Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1940-12-31

epitheticians, which brought to
mind in a word the detestable
arrogance and brutality of the
German kaiser and his governs
.ment.
+ The kaiser had just been
slapped down and millions of
men on the victorious side were
breaking ranks and enjoying
their release from the restraints
and compulsions of military
life.
Behind them, millions of ci-
villains, women as well as men.
also were breaking ranks. so 10
speak, with the relaxation OF
the wartime restraints.
The lights came on in the
streets at night, il was no
longer an offense not to draw
the blinds after dark, you
could criticize the government
-dnh hooks-o -How-it-can-be-
told series began to tumble off,
the presses in many languages.
IN THE United States. prohi-
l. bition appeared as a little
red blotch, later to develop into
a horrible corruption, which has
left permanent damage in con-
tempt for law and suspicion Of
public Observation-Disclosures ---
peal cured the disease itself, and
great WAS the resentment
against prohibition on tn G
ground that a few politico-re-
ligious organizations and rich
industrialists were trying TO
force most of the people 10
abide by the rule and conform TO
the tastes and an extreme
moral verboten Of a few.
OF course. there was much
more liberalism. but the kernel
of it was individual rights and
rebellion against compulsion be-
yond the minimum restraints
necessary for the regulation Of
traffic.
But, of course, this liberalism
did not extend to industry. COM
merce and finance. These were
not personal or individual nat
tiers but issues. and the rights
Of the individual could be pro-
tected only by the adoption and
endorsement of restraints.
I TITLE did we think then
~ that liberalism would curl
up its tail and sting itself full OF
poison in its angry threshing
before two decades had passed,
but now amt il the truth?
For today the surviving men,
bers of the group who fought
most angrily against goose-step-
ping in the early '20's are al
most all to be found in that
element who hold that cellee-
tive action is the only hope OF
the worker, and that any worker
who prefers to remain a lone1
or individual. is pathetic cowt'
ard. afraid of his boss. a dirty
traitor TO his fellowmen, in re-
d ceipt of secret pay from his
boss, a mulish and selfish para
site, enjoying the benefits OF
other mems struggle and peril
or a Fascist.
Whatever he is. he had no
right as an individual 10 conduct
himself as an individual. and
by trying TO do so he exiles him.
salt against his fellowmen and
deserves any harm that befalls
him in a contest OF his own
choosing.
If HE is thrown out of his job.
L in which it has been con-
tended by the liberals that he
has property right, that is his
own fault.
If his family suffers mental
and physical harassment and
goes hungry and cold, that
again is his fault. and the fail
ure to protect and provide is his
to answer for.
If, by the verdict OF a union
of which he is not a member
after a trial in his absence, he
is forever barred from all en-
ployment where unions govern
the work, that again is his own
lookout.
He could avoid all these penal
ties, theoretically, if he would
but join the union or walk the
gooSe-Step.
The day came when liberals
who had fiercely hated the
goose-step. goose-stepped in
sort of prisoners march before
premises struck by minority
vote to revile individual men.
stone them and beat them, for
their refusal to submit to regi-
mentation and discipline. =
And men who had insistef
that they placed truth above any
things so far abandoned the
liberalism that they plainly y
mitted that they preferred
suppress, ignore or deny trutr.s
about corruption and a thousand
forms Of oppression in labor
unions rather than hurt their
new cause of RECOMMENDATION or
goose-stepping.
The ball-bat and tire-iron. the
meat-hook and the brick are eff
fective weapons for organiza-
ton, but they do not appeal to
reason.
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