The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1941-04-10
COMMENT ON WORLD
EVENTS
!

been gong on IN connection with the
Government purchase of corned beef
from Argentina is certainly not in
creasing goodwill for the United
States in a spot where it may prove
highly desirable to have goodwill.
Notwithstanding the forehanded and
wise policy of the President and of
Secretary Hull in seeking to build
strong bonds of friendship between
the United States and her neighbors
to the South, the sorry fact remains
that progress in building better re-
lations has been slow.
"Ominous," was the phrase used by
Professor de Lazada-just returned
from tour of the principal South
American countries-to describe the
present attitude there towards the
United States. de Lazada is a rec
ognized authority on Latin-American
affairs. "In the past twenty-four
months" he said, "Nazi ideology has
gained considerable ground at the ex-
pense of hemisphere solidarity. The
'good-neighbor' policy of Uncle Sam
seems to have gone backwards.
"Nazi propaganda flourishes every
where, with the Colossus of the
North in the villains role. The old
cry of Yankee imperialism has been
streamlined by the Goebbel's machine
to 'Yankee-Jewish plutocracy.' For the
first time in history, a real anti
Semitic feeling has grown up in South
America. Part of this is due to pro-
paganda and part to the considerable
number of Jewish refugees which have
crowded into several countries. Old
established German families who two
years ago were skeptical of Hitler,
have now-since his victories-been
swept into a perverted crusade for
Nazisn."
The Nazis have found the Dutch
trade unionists a tough proposition
and have made little if any headway
with propaganda for National So
cialism among the mass of Dutch
workers. When the Nazis surged into
Holland, the International Federation
of Trade Union reports, they had hope
of being able to capture Dutch labor
by their vague phrases about National
Socialism. But events have shown
them to be disappointed in their hopes,
adds the |. F. T. u, which goes on
to say:
"Reports received by the 'Vrij Ned
erland, the Free Dutch newspaper
show that neither the Protestants nor
Catholic workers have been impressed
The Catholic workers are aware of
the persecution of the Catholic Church
in Germany. Still less has been the
Nazi's success with the workers or
ganized in the free trade unions
x X X
The temper of the Dutch trade
unionists was revealed when the Nazis
launched their invasion last May. Says
the |. F. T. U.:
"H. |. Woudenberg (who must not
be confused with his namesake, who
was formerly secretary of the Dutch
Woodworkers' Union and of the
Woodworkers' InternationaD was ap-
pointed by Seyss Inquart as COM
missar of the Dutch free Trade Union
National Center, which then had a
membership of 306,192. When this
took place, his first care was to get
rid of the executive committee, and to
institute a search for it's funds.
"To his dismay, he discovered that
shortly before the invasion of Holland
a large sum was transferred to Britain
1t is said there are 100000 guilders
in safe keeping, which are to assist in
the restoration of the free trade union
movement in Holland after the liber-
alton of the country"
X X X
SO determined were the Dutch
unionists to balk the Nazis that in
dividual unions went so far as to de-
stroy membership records to leave the
Germans nothing to work on. 1t was
not always practical, because one of
the functions of the unions was the
payment Of benefits to unemployed
members. Many union officials hesi-
tated to take the step, because the
destruction of documents would have
meant that unemployed members
would have been deprived of their
rights to benefit A number of them
did so, however, and were promptly
relieved Of their posts by Woulden-
berg.