The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1941-03-13
Facing The Facfs
With PHILIP PEARL

tacle Of Westbrook Pegler testifying
before Congressional Committee and
demanding the passage of legislation
enslaving organized labor in America.
We say it must have been a comic
spectacle because this man Pegler is
a clown. He was not born to be seri-
Gus. He is horribly miscast in the
role Of heavy" as pretentious and
as full of sound and fury as an old
school Shakespearean tragedian. Peg
Ter was meant to be prize-fght
writer When he starts to get seri-
Gus and indignant about labor and
national affairs he sounds just as bad
as Charlie Chaplin in the "talkies."
The New Yorker recently did neat
| job in taking Pegler down a peg This
| magazine, which takes great delight
in debating public displays of silly
pretentiousness, kidded the pants off
Pegler's piece in which he pictured
Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt as
| dangerous Red. That was too much
even for the New Yorker to swallow,
and it stuck few pins into Pegler's
blatant stupidity where it would do
the most good.
Now how in the world did Pegler
ever roam so far afeld as to take in
labor and politics within his juris-
diction? 1t wasn't just an accident. 1t
was deliberate. We don't believe he
made the decision himself We have
an idea that he was led astray. And
by none other than his boss, who is
Roy Howard, head Of the Scripps-
Howard newspaper chain.
Roy Howard is a little man with a
vast appetite for power. He works
quietly behind the scenes. He has a
whole string Of communists on his
payroll whose articles are published
in many papers outside of the Scripps-
Howard chain. Thus, by influencing
these columnists and by directing their
thoughts in any direction he chooses,
Mr. Howard manages to get his prop
aganda printed almost throughout the
American press. Of course, most of
these coumnists will deny taking
orders from Howard and in all fair
ness | don't believe they do take
orders. Howard, newspaperman
himself, is not as Grass as that. He
works more subtly. He uses the pow
er Of suggestion. He employs iattery.
He takes the boys out on parties on
his yacht, fills them with the best
Of food and liquor, makes them feel
like big shots. And then, when they're
prime, Howard will get the boys to-
gether into little huddes and start
talking business. When it comes to
matters of policy, he doesn't let on
that he is the one who pulls the
strings. He is clever enough to make
the boys believe that they are making
the decisions. So they leave the
yacht full of inspiration, ambition and
spirits and go out like good little boys
and do the job Mr. Howard wanted
them to do all along.
Now it would be a mistake to un-
derestimate the power Of the corps of
syndicated columnists and hireling
editorial writer's controlled by Roy
Howard. 1t would be just as serious
a mistake to underestimate their in
iuence on public opinion as it was for
Mr.. Howard to overestimate it in the
last political campaign. Mr.. Howard
thought his boys under his expert di-
rection were influential enough to put
over Wendell Willkie as President of
the United States.
Howard, himself, was not exactly
sold on Willkie but he thought he
could sell him to the American peo-
pie. He regarded Willkie as another
Of his boys. When Willkie recently
kicked over the traces and refused to
obey Howard's orders to oppose the
lend-lease bill, Howard repeatedly
threatened to break him politically.
All Of this brings US up to date and
we now have to consider Mr.. Howard's
present campaign against organized
'abor. We must consider this in the
light of the undenied charge that Mr.
Howard is the master mind" behind
the scenes of the forces of appease-
ment in this country.
This little man with big ideas sees
himself as the last champion and de-
fender of capitalism in America. Fur
ther American involvement in the
European conflict frightens him as a
threat to capitalism. He fears that
labor will gain greater participation
and influence in the affairs of Govern
ment, as it has in Great Britain. That
IS why-to get back to the beginning
he has sicked Pegler and the rest
Of his boys against the American
Federation of Labor. That is why
they are all now clamoring for Leg
islation to restrict labor.
They do it artfully. They say it is
in the interests of national defense.
They say employers are regulated by
law, why not labor? They say the
nation cannot afford strikes so we
must have laws forbidding strikes.
Their arguments are stupid, short
sighted and easily punctured. We in
tend to devote our next column en-
tirely to calling the turn on them. For
the time being we would like to make
just two observations.
The first is a warning. 1t is directed