The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1941-04-17
Facing The Facts
With PHILIP PEARL

them was telling us about 1t the other
day. He was quite disturbed. He
said he was friend of labor. He
said he was going to remain friend
of labor. But he was more than a
little worried about some of his broth
er Congressman. He feared their 10y
atty to labor might be wavering be-
cause of the letters they were re-
ceiving. These letters came from
the voters back home. They were
down on strikes and they were down
on labor
Now our friend, the Congressman,
had a bright idea. "Why don't you
fellows start writing letters to your
Congressman ?" he asked. "The work.
ers are voters, too, and the Members
of Congress realize it. But they
haven't heard from you. Why don't
you tell your Congressman the work
ers' side of the case?'
Well, the truth is we don't have a
Congressman. We wish we did. But
we live in the District of Columbia
where the so-called sovereign citizens
$50, 900 of them-don't have a vote
and don't have Congressman. So at
first we regretfully passed our friends
bid. Then we got to thinking it over
and we decided not to let little thing
like not having a Congressman stop
US from writing a letter to him. We
figured that if we did write letter,
even to an imaginary Congressman,
we might start something that our
friends in the labor movement might
follow up. So here goes:
The Same Speech
My Dear Congressman:-How are
you? | haven't heard from you in
long time, ever since | helped to elect
you last November My name is Joe
Blank, remember? | served on the
labor committee that rolled up a 80
per cent vote for you in the west
side factory district. You told us
you were labor's friend, remember? |
believed you then, but Pm beginning
to wonder a little now.
I'll tell you why You made a
speech the other day that sounded
very patriotic-at least the part of
it | read in the paper. The papers
print lot of your speeches lately.
Almost every day. And it's all on the
same subject. In fact, it sounds like
the same speech. It's all about guys
like me, working guys. You say we
strike. You say anybody who
strikes on a defense project ought to
be shot at sunrise.
Well, Congressman, Pm against
strikes, too. | always have been. That
doesn't mean haven't been in strikes.
Sure | have. Five or six of them dur
ing the twenty years I've been work
ing at my trade.--.1tnd ] fought hard,
too. 1t looked like we got licked
couple Of times but in the end we al
ways won out. Because we've got
bunch of right guys in our union and
we stuck together and we refused to
be licked.
Let me tell you something, Con-
gressman, we's not going to get licked
now either.
Sure Pm against strikes. SO is every
other working man. Do you think a
guy like me, with never more than
a few dollars in the bank and with
family to support likes to lay down
his tools and walk out and miss the
weekly pay envelope and have to tell
the missus and the kids to cut down
on the spending, even for food? Do
you think that's fun? Do you think |
and the others in my union would
vote to strike unless we could see
no other way out?
We're Not Having Any
Now don't start telling me these
are no ordinary times. ! know all
about the emergency. | am for the
defense program 100 per cent. So is
my union. SO is the American Fed
Grafton of Labor to which my union
belongs.
We are the guys that are building
the defense program. You can't tell
already know. We're the ones, who
are doing the work. And we're glad
of the chance. We're getting good
pay and we're getting overtime and
we want to keep on working. We want
to do it not only because there is
good money in it for us but because
we want to see Great Britain lick
Hitler and we want to get ready for
that guy in case he licks the British
so we can give him taste Of our
own medicine. We don't want strikes.
We amt that dumb. And we're not
having strikes.
Put that in your pipe, Congressman.
said our union and the other unions
in the A. +. of l.. are not having
any strikes. Read the papers for
yourself. How many of these strikes
which are splashed all over Page One
are A. +. of l.. strikes? looked over
the whole list this morning and |
couldn't find one that amounted to
hill of beans.
Why don't you guys in Congress
use your heads and show some sense?
Why don't you stop denouncing labor
in general and place the blame where
it belongs? Why don't you put those