The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1951-01-18
Here's Hoping Thof Brotherhood
Week Can Go The Way Of The Dodo

washington (LPA) - Nobody
would ask people to join in a Ma
tional Breathing Week.
This sensible observation was
made by the noted philosopher
Irwin Edman, commenting on Ma
tional Brotherhood Week, Feb. Is
to rs.
"Unless we could take breathing
for granted, life literally, could
not go on" Edman points out. "But
| it is becoming increasingly clear
that unless we can take the COM
mon cooperative humanity of men
for granted, life may not be able to
go on either"
Two fine phrases are in serious
danger of becoming simply signal
for a yawn, he warns. One is "the
brotherhood Of man." The other is
"the American way of life"
They've been beaten around so
much, nobody thinks about what
they really mean anymore. They
just hear the words.
"What could an enemy like bet
ter" asks Edman, "than to have
our nation torn by needless and
foolish tensions and groups in our
society separated by the inherent
Stiffness of group and race distinc-
tions 2"
at is sad," he comments, chat
there should be such grim reasons
for having to remind people once
year of the brotherhood of man.
The news is not that the brother
hood of man exists but the shock
ing news is that another year has
gone by and it still does not.
"That is why Brotherhood Week
is a matter for the American peo-
pie to take seriously. One can only
hope that some day, relatively soon,
the fact of brotherhood will be so
familiar that no person in his right
senses would feel it necessary to
mention it,"
Before that day comes, however,
tremendous amount of work must
be done. And it is the kind of work
that all of us can do every day,
not carefully and deliberately so
much as by our very way of living.
Brotherhood Week is sponsored
by the National Conference of
Christians and Jews, and is design
ed to point up the year-round work
of that organization. 1t was started
in the early thirties at the sugges-
ton Of Catholic priest who was
disturbed by the racial and relig-
ious bigotry evident in the mid
western community where he lived.
The week centers around George
Washington's birthday, February
|22. The first President of the United
States coined the slogan ITO bigo-|
try no sanction" But there has
been bigotry, a great deal OF 1t,
from Washington's time right upl
to the present, and today it threat
Cll6 Jul Ntl y way VI nav
Experts have warned that if wei
don't all work together we are in|
danger Of losing this war. The rea-
sons for our precarious position in
the world situation are many, and
some of them have nothing to do
with prejudice and group conflicts.
Anyone who would deny the SER
ious effects of such conflicts, how
ever, is making a great mistake.
Treatment Of the Negro in Am
erica has been used by the Com
munists throughout the world as a
potent propaganda weapon. ln|
Asia particularly, where there are
millions Of people who could have
been won to our side, the Russians
have pointed to racial discrimina-
tion in America as proof of this|
country's lack of sincerity about
our high sounding ideals.
If production goals are to be
achieved, the Negro must work
harmoniously with others in the
plant. Religious tensions, which
weaken our fibre as a nation, must
be done away with. Freedom must
be recognized as the birthright of
every American, if we are to have
more than empty slogans to fight
for.
General Lucius ID. Clay, who
kept the American flag flying over
Berlin in the difficult POSTWAR
years, has warned that perhaps
the final and deciding factor" inl
stopping the advance of the dicta-
tor countries will be "the real voice