The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1949-02-24
.&;s.X Ms
1df1f(44ERRIKEY

The United States has done a
most creditable thing in demanding
that the United Nations investigate
slave labor in the Soviet Union.
1t is charged that the red regime
is holding from eight to fourteen
million persons in slave labor bond
age.
The charge is undoubtedly true.
1t is one of the most hideous facts
in today's world.
The soviets take refuge behind
the statement that the UN wants
to probe into hidden secrets of the
great straddle of Russia to find out
things of military Importance.
Of course the soviet position IS
exactly like the position of most
guilty persons or institutions.
1t is doubtful if United Nations
investigating crew ever gets be-
hind the iron curtain, but whether
or not that happens, it is good to
have mobilized world opinion level
led at the soviet brutality.
!. = i
Soviet Russia never has cared
much, if at all, about world opin-
ion.
The soviets just yell, capitalist"
at the rest of the world, as if that
might be a complete answer.
What may come of this charge
we cannot know yet, but certain 1t
is that even the tightest dictator
ship cannot forever stand and face
its people in the face of logical,
provable accusation.
The soviet regime has none oil
that thing which we call honor, nor
has it code of ethics. With it the
end justifies the means and the
"end" always is an anti-freedom
one.
Slavery doesn't mean too much
to the soviets, because the whole
concept of the Russian rulers is
one of subjugation of the masses.
OF course there is no difference be-
tween destruction Of the rights OF
IA Russian and those of, for ex-
ample, a Frenchman. Let all else
die, so the communist regime may
live.
The rest of the world lives in the
shadow of war, because the soviets
will it SO.
The whole might of the soviet
rulership is one of domination, or
unprincipled crushing, wherever it
can and wherever it suits the red
rulers.
The idea of slave holding, even
on a small scale, is repugnant to
every sense of decency, as we know
it. The idea of holding men and
women in bondage by the millions
is so enormously hideous that our
minds can scarcely grasp the enor-
nifty of the crime.
We needn't expect the soviets to
be at all squeamish about it. That
is not in their nature at all. The
one thing that will determine their
course is the measure of effect it
may have on the aims of the soviets
as they stand today
!. !. =
Russia, under red rule, backs up
easily when it seems to the Rus
sian interest to do so. Face saving
is not involved. The case of Anna
Louise Strong is a case in point.
One day the Daily Worker runs her
copy and praises her as great
revolutionist. The next day it drops
her cold, without explanation, be
cause suddenly Moscow has told her
to go home.
Tactics are based on hard COM
munist realities, as they see real
tiles. Soviet tactics have no rela-
tion whatever to right and wrong.
That's why we may doubt that
Russia will yield to any pressure
for the release of the millions of
slaves, unless somehow the soviets
become convinced that they can, by
so doing, gain something that they
want more than they want the
slaves.
We shall hope that the cries of
freedom will have some good effect.
But we know, too, that there will
be no touching of the hearts or of
the consciences of the soviet rulers.
The rulership of Russia's millions
is today hideous and a repugnant
thing-a menace to the free world,
Perhaps the Russian people may
some day find a way to change it.
The communist dictators will not,
They live by it.
VOTES To END SEGREG ALTON