The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1940-04-18
The Cherry Tree
Where We Hutchet Out
The Truth
. READ, GENTLEMEN, READ
Q THE 'PEACE" IDEA
. MENTAL TAILSPIN
Q READ, READ, ALSO THINK
Read. gentlemen. read.

Read, gentlemen, read.
Read, read and read some more.
The world is chasing itself in cir
cles. Looney, perhaps; maybe nuts;
but whatever it is, holding our fate
in the years to come. It's the place
of our destiny, until we check out.
Read about it. But read with your
eyes open.
Read this column, read other col
umns, read the news-especially, read
the news.
Listen to the radio; listen especial
ly to the news. Be hound for facts,
but be sure they are facts.
Get opinions, too. Check them
against each other. Maybe you can't
change the course of events, but you
can at least get line on that course.
Try to KNOW what is happening and
what is likely to happen.
X X 4
On the basis of the facts l know
about, it seems to me the European
theater Of war is going to spread. 1t
has seemed for months that must
come.
Unless something not now visible
comes along, this war is going to get
a lot bigger and hit and hurt lot
more people before it ends.
1t CAN include the United States,
as I see it. That MUST be counted
as a possibility, if not probability.
The country is filled with paid
propaganadists. Some are paid to
do good; some to do evil. suspect
great many of them. suspect
even some of those propaganda
ing for "peace." The "peace" idea
can get to be very costly thing.
1t may or may not be wholly true
that the war, as it now stands, is a
war between democracy and dicta-
torship, in the purest meaning of
those terms.
But it gets closer to that every day.
True enough, these terms, as they are
used in Europe today, probably stand
more for economic systems than for
political ideals. But it is worth while
to try to get at the underneath cur
rents. There are truths that even the
statesmen in command don't grasp,
especially when they are under war
pressure.
X X X
1t seems to me one thing to see is
that if relationships win, there can be
no democracy in the parts of the earth
over which the relationships hold
sway after the war.
1t is worth observing that the So
cialist party has just decided that the
United States ought to help the Al
lies.
Those who do not want the Allies
to win will not want them helped. But
if you substitute the word dictator
ship for the word Germany, then what
is the answer to the question Of help
ing the Allies? l wonder about that.
Maybe you will also.
There will be some who will remem-
Der the mental confusion and tragic
misguessing of the Socialist party in
1917
And so, party that had played a
useful role, if only gadhy one, prior
to that time, went into mental tall
spin and lost the little usefulness it
had possessed.
The intelligentsia didn't hoodwink
labor then, but it certainly hoodwink-
ed itself
X X X
With a national campaign coming
along we shall find our politics COL
ored by the world war, or what gets
closer every day to being world war.
If Japan is brought actively into
the European dictatorship orbit, we
shall right there have complete world
war;
Read, read, read. And do little
thinking.
It's we'll enough for the intelligent
sia to have it all figured out and it's
just too cute for Ferdinand the Bull
to smell the flowers.
| But the rank and file of Americans,
and especially American workers, had
better know what it is all about.
We can be emotionally doped so
/ that we go silly over disarmament,
just as easily as we can be emotional
ly doped into war.
What's needed is understanding, so
that whichever way we go, we go be-
cause we KNOW we want to 20 that
way.-CMW.