The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1943-07-08

Great discussion is being built
around the respective merits OF Amer
lean precision daylight bombing and
British nighttime area bombing.
1t recalls similar dispute over tao
tics in American labor history.
The Americans go over in broad
daylight and seek to drop their bombs
on the vitals of enemy industry.
1t is pointed out that they do not
merely seek to hit factory. They aim
at vital spot in that factory which,
| if hit, will put the whole works out of
business.
| The British encompass an area, lay
| ing waste all within the boundaries
| thereof.
That takes lot of bombs, the
Americans point out.
One bomb, for instance, will put a
power plant out of business, or bust
up the cracking plant of refinery.
X X X
Back in the dim past of American
labor history, OH say 25 or 80 years
ago, when the I.W.W. had a modicum
of strength, it was the contention OF
many of the I.W.W. or Wobbly, lead
ers, that it was senseless to take all
the employees of plant out on strike
and off the payroll.
Those leaders used to contend that
the thing to do was to pull out the one
or two or half dozen men whose alb
sence would shut off the power, or in
some other manner compel stoppage,
| leaving the mass of workers drawing
their pay.
The idea was to run up the costs to
the boss as high as possible and to re-
leve workers costs as much as pos
sible
| Since the I.W.W. form of organiza
ton was lone big union" with every
one in the one organization, it was
held that such strategy could be fol-
| lowed, without loss of discipline and
with great glee to the payroll bene-
ficaries who would just stick around
and drow their wages without any
work whatever, until the strike should
be won.
X X
| The Wobblies of those days, like
American high level, precision bomb
ers of today, didn't believe in wasting
any ammunition. They had the idea
that the best plan was to land one good
shot right in the vitals
| The difference comes in that while
the American bombers appear to be
highly successful and likely to win the
argument with the British, the Wob
blies didn't click and never were more
than fair sized irritant in the skin
of the economic body.
Most folks now have completely for
gotten the Wobblies and the names of
their leaders are no more than the fog
Shrouded names of petty chiefs.
What vogue they had was mainly
in the west, which more than once has
rebelled against the ideas of the east,
with an impatience that was at times
gloriouSly daring, but that hasn't
worked itself up to a permanency.
Generally it has burned out and given
way to the greater weight of eastern
economic dominance.
| X x X
| 1t is quite probable nay, almost
sure, that the boys who are plotting
the big aerial destroyers over France,
Germany and Italy never heard of the
precision shot tactics of those early
industrial zealots.
| But that doesn't matter. They are on
the target and they are blasting the
everlasting daylights out of the indus
trial cities of enemy territory.
Equipped with the marvellous Norden
bombsight, with which a bombartlier
can lay an egg on the tip of a spike,
they sail in and lay waste to the vital
spots in great industrial plants, rem
dering them hors du combat, as Il
famous headline once described GER
| tain nOt-famOuS demise
When the cost i'm bomber losses seem
high, it must be remembered that the
achievements are enormous. 1t may
take scores of bombs, yes hundreds, to
box in an area, but only one to put
the heart to sleep. SO, losses cannot
be evaluated on numbers of planes en-
gagged, but upon enemy effectiveness
destroyed.
And that, too, is how the Wobblies
would have figured it.-CMW.