The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1940-03-21
The Cherry Tree
Where We Hdtchet Out
The Truth
. SPRING is COMING
. TIRE OF REBELLION
. UNITE FOR PROGRESS
. PADDED AND PRAISED

Spring has, is or may be coming
all over the country. In some places,
like New England, just sending out
advance rumors of approach; in other
places, like the north central tier Of
states, causing preparations for work;
in some places, like Alabama, Ole
Miss and the former Huey Long En-
pire, we'll along, with all danger of
amazing frosts gone; in couple of
spots like southern Florida, with a
fresh crop of green stuff going into
market and the tourists going home.
And along the Western Front bring
ing wonderment of how soon, or if, the
wholesale slaughter will begin. How
soon will the continental puzzle be-
come a continental holocaust? How
soon will Japan get worn out with try
ing to lay a blanket of domination
over the Giant China?
How soon will the wrecking crew
get through, that mankind may try
again to build, if building is still pos
sible?
What question, as this spring creeps
along!
How soon will American labor get
tired of rebellion and come together in
the one great family that COULD be
more potent than any other in the
world for progress?
Who can answer that question?
Perhaps it could be partly answered
by John L. Lewis, who used to ridicule
the A. F. of L. executive council for
holding meetings in Miami, though
this winter he himself spent winter
vacation in Key West and Miami and
left Miami very peeved because re-
porters insisted on making his pres
ence known
Perhaps Sidney Hillman, who isn't
as thick with John as he once was,
could answer in part.
But peace is subject about which
they remain generally silent, voluble
though they may be on other matters.
Peace-more important than any of
the questions about which they go out
to make the welkin ring. 1t is all too
strange.
Meanwhile politics gets thick with
the murk Of trivial debating-most of
it trivial, by comparison with real
issues.
But as long as there is democracy
and citizens run for office they will
talk at the level of their intelligence
and on basis of what they think will
win the votes. ~,
Quite often the voters have more
intelligence than is understood by
candidates, which is one reason why
so many candidates do not get elected.
So, too-G-Man Hoover and Texan
Dies so slamming along, each doing
job for which both get padded and
praised.
Dies has done more good work and
pulled more bonehead plays than al
most any other man in Congress.
Either he has lousy advisers or he
refuses to take advice. Many public
men have been that way, including
some Presidents.
A lot of good work can be ruined
by few false plays. Some big union
chiefs could learn that same lesson,
with profit to themselves.
X X X
Be these things as they may, spring
is in the air-whether it be the still
over-chilling spring of the North, or
the balmy spring of the South where
Spring is more a matter of turning
the calendar than of temperature and
changing greenery.
And as Spring rolls along in this
nation at peace, it sees so much of the
world turning in a continuation of
agony, Of treachery, of greed and
death.
A news report says the air over the
Western Front is not yet tainted with
the stencil Of dead bodies. There
Spring may be marked by the chang
ing smell of the air, from fairly clean
to an awful foulness.
So, America has to watch and guard
and stand by democracy and freedom.
For the coming two seasons may
we'll mark the fate of the world for
century.
And America, as it happens, clings
to the same ball of mud that holds
Europe and Asia on its fimsy crust.