Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1945-03-30
On The
Beam
By
Clayton w.
Fountain
GONE?

3 pOIlClCdl CONFUSION Wnlcn ne
created goes on in his absence.
In rejecting the nomination
of Aubrey Williams to serve
as head of the Rural Electrical
ton Administration, the SEN
ate followed this same Diesian
pattern of political confusion.
The loudest voices raised in
protest against the Williams
nomination were those of
Senators who insist that
wealth and privilege and ra-
cial superiority are the dis
tinguishing features of Amer
icanism.
They believe - and they
are determined to impose
their belief on the American
public-that 'our American
form of government" as they
so fondly call it, guarantees
the right of the rich to lord it
over the poor, and that
"Americanism" insures the
right of the whites to dis
criminate aga inst people
whose skins are not white.
DOMINANT ISSUE
This is the dominant issue
of our time.
If these old moss-backs in
high places of government,
who speak for Wall Street and
the rich landed masters of the
South, have their way about
the future of this country
they will create a government
in their own image; that is, a
government which will en-
ploy ignorance, trickery, pre-
judice, force and violence to
uphold the economic power of
the wealthy minority.
Their concept of American
ism" includes the privilege of
the rich to make unlimited
profits, even though the ma
jority of the people go ragged
and hungry; it includes such
terrors as the ynching of
Negroes for the purpose of
keeping them in their place."
There is no place for trade
unionism in this kind of
"AmericaniSm," and the old
moss-backs prove this by their
constant attacks on labor.
STOCK IN TRADE
Political confusion is the
stock in trade of these de-
tenders of privilege and plu-
tocracy.
In waging their fight against
trade unionism, social secur-
ity, ra cial equality, social
ownership and political free
dom, they try to paint all
these things as allen, un-
American and Communistic."
This is an outright perver-
sion of the true spirit of
America.
Our country was founded
by men and women who be-
lieved that the rights of the
majority which is the common
people take precedence over
the privileges of any pluto
cratic minority.
The Revolutionary patriots
of 1776 did not hesitate to en-
ploy force and violence in
their struggle to establish this
principle. They fought and
bled and died to create gov
ernment which is founded on
the right of the common
people to compel the privi-
legged minority to bow to the
public will.
DEVOTED TO FREEDOM
These Founders of America
were so devoted to freedom
that they created a Constitu-
ton which protects all minori-
ties against oppression at the
hands of majoritieS.
Now the plutocrats and the
white supremists take advan-
tage of this Constitutional
protection to perpetuate their
privileges. They would re-
verse the order of the Consti-
tuition, to make it serve the
few at the expense of the
many. That is what they
mean by "Americanism."
What we progressives have
got to prove, and get the pub
lie to accept, is that trade
unionism, racial equality, So
cial ownership, ETC., are the
natural fruits of the freedom
won by the Revolution.
They are liars who say that
these goals are "un-American
and CommuniStic."