The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1943-01-21

Well, the blow fell on the Eastern
Seaboard. Folks thought they owned
automobiles which they could drive
wherever their gasoline would get
them.
And suddenly it was ordained that
they couldn't drive at all for fun.
Certain essential driving was all the
driving to be allowed. And rude per-
sons began putting tags on cars found
at pleasure places, such as race tracks
and night clubs.
Washingtn tells us that folks are
taking to the new restrictions without
much gripping. Maybe so. But that isn't
the way you hear it when you meet
folks who aren't talking for publica-
ton. They just plain don't like it.
| But also they watch their driving
because they don't want to lose their
ration books. When cold weather gives
way to spring it may be that more
gasoline will be available and those
books may be good for something
again.
4
The restriction on car driving IS
perhaps the fiercest cut we have ever
had, of that type. 1t hits deeper into
the insides of people who have always
felt, and said, that they were free to
go any old place any old time.
But how many of the gripers remem-
ber back few years, when tin
Hoovervilles dotted the landscape? How
many of them remember the days
when the OEies inched their painful
way westward, there to be more or
less kicked around?
| How many remember those days?
| Few were free to do any extended
driving in those days either. They had
neither cars, money or gas.
And there are those who, quite like
ly, wish today they could get steak,
who in those tin Hooverville days
couldn't get one either.
The one restraint was quite as tight
as the other.
Many were in struggle for life.
Today we are ALL in one.
X x X
1t is quite possible that today's
gasoline situation is the result of
somebody's blundering. 1t is possible
that it could have been avoided.
Those earlier restrictions were the
result of whole nations laundering.
We had ridden a Wall Street boom
until it collapsed into a national catas-
trOphe which came near enough to be-
coming complete national bank
ruptcy.
But we got through it, Some died
on the way, as always happen. But the
nation lived, to become healthier than
ever.
That was an internal war. Today
we are in a great war whose boun-
daries are external. And the stakes are
higher-much higher. ALL of our free
doms are today at stake
Whether the gasoline shortage is
the result of terrible laundering, or
whether it just couldn't have been
helped, is somewhat beside the point.
The point is that if that's how it's
got to be, for the sake of pushing the
war along, then that's how it's got to
be and that's that. Stop gripping and
get through it.
X X 4
There have been mistakes, some of
them apparently ineXcusable. Probably
there will be more. Humanity is surely
not perfect and bureaucrats, let us
concede, are probably more fallible
than are ordinary mOrtalS.
But whatever the mistakes may be
and however much they may hurt, we
who have not the voice of decision will
have to take the consequences and
throw in every ounce that may help to
win the war.
We've terrible enemies to beat. They
are implacable and they are mon
strous. They hate everything we love.
We don't have to forego all of our
rights to find fault properly. But we
can never afford to let our criticism
dampen our energies in support Of the
| war.
We must stand whatever is neces-
sary. We must do whatever we are
called upon to do. We must sacrifice
whatever we may be called upon to
sacrifice. We must battle on and we
must WIN Whatever of life we may
lose through sacrifice now is small be-
side the cost of ALL of life that we
should have to pay as the penalty for
defeat !-CMW