Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1943-09-17

posity of plu-
Clayton w. tocrats and
Fountain politicians, he
has punctured the pretensions Of
dignitaries in government and
business too often for the COM
fort of those who look upon
themselves as superior to the
common run of folks.
On repeated occasions, to the
qualification of the lowly and
humble whose voices are too
weak to express audible protests
against injustice and chicanery in
high places, Pearson has exposed
unsavory practices to the public
view.
Armed only with the truth, > he
has toppled tycoon and poten-
tate alike into the dust of public
humiliation.
STICKS AND STONES
In retaliation for the sticks
and stones he hurled at the De-
partment of State, Pearson has
now been publicly denounced as
liar. Secretary of State Cordell
Hull and the President have both
sizzled into towering tizzy un-
der the impact of Pearson's criti-
cisms of United States diplo-
macy.
To the ordinary citizen, whose
knowledge of diplomacy is limit
ed to its atmosphere of boiled
shirts and striped pants, the heat
generated in this argument is
most confusing. But it isn't
amusing.
We know very little about di-
plomacy. Most of us think of it
in the same sense that we think
about the theory of relativity. 1t
is an art by which men in fancy
pants lavish six-bit words on
each other in the course Of ad-
justing the relations of nation to
nation. In the pursuit of their
calling, from what we are per-
mitted to know of their deeds,
they manage to consume a con-
siderable quantity of caviar and
champagne at formal feasts.
A BITTER DOSE
But we do know that the tonics
rbrewed by the diplomats often
prove a bitter dose for the little
fellow to swallow.
We have to live under the
treaties and memorandum and
pacts cooked up by the boys in
striped pants and boiled shirts.
And it has sometimes seemed, in
the humble opinion of the man
on the street, that OF or two
democrats dressed in overalls
might have not done any worse
than the dudes in charge of dip
lomatic affairs.
The memory of Munich, for
instance, still burns in the back
ground of our thoughts about di-
plomacy. We seem to recall that
the peace in our time" which
was dealt to the world on that
occasion turned out to be afflict-
ed with a peculiar shortness of
life.
On other occasions, of very re-
cent vintage, it has seemed to us
that our diplomacy has been at
least decrepit, if not downright
defunct.
TOYING WITH TOXIC
1t was only two jumps before
Pearl Harbor, as we remember it,
that the diplomats in he State
Department zealously defended
their policy of permitting oil and
scrap steel to be shipped to Ja-
pan. In response to sharp criti-
cism of this policy, stemming
from labor and liberal circles, the
diplomats argued that the expor-
tation of oil and steel to Tokyo
was step toward preserving
peace.
1t must have been small COM
fort to the boys who died at
Pearl Harbor to remember the
eloquence with which the State
Department defended its policy
of toying with Tokyo.
More recently. the d,sermina-
ton of the dipl> mats to deal with
anyone except democrats in
North Africa and Italy has SEEM
ed us a rather lame fashion in
which to liberate the oppressed
from Fascism.
Maybe the President and Mr..
Hull have the right answer to
Pearson's charges. If so, they
should answer him with facts
and deeds-instead of lowering
their high offices to the indig-
nifty Of name calling.
ficer or anyone else by saying
that | want you to take a job
which is true enough-but you