The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1945-11-22
WHAT is IN A NAME?


SOMEONE, probably a poet, remarked a long
~ time ago that there's nothing in name. A
rose by any other name would fill the room with
perfume just the same or words to that effect
The poet was wrong about some names. Con-
Istant propaganda has made some terms and ap-
Ipellations things to provoke shudders. For in
stance, there's the word, strike"
What is a "strike?" Insofar as working
people are concerned, it is simply the stoppage
Eof work. If you quit your job, you go one
man strike" If scores or thousands of working
people decide to quit their jobs at the same time,
they may shut down an industry That's a
'strike," too
Recently we had retail grocery dealers
threatening to buy no butter during the first
week in November because OPA has raised prices
to wholesalers five or six cents. It's all part of
the program to abolish the subsidies paid by
on. But what is it to be called when retail grocers
refuse to go without profits? Why, that's a
"strike," too.
What about the farmers who withheld var
ous products from the market, until OPA finally
gave them a raise? They were Striking" of
course. And, the restaurant owners who closed
their doors because red ration points ran low?
Strikers every one.
Working people "strike" when they become
convinced there is no other way to obtain wage
adjustments or changes in working conditions
they sincerely believe are necessary. Businessmen
"strike" for the same reason; to protect their
reasonable profit margins. Farmers, too, go on
strike" when they think their interests require
stoppage of work
We are reading nowadays in the press about
many many strikes of working people, But, wei
are not getting one word about what is probably
the biggest strike of all-the strike of manufac-
turers to smash the OPA ceiling prices. We areI
told that builders are on a sit-doWn because OPA[
prices do not permit of profitable operations; wei
pfO at N
on strike for higher rents.
The emphasis is all on the strikes called
by working people, because the purpose of the
publicity is to put labor in wrong with the public
and to encourage congress to pass some sort of
law to cripple worker organizations, to deny to
such organizations the right to stop work, If that
can be done.
The difference between free men and serfs
is the right to quit The serf dared not strike; he
went to jail if he tried to quit his job. He was part
Of the property of the employer. Any time con-
gress attempts to prevent working people from
leaving their jobs it takes step in the direction
of serfdom.
In free country every man has right to
leave his job when he pleases, just as every man
in business, every farmer, every building contrac-
tor, has right to close up shop if he cannot OBJ
tain reasonable return from the sale of his labor
or his products.
During the war, the organized working people
laid aside their right to strike, but they
did not surrender it. They permitted themselves
to be pushed around by bureaucrats and vision
aries who operated compulsory arbitration sys-
tenn. Now that the war is over, organized Labor
wants no more of that type of regulation; it also
has decided definitely to resume it's right to stop
work.
What's needed? A fair, sincere cooperative
spirit, an APPROACH to the problem by means of
mutual understanding and confidence. Compul- .
sion has always failed; it is never the answer in
4 free country.