The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1942-06-04
COMMENT ON WORLD
EVENTS

tESlip dilu poNCllS III SouIh "A>
sometimes given as explanations of the
revenge of dictators on society. Per-
haps it depends on the society. Thor
valid Staining, Socialist Prime Minister
of Denmark, who died May 3, was born
in a poor home and he grew up under
conditions that were not so good as
those which he helped to make for
the succeeding Danish generations.
Staining began as Il cigar-sorter. He
rose through trade union offices to be
a member of parliament, filled many
responsible jobs well, and when he
died he had been prime minister for IA
years, in two periods. He did a great
deal towards making Denmak the
land of individual liberty and no pov-
erty which it was before The Germans
came, and even the crustiest conserva-
tives came to look at the big, calm,
bearded MAJ with something like af-
lection.
He held office so long because of this,
for as he usually had Il majority of
only two votes he could easily have
been put out. His life was devoted I'M
SeltiShly to the working class, but moi
in the spirit of class warfare.
X x X
In these days of Lavals and Outs
lings, it is important to distinguish be-
tween them and Il real patriot like
Stunning. Twelve thousand Danes, the
King, the Crown Prince, the Cabinet,
the Swedish Prime Minister and one
Finnish Minister, a personal friend,
came to his funeral, and that was be-
man who had done his best under i'm
possible circumstances.
When the Germans broke every pact,
oath and promise to Denmark and in
vaded it April 9, 1910, ,Stauning's Gov
ernment called off military Danish re-
%siStance, seeing the uselesSness of hav-
ing Copenhagen destroyed for the sake
of being able to hold off the Germans
for a day or two. Few Danes blamed
Staining for this.
More blamed him for not having
entered into military alliance with the
other scandinavian governments, when
Sweden. though not Norway, expressed
Willingness to discuss it. But, to have
been effective, such efforts should have
been started years before, when it GER
tainly did not look as if the English
and the French were in any effective
alliance a gainSt Germany, when in
fact, the appeaSerS governed England.
In April, 1910, it is hard to see what
else Staining could have done except
to sign, under protest, the ten-point
agreement forced on him by the
bomherS overhead. AS has been well
| said, poor rs that So-called treaty was,
it still became the pin-point on which
| King and Government could take their
stand when Directing to the gross Ger
man violations of it, sometimes quite
effective objections.
X X X
The Reich Labor Service, created by
Hitler after the destruction of the in
dependent German unions, is an instrl-
ment to keep the Nazis in power, a
Berlin broadcast boosted recently. The
primary purpose of the Labor Service,
the broadcast stated, is to indOctrin,
ate all German youths in "uncondition,
al faith to Hitler and NaziSm.
Stating that the Reich Labor Service
is now giving systematic political in
Struction, the commentator revealed
! that this instruction is entirely cOn
cerncd with Ilitler'S career. The youth
Of the Fuehrcr, his life as Il soldier.
and his rise to power in Germany make
| up the curriculum of this school for
workers.
Every young German is compelled to
belong To the Labor Service and to sub.
nit himself to this course in what the
Berlin radio calls straight political
thinking