The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1947-06-19
. G;s~.sSN Ms
df'7[[{44ERaIHEY f'7[{

I've just been reading a review
of the testimony given in the Con-
gressional hearing held to find
out why we got caught flat-footed
at Pearl Harbor.
The answer seems to have been
as simple as this: Nobody thought
there was any danger that Pearl
Harbor would be the first target
and so everyone blandly disregard
ed warnings that should have been
as plain as the nose on Eddie Can
tors face.
The whole story sounds a bit
childish now, looking backward.
Perhaps the most costly bit OF
childishness the world ever seen.
Well, there are two things to
be said. One is that we may one
day face a situation in which there
will be similar warnings and they
may not be needed just because
nobody thinks such things will hap
pen.
The other is that in the lesser,
but very important, things of our
own lives we constantly disregard
warnings.
Families disregard warnings in
their homes. A banana peel on the
sidewalk is warning, but lots OF
people don't see it until!
Some object left on stairway
should be a warning, but too often
it is seen too late-someone breaks
a leg-or a neck.
Politicians, too, rush through
hasty legislation, full of dangers,
which in their hasty -mindedness
they don't see. Later they don't
get elected, because they didn't see
in time. That could happen to a
Taft, maybe!
There are many danger signals
floating around. Some of them are
felt, not seen like the initial signs
of tuberculosis. An X-ray in time
can save life and a breadwinner.
It's the same with cancer, which
sometimes can be seen, sometimes
cannot. But there are ways of prov
ing whether suspicion is grounded
well, or not. To disregard first
danger signals can be fatal-it can
leave mourners.
In world affairs and in home af-
fairs, we too often. disregard what
should be plain warnings. When
men are perfect this will no longer
be true.
Travelling Americans used to
come home and tell us that Musso-
lini was probably pretty good for
Italy. He made the trains run on
time. Early analysts of Mussolini
even told us that the big fake was
building an industrial democracy
and so was clear out in front. That
almost fooled a great many.
Warming signs were not seen at
first-even the caster oil signs.
Travellers also came home from
Germany and told what great
things Hitler was doing. Clear
warnings were clouded over.
Why do peoples, Individually and
collectively, so often go blind at
important moments?
Parenthetically, isn't it odd -
doesn't it mean something-that
almost nobody today gives a
thought to either Mussolinio or Hit
Ter. So recently strutting; now so
completely dead! And by so many
almost forgotten.
Well, there are other places
where warnings go unheeded. Let's
move on.
Recently an AFofL organizer
wrote piece describing how he
had organized a certain plant in
short order and the boss, when con
fronted, was amazed. The boss had
run the plant 30 years-you know,
the old story.
The union leader told the boss
that it was him-the boss--who |
had really organized that union
by his own policies. That boss
didn't see or heed the warnings.
Neither have some of our own
leaders. Part of the blame for the
Taft Hartley bill goes to politicians
looking for an issue, but some part
of it goes, too, to labor leaders
who haven't known when to lay
off, when to give democracy
chance, when to quit struttihg and
bossing That's too bad.
But let's learn to have sharper
if it does become a law-and it
will grow greater. No right cause
ever was destroyed by blockading
it.
But let's lear nto have sharper
eyes and keener ears. In all walks
and directions there are generally /
warnings of impending evil.
ICfrLNN Dpnu,IIlrD ICrL,Nt