The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1940-04-25
Facing the Facts
With PHILIP PEARL

Two significant things escaped no.
tice in the daily press account of John
l.. Lewis threat in a West Virginia
speech to form his own, private third
party.
First was Mr.. Lewis startling fail
ure to mention the fact that the pres
ent Communist Party organization
would be the nucleus and foundation
of such a third party.
Second was the equally astonishing
denunciation by Lewis of the Federal
Bureau Of Investigation.
If the J. Edgar Hoover's F. B. l.
agents have been investigating the
CIO and getting into Lewis hair, this
is the first we've heard about it.
We do know, however, that these
Federal agents have been investigat-
ing Stalin's stooges in this country
and ferreting them out Of their sec
ret hiding places. Communist leaders
have been indicted and others have
been forced to register as agents OF
a foreign country in accordance with
our laws. Naturally, this sort of ac-
tivity has annoyed the Communists no
end. How refreshing it is to see John
l.. Lewis go to bat for them.
There has also been some specula-
ton as to who John LIS candidate
would be on third party ticket. The
answer is obvious. No one other than
John L. himself. We said that in this
column two weeks before Lewis made
his speech and we might point out,
with all due modesty, that we called
the turn on his political finagalings.
The Red Line
There comes to US from a high Off
cial in the Navy Department copy
of circular distributed at the gates
of the Washington Navy Yard this
week by Communist agitators.
This leafet, which bears the i'm
print of the Communist Party, de-
clares that the bitter terms which
Stain forced down the throat of Fin
land in return for ending the most
brutal and ineXcusable war of oppres-
sion in modern history, "greatly
strengthened efforts of the intenati-
onal peace forces" 1t added:
"The imperialist war-mongers in
Great Britain, France and the United
States had made military base OF
Finland They dreamed of turning it
into lighted fuse with which to
spread the flames of the present war
to the Scandinavian and Balkan
countries and to convert the war into
an onslaught against the workers re-
public, the Soviet Union"
Just think of it! The Communist
Party now openly dares to distribute
such subversive propaganda to Amer
lean workers in American Navy Yards
engaged in building up Americas de-
fenses against war.
In one paragraph the leafet refers
to the "Stalinist peace policy" and
then it proceeds to apply such epithets
as "war-mongers" and "imperalist"
to our own, idealistic country.
That isn't ALL The leahet continues:
"Here in the United States, the
war -mongers were aided by the Wolls,
Dubinskys, Greens and Hilmans. But
they failed miserably in their attempt
to chain the American labor move
ment to the anti-peace policy of
Hoover and Roosevelt"
Boring From Within
Note that the gentlemen named in
the foregoing paragraph of the Com
munist leafet all have denounced the
cruel, double-dealing policies of Sta
lin. Note, also, that Sidney Hilman
is the only CIO leader attacked. That
is because he alone of the CIO top
leaders has dared to denounce Stain
. ism.
But the most significant thing in
the Communist leaflet is it's conclud-
ing statement of the demands of the
=, people" They list the following:
. defend civil rights. Defeat the
hunger budget. Put an end to the
anti-Soviet policies of the Roosevelt
Administration"
. Defend civil rights? That phrase
has familiar ring. We have just
, received a copy of call to a confer
3 ence on "Civl Rights" to be held
April 20 and 2l in Washington by the
Washington Committee for Democratic
Action. The President of this newly
formed committee is Merle d. Vincent
Chief of the Exemption and Hearings
Section of the Wage-I Hour Division of
the Department of Labor.
Among the three speakers listed fo,
a discussion on "civil rights and
minority groups are Morris Watson
left-wing vice president Of the CIC
, Newspaper Guild, and Elizabeth Cur,
ley Flynn, self-described as a mem
ber of the National Committee of the
Communist Party.
Now we do not have low boiling
> point. We have never been particu
larly interested in witch hunting OF
red batting. But it seems to us thor
i, oughly disgusting that officials of the
! United States Government should de-
; liberately or unwittingly play the
= game of foreign organization which
] circulates subversive attacks agains
| the United States. 1t seems to mt
that Government employees could bt
l.