The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1940-10-31
The Cherry Tree
Where We Hutchet Out
The Truth
. THE DOWNWARD TREND
eOF ONE, JOHN L. LEWIS =
THE HOLLOW ECHO
. NO MORE ROARS

A great deal of ink has been spilled
on the question of what Mr.. John l..
Lewis intends to do in this campaign
to which candidate he intends to
throw his support.
1t isn't very important.
Some inquiry along the line in
dicates clearly that most folks are
interested in Mr.. Lewis intentions
more for the sake of gossip than for
the sake of true Importance.
The reason for the decrease in the
Importance of Mr.. Lewis politically
is that there has been a steady and
headlong decline in his Importance as
a labor leader.
That there has been such decline
does not admit of debate.
1t is written where all who run
may read.
Just what it was that stopped the
upward swing Of Lewis and sent him
careening downhill on a creased to-
boggan probably would not be easy to
define.
Perhaps it wasn't any one thing.
Probably it was a group of several
things.
Perhaps Mr.. Lewis, who talks much
about the multitudes is, in reality, an
egocentric and that the multitudes
merely constitute screen upon which
he can most dramatically throw his
shadow for public viewing.
Recently Mr.. Lewis spent an hour
in the White House. Previously he
had seen Mr.. Willkie.
By the time these lines are printed
the oracle may have spoken. But lit
tie more will have been done than to
satisfy a morbid curiosity in some
quarters as to what Mr.. Lewis could
say that would have much Importance
politically. The eyebrows don't have
their old-time lunge.
x x X
1t isn't so many months back that
folks were talking about the "kiss Of
DEATH" meaning that whatever or
whomever had Mr.. Lewis support was
by that token giving a ticket to de-
feat.
But that was when Mr.. Lewis still
had some little influence
1t is to be doubted whether today
he is possessed even of enough potency
to possess a kiss with that much re-
verse kick.
1t is fair to use this colum this week
for a discussion of this kind because
this column every now and then dis
cusses matters of relatively trifing
Importance, seeking to find in them
bit of amusement, or bit of oblique
lesson-teaching; or to find reflection
that may illuminate some more i'm
portant subject.
In the vast expanse of the CIO
chieftain's office Che still has the
title), we may we'll assume that there
is in these autumn days a hollow and
lugubrious echo, sometimes recalling
the power and the vigor that was with
the approaching emptiness of the days
| to come.
We do not join in that acclaim given
| by so many to Mr. Sidney Hillman
as a great progressive labor leader
pattern for all others-but we do
have to point out the fact that he,
from within the house of the CIO, has
given Mr.. Lewis beautiful trimming,
up to this hour.
SO we have a situation that is, after
all, of some interest. Things can be
interesting, even when not delectable
1t has interested many to read of the
fall of Rome and of the decay of the
great free cities of medieval Italy.
SO it is of some interest to view
this matter Of Mr.. Lewis who can now
emerge from the White House without
roaring to the world what it was that
he told the President to do cor else"
The one sector in which Mr.. Lewis
does have some Importance, which
may be the wrong word, is in that
sector wherein the "party line" faith
full gather to see what it is that they
can put over under his banner. CMW.