flourishing Socialist Party Aids Workers in Puerto Rico
Cox, Henry J.
flourishing Socialist Party Aids Workers in Puerto Rico Growong Labor and Socialist Movement Has Membership / 000 and Has Elected Mayors in a Dozen Towns— t Resident Com mini oner to...
...Let Organized Labor Meet Court's Menace ating—what chances are there that the Labor Relations Act, the Security Act, and the Housing Act will remain in force one day after the Supreme Court speaks its judgment upon them...
...And steady employment will mean that the people wise move into these new homes sad people who live in old homes, for that matter—will have money to pay their rent, and meet interest payments, to the public's money which is invested in the project can be paid back, and payments to private builders should also be more secure...
...They are systematically kept in ignorance by their "coordinated" press and the deadly danger and criminally irresponsible adventurism into which they have been pushed...
...Under this Seta to rial system the entire state fed the whole people have been Kgtnized into a huge war ma-fin*—a political and military or-teism such as Europe has never sWn and which can hardly be esgined outside of Germany...
...its normal now had been diverted from one state to another...
...Millions of wage workers, of dirt fanners, and of other citizens, outraged by the judicial slaughtering of labor and social legislation, await such a lead...
...And don't forget that these workers are to be paid union wages...
...Plight of Industry "During the 23 years between 1913 and 1935, there were 19 investigations or hearings by Congress or by specially created commissions with reference to conditions in the coal mines...
...Economic necessity will accelerate the war explosion, for the dictatorship, to save itself, must inevitably seek to divert internal disorder, threatening its existence, into the channels of foreign aggression...
...Self-reliant action by Organized Labor at this moment may well assure the needful amending of the Constitution by 193d...
...Private industry cannot profitably build homes which sell or rent for a sufficiently low price to enable most workers to buy or rent decent homes...
...Carried to its logical conclusion, it would destroy the Labor Relations Act, the Social Security Act, and nearly every other law by which Congress has tried to prevent industrial peonage and social disaster...
...Bias Oliveras and a host Lothers leading the exploited icers out of their poverty—for m a million are badly under-Wtejwd in Puerto Rico...
...Frederick J. Ackerman, Fellow odT the American Institute of Architects, says that the group which cannot be decently housed by private building enterprise comprise...
...But Judge Sutherland sweeps all these facts aside and declares the whole business a purely local affair.' Other Laws Endangered It is a decision which will be received with grief by every worker, and by everyone who is trying to remedy the ills of industry...
...But American ingenuity has not devised a plan which makes it possible for the vast majority of the families in this country to live in comfortable modern homes...
...TR Tbcialist Party is also staerisj-or statehood, believing * «MSTti:r.?lify the present awk-nri j|itera of sending a governor Jklggjshfaigton...
...TWr greatest concern is the Wm»ron °f th# workers...
...It is designed to remedy our deajsrare housing situation...
...and his summary of the coal situation which inspired the Guffey act is a marshalling of facts rarely equalled...
...Cool Business Called Local A vast majority of the coal mines of West Virginia, where the controversy arose, are owned outside the state...
...As a possible tenant you should support the bill, because it specifically guards against "cheap" construction, and also against possible inflation of rental rates...
...I wondered when the American working man will climb his "El Yunque" and fashion on the anvil of Socialism bis heritage of peace and plenty...
...The Socialist Youth, students of the University of Puerto Rico (Juventud Socialist* Universitaria) recently sent a cablegram of congratulations to the new Socialist Government in Spain...
...Slam Clearance Decision On the same day that the Supreme Court denied, in substance, the right of Congress to establish decent labor conditions in an industry affecting the whole nation, the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia held it unconstitutional for Congress to make provision for rural slum clearance...
...For building trades people will have money to buy these things...
...One thing is certain, however : sooner or later, this policy of violence in foreign affairs most end in a new war catastrophe...
...dictatorship...
...Now is the time for Organized Labor, acting in the interest of the whole working class, to take up the challenge...
...K was an inspiration to attend at of the radio appeals for donates to this worthy cause on a tent delightful visit the writer lade to this isle of sunshine and iMers with its romance of Old lain and its glimpses of Switxerh a inspiring to gee the coura-(ous leadership of such Socialists |r Commissioner of Labor, Pru-¦Bcio Rivera Martinez, F. Paz nnela...
...Amendment does not include the right to persist in this anarchic riot" In the purely legal phases of the case, Justice Cardoza is equally telling...
...The fundamental question involved," says the court, "is the total lack of constituional power in Congress to put in operation through legislation a project such as is here contemplated...
...The dissenting opinion of Justice Cardoso, concurred in by Justices Brandeis and Stone, is a masterpiece of judicial literature...
...The bQl has been endorsed by the American Federation of Labor, by Secretary I ekes, by Secretary Perkins, by the National Labor Housing Conference, by public housing officials and by numerous housing groups all over the country...
...The workers themselves in many fields are organized in a union which covers the coal mining area of the United States, and whose headquarters are not in West Virginia...
...But the situation being what it is, the German people will awake some day to find themselves engulfed in war...
...hope...
...The German people themselves know little of the war danger...
...Enthusiastic mass meetings have been addressed by William Collin* and J. Jennings, representatives of the American Federation of Labor, which is backing the strike...
...Much of it is mined on orders from industries and dealers located in other states...
...As a wprker you should give the bill your support because it require...
...Everything will depend upon the circumstances then prevailing and the scope and character of the blow...
...Many of the houses are actually dangerous and ^it-sanitary...
...Qrgaaited labor is fully con-the "Isle of Enchant-aBjt" ;hat the Socialist Party is ji ofuy...
...The very workers who produce and install modern electrical devices, oil-burners, and many other "gadgets" cannot, for the most part, afford to live in houses equipped with modern, scientific labor-saving improvement...
...of its primary purpose...
...According to Anthony Merlino, fifth vice-president of the Journeymen International Barbers' Union, the men have laid down their shears and taken up picket signs in order to obtain a mjninrM" salary of $26 a -week, with 60% of all receipts over $87 going to the, barber, and hours from 8 a. m. to 7 p. m. except on Saturday, when closing time is to be 9 p. m. The men are also asking for four holidays a year and closing time at 1 p. m. on all other legal holidays...
...Everyone knows this— or should know it...
...Hitler's Next Blow It is not difficult to prophesy that Hitler's next blow will probably come in the autumn, immediately after the ballyhoo of the Olympic games, and that it will be directed against Austria...
...And this bill is not proposed wH)t any claim that it will secure pres-perity for every family in the United States...
...Investment, management, control, market, workers — all are interstate in their most important relations...
...blue Caribbean sea and our Virgin Islands, in the distance presented a wealth of scenery, the beauty of which is hard to compare...
...The Constitution likewise will be scanned in vain for any power conferred on any court to nullify acts of Congress...
...While our national government is spending $42,000,-000 in Puerto Rico, $9,000,000 of which is for food and clothing under PRRA (Puerto Rico Relief Administration) it is shown that our cap i t a 1 i a t government baa.' not learned the cure for the prime curse of our age—unemployment and poverty...
...It provides for a long-term, large-scale housing program to construct low-cost homes for workers whose need is never met and cannot be met by speculative builders...
...The same is true of farmer homesteads...
...They are not so interwoven that they cannot have separate operation and -effect...
...If we are unable to do something by law, then we axe irresistibly driven to use our economic power...
...Britain's Pointed Queries Stress ffider Germany's Threat to Peace fcraakation of Europe...
...Unless amendment of the Constitution clearly authorizing labor and social legislation putting it beyond the power of six appointed judges to invalidate such legislation when put on the statute book by the people's elected public servants—unless that is made THE issue of the 1936 campaign, we shall be in for another two years and probably another four years such as the last two have been...
...It should also be heartily endorsed by tax-payers, by business people and manufacturers, because it will gradually, and increasingly, put the unemployed back to work...
...It may be true, as ex-Senator George Wharton Pepper told th* Republican W o m e n's Luncheon Club in Philadelphia the other day...
...Our party has seven stats in the Innitr Senate and thirteen members jf the Assembly...
...Will Put Idle fo Work The Wagner-EIlenbogen housing bill is an exception, however, and warrants your support and endorsement, both as a worker and as a possible tenant—if you arc not one of the lucky upper-third...
...But you will benefit by the bill, too, if you make shirts, hose, bread, butter, hats, chairs, toys...
...fbt party has over 10,000 en-rfod members and 25,000 active ffl»taWs-Jftiriy s dozen towns have SoggHst farty mayors, including t^jardo- Guyamo, Humacao, Patiljat, Ceibe and Ponce, the latter Titi over 70,000 population...
...The economic and fi-Iteal rniaadministration of the $*** regime has isolated Germany P" sources of raw materials and te nndermined the stability of te-currency...
...And there is no other constructive proposal for remedying the unemployment situation, either...
...Atober Temple Jl* lejaUture recently voted to aeaMtt"a ehoice plot in San Juan «f ItjON) sc...
...The roads, paths and trails,leading up to its cloud-tipped peak, the luxuriant glory of its myriad tropical verdure, its bathing pool, the view to the east of the...
...Assistant Commissioner of ¦or...
...The federal government is building a small house on three and free acre farms to try and save the profit system and is employing 40,000 farm hands to whom they wanted to pay $1 per day wages...
...The big question is whether the powers concerned, and principally France, Italy and the Little Entente—because England is not much interested—will remain as quiescent when Hitler strikes his next blow as they were at the last...
...and that is the very corner-stone of the industrial recovery in which the building program should result...
...What does anyone imagine the working people can gain by re-electing President Roosevelt—even if we were to grant all that his warmest supporters can claim as to his wisdom and his good will—what can the working people hope to gain by continuing him in office under these conditions...
...To adopt a homely form of words, the complainants have been crying before they are really hurt...
...The second element is the tre-¦rodou* rearmament of Germany, nte unprecedented in peace times, lia which has again made of Germany a mighty military power iid a powder keg of the very first Ti>e third element is the abso-stt power of the dictator, the new far Lord, whose word is divine Steinand and law...
...that prosperity for everyone in the country is an impractical ideal...
...Qgxrade Igiesias is the founder 25* Labor and Socialist movent oo the island...
...Hughes' Opinion Chief Justice Hughes, while agreeing that the' labor provisions of the act are unconstitutional, condemns utterly the action of the court in throwing oat the whole law...
...It has recently been endorsed by the President, who asks, however, for a cut in the first of the annual appropriations...
...15,000 has already been is*d...
...The European powers will net always endure Hitler's aggressions against the European equilibrium...
...Overproduction was at a point where free competition had been degraded into anarchy...
...In one union labor project, through the Insular Government of 1,000 homes, one-third recently received their deeds...
...WPA is now constructing a multi-family apartment project in a San Juan slum district to house 276 families to be government owned and controlled until paid for "as, if and when...
...and no important decision—one changing working conditions, for instance—can be made without word from the central office...
...Today thousands own their own homes, poor though many are...
...It will be hailed with joy by the proprietor of every sweatshop and the exploiter of every group of helpless labor...
...Hb fifth element—the most Pfstaus at the moment—is the |Bteuag economic collapse of |n*ay...
...But independent farmers protested that it would interfere with those who were paying only 60 cents, so your Uncle Sam came down to 60 cents per day wages to "sustain life" for a man and family in order not to interfere with competitive capitalism...
...It g*ter that the dictatorship,, re-Htefcle for the economic misery nation, will seek to deflect g osaaeqnent manifestations of IJPJSteRV and any revolutionary inclinations by adventures in the domain of foreign policy...
...The government contention that the general welfare clause of the Constitution covers the case was disallowed by the court...
...The plight of the industry was not merely a menace to owners and to mine workers, but it was and long had been a menace to the public...
...And it will do this as a by-product New York Barbers Strike to Obtain Decent Conditions A city-wide strike of barbers is now in progress in New York to obtain decent wages and working conditions for 16,000 men...
...If you are a building trades worker, you will see in this bill an immediate job...
...It is possible also that the blow may strike in the East, provoked by some incident, similar to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sa-ajewo, which precipitated the World War."We want to ride the East," was Hitler's campaign slogan...
...Rigid control of P*"ner goods, coupled with in-te^a> ig now threatening—inflate wita its inevitable destruction P saviags, insurance policies, in-P»e from loans and all the well teWB accompaniments of cur-te*T destruction which the massif *Bl be compelled to suffer...
...John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America, said on the Guffey act decision of the Supreme Court: "It is a sad commentary upon our form of government when every decision of the Supreme Court seems designed to fatten capital and starve and destroy labor...
...Probably 80 per cent of the coal mined in West Virginia is used in other states...
...William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, said: "It is very disappointing...
...Make no mistake about it: the principal objection to it is the prevailing union wage clause...
...The pitifully small pay checks may cross half a dozen state lines before they get to the workers...
...The management is outside, usually in New York...
...Year Help Is Needs* But despite this support and despite the obvious advantages it would bring to industry as a whole, there are powerful interests allied against the bill, and your help is needed to bring pressure on Congress to act on it at this session...
...But it can only do that by putting to work virtually every building trades worker in the country...
...But the Socialists are confident...
...We visited El Yunque (the anvil), Puerto Rico's highest mountain, now a national park...
...If the measure is not passed before Congress adjourns, there Is no hope of securing any housing legislation within a year...
...In 1898 leas than 200 laborers owned their own homes or anything else...
...And most housing programs and plans of housing experts, he claims, ignore this group and try to devise ways of making building more comfortable for the other third—and investments safei for the builders...
...that prevailing union wage rates should be paid for the construction and operation of all public-aided housing projects...
...meters for the site if * labor temple...
...The liberty protected by the fifth...
...The building is f coat'hot leas than $36,000 and itough the energetic committee laded by comrade William D. Eepez...
...We must rely on our economic strength...
...A omtury of progress has been atffcd into the 38 years since the Lotted States took posession of the island...
...As soon as Hitler ventures upon aggression beyond the German frontiers—something from which be has refrained thus far—the sit* nation will become very serious...
...It believes ¦b in the power of the sword, Kregards international negotiant and treaties merely as auxii-§7 instruments of war, to be ob-irtad or broken as expediency te* require...
...there had been bankruptcy and waste and ruin alike for capital and for labor...
...Ail Lobar Will ieeewt They will not put these wages away in a sock—they will save something—but they see ahead of them several years of steady employment, and they will spend part of their wages for things prodiwsd by other workers...
...Wanted—Ten Million Homes For the American Workers Dilapidated: and Unsanitary Homes Menace Health of the People — Support Urged for Wagner - E^enbogec Housing Bill Providing for Large-Scale Housing Program To Benefit Low-Income Group — Will Also Stimulate | Employment By John W. Edelman 'PEN million American families are at this moment living in old-fashioned, inconvenient, cramped, dilapidated homes...
...Were the German people in a position to knew the truth, the end of Hitlerism would be'assured...
...But if passed, put into action, extended in scope, ft may very well be the mesas of bringing to millions of workers s degree of comfort in their hemes and security in their jobs which, however much it might look like Poverty to the honorable ex-Senator, would seem pretty pros-peroui to most of us...
...his appetite for conquest is directed toward the East because there he is likely to meet with the least effective resistance...
...The opinion of the court begins at the wrong end (of the act...
...Commerce had been choked and burdened...
...Congress evidently desired stabilization through both the provisions relating to marketing and those relating to labor, but the setting up of the two sorts of requirements did not make the one dependent on the validity of the other...
...flourishing Socialist Party Aids Workers in Puerto Rico Growong Labor and Socialist Movement Has Membership / 000 and Has Elected Mayors in a Dozen Towns— t Resident Com mini oner to Washington Is San-fag0 Igiesias...
...About 10,000 shops scattered over the five boroughs of the city are involved...
...a wmendous, highly efficient marine, whica on a few hours' no-?* can bring into motion 65,000,-SO human beings, driven, in part, • fanaticism and, in part, fol-•*lftg blindly the command to vje fourth element is the re-pSbd of all international obligates...
...The clauses of the Federal Emergency Appropriations Act, which sets up the Resettlement Administration, were knocked out by the court in language so sweeping that it seems to nullify practically every effort of the New Deal...
...over two-thirds of the families in this country...
...Congress was not condemned to inaction in the face of price wars and wage wars so pregnant with disaster...
...Internationally Known Socialist and Founder of the Movement., By Henry J. Cox AIX, over the world the workers are asserting their rights down through the ages w«e been usurped by "divine Sal" is none the less true in ^ island possession of Puerto $eo where the workers send the ajr Socialist Party congressman llgyeut commissioner) San-Igiesias, to Washington...
...The decision emphasises the intense need of organization among the workers...
...Cardoso held that the court should have considered the price-fixing parts of the bill, which he approves, instead of damning the whole act on the labor provisions, which might never have been invoked in practice...
...Write and wire your Congressman and j-oor Senator to vote for this bill...
...American invention and American efficiency have made available at moderate cost every conceivable comfort and convenience for living...
...An Urgent Need Yet with 450 inhabitants to the square mile, a planned economy of abundance resting on government ownership and control is a most urgent need...
...The Constitution will be scanned in vain for a power conferred upon the Federal Government to regulate housing or to resettle populations...
...Wages came down along with prices and with profits...
...Guffey Act Nullification Prevents National Regulation of Industry (Continued from Page One) pertinent facta contradict everything which Justice Sutherland aays...
...Prices had been cut so low that profit had become impossible for all except a lucky handful...
...Treaties, international law, farts of jastice—the entire sys-te of collective international re-te»s—has been repudiated by |» has...
...If it is not given now, who can say when tbe .opportunity willaecur...
Vol. 19 • May 1936 • No. 21
