Where the News Ends

...Noe we look to it for help in the rebuilding of a shattered continent The American Federation of Labor has raised a fund for the assistance of unions in previously occupied countries...

...On May Day, 1945, the attitude of the outside world toward European labor is quite different from whit it was in the past...

...The American delegation should work hard...

...In the tragic time* through which we hfeve passed our interdependence has been demonstrated...

...Yet this analogy, clear at the time to , anyone who vans jeifling t» took at Stalin's long record of brutality and chicanery in relation to Poland, hss been most strikingly borne out by the subsequent coutse of evenU...

...Contrary to plan, Poland bas become the Number One political problem of th* San Francisco Conference...

...Outside of Europe, in the meantime, trade uniom have made great advances...

...human liberty dominate the final form of the United Nations Charter we shall know whether the conference which is opening under the shadow of martyred Poland should be known as San Francisco or San Fiasco...

...vrfjh a shift of actors, countries and •tage-aettings...

...This ****** that^ejven a small ar s*«dl*»-*ta*d r senary, if ft should lid a pa tran among the big nawara, couhl launch an aggressive war with virtual certainty of not being checked, since its patron couM block action ia the Council...

...That is th* way to assure less and less freedom...

...Events sometimes move rapidly and it is possible that a face-saving compromise may be devised before this column appears in print However, the likelihood of any genuine concessions on Stalin's part has certainly been diminished by the solemn conclusion of a twenty year Soviet-Polish treaty of alliance (signed with th* Charlie McCarthy Lublin regime) on the very eve of the San Francisco Conference...

...Historical and ethnographic facts were shamelessly distorted in order to jlustify Stalin's grab of ¦sore than two-fifths of Poland's former territory without any consultation of^ the will of the mixed Polish Ukrainian-White-KuKsiau Jewish population af-- fee ted...

...Aa Id.t.rl.l— European Labor on May First No ? so long ago tb* first day of May was the aaxctt marshalling day for European labor...

...It would, of course, be nothing of tha kind...

...By the extent to which impartial law and the spirit of...

...And despite th* disorganization of international labor, we see every day practical demonstrations of the fact that the organin-tion of workers in free unions is basic in our sort of civilization...

...It Is scarcely probable that Stalin would consent to alter substantially the make-up of a government with which he had concluded such an agreement— or expose that government to the chsncesof a genuinely "free and unfettered election " This situation makes considerable demands on the statesmanship, firmness and commonsense of our new President...

...Erwin D. Canham, in The Chrittian Science Monitor...

...Soncfo Simpliclfai Deportment "If anyone thinks he can secure more freedom for Poland by a non-stop press attack upon Russia in the United States, he is gravely mistaken...

...Other obvious defect* in tb* plan which will be discussed at San Francisco are th* refusal to the Assembly of the right to offer recommendations on questions which are under consideration by the Council and tha extreme rigidity of the conatitution, which requires the consent of each of the Big Five before it can be modified in any detail...

...Amid tha claque of official and unofficial glorification of tb* supreme wisdom and justice expressed in th* decisions of th* Crimea Conference, it was unpopular and unpalatable to proclaim that Yalta waa simply aaether ltaafajk...

...Two others, William M. Leiserson end Joseph Di Keenan, will soon be sent over by the Army to work in the sam* direct inn...

...This illusion wat rudely diipelled wam Hitler marched into Prague end imposed puppet regimen on the iiemembered remanent* of Cztchotlovakia...

...But this gaping breach could be partly filled if something like Article 10 of the League Covenant, guaranteeing the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each member of the organisation, could be adopted...

...Tha first of May became th* time for Mussolini, Hitler, aad Stalin to demon...

...And those still regimented under tyrannical regimes who cannot receivi greetings have all our sympathy and solidarity—free democratic labor will continue to work for a world that is not totalitarian but totally fiat...

...for flexibility in the structure of the organisation and for liberalization of some of the secondary voting formulas...

...Tbe tasks hefer* Europe's workers must seem well nigh impossible...

...But there has been wider recognition of tbt high place which trade unions occupy—and must occupy—in any democratic regime...

...AH of the Kr**, cities broke out in a rash of red flag...

...American correspondent* filled)' their dispatches whs •ccounta of meaaure* which had hose taken to ward off threats to th* public peace...

...Tha dictator* took ov*r the .worker*' annual festival...

...On the day after, rulars breathed freely again, fend the leaders of lab** looked back with pride on the power whk-h they bad exhibited ~l For a long tune there has been almost nu free labor on the European continent...

...It is to be hoped that Truman will act on th* assumption that here is a situation where no agreement in distinctly preferable to a bad and dishonorable agreement, that Yalta represented the extreme limit ef American appeasement in the Polith question...

...I land* has actual liberation gene very far...

...In more ways than one, this year will so* a revival of labois holiday...

...Labor organizations will not be adequately and directly represented at S»« Francisco or at subsequent conferences of the dipt*, mats...

...Obviously, any compromise offer from Moscow would have to be examined vary closely, not only from the standpoint of tha personalities proposed for membership in the fusion government, but from th* standpoint of full establishment of democratic and civil liberties in Poland and stoppage of Soviet military and police interference In Polish Internal affairs...

...To all the worker* of Europ*—those liberated and about to be liberated— The New Leader sends greetings on this first of May, 1945...

...But event* naw, as after Munich, have rudely dispelled this pleasant dream...

...This rules out immediately any action by tbe world security organization to check aggression on th* part of thevnowers which will be in the best position to resort to it in future...

...Much the same spirit of false optimism was deliberately cultivated in Washington and London after Yalta...

...Or consider tbe right of any one of the Big Five te bleck consideration by the Council of any cause *f war In which it is not directly involved...

...Thua the labor forces are officially recognised as our special allies in tha work of rebuilding...

...Even the pitiable concession of adding a few names to the line-hp of the puppet regime haa been refused up t* th* eve ef the conference...

...An area in which tb* majority of the population waa Gorman, and had been originally incorporated unwillingly into Czechoslovakia, was being transferred to Germany...

...Tb* Dumbarton Oaks pence edifice ha* many loopholes and gaping breaches, some of which ar* wide enough to drive a column of Tiger (or Stalin) tanks through...

...What is obviously called for is not blind signature on the dotted line, but vigorous and intelligent discussion, amendment, and improvement...

...We wish the workers of Europe success in their vital task of restoration and reorganization...

...Take, for example, the right of sitting in judgment op its own case reserved for every member of the Big Five...

...Found'* independence ha* not been purrhssed by the sacrifice of its eastern territory, any more than th* independence et Czechoslovakia waa assured by the surrender ef the Sudeten Is ad...

...So much has been destroyed, so many hopes have gone glimmering...

...Nowhere in the liber ate...

...The pautien of Poland, supposedly disposed of by the Yalu formula, has 1*4 to two flat Anglo-American refusals to Soviet demands that th* puppet reg im* of Boloslav Bierut be invited to San Francisco as representative of the Polish people...

...Mighty mtA ings and parades demonstrated the power of the toi|.s ing masses and their deep desire to overturn govern* ments and remake society...

...But in large part our hope of a new and better Europe depends on them...

...Bat »e shall certainly see again in Europe celebra t ions of tbt old sort calling upon tb* people ?? reassert their ancient faith in democracy...

...Canham or anyone else who shares this pathetic type of wishful thinking could explain how there could be less freedom than Poland has obtained since the appeasement tactics of Teheran and Yalta have dominated Anglo-American policy...

...ThERK has not been the slightest move in the direction of realising any one of the basic conditions for an independent Poland, release of all political prisoners, unmolested return to Poland of all Polish soldiers and civilians abroad, institution of freedom of speech, press and political organization, free access to Poland foi independent Jn»aitHM<»'TtAvrnt workers and representatives of Polish cultural and fraternal Organizations...

...The day was always a* ' anzioua one for prime ministers and police chief...

...It should ha remembered that Munich, in th* beICinning, WS* represented as a reasonably fair settlement by many commentators...

...ft would be interesting and, informativ* if Mr...

...In other days we expected it to foment discontent and to threaten governments...

...And since the Nazis overran most of the continent i* 194· the day haa practically loot its meaning...

...And it was widely argued that, even if Poland had fared rather, badly on boundary adjustment, there was the word of the Big Three to guarantee a broad-based "democratic" government, which would proceed to hold "fro* and unfettered elections," and then everyone would live happily ever afterward...

...The great power veto on punitive action probably cannot be eliminated...

...Strat* the might of their regimented marching nnvwea...

...Tha fruits of aapsasssisnt, as usual, have quickly turned sour...

...Only in France sod Italy and a fee/ other countries baa there been *vea partial restoration of fro* trade unionism...

...If one would now i*ok back to the comments on Munich, there would be np lack of optimistic forecasts that the Czechoslovak state would be happier and healthier and mora homogeneous within its diminished frontiers...

...The tentative United Nations charter itself will sank* similar demands on the judgment, insight and real ism of th* President and hit advisers, of tb* Americsn delegation and of th* ^IHSric** people in general...

...Two American labor men, Paul Porter and Irving Brown, have already been sent abroad by different arms of our government sei met to assist in the restoration of free trade onions in Germany...

...Some thoughtless Americans, caught by tb* fetich ism of words and bamboozled by official and unofficial propaganda, would probably hau the signature of the present charter without the change of a comma as a great triumph for world peace, even a* an automatic preventive of future warb...

...We know now as we never knew before that If labor lose* its freedom anywhere civilization is threatened everywhere...