The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1943-01-28

So, somebody shot Carlo Tresca on
a New York street-and he is dead.
Lots of people today don't know any
thing about Carlo Tresca, but pack
twenty years ago he was well enough
known to make the headlines every
now and then, especially in New York.
Tresca is being editorialized today
as hero, great man, devout anti
fascist.
Twenty years ago he was lambasted
as an IW.W. and all that. Lots OF
people today don't know anything
about the I.W.W., which doesn't exist
any more anyway.
1t all shows what wonderful thing
Time is--how it changes things and
how it changes the ways and the
thoughts of men.
Carlo Tresca, bit theatrical in ap-
pearance, sounding bit dangerous
now and then, kicked around by the
newspapers and not too well trusted
even by the Socialists of that day,
checks out as great American hero,
which he evidently was.
X X x
Back there we had several wild men
so they seemed then. Some went
further left, like big Bill' Haywood.
Some went to the right, like Tresca.
Big Bill Haywood, of the Meyer,
Haywood and Pettibone case, which,
strangely enough first brought fame to
both Bill Borah and Clarence Darrow,
prosecutor and defender, once was
chided by lady at a New York soiree.
Bill, irked by lack of attention, asked
the lady if she didn't realize that he
was Bill Haywood, to which she re-
torted, Oh no, 1 thought you were a
boy scout That nifty surely got
around in the Greenwich Village
crowd.
Haywood fed to Russia, While Carlo
Tresca stayed in New York. OF Italian
birth, he studied the meaning of fas-
cism and saw throught it. He preached
against it-one of the first to sound
the tocsin.
Time has strange ways with men
and women.
Who knows what Time will bring to
the reputation of some of those now
ploying with power.
John L. Lewis, for example.
Look back at some earlier leaders
of note. Terrence V. Powderly, for in
stance. Once they frightened babies
with his name. He wound up with the.
ri, Of nh finn 01d
gentleman.
Eugene V. Debs, early leader of
railroad men. sAS a Socialist presi-
Dental campaigners, his Red Spe-
cialS" tore across the country, not
gathering many votes. But Debs left a
heritage of kindliness, along with his
bitter hatred of social and economic
evils.
Samuel Gompers, whose thinking
was as straight as any mans. But with
all his great stature, a little girl once
asked Morris l.. Cooke, What are
gompers?'
But Samuel Gompers made the
American Federation of Labor and he
made it in pattern that gave it the
strength and character to live and
grow. But how many school children
today learn anything about his great
work?
4 X X
Woodrow Wilson pillOried the little
group of wilful men"-and today most
of those little men are pretty well for
gotten. Even the great Borah isn't
muchly missed. His greatness lacked
something
But Wilson pointed the way to some
thing that must be enduring. He made
his mistakes. But his vision was true.
Like Gompers, Wilson didn't see the
evil in men quickly enough. He trusted
too many too far.
Regulations that go into the big
books of history don't rate many lines
unless they are based upon fidelity,
honesty, service to mankind and gen
eral all around decency. That or else
complete and surprising crookedness
and villainy.
1t is nice to see conservative jour
nails writing editorial praise of Carlo
Tresca, the One-time blazing I.W.W.
orator and hell raiser. He deserves it.