Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1945-01-26
The
Beam
By
Clayton W..
Fountain

(The column takes the form
this week of letter to Pri-
vate Edward j. Duck, a men,
Der and leader of Local IL,
UAW-CIO, who is in training
at Camp Blanding, Florida).
Dear Ed:
l have been wanting for
some time to write about the
role of the American soldier
in this War-especially with
respect to the nature of the
war and the aims for which it
is being fought-and l can
think of no better way to get
certain things off my chest
than by writing a letter to
you.
The thing that bothers me
most about our part in the
war is the almost complete
failure of the powers-that-be
to make clear that this is not
simply war against Germans
and Japs.
Frequently | hear people
talking in the taverns about
how 1--WE gotta kill everyone
of them God damn slant-eyed
Japs." And l know person
ally of men in the armed
forces, some of them in pretty
high places, who have de-
clared that when we get
through with the Germans
and the Japs, then we are 60
ing to start on the Jews and
the 'niggers'."
THE HARD PEACE
Then there is all the talk
about making the peace terms
so tough that every individual
German will be made to suf-
fer for the evil deeds inflicted
on the world by the Nazis.
l think you know, Ed, from
your experience in the labor
movement, that the employers
have always played upon
petty prejudices in their eff
forts to keep the workers di-
Vided.
Whenever the boss could
get one group of workers to
hate another group, for rea-
sons of race, color or national
origin, it was always tough
to get a union organization
started under such conditions.
WORLDWIDE PATTERN
This same pattern of ex-
ploitation Of prejudice has
also operated on a worldwide
scale. The forces of imperial
ism, namely, the wealthy own
ers of international corpora
tions and cartels, have used
the influence of governments
controlled or dominated by
their dough to incite peoples
and races against each other.
If this pattern is allowed to
continue in the postwar pc
riod, there will be small hope
for an enduring peace-no
matter how tough the peace
terms are made.
1t seems to me, Ed, that SOL
diers ought to be thinking
and talking about these
things, because the points
am trying to make here do
have an important bearing on
how much good the world is
going to get out of the secri-
fices you fellows are making.
EXAMPLES CITED
There were two recent
stories in the press which re-
vealed the utter stupidity of
hating people because of their
race or color.
One was the story of Cap
tain Herman Bottcher, aged
35, who was killed on Leyte
by a Jap mortar shell on De-
cember 81, 1914. Captain
Bottcher was a veteran of the
Spanish Civil War, where he
fought against Franco fascism.
But the significant fact about
his heroism was that he was
born in Landsberg, Germany.
The other story is about
Captain Charles l.. Thomas, a
24-year old Negro officer
hailing from Detroit, who won
the Distinguished Servic e
Cross for leading 81 other
Negro soldiers through heavy
fire to capture a post inside
the Siegfried line.
Here is proof, in the form
Of soldierly conduct, which
shows how wrong it is to think
that we are fighting simply to
wipe out peoples of a differ
ent race or a different ma
tionality.
Fraternally yours,
Clayton w. Fountain.