The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1944-07-27
by WILLIAM GREEN, President
American Federation Of Labor

American Federation of Labor
1t seems inconceivable after CEN
turtles of developing civilization that
the elementary right to live should be
denied to any law-abiding human being
by government. The sacredness of hui
man life has been recognized since the
beginning of history and is proclaimed
In the language of Holy Writ, which
declares that God made man f" in his
own image" In our day, we have been
taught To believe that the primary pur-
pose of Government is to protect hu
man life, to safeguard 1t and to punish
those who would want only destroy ii.
Yet today we find all our concepts of
civilization, of religion and of Govern
ment challenged and defiled by the
hideOus atrocities of Hitler. We be-
hold the perpetration of mass murders
throughout the AXis-dOminated nations
of Europe-the murder of hundreds of
thousands of men, women and children
guilty of no wrong, but condemned 10
torture and death merely because they
are Jews.
We hear the suffering cry of the
helpless victims of the worlds most
Infamous mailman as ID reaches us
from across the seas. Our hearts are
filled with grief and we are moved by
the deepest Indignation. In Germany,
In Austria. in Poland, in France, In the
Balkans and in every Nazi-controlled
nation of Europe, the same brutal
routine has been repeated. The Jews
have been starved, humiliated perse-
cuted and Systematically eXterminated.
Families have been broken up, whole
populations have been uprooted from
their home communities and transport
ed to foreign wastes where they are
left to die of hunger and disease. Muir
ders are committed In the homes
villages, cities and along the streets
and highways OF Europe. Concentra-
tlon camps and ghettoes are filled to
oyerilowing with hopeless human be
ings who look forward only to death
as release from insupportabe anguish.
These CHASTITY crimes against civil
ization are the natural and inevitable
result of racial and religious hatreds.
No nation, not even our own, is entire
ly free of guilt When such hatreds are
stirred up, when the minds of the
masses are poisoned aga inst their
fellow men, when intolerance is en-
couraged, the cause of humanity Is
bound 10 suffer. And when men and
nations of goodwill stand by and let
such things happen without protest and
without punishment, they themselves
are destined to be- punished.
The very forces which promote
racial and religious llatreds are de-
strilctive Ia freedom and democracy.
Intolerance and liberty cannot live side
by side within any nation or within
our world They are deadly enemies.
We know now that IIitler's way Of
death Is the supreme threat 60 the
American way of life. by the same
token we must accept the fact that the
existence and spread of racial and
religious hatreds within our own coiin-
try are likewise dangerous To Ameri-
can democracy.
Today We are engaged In "A global
war Tor the SurNiNul Of that ueiIoc-
racy. Yet occasionally We hear Amcrl-
cans, whose sons are risking their
lives against the enemy overseas, give
aid and comfort 10 the enemy by vote
ing hate and disparagement of racial
and religious groups In their own com
munities Anyone who does this Is be-
traying his own blood and his own
humanity.
Fortunately most Americans have
learned the treacherous pitfalls into
which intolerance leads the unwary.
This war has given rs n much needed
education In our own basic ideology
and II has opened our eyes Ia the false
precepts of the NaZi creed | am proud
of the fact that organized labor has
contributed extensively to this ednca-
tional process.
Long before most Americans were
aware of the dangers of Nazism, the
American Federation of Labor sounded
clear warnings We saw Hitler In his
true light the moment he came To
power and started prosecuting the
Jews of Germany and destroying the
trade union movement of that country.
We protested vigorously and, when
that had no effect, we unhesitatingly