Page 1 PIA Features February 17 By H. W. “Well, I see the Big Three are meetin’ agin, an’ Dotty _Thompson is worryin’ about power politics,’ quoth Mr. Hangers as he took a liberal pinch of snoose, tucked it under his tongue, and then passed the box to me to be declined as per established ritual, “I won- -der what they..mean by ‘power - polities’ ?”. , : “They mean they don’t like them, anyway,” I replied incon- Sequentiy as \T idly watched a erash-boat “knife around the “point with walls of water shear- “ing from its bows’ and Sweep in a wide swift arc te come to rest against an oilfloat. Mr. Han- gers’ eyes followed mine. “Power there, too, an’ yet it ‘all depends im reachin’ that fioat in time,” he mused. “This here world situation is like that right now. ‘Every once in a while, it seems tuh me, the Big Shots have to go to Uncle Joe tuh git the power to con- tinue. Mebbe:one time it was to drink in his confidence an’? courage; -now-—well d’ye sup- pose they go now tuh git his instructions ?” “The Saturday Evening Post would -call, it plumbing the un- fathomable mind of- the enig- matic bear,” I told him. It was a beautiful afternoon, hazy sun- shine after ‘cold rain, and I wanted to enjoy it stretched out on 4 deckchair on the gallery of the float. Mr. Hangers, draped agsinst-a post alongside, di- vined my. mood. “That black-snakin’ js all right later in the season, but right now it’s “downright lazi- ness, an inexcusable too, in times like this,” he said. “What if the Bigs; Three did nothin’ but lay around an’ doze in the Black Sea sunshine? D’ye spose the war could he won that way?” ; “It'S won now; the Soviets have won it’ _. There ye §0, playin’ straight from a ‘amarked deci into re- action’s hand If the Russians lick Fascism, an” wear ’em- Selves out doin? it, what more do our home manured fascists want? Why d’ye spose Church- ul an’ :Roésevelt are meetin’ - - Stalin 2?” - - “Because they want to drink vodka - for’ a .change?” [ sug- gested provokingly, but he spat disdainfully over the rail. _, “Because they have behind ~them whole mobs, regiments an’ nations 06?: people who are howling. for em tuh get in an’ iimish the war! That’s why they’ve been. ¢oin’ all along, wise guy. Yuh can’t imagine Chamberlain’ or Dewey meetin? up with Stalin, can ye? Well, their people got rid o’ Chamber- Jain an’ Dewéy an’ the guys they have in their place know Wwunnerfully well that if they Waenta keep on top, an’ have British an’ American capital- ism survive this war, they'd better help whip fascism. So they. gotta go to Uncle Joe, an’ Uncle. Joe mows that’s why. they’re comin’ an? because he’s hated an fought fascism ever since it was cub; he’ll take any- body’s help in slaughterin’ the full-grown wolf. My. Hangers was well into his stride. “‘Unele Joe doesn’t worry if it’s called an imperial- ist war. He knows he’s out to lick fascism, an’ the others have ta help him do it!” “What about collaboration with the ruling-class and the bosses, and the lamb nipping poreupine quills out of the wolfs jaw, and all that?” I asked nim. “Thats not exactly Dottie’s line, it’s more the line o’ some great economist-politicians a damn sight nearer tuh this float,” he retorted. “Marx an- swered that one, an it was so long ago I’m surprised some 07 your politician friends don’t re- member, because they don’t seem to have digested anything new in the way of ideas since aroun’ that time.” “Marx, whom even you may remember tvrete a bit on philo- sopny an economics, was asked by a parcel cf good social demo- crats like -yersclf an’ yer friend 4érthur Turne> what they had tuh Go with =le Givil War «- they justly analyzed as a =trug- eh fetween -u poss econonies 0 the Nor-h an’ the South. Knew what he told ’en;?° “Go blach-snakinge in Cali- fornia until it’s all over,” T baited lazily, but he didn’t even sneer at that one. “He told those Social Demo- erats that the economy of the North was more progressive than the South, an’ it was up tuh them tuh pitch in an’ help histery,. an’ human progress along by supportin’ wage slay- ery agin chattel Slavery, an? - he was right, just as right as 1 am when I say capitalist dem- ocracy is better’n Nazi-capital- ism, an’ we should allus help a wolf cestroy a tiger. But Dot- tie an’ a lot o”? your friends say we should sit on our fannies an’ let “em eat up each other. It’s never Cone, but they’re great hepers, your friends!” i “Hold on!” TI expostulated. “It’s you belongs to the CCF club, remember? Not me!” “So it is now! Well, mebbe Tia just +seasonin? myself for the boredom o’ heaven. D’ye know something ?” “Ves 27? “Tsn’t it funny that all these mugwumps supported the USSR when they thought she was weak, but now they find She’s strong, an’ the capitalist powers have ta go to her, in- stead 9”? her runnin’ tuh them, they call her talls 0? power knew why ?” “You tell me.” “They're afraid of Russia. She means Socialism in con- struction, an? their socialism isn’t meant tuh be constructed. They don’t reaiiy want it—they only want tuh talk about it, but they Gcn’t want change, they. like their own little ruts in their own little footpaths, an’ at heart they’re scared socialism would send ’em drivin’ a bull- dozer down a new highway. That’s why.” “You seem to know them,” I encouraged him. “T’ve studied them. That’s why I keep an’ aquarium in the shed an’ belong to a CGF club,” he coneluded. “Fish allus in- terested me, an’ I like tuh know about ’em. utes’ the sun will be offa you for good, an’ Ill have the cof- tee waitin’ fer yuh,” and he dis- appeared. A politics? D’ye imperialist an’ In about five min- D