The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1939-07-06
Facing the Facts
With PHILIP PEARL

dressing of fantasy. And to escape the
heat we're taking little trip into the
year, 1860, where the school children
of the next generation are getting
history lesson. The teacher speaks:
"And now, dear children, l want to
tell you a little story about the Jab-
berwock. The Jabberwock was kind
of dragon back in the 1930's. No one
ever actually saw him breathe fire but
he sounded like that.
"Once upon time the Jabberwock
was an ordinary man, but strange
transformation came over him in the
year 1885. No one really knows how
it happened but there is a legend
about it. The story goes that he was
reading Alice in Wonderland-he was
a great reader-and greatly admired
Alice's exploit in stepping through the
looking glass. Now this man wanted
to do the same thing but he was too
fat around the middle to climb up on
the chimney-piece as Alice did, so he
Just stared into the mirror and Won
dered what to do.
"The more he stared into the mir
ror the more fascinated he became. He
discovered his face was really some-
thing to behold. 1t was a broad face,
with deep-set eyes under bushy brows
and it was topped by heavy name of
hair. He tried making funny faces in
the mirror but he didn't like them.
Then he tried to scowl. That pleased
him much better. And he scowled and
he scowled and he scowled, looking
fiercer and fercer all the time. And
the next thing he knew-that is if he
really knew it-he scowled his way
right through the looking glass.
New Adventures in Wonderland
"What did he find out on the other
side? Well, dear children, in the first
place he found he was the Jabber-
wock. The scowl was fixed permanent
ly on his face. He couldn't get it off
if he tried. And even more bewilder-
ing was the fact that everything look
ed upside-down and topsy-turvy to
him.
Don't laugh, children. 1t wasn't
funny. 1t was very serious. Seeing
things upside down always is serious.
Let me explain what it meant to the
Jabberwock and his followers.
Before he stepped through the look
ing glass in 1885, the Jabberwock was
an influential leader in the American
Federation of Labor. Afterward he
formed a new organization called the
c. l. o. and tried to destroy the Amer
lean Federation of Labor.
Before 1885, the Jabberwock was a
Republican, politically. He was what
is known as black Republican, die
hard. But in 1886, after stepping
through the looking glass, the Jabber-
wock contributed half million doll
ars to the Democratic Party.
"Before 1886, the Jabberwock was
one of the outstanding opponents of
Communism in organized labor. He
hated them and fought them. After
1885, he grew to like the Communists
and hired many of them as assistants
and the Communist Party came to love
him and hail him as leader.
Before 1886, the Jabberwock told a
Senate Investigating Committee the
Communists were plotting to capture
the American labor movement and he
warned that their method would be
to force the adoption Of industrial
unionism. After 1885, the Jabberwock
himself preached the gospel Of indus
trial unonism.
More Adventures
Before 1885, the Jabberwock was q
great admirer of the President of the
American Federation Of Labor. He al
ways used to make the nominating
speech himself at each convention. He
called President Green great Amer
ican,' a great leader of labor de
fender of human rights and Cham
pion Of democracy After 1885, the
poor topsy-turvy Jabberwock called
the President Of the American Fed
Grafton of Labor a traitor
"In fact, dear children, the Jabber-
wock soon got into the habit Of call
ing everyone who didn't agree with
him traitor. And, strangely enough
the people he had expelled from his
organization before 1886 as traitors
he recalled after 1885 to serve as his
chief aides.
GAS time went on, the Jabberwock
began to miss his looking glass more
and more until he discovered a new
kind of mirror for his vanity. 1t was
the newspapers. The Jabberwock
found he could get just as much of 8
kick out of seeing his name in the
papers. And he learned that the
easiest way to get his name into the
newspapers was to burble. That is
the word used in Wonderland for de-
nouncing someone. So the Jabber
wock began burbling louder and loud
er. In fact, during two days in the
month of June, 1889, he set worlds
record for burbling. In that short
time he managed to denounce Con
gress, business, the Administration
the Labor Department and the Ameri
can Federation Of Labor. It was al
very amusing"
At this point the luncheon bell rams
signalling the end of the lesson. Blu
one not so very bright pupil had