The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1939-03-16
The Cherry Tree
Where We Hdtchet Out
The Truth
. EXPERIENCE is TEACHER
. BUT IT MUST BE PERSONAL
. FIGHTING COMMUNISM
Q AN ASTOUNDING STORY

y AN ASlOUNDlNG SIOKI
Experience is a great teacher, say
old saws.
Trouble is, most of us don't profit
by the experience of others, and must
experience things ourselves in order to
learn. And then we frequently forget
the lessons, even when dearly learned.
This must be the explanation of why
some new labor organizations have
had Communist trouble.
Members haven't had the experience
with Communists that older unions
have, hence they have let the Commies
play fast and loose with their organ
izations for while.
Now they've had lesson and are
giving the gate to the Communists
and other advocates of totalitaria'S
doctrine. "
Unions which have had to fight
Communist infection might have saved
themselves lot of grief if they had
looked back few years to the expert
ence of some other labor organiza-
tions.
International Ladies' Garment
Workers Union, for one, could have
given them valuable pointers.
Communists were permitted to gain
a foothold among the garment work.
ers in the first half of the 1920's and
what they did for time was eau
ton. They almost wrecked the union
vi ho~
fight, in which Matthew Woll, Edward
F. McGrady and other A. F. of L. lead
ers gave valuable help to the legiti-
mate unionists.
Commies, it is true, have changed
their tactics since their earlier raids.
Now they disclaim all intention to
wreck the unions, once their avowed
aim, and profess great love for Amer
lean unionism.
But they haven't changed their ul-
innate aim and still seek to make the
unions serve the ends of the Com
munist movement.
X X X
The Communists, you see, did learn
by experience, at least in most coun-
tries.
In Germany, they saw, too late that
if they had co-operated with the demo-
cratic elements, they could have pre-
vented the triumph of Hitlerism.
But instead of cooperation, they
fought the democrats, tooth and nail,
with every resource of invective,
SANDER, deceit and violence of which
they are past masters.
They thought in the ensuing period
Of chaos, they would seize pc ! Ar, as
they did in Russia.
1t didn't work out that way. The
Nazis beat them to it and the once
powerful Communist party was de-
stroyed.
Now the Communists seek the aid
of democratic peoples in fighting
Nazi-ism and Fascism. But once the
danger is over, the Reds will again
plot the overthrow of democracy and
the establishment of Communist die
tatorship, as in that workers para
disc" Soviet Russia.
x X X
But, say the Communists and their
sympathizers, the Communist dictator
ship in Russia is only an "intermediate
phase" in the establishment of new
order.
1t has now lasted more than 20
years and grows more tyrannical with
age, if that is possible. Witness the
bloody purge" orgy of the last few
years.
Unfortunately, dictatorship, like
many other things, grows to be a
habit. Everything indicates it has be-
come habit with the Russian Reds
and that it will not be easily broken.
x x x
In one nation-Spain-the Commu-
nists learned nothing from the Ger
man experience. They have run true
to form in the civil war. They have
proved their utterly impractical ma
ture by fighting to set up Communist
regimes within Loyalist territory,
when unity of the Loyalist forces was
imperative.
X X X
Part of the responsibility for the de-
feat of the Loyalist government must
be placed on the Communist, anarchist
and other extremist elements. When
the whole story of the Loyalist
regimes internal troubles is told, this
column predicts it will make an as
founding story.