The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1939-06-01
Facing the Facts
With PHILIP PEARL

With PHILIP PEARL
This column is something new-new
for US, new for this paper and new in
the business of columning.
President Roosevelt, Secretary of
the Interior Ickes and lots of other
people have it in for the columnists.
Their complaints are sometimes JUS
titled. 1t seems to us the columnists
are victims of high pressure sales
manship. Their business is highly
competitive. They are always trying
to beat the other fellow. All they have
for material is smattering of fact,
strong dose of rumor and lot of
highly seasoned opinion. BY the time
they cook these ingredients together,
the finished dish is made to appear
as though it were all fact. To GER
tain extent this may result in mislead-
ing the public, no matter how we'll in
tentioned the particular columnist may
be-. And that is why some of our lead
ing citizens object.
Well, we're in a more fortunate po-
sition than our fellow columnists.
We're not selling this column. We're
giving it away free to anyone who
wants to use it.. And, furthermore,
we will not hesitate to label fact as
fact, rumor as rumor and opinion as
opinion. We don't have to pose as an
oracle of wisdom and we don't want
to, because we're not.
But we do learn little about a lot
of things that are of interest to the
millions of workers who make up the
American labor movement-items that
do not make headline news, signifi-
canoes that may escape those not on
the inside, background material that
clarifies the news and adds light to it.
This is called in newspaper parlance
"the dope," or inside stuff. We're 60
ing to let you in on it.
This column will be written in the
interests of the American Federation
Of Labor. Emphatically this does not
mean that it will be used when the
facts themselves can be considered
propaganda. For instance we may
say:
''The door to President Green's Of
fee on the seventh floor of the Amer
lean Federation of Labor Building in
Washington is always open. Visitors
waiting in the anteroom to see him
can usually hear every word being
said next door. Nothing secret can
go on there.
''rhe door to John l.. Lewis's office
is sealed and sOund-proofcd. The win
dows are made of bullet-prOof glass" f"
Those are facts. c. |. O. sympa-
thizers may regard them as propa-
ganda. But they can't deny their
truth.
Just one more bit of Introductory
explanation and we'll get down to
business. 1t is not our purpose here
to vent venom and viciousncss. We
can hate just as strongly as anyone
else, but we're afraid if we keep on
hating all the time and at the top Of
our lungs it will spoil our disposition.
It's our hunch that the constant stream
of denunciation and abuse that en-
anates from headquarters of the G. /.
o. has already soured the public's dis
position toward that outfit. We're go
ihg to try to be good-natured and re-
tain our sense of humor even if it
hurts.
Our Southern NeighbOrs
Item No. ! on today's agenda is an
unpublicized dinner given recently by
leaders of the American Federation
of Labor in Washington for Louis
Morones, head of the committee on
international relations Of the Mexican
Federation of Labor
1t was revealed at this affair that
the American Federation of Labor is
taking steps to revive the Pan-Amer-
lean Federation of Labor. The first
step was meeting of the executive
council of the PA. F. of L., composed
of President Green, Morones, Vice
President Matthew Woll and Santiago
Iglesias, Resident Commissioner from
Puerto Rico. The council directed
President Green to make a prelimi-
nary survey of the status of the labor
movements in South American and
Central American countries.
Speakers at the dinner told shock
ing story of what is going on in these
countries today. The Nazis are col
onizing Brazil and the Fascists are
worming their way into the Argen-
tine. Meanwhile Communist influence
|1I: S!Is!s Days