Where the News Ends
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
Where the News Ends By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBiUUNOne Touch of Baseball... w NEV KR tak, a trip, even a «bort trip, in th* United Stalin without bringing back * few impressions anil a still larger...
...The strategy of the uprising is directed from Communist headquarters...
...If labor, along with government and industrial management, is to rise to a higher level, it must put its house in order in two different respects...
...Hu is an internationally famous si holai and was an admirable representative ef China in this cous-try...
...The workers must have official* in whom they have confidence...
...77ie True Afusses, independent Soviet weekly which often draws comparisons between Soviel ami American conditions, much to the disadvantage of the former, raine out with a leading article on the London Confer-'en.·· entitled: 'Molotov Must Go.' The Council of Soviel American Friendship published a statement eftioing in every detail the sentiments of 77<c 7Yn« * ·' » Soneta Simp/icitos Department Whatever may be said against Russia, Russia has remained a non-aggressor and a peaceloving natkm since 1917...
...And, while I no longer measure up to this standard, I can still distinguish a putnut from an assist and keep score of a game in the peculiar hieroglyphics which this art requires...
...It must throw out the Joseph P. Ryans...
...They, too, batten on strife...
...Confplete strangers on buses and trains and in hotel lobbies would open up conversation with exchanges of information about the latest news of the score ami eager disrussion of the strategy employed hy the two aides...
...He attributed the failur* of the Conference to this attitude and expressed th* opinion that it was high time for the Soviet Govern, inent to leouor it* freely-given pledges to promote] democracy, liberty and free elections in countries which had been libeiated from the Naais...
...The agreement did not secure advantages which the men had a right to expecl...
...Radio carried the details of the games to millions who were far away from the ball parks where they were being played...
...I know from personal experience how little an average reasonably educated American i* apt to know about people and things outside hls immediate range of intet ests and activities...
...It is remarkable what a different aspect an American town or city may assume, depending on where you walk...
...Th* next day...
...Judge Jonah Goldstein, candidate for Mayor, is correct in denouncing the maneuvers of Michael Quill, Harry Bridges, Joseph Curran and other paity-line trade union leaders as "scandalous...
...Millions of men in uniform are shuttling between Army and Navy stations at home and abroad ami their homes, many now for permanent discharge, some on furloughs...
...Joseph P. Ryan has lo>ig been known as a corrupt and dictatorial union official...
...When their efforts converge you are sure to have double trouble...
...A bit of reflective thought was stirred by the challenging announcement of a sermon in a small town Methodist church in Indiana "Somelimes Silence is not golden...
...Whether the beginning of the trouble is to lie traced to Ryan or to the < 'onimiuiists is unimportant to lh* shipowners...
...The highest common denominator of interest, until the curtain fell on the Anal Detroit victory, was this mighty battle for championship honors between the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago Cubs...
...Whether the Communists were instrumental ill fomenting it, from the beginning may be a matter of doubt, but the energy which they have devoted to prolonging it is beyond question...
...I walked down th* Main Street of a medium-sized Ohio industrial town, and it created a rather dreary and drab reaction...
...As long as the war was on the Communists were fanatically devoted to industrial peace...
...e e · Items On* Does NOT Finel In fne Soviet Fress DELEGATION of independent members of the Supreme Soviet called on Prime Minister Stalin and insisted in strong terms that the Soviet Union must get along with the United States...
...The overwhelming desire was to get back lo civilian life at the earliest possible moment...
...Hu Shih, as quoted in The Ntw York- Herald Tribune of October 7. t) Or...
...In the same way a sfnaller Indiana town looked sprawling and unsightly from the train window and turned out to be homey and cosy, with long lines of shade trees and the smell of burning leaves in the crisp October air when one began to get better acquainted with it...
...From the point of view of developing civilized labor relations this situation presents a two-pronged moral...
...The Communists Show Their Hand LaST week we published an editorial in favor of jacking up the level of labor relations...
...TuKNING from the annual culmination of Ihe baseball season, th* World's Series, lo less trausitory things, one gets an impression of continuing change and un-s ' 1 lenient...
...Here we had a situation made to order for the intervention of Communist trouble-makers...
...These men went out in defiance of their national leader...
...The Communists have shown their hand...
...No wonder the public is puzzled by this rebellion of shipside workers whose labors are essential to all the processes of our national life...
...Ther...
...Now it is a prinie point in their policy to foment class conflict...
...Otherwise,' he sai,| "we shall never win or deserve the confidence of th* United States...
...It is clear, moreover, thai the precipitation of such difficulties is a part of their worldwide policy...
...And as a national sport baseball, to my mind, is as good as the best of them, it certainly has infinitely more chance, change and vicissitude than horse-racing, which may be a sport of kings, but always seemed to me a crashing bore to anyone who doesn't know the line points of horses...
...In my younger days I could cite with fair accuracy the batting averages of the leading players in the National and American Leagues...
...This crooked and unrepresentative leader signed an unsatisfactory agreement which led to rebellion...
...But the other point is equally important...
...It is a constant temptation to «etile down to a study of America in all the main aspect* of its life, its education, its religious beliefs ami social mores, its labor movement, what its farmers are thinking, the impact of all the varied racial strains...
...There are probably few towns that could not advantageously do a bit of municipal facelifting, now that the stress of war is over...
...by pure chanc«, I »truck out along a residential street, and the result was a delightful stroll of half an hour pad comfortable homes...
...And they could lie counted upon to take advantage of it...
...If American labor is lo go on to higher living standards and more civilized methods of ail ion, they, as well as the racketeers and gunmen, must be thrown out...
...The uprising of the longshoremen is a rase in point...
...with lawns and gardens, a university campus, a well-kept hospital...
...Everyone interested knew that when a convention elected him for life at a salary of $"0.000 a year it was merely carrying out his orders...
...But one fears that he tossed off this idea with little consideration for the impressive negative testimony which Poles, Fftins, Letts, Lithuanians, Kstoniass, Ukrainians, Georgians could offer...
...Hardly had this editorial rolled off Ihe piesses when we received in the New York longshoremen's strike a demonstration of one of the difficulties in the way of progress toward the rule of reason in settling labor disputes...
...Dr...
...Their preaident, Joseph P. Ryan, had signed an agreement with the shipowners which allowed the continuation of intolerable conditions...
...All 1 can .dTer now ia a few random jottings about a recent short swing around a small lecture circuit in Ohio, Indiana and lllioni- The swing happened to coincide with the closing games of the World's Series, and this supplied me with a title line for this piece...
...They, too, are corrupt...
...Soccer, perhaps .the most widely played game on the continent, yields to baseball in variety and cricket, still beloved in England and in some overseas British countries, can scarcely compare with the American game in ils moments of climactic excitement...
...A home run by Detroit's batting hero, Hank Green berg, sounded louder than an atomic bomb and the condition of Hal Newhouser or ('laude Passeati, the opposing pitchers, excited more speculation than the thorniest questions of international relations...
...That they had a hand in precipitating the dockers' wildcat strike in London appears evident from all reports...
...To say nothing of the impressions of various Central European and Balkan peoples who have experienced the amenities of Soviet military occupation, ironically called "liberation...
...We said that if there were some fair, honest and decent way of bringing labor and management together to irou out their differences, we could make adjustments without stoppages and all the dislocations which they cause...
...One wondered, as did perhaps the members of the congregation, whether the pastor proposed to .assail some local evil or some more general subject...
...Ryan simply failed to do bis duty as a union representative...
...I could appreciate Ulis upsurge of baseball interest because I shared it to some extent...
...That would obviousely be a long-term job, although I believe it would lie an immensely rewarding one...
...They had genuine grievances...
...The moment the war was finished they changed their line...
...w NEV KR tak, a trip, even a «bort trip, in th* United Stalin without bringing back * few impressions anil a still larger number of questions about thi* vast ant varied land...
...itiiWl laUhieljS, prominent Suviet radio broad...
...The point of it was that strikes, lockouts, the banging of men over the head and lugging them off to jail, are signs of social failure...
...Judging from the bits of conversation which this traveler overheard on trains and buses, there need be no fear that the war has implanted a love of soldiering in Ihe majority of the American people...
...The !·'">!¦ is the dream of a probably far distant future...
...V* certainly a good number, of effective sermons, with J stated illustrations, that could and should be preached along that line...
...They hope by this means to convince workers that they have in representatives of the Russian dictatorship true and devoted friends...
...have flowed into the making of homo americannt...
...They praised the leaders of American industry and exhorted the workers to cultivate docility...
...We suggested that trade union leaders could win reputation and influence hy working toward this end...
...ea»Ur tai *· nationwide hookup, denounced what bo called the obstructive attitude of the Soviet delegation at the London Conference...
...Th* Communists were quick to smek> out their opportunity and muscle in...
...A group of Soviet scientists issued a public appeal to the Soviet Government, in the interests of world amity and international mutual confidence, to communicate all Russia's important military secrets to the United Nations organization...
...Sometimes it is just plain yellow...
...Wherever the intransigence of industrialist* or th* failures of union leadership give them a chance, there they appear...
...Both crooked leaders like $y*V ani con-nivers like the t'ommunisie aar*-trouble makers...
Vol. 28 • October 1945 • No. 42
