The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1940-03-14
The Cherry Tree
Where We Hdtchet Out
The Truth
. PEGLER HITS THE A. F. l..
WILLARD is OF SAME MIND
o so WILLARD SAYS:
. GIVE PULITZER TO
PEGLER"

Iron Pants Hugh Johnson, who tries
to write like a bull whip cracking,
sounds off every now and then pontl-
fcally. 1t might have been expected
from him.
But really it was Oswald Garrison
Willard, who used to run the New York
Evening Post and who used to run
the Nation. He marched up and
wrote column saying what brave
boy is Westbrook Pegler, because OF
his writings about two or three union
officials.
Willard comes hot out of the oven
to suggest that Pegler ought to win
the Pulitzer prize for his articles!
And that seems to me about the
richest joke of the year.
To win the Pulitzer prize ought to
mean something real, something really
worth sitting up nights about, some
grand achievement in reporting-not
just police court stuff.
Time was when the Pulitzer prize
meant that the winner had to get
down and dig-and pour forth. Time
|
x X X
I'm not kicking about what Peglar
wrote. Maybe he did a good job
maybe he didn't.
But if what he write is the best he
can do, then he needs help-or no
prize.
Tempus fidgets!
And pops frecrackers.
Great constructive achievement, i'm
plies Mr.. Willard. My eye!
Those who can remember back
more than a month or two will
probably find no great love for
the American Federation of Labor
in Mr.. Wizards past writings. AS
for Mr.. Pegler, he probably would
be content to let the current
slush stand as fair guide.
1t isn't easy to blame him for quit
ting the American Newspaper Guild,
which he did. So did land many
others, when it went haywire.
He says he'll get around to the CIO,
in good time; or maybe he just i'm
plies it.
But whether he ever does or not
isn't so important. It's what he does
and doesn't do in the way of reporting
where he goes that counts-and his
reporting seems rather trivial as it
stands in these days.
X x x
One could wish that President Green
of the A. f. of l.. would cut loose and
say some of the things he doesn't say.
In William Green the A. f. of l..
has president--a REAL president;
one of high principle and sound
achievement. He doesn't get rushed
off his feet and he doesn't get pushed
around.
But no President can say all he
wants all the time. Not even the
President of the United States can do
that.
If he could we might jolly we'll hear
something.
President Green says that, of course,
racketeers and other criminal types
must be cleaned out and there can be
no doubt he means it.
But can Pegler or anyone else i'm
agine the CONSERVATION, the mob rule,
the gangsterism that would be really
let loose if the American Federation
of Labor ever undertook to constitute
itself court to try and convict Off
GERS or members of affiliates
K x x
But, be that as it may-and that's
how it will be, in all likelihood-it re-
mains to be repeated that Westbrook
Pegler, up to this time, rests his
; laurels ,as far as the current discus
sion goes, on nothing much more than
) high class police reporting.
And that, Mr. Willard, isn't enough,
unless the Pulitzer prize has degen-
Grated to something like the Journal
ism of the period in which the great
Pulitzer won his spurs.
Let's have something real--some-
thing that gets somewhere and does
something.
And if anyone reads into this COL
umn anything that he thinks is de-
fense of crooks, named or otherwise,
it is suggested that he read it again.
Or maybe get reading teacher.
&C. M. w.