The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1948-02-12
So = Ws


-W4A.--I IkEE
Maybe it sounds funny to say it
but I've just been having a tour
through a mausoleum. 1t was q
beautiful place.
Outside the sun was shining
brightly and some of it slithered
through the stained glass windows
A friend just wanted me to see
the place.
There are many corridors, on
each side Of which are crypts, a
crypt being a space large enough
to hold a coffin. Everything is
marble-not dark marble, but mar
BILE that is white, with slashes of
black here and there.
Taking look at those stone
crypts you think that when a per-
son is parked away in one of those
inches he is very likely to stay put.
Well, we walked along, looking
at names i'm an aimless fashion.
Suddenly there came a name that
meant something.
That name was General Gerar-
do Machado".
Time was, back around 1856
when Gen. Gerardo Machado was
one to beget fear.
He was president dictator of
Cuba. Many a patriot died in the
latter part of that brutal rule.
| never met the man, but | went
to Cuba and wrote a series of ten
for the Scripps- Howard
detailing the horrors
of the oppression under Machado
and | have the satisfaction of know
ing that he never sat quiet so solid
ly in his presidential chair there
after.
Well, here he lies, back of a
white marble front beyond which is
a space just large enough to hold
his remains.
No matter how high you get, or
how powerful, always something
like that is the last stop on the
road-and there you stay for
Iong, long time.
Nobody has to fear Gerardo Mac
nado any more. He is very quiet
and harmless.
Dictators ought to be required,
at least once week, to ponder
he end-result of all human life
1 place big enough to hold a body,
f they die all in one piece.
What can be so glamorous about
holding vast powers for such a
short space of time.
Why do men, destined to live
,nly an average of three score and
en, permit themselves to become
,loated with arrogance, poisoned
With vengeance within themselves,
.orroded with inner hates and ours
ID for their abuse of their fellow
nen?
Look back down the corridors of
history. Alexander, Caesar, the
'tolomeys-W Washington, Lincoln,
irant, Wilson, Lloyd George,
Ilemenceau-the great who were
.ood and the great who were not
,reat at all but were merely cruel.
For all the end is the same. Why
oes it not teach men more Of hu-
1anity, more of common decency,
1ore of unselfish service?
The answer would be worth hav-
ng, for the answer might lead to
hange.
A name on a marble slab doesn't
ave any fun. 1t doesn't go any
lace and it doesn't speak to any
ody. It's just there, cut into mar
lie. 1t doesn't remember any
ming and it will no longer learn
nything.
That name, General Gerardo
Iachado"-the title all spelled out
/ full and not abbreviated-seem- !
to point up the whole thing.
There have been many greater
ames in the history of tyranny and
But this one happened to :
e where | came by. 1t could have
cen any other.
There were a pair-Hitler and
[ussolini. They craved power and
ley were arrogant and brutal be- ]
md words. They went out grovel- Il
& and beaten. They don't even b
ave place in a crypt, nor so a
uch as an honored grave. 4
There are those now living-too
any of them-and that's how it t
i'll be for them too. If they're a
cky, an oblong space in a crypt, S
; under a piece of sod. They won't S
. having any fun, but back of C
EN- will be a record of evil and a
.ritage of hate. They ought to be b
quired to go look at some mauso- n
um caverns. e
Doctor: "I'll have to amputate d
,ur left hand and remove your s.
nmach - q