The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-06-09
: PORRATT OF A MAN WITH A
 SLEDGEHANfMER

SLEDGEHAMMER
 John l.. Lewis has battered the war effort with a contempt for public opinion unmatched in Amer lean history. Now his union sheet grabs It's blackjack and slugs Ameri- cans who have supported the war. The rag drapes Lewis in the Stars and Stripes, and all of a sudden he's Yankee Doodle. But nearly every foreign correspondent reports that Lewis Is the most loathed American in the opinion of soldiers. And he has been more bitterly att tackled by army publications than any other American.
 FDRs opponents went into Jig about democratic defeats In the last election. They whooped that 1t proved FDR can't win if he runs again Now they claim he can't lose--and they are throwing their weight against anything pro-FDR even to the point of depriving sol- diers of votes .. By tSle way, those who are worrying about the way our soldiers will vote--include the chumps who didn't worry when Hit ler's soldiers started war against every Americans right to vote.
 It has been said that snobversives who gloat about ancestors (who landed on Plymouth Rock) act as if they crawled from under 1t Cong. Ham Fish has wahooed with the hate-tribes for a long time, one American Legion group charged him with being in cahoots with sub versives. Yet he has the gall to Americans who expose Hitler's agents here. He sputters that those who fight them here are respon- Sihle for all the hatred. That's like saying our soldiers aid Hitler ism because they fight 1t.
 Gazettes and mags contain grim and heartbreaking- photos of dead Americans on battlefields, or sol- diers who have lost an arm or leg, They make the biggest sarcifices without quibbling or quitting. But many on the home front aren't fac ing enemy bullets or bayonetS-yet balk at puny sacrifices. Those who have the least to do can't match the patriotism of those who are doing the most The most ob- noxious person is the Super-opti- mist who insists the war is Q tea party and will be over this year, He thinks 1t will end sooner than it takes him to view a newsreel- which is the nearest he has come to the war.
 He was among those millions of Americans, who during the month of May (according to the Treasury Dep't) redeemed their war bonds the record for any month in bonds redeemed A large number of bond buyers are guilty Very likely he was one who-when the invasion flash was confirmed-went to a church to pray. The phony.
 America embarks on the greatest invasion in history. Military victory is in sight. Complex postwar prob- lems face us. All our brains, blood, treasure and power is needed to win the var and the peace Yet one segment of our population uses all its ugly vile and energy to viltfy { those who aid the war effort, for political purposes. They seem to think that pointing e finger at Roosevelt Hopkins and Willkie is more vital than getting our hands on Hitler and Tojo. 1t
 Americans of every race and creed are fighting and dying together. A Jap or Nazi bullet doesn't ask about your religion before hitting you. , The victories of those men are mak- ing 1t possible for Democracy to exist-which includes Congress |, Yet the west kind of racial hatred is now being heard in the halls of Congress.
 Two events took place on Capitol Hill this year that make a bitter contrast: The Presidential message, urging that soldiers be given ballots without strangling their rights with red-tape was greeted by boos and snickers by many Honorables. But they applauded Representative Rankin's swastika racial theories and thought 1t was splitting.
 Congress not long ago handed the Dies Committee another chunk of coin to flush out subversives. But when Gestapoliticians among them give their spleen a workout by drooling racial hate poison that supplies subversives with Trojan horse-power-too many solons think that the rat routine is Mickey Nous stuff and giggle their fool heads off.
 The Japs haven't monopoly on savagery. Nazis also make atroci- ties their hobby. It was revealed that they bombed an American hos pital ship and massacred 35,000 Poles and Russians Yet some Americans are still hypnotized by Nazi propaganda and go in for an orgy of wailing about the suffer ingS of bombed Berliners.
 F1apjawS are using Sleight-of mouth oratory-and presto-they hope soldiers voting rights will van- ish in blaze of namby- -pamby pla- titudes. They believe the public will be fooled by this lnokum pocus At the same time they're hopping through hoops for pressure groups Soldiers who spill their blood might be deprived of a fundamental right.
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