The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1942-05-14
Facing The Foc+s
With PHILIP PEARL

Westbrook Pegler went away out on
Il limb the other day and we're going
to chop him down.
He had the colossal call to say that
labor is bribing newSpapermen to
write nice stories about unions
That is the damndest lie ever pub
liShed.
peger based his libelous charge on
Il paragraph from an article written
| by Il. l.. Stanford, editor of the
Southern TeamSter, which WAS printed
March ~ in the New Orleans Fedora
| zionist, Il labor paper. Mr.. Stanford
said that Central Labor Councils in
various parts of the country, in an
effort to get the truth about labor
published in the press, had gone to the
extent ''of putting reporters OF the
! newspapers on their payrollS."
Pegler leaped on this statement with
to check it, We did. We discovered that
Mr.. Stanford referred to the hiring of
| former newSpapemen as publicity rep
reSentatiyeS for central labor councils.
| What's wrong with that? Union Off
cialS are not trained to prepare news
announcements for release to the press,
SO they hire experts to do it. The
American Federation of Labor at its
last convention officially urged all CEN
tral labor unions to do this. UnfOrtu-
nately, not enough of them can af-
ford to spend the money. Labor unions
| don't have the bankrOll of private cor
porations like the DUPONT Company
which. we are informed, has forty-three
press agents on its staff. The United
States Government has hired thous-
andS of neWSpapermen for the same
purpose.
4 Poll of the Press
We took a poll of the newSpapermen
who cover labor in Washington to find
out whether they had been bribed and,
if SO, by whom. The response was
indignant. as we expected. We asked
them if they had ever been taken for
Il free ride" to national labor conven-
lions and "cntertained and lilikered up
by the unions. Wen, that stirred up Il
hornets nest.
In fact, one of the newspapcrmen
/ took occasion TO come back at pegler
With the charge that the self-righteouS
COiumniSt has consumed in his time
more free liquor than any other dozen
ueWspapermem in the entire country.
Hut, most Of the newspaper writer's
insulted by pegler We're inclined TO
take his scurrilOuS statement in Il more
serious Vein They recalled the fact
that pcgler has consistently fought or
@aniZation of neWSpapelmen into trade
unions and Chat the writer's covering
labor have been active in this field.
They wondered whether Pegler's at
tack Sprang from sinister motives.
However the best answer TO PcGler
came from New York 1t was annOunc-
ed in that city that Louis Stark, Of
the New York Times, had been award
Cd the Pulitzer price for distinguished
telcgraphic reporting. and Louis Stark.
rs everyone knows, is the dean of
labor reporters in tn" entire country,
respected by every one who has come
in contact with him. Lou knows more
about labor than Pcgler knows about
WhiSlcy. They are each experts i'll
their respective fields.
Truth From Lippmann
But now lets drop pe@lcr and move
on to Il more intelligent and lilerato
coIunniSt. We refer to Walter Lipp-
mann. He wrote Il piece the other day
that was 50 cogcnt and compelling in
its logic that we wish to quote from
it at length. Here goes:
1T is all very Well for congressman
or newspaper writers to say: let us
pass laws forbiddng strikes, laws
freezing Industrial relations, laws
freezing wages. They do moi have TO
administer those laws. The President
would have to administer them. And if
h" can outlaw strikes. if he can pre-
serve order in Industrial relations, if
he can stabilize the wage structure, if
he can do all these things with the
active assistance of labor leaders and
labor unions, the ultimate effect Will
> be infinitely Surer and more SatiSfac-
tory. Let us never forget that you can
lead Il horse to water but that You
cannot make him drink. You can lead
Il WOrkingman to his tools but you can
not make him work with his whole
heart.
"ObyiouSly we cannot win the war
and have strikes. We cannot win the
war and have endless wrangling about
the closed shop. We cannot win the
war if wages 90 into Il competitive
spiral as employers bid against one
another. But in our eagncrneSS to deal
other. But in our eagerneSS to deal
with these matters, let Us be careful,
let us be very careful indeed, not to
impair the will TO work by getting into
Il position where il even looks as if we
We're using the emergency OF war TO
break UP the unions and to destroy
collective bargaining.
IF we make that terrible mistake,
we shall destroy the influence of the
patriotic leaders of labor, and their
power to arouse enthusiasm and to in