal
canal.
It was like that famous Akron story of long
shoremen refusing to unload ships in the wai
zone on Sunday made splendid propaganda
against labor, and like all lies was hard to catch.
Anti-labor Congressmen and employers have
used so much of such unreliable material in theii
attempt to smash labor that it has backfired on
them. Their campaign of hate has made people
think, and when the people of this country com
mence thinking it's just too bad for the char
atans- the laker shows himself up when he over
reaches himself.
Labor in this country, and mostly it is organ
ized labor, has done a good job of producing wai
materials in fact, it has done a better job than
is being done in any other country. It is not the
fault of labor that we have transportation bottle
necks, material bottlenecks, and are now contem
plating with no small concern the threatened food
shortage. Labor has done its job, is doing it every
day, and needs no apology and deserves consider
ably less criticism.
THKRirS ALWAYS A REASON
|i:i ]lAI\S YOU have been wondering why Pres
('apt. Kddic Uickenbacker broke out so sudden
y with patriotism why he filled speaking engage
ments all over the nation why he seized upon the
subject of "absenteeism" and why he gets so
much space in the daily papers.
Well, then? is more than one way to advertise
a motion picture. If the plot is good the play is
advertised. If the script has little merit, it needs
a well-known actor, if it has neither the film
needs a notorious character. And the suckers line
up for tickets.
In the theatrical magazine "Variety" of March
we find a three-line paragraph which says:
"Winnie Sheehan in from Coast for huddles on
Capt. IOddie Uickenbacker screen vehicle."
Ye gods! Can this be the reason for all the
hullabaloo about Eddie's nation-wide condemna
tion of absenteeism, for his demand that tin
Marines in the foxholes be brought back to pro
duce1 war materials. Is this the ace in the hole
of our World Ware ace?
Is it possible thflt Eddie wants them Marines
to come back home and buy tickets for his "screen
vehicle?" Is it all merely a build-up for a movie?
Well, time will tell, but if "Variety" U correct
jur illusions are sure shattered.
THE POTTERS HERALD
Couneil
Teachers:
.lark
Klim.x II AUKK KCI U I ION
lK \\YS I'KOi KST OF I. VISOR
New Vol!, I
Ask
FACING THE FACTS
With PHILIP PEARL
The her ni-'i' wo went niarketiir_' in our
1
1
l*1»Ixu*1j»k«1
nation's capital. 1 was, we regret to say, our iir.st time out with the market
basket in a year. ur purpose was to And out at first hand what there is to
all this talk about liiirh prices.
Our first call was at the butch'er's. Well, a lot of other people apparently
had the same idea The place was jammed. And when it came our turn, the
butcher with whom we have dealt for some years was sorry to inform us that
he had no meat 1 -ft.
So we went across the street to the lish market. The dealer had some
fresh flounder. The price, he informed us, was forty cents a pound. It struck
us suddenly that a ear :igo the top price quoted for flounder was twenty cents
a pound.
Next door wa- the vegetable store. Here the prices were prominently dis
played, so we looked around. Fresh peas were quoted a.t. twenty-five cents a
pound, lettuce at eighteen cents a head, string beans at twenty-four cents a
•ound. Well, we thought, these prices are prohibitive because such vegetables
ire out of season. So we walked down the counter to the cabbage stand. And
here we saw the -ign—twelve cents a pound for a poor man's vegetable that
normally sells for about four cents.
We went lionie with an empty market basket.
FACTS VS. STATISTICS
And the thought struck us—how many wives of workers are forced to go
home these days with empty market basketsV How many families with lower
incomes than our "\vn are compelled to do without many necessities of life
because they just l.aven't got the money to buy food at inliated prices? Wiiat's
going to happen in the strength of our labor forces if they can't buy enough
of the things the. need to eat because prices are out of .their reach? What is
he effect going to be on the war production effort?
Then we not-d in the paper the announcement that the National War
Labor Hoard had rejected the AFL petition to keep wages in line with living
•osts. it seems tha- a majority of the members of the board don't believe that
he cost of living lias gone up to such an extent as to require revision of the
'Little Steel" formula.
It: occurred 1" us that perhaps the public and employer members of the
WLIi who voted ..aiinst the AFL petition ought to try a marketing expedition.
Instead of porlnv over ollicial statistics an the cost of living, they ought to
put themselves in the housewive's place and see how much they can buy on
a worker's pay.
And we also began thinking about these official statistics. Why aren't they
in step with .the Hi. Is? Flow is it that they show an average increase of only
one-half of one per cent a month when food prices hav# actually gone up as
much as 100 per rent in the past year?
Then we reaii et| that these statistics include many other items besides
food—such as clothing, furniture, etc.—items that the average worker's family
doesn't buy more often than once a year, if that frequently. Most of the
worker's weekly income goes for food. And food prices have zoomed in to the
tratosphere despite Government ceilings. In fact, .the only ceiling we can
discern l'or food l-rices is the sky.
THE CALL OF JUSTICE
Of course, ti newspapers try to make it appear thai higher wages are
the only real threat of inflation. They warn about "silk shirt" eras and luxury
pending of workers. They seem to think that workers have surplus funds left
after paying rein, "axes, swollen prices for food and buying war bonds. On
what? So far as we know, the average pay for factory workers in this country
slill around $4o a wiek. It' an expert can tell us how a family can live on
that these days we would nominal*! him as lloudini's successor.
For it is a far! that American workers are now caught in a vice and tied
hand and foot by rigid wage controls and unchecked price increases. The cost
of living and
wa-e,
have to be brought back into a reasonable relationship,
otherwise, there is going to be serious trouble on the home front in America.
American workers are willing and eager to undergo hardships to help
speed the day of \irtory. They are ready to lighten their belts. They welcome
rationing of scarce goods, so that everyone can have bis fair share of what is
available. They-'jire cheerfully paying higher taxes than ever before in their
ives because thej know it takes
money
to win this war.
Hut no human being can be expected to work his head off a nd I lien find
himself hijacked of his earnings without protesting against being robbed by
those wiio are mill ing unconscionable profits out of this war.
We don't pretend to know who is responsible for high food prices. Hut the
Government, whi n forbids higher wages, had better find out promptly and
forbid increases in the cost of living with equal severity and effectiveness.
This is only ju-Jifice.
News From Ohio Federation Of Labor
BILL TO LENGTHEN WOMEN'S HOt'ltS REMAINS IN COLD STORAGE
Columbus, Ohio.—-The holiest bill considered by I he Ohio General Assembly
lliis session slill remain* in cold storage.
S. H. I'Jti. deigned to lengthen the hours of women in non-war industry,
was carefully laid away in the Senate itules Committee March 17, when 13
Kepubiiean senators refused to vole for hours beyond a 4S maximum. Since
lhat date (he hill lias reposed with tin* committee, and much speculation has
centered around whether legislative leaders would attempt breathe life in
the dormant bill and bring if forth for passage.
If the 1.'{ senators sti^id by organized Labor
is
caucus on .March 17, when a 1 IS- K lie vole resulted, and the live Democratic
senators imaini.iin their opposition to the measure, then the legislative leaders
cannol muster enough voles for its passage, and Mihcr must accept llie amend
nionls proposed by Labor, or lei it die a natural death.
•Meanwhile until S. ]». 12(1 occupies iheir attention in, Labor legislative
represenlal ive- here, including I'hil Hannah, Legislaiiu Agent of Hie Ohio
Stale Federation of Labor, are kepi busy opposing oilier anti-Labor measures.
Included in this classification are II. B. 111."', (French), lo set up'a thriv-man
commission to -regulate" trade unions, and 11. B. (Carr), giving highway
patrol member^ tlie status of peace officials. The French bill would very seri
ously hamper unions with rigid restrictions, and the Carr bill arouses Labor's
traditional I ears of a state police
set
up similar to
and coal" ollicers.
Oilier anti-Labor i,,ca- m-c, pedin... include
than .Ml I'nion representatives from all pans of .the state.
A delegation from I he Cleveland Federation of Labor was present.
I 'resided o\er by Phil Hannah, Legislative Agent of the Ohio State Federa
tion of Labor, ihe Labor representatives discussed several anti-Labor measures
in the (ieneral Assembly, principally II. 1$. l'.Hi (French), to "regulate" unions,
and S. IJ. IL'i'i (ltdss), to lengthen bonis of women and children in non-war
indiist ries.
Speakers i the luncheon iii'ludetl Jack Kroll, president of the Ohio C.I.O.
Council Mi el Lyden, president of the Ohio State Federation of Labor
William Kase\. "of the Transportation IIrolhcrhoods Thomas Lenahan, secre
tary of the Cleveland Federal ion of Labar Robert I»aie, Secretary of the
Ohio P.uihliiig and Construction Trades Council \V. F. Schultz, international
representative of the Jtroliicrhood of Painters T. I\ Silvey, secretary of the
»hio C.I.O.
:Iy Declaring thai "a|.
i he valiant niggle of
niied forces to drive the
from the Russian home
lead us to condone acts
iud moral assassination
the Communist dictators
-a Inst ideological oppo
Miinittee of !i"0 leading
leaders of New York
ivbl Duhinsky, president
uional Ladies' (Jannent
ion* announced that a
to protest the execution
authorities last I in
.vlc Ehrlich and Vio.or
precialiuii oi
the liussiun a
Hitler horde
land will not
of physical
committed l\
of Rus.si-i
nents," a
trade union
beaded by I
«f the Intern
Workers' In
public meetin.
by the Sin! i
ber of i:
Alter.
for Union Labeled merchandise.
fl
stores in the
iliey did in tiie Republican
IVnn-ylvania' former
a
ing agency elections to county election boards, a hill providing that La hoi
unions may be sued, and a bill providing stiff penalties for "conspiracies." Tin
conspiracy hill is so broad in its definitions that most any ad could be terine
a ci ai-.pi rni ,\.
AN 11-LAlfOli ULAM KL DISCI N.sKiJ A'i LINC-Hi'jON
i uanize.l Labor's .March L\". weekly legislative luncheon attracted
David Williams, secretary of the Ohio Federation of
liuins, secretary of ihc Cleveland Itnilding Trades Council
and Paul McCarthy, president the Vlumhus Federation of Labor.
Capt. i.diae UicUeiihacUer, former army flyer, but now an airplane manu
facturing exe. alive, will address the Ohio (ieneral Assembly on April 1U. Thi
Ieneral Assembly previously had extended an invitation to Uickenbacker, who
on previous occasions has bitterly assailed organized Labor. lie will speak
between "S and I) 3o and not more than 30 minutes," according to his letter'to
Thomas P.ateman, Senate clerk.
"iron
bill I r. l.ab.-r
ba
i--a:n-
iimh
UNION -V3i:N I'RAISI I) y
I'lJOIH ("I'lON liOARI) DIRECTOR
New York cji \. ••The 70,000 mer
chant. seamen, members of AFL and
CIO unions alike, have delivered the
goods despite the most arduous and
dangerous conditions," Wendell Lund,
director of the War Production Roard
Labor Production Division, said re
cently. "Casualties in the merchant
marine in the paa»t: year," he added,
"have been severe. The actual percent
age is the highest of any branch of
our armed services. These are civilians
workers union members whose
heroism In line of duty typilies the
determination "T all Americans la
smash the Axis."
Give 'em the guns—put lo per cent
of pay in War Bonds.
COMMENT ON WORLD
EVENTS
»t -I' '1' 'I' '1'
'I"
Slave labor is a feature of boih
Nazi and Japanese rule. Light on the
Japanese use of such labor*is given
by the Incentive Division of the Navy
Department, in a delayed dispatch
from Gua'dalcanal which should stif
fen labor's determination in the United
Nations to destroy the Nazi and Japa
nese regimes.
The dispatch reports that Chinese
coolies found in Guadalcanal by Amer
ican troops del-hired they were among
100 brought to the island by Japanese
soldiers to work in forced labor gangs.
They were threatened with wholesale
executions if they refused to work,
they said.
In the past four months, many suc
cumbed to hunger and disease. In the
four months they worked in Guadal
canal as pack animals for their Japa
nese overlords, the coolies said .they
had to forage for their own food. Their
wage* were kicks and cuffirigs.
Too closely watched to attempt es
cape before, these coolies managed to
stay behind as the Americans advanced
and the Japs moved back. The coolies
told their story to Chinese interpreters.
-K
Tliis was the story: Caplured after
the Japanese seizure of Canton and
Hong King, they were told they could
work for the Japanese or be beheaded.
Pressed into labor gangs, they worked
first in Southwest China, then in the
Netherlands East Indies, and finally
in Guadalcanal. In Guadalcanal they
carried supplies and material on their
hacks through malarial jungles and
over steep ridges.
They were told they would be paid
and fed three times daily. Neither
promise materialized. They lived on
coconuts, berries and roots. They re
ceived no medical treatment. Some of
the captives were bold enough to tell
tin? Japs that the Chinese people were
Allies of the P.ri.tisb and Americans.
For this they were kicked and beaten
and told they must look upon the Japa
nese as "their big brothers."
When asked how they felt now that
they were in American hands, grins
brightened their wan faces. One of
them said: "We are happy now. We
won't have to worry anymore about
being beheaded. We are with friends."
•¥.
The Nazi practice of shipping large
.numbers of Norwegians to Germany is
Hitended "to serve as "insurance" for
Germans stranded in Norway in event
of an Allied invasion, figures the
Swedish newspaper, Social Demo
Is ra ten, in an interpretive dispatch,
which implies that fear of invasion
has made the Nazis very jittery.
The dispatch said Norwegian circles
had emphasized that most of the Nor
wegians thus far removed to Germany
were highly prominent personages for
whose release the Nazis might well
demand the German officials left be
hind "in event the Wehriuaclit is
forced to leave Norway."
"The knowledge that the Allies will
punish war criminals nfay have con
tributed to the Germans taking host
ages for a possible later exchange,"
tiie dispatch said.
W A N E
I
I
To increase passenger loads, a
type of elongated passenger sedan
has been developed by cuffing an
ordinary sedan in the middle aiul
inserting a wooden chasis frame and
masonite panels. The vehicle seats
15 persons and takes only a Mnall
amour.! of additional critical mate
rials.
PRISONERS OK NAZIS TRKATKl)
ISi:i i AS VICTORY I ADLS
New York City (ILNSi Reports
ironi Norway confirm a slightly im
proved treatment of military and civil
prisoners in German hands, the Amer
ican ollice of (he International Trans
port Workers' Federation says. There
is general comment .that this change is
due to Hie military reverses suffered
by Germany and the growing realiza
tion that u German victory can no
longer be expected.
Coincident with the sudden improve
inent of the Gcriua.ii attitude toward
their victims is the spurt of activities
of the underground and opposition ele
ments in the German-occupied coun
tries. Sabotage and violent action are
on the upgrade. About: 120 Gestapo
officials and Nazi elite guards are said
to have been killed during January
alone in the Netherlands "by unknown
hands." In Belgium, urgent German
requisitions for Belgian rolling stock
have led to attacks on railway repair
shops and intensive destruction, again
"by unknown elements."
STRI:I RAILWAY WORKKRS
GAIN BIG WAGi: 1N( RKASIC
The Regional War Labor Board at
Cleveland, Ohio, has approyed an arbi
tration award granting an increase of
11 cents per hour to the approximate
ly 1,700 employees of the Concinnati
Street Railway Company who are
represented by Division 027 of .the
Amalgamated Association of Street.
Fleet lie Railway and Motor Coach
Kmployees of America.
The award increased the hourly
rate of the one-man car, trolley, bus
and motor coach operators from SI
cents to «»2 cents, and the rate of the
comparatively small number of ,two
man car motormen and conductors
from 74 cents to So cents.
Thursday, April 1, 1043.
THE
CHERRY TREE
Where With Our Little Hatrhrt
We Tell the Truth Alunit Many
Things, Sttmetimes Profoundly,
S o e i e s i a n y a n
Sometimes Recklessly.
When CPA abolished police enforce
ment of the no-pleasure driving rule
the American people were put on their
honor not to use gasoline for pleasure
uses.
Thereupon came an interesting spec
tacle.
It developed that there
was
mighty
little honor where automobile driving
was concerned.
Movie parking lots that hadn't
housed a car since the ban suddenly
gave space to a goodly part of .their
number of visiting autos.
Curbs near movie houses also be
came crowded with cars.
If the police weren't going to en
force the ban any longer, why who
cared a hang? That seemed to be the
attitude.
It was all very interesting.
One may wonder about, the "why"
of all this. Drivers still were not sup
posed to use cars for pleasure. But
they did, just the minute the cops were
called o(T.
Perhaps there were a couple of
reasons.
One was that the ban on pleasure
driving was all wet in the first place.
People just naturally feel that it'
they've bought and paid for a com
modity they ought to be able to use it
in whatever manner suits them.
That's fairly well ingrained. Cut
ting the allowable amount is a sounder
way.
But maybe there's another reason
hack of the conduct of folks in regard
to gasoline.
Throughout the whole American
background is the tradition of each
looking out for himself. It's a trans
lation of the thing called individual
initiative.
It lias nothing to do with generosity
toward those less fortunate.
Men sought to make more money
than their neighbors made for just
about the same reason that a good
many tried to store up one more can
of beans before rationing.
The fellow who .has an extra can of
beans probably would share it gladly
with a hungry neighbor.
The urge to get that can of beans
has nothing in the world ,to do with
what the owner will do with those
beans later on.
Our history is filled with cases of
men who cut -all kinds of corners to
get money or to get power.
Whoever would expect they wouldn't
follow the tradition and also cur.
corners in getting food, prior to and
after rationing?
You can't destroy an ancient urge
and a national tradition by making a
rule or enacting a law.
This isn't intended to be a plea for
no rationing. That isn't the point.
The point is that it will be wise to
look facts in the face and not to be
too startled when the' whole thing
do»«n't work perfectly.
You can expect many a case of u
neighbor passing over a spare gas
coupon to one who is in dire need, but.
that generous neighbor will fight: like
blazes to get the coupons in the first,
place, just to be prepared against a
rainy day. Not in all cases, to be sure,
but in plenty of them.
The present OPA leadership seems
lo be taking a realistic view of ration
ing and of those who are rationed,
which is well. It will save a lot. of
headaches and a lot of tempers.
On an over all basis the American
people will give up what is necessary.
They will do what is necessary, JF
they are convinced of the need and i
they believe there Is a fair deal all
around.
The prerequisite to successful ration
ing, or to success in any other war
effort if frankness by government,
sound administration and a measure of
plain old emotionalizing in govern
ment's appeal for help. The American
people do love to emote.—CMW.
W I S O
K*
There should lie no compromise
with child labor It is a crime
against the race, a drag on the prog
ress of the Ainerltan democracy and
an evil that should not he permitted
to exist.—James Michael Curley.
CALIFORNIA COL'RT DEFENDS
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
San Francisco (ILNS). Anita
Whitney, Communist candidate for
city ollice at Sacramento in the 11M2
elections, jailed for making a speed
last October in the city hall plaz.i
without a permit, has been freed on
a writ of habeas corpus and the ordin
ance under which she was held, de
clared unconstitutional in a decision
by the California Circuit Court of
Appeals.
A unanimous decision which was
written by Judge Thompson said that
"freedom of speech is one of those
rights which is vital to .true main
tenance of a democratic form of gov
ernment and an ordinance which pro
hibits the right of public speech upon
public grounds except by special per
mit simply because of the stated rea
sons that citizens have been annoyed
is therefore insufficient and unconsti
tutional."