Why We Did Not Stand Up When They Sang the International
Lee, Algernon
Why We Did Not Stand Up When They Sang the International By Algernon Lee gECDOM have I used the space allotted to me in this paper for anything of a nature even remotely personal to myself. Today...
...THE BLACK LEGION REVELATIONS regarding the Black Legion and its alleged murders committed in Michigan are fantastic and revolting...
...interfere with the working of "free competition" in the labor martSfct is a breach of J:he fundamental law...
...Because the provisions which made the former one appear so desirable to the mine workers have all been left out...
...Several friends have asked me, in ail gooa taitn and good tamper, but with a tone of regret if not of reproach, why Louis Waldman and I did not rise when the International was sung at Cleveland last Sunday morning...
...Beginning at 8.30 p. m. the President remained in conference until midnight with Senators Wagner, Wheeler, LaFollette, Norris, Ship-stead, Minton and Schwellenbach...
...And why...
...2. Failure of attempts to reach a "gentlemen's agreement" with Japan to restrict sales of cotton cloth in the American market, these having risen from 27 to 40 million square yards in the first four months of this year as compared with the same months of the y%ar before...
...Others think its the problem of future progressive legislation that is under discussion...
...1 — By Benjamin Meiman Our Washington Correspondent THE adverse Supreme Court decision on the Guffey Coal Act brought no change in administration decision to regulate industry...
...British Labor knows that world peace cannot be restored and maintained by mere pacifism, by isolation, nor by partial alliances...
...As in France a fortnight before, the two extremes have gained and old middle parties have lost...
...The fact of so great a body of employers having, however unwillingly, admitted the soundness of the worker's claim to a vested interest in his job, or to put it another way, admitted their own responsibility for the social consequences of the technological progress by which they profit—this fact will make it easier for the workers in other industries, whether by union action or legislation or both, to win similar concessions...
...But theremore to say...
...Two days after the court's invalidation of the Guffey Act...
...Behind the Scenes in Washington Shadow ef Guffey Bill Resurrected — President's Conference With Progressives —Higher Tariff on Textiles, Protection for Home Industry or Sanctions Against Japan .British Propaganda and Italian Conquest—Federal Government May Take Hand ia the Black Legion Investigation...
...We rise, not because the song stirs our souls, but because we are afraid someone will suspect that it does not...
...The more it becomes a routine, the less does it signify—indeed, mere repetition of the ^act tends to dull the feeling which it originally expressed...
...This is but half true...
...To my way of thinking, tat voice of a man who could d* the desecrates our noble hymn of % cialist comradeship...
...Us blood-curdling oath reads more like the output of boys after they had read a dozen nickel terrors of the nineties...
...Today I make an exception...
...It is probably a queer upheaval of the depression, a psychic reaction to abnormal economic conditions persisting for six years...
...I might say that I carry my internationalism in my head and my heart, not in my legs, and let it rest at that...
...The Black Legion is pathetic and dangerous...
...Among us, men ^ sprang to their feet whenever taw heard the opening notes of Eugah Pottier's glorious anthem B not scrupled to cater to nativltk and sectional prejudices ia H own country nor, looking afiM to gire their blessing to «B schismatic effort within the liw and Socialist International, to Uft up their voices in sanethnoaith lament over the heresies of Brftto Labor, to condone the petseedk of Socialists in Soviet Ruana^B to talk of toe- long agony of 13 German Social Democrats as if* were due retribution far mm sine...
...A large group of producers as well as miners' union leaders are supporting- the new act, believing, that, with earnings of employers made more secure, wage concessions may be obtained through collective bargaining...
...When spontaneous enthusiasm' prompts one to rise, well and good —standing up means something then...
...A striking example of the insincerity to which it leads was a circular sent -out from the national office to instruct Yipsels in the ceremonial of singing the International...
...Even in the building trades that is by no means so practicable as -it used to be...
...But for employers to be able to give better pay and conditions is one thing, for them to do so is quite another...
...They did not expect • victims of the lynching to sasjfg it by singing about "the laairf the free and the home of a brave...
...Nearness of Congressional adjournment however, dampens hopes of enactment...
...I speak for myself, but I think Waldman feels as I do...
...And still others— the more cynical ones—suspect politics is the object being to devise schemes to secure the Progressive vote for Roosevelt in the coming campaign...
...FOR THIS RELIEF MUCH THANKS AN incidental but for ue important result of the Cleveland convention ia that after next week The New Leader will not have to give nearly so much space as hitherto to intraparty controversy...
...First came our silver purchase in China, which the Nippon government resents, and now comes what may be the beginning of a commercial war...
...President's Conference With Progressives There is" a lot of speculation in Washington about the 3^ hours conference the President had with the recognized progressive forces of the United States Senate...
...Another little international . tangle has its rumors that the British government through its Ambassador, Sir Ronald Lindsay, has been sounding out the sentiment of the United States regarding recognition of the Italian con-| quest of Ethiopia...
...Amendment of the Constitution ought to be the dominant issue in the 1936 campaign...
...I still needed At spur of the moment, Think of the spisft in which m International was then sung.' Taj chairman announced the vote i which three thousand New York Socialists were disfranchised asj expelled...
...The scope of the National Labor Relations Board's efforts to enforce collective bargaining is Relieved severely delimited by the decision of the Supreme Court...
...Not by gains of its own, but through others' losses, has the Labor Party taken first place...
...On- the definitely reactionary side, the Flemish Nationalists, dominated by a group allied to German Nazism, get, eight additional places...
...The Socialist Party could have gone far to make it so, had our "leaders^ been less interested in revoking state charters and inciting local bolts...
...11Yes, I have especially » atoi that Lost Leader who in 938, B when the Hews came of tbousasi of our German comtsjaft ssac dragged into dungeons amt pat ? slow torture, chose that sotaat moment publicly to announat |fe holier-than-thou contempt for uisa few who had been fill asm enough to get across the frsator into the lesser misery of exile ad destitution...
...Although the Constitution empowers Congress to pass bankruptcy laws, and although such a law is on the federal statute' book, whereby individuals and private corporations may be freed from debts they are honestly unable to pay, it it unconstitutional for Congress to provide similar relief for those public corporations called municipalities, with which the masses are so much more vitally concerned...
...Some think it has to do with the many adverse Supreme Court decisions...
...But that would « hardly honest...
...BRITISH LABOR'S PEACE PLAN THERE is a saying that "It takes two to make a fight...
...Such is the psychology of mankind in mass that precedents carry weight...
...Much may depend on whether the Roman hierarchy dares to come out boldly against Rexism or whether it falters and finally gives in...
...But when from being a custom it grows into an obligatory performance—when failure to stand up exposes one to obloquy—then it becomes a breeder of hypocrisy...
...3. The American textile industry is being injured...
...The three minorities being adventurists, whose immediate aim is to destroy what Devere Allen calls "the bogus' democracy of capitalist parliamentarianism" and to bring in that state of chaos about which he cherishes romantic dreams, the prospect is not altogether cheerful...
...Perhaps it is not yet too late, if members in the lower ranks would make their voices heard on high...
...It is the people who will suffer for such lazy-minded folly...
...question would make reasonable concessions as to the method...
...And as higher prices for coal will presumably mean limited output, with correspondingly limited employment, one hardly sees how the workers' bargaining power will be increased...
...You know that these fellows are up to something, but just what that something is—that's hard to ascertain...
...The question is whether this is merely to offer protection to the sick textile industry in this country or the beginning of our own individual sanctions against Japan...
...It is easy enough for President Hufcheson to tell the miners to forget about, labor legislation and rely solely on trade union action...
...Less optimistic are other labor groups, who see shattered their expectations that Congressional authority over labor relations in manufacturing industry would be upheld...
...For the last half-score years this and other forms of churchlike ritualism, in which stock phrases and bodily postures take the place of genuine emotion, have been infecting our movement...
...No official announcements on the subject are expected from the State Department hut key officials privately express the opinion that it will be some time before the President lifts the embargo on shipments of implements of war to Italy, lei alone recognition of its ebnquesl or plunder by force of anas...
...It will probably be held consti-^ tutional for Congress to legalize price-fixing, but for Congress to...
...If many of our readers and all of our faithful sub-getters rejoice in this, let them rest assured that the editors rejoice with them...
...We remembered a time sirina years ago, when Speaker Swei and his gang expelled five Socialists from the New York Aa sembly...
...The Catholic Clericals lose 16 and the Liberals one...
...Organized Labor could still make it so, if certain great officials on each side of the CIO...
...In the absence of legal compulsion, they will not pass on to the workers any more of their increased income than the workers by their organized power, can force them to yield...
...Richberg nlso is often seen in and out of the White House...
...I might stop here and ht 1 appear that I just happened ha Sunday to get the courage to p* test as I ought to have protend long before...
...BELGIUM'S NEW LINE-UP TO say that the Socialists led in the Belgian elections is not to state the case fully...
...pathetic because it attracts the moron and sadist, and dangerous because of the foul deeds it is capable of committing...
...They must stand erect, with the right hand raised and the fist clenched—but then, lest someone take the fist for a symbol of force (which every red-blooded boy knows it is), a few words were added: "The fist clenched, as if holding a torch...
...COStrPRICES AND MINE WAGES THE new Guffey Coal bjjl seems to have a good chance, if passed, of being upheld by the Supreme Court...
...The competitor of' America for Japan's patronage in raw cotton is India, which in recent years has sold an increasing part of'its output to the island empire...
...V If the price-fixing scheme works as those back of it expect, it will of course be possible for the mine owner3 to grant a hrgher wage for' a shorter work-week than many of them'can now afford...
...The answer may interest many who cannot put the question to me face to face...
...Instantly toe signal tna given for the expulsior.ists to dat the International...
...Let us say it in shame for our country, American aloofness is chiefly to blame for the inability of the League of Nations to stop Mussolini's African adventure and thereby to warn Hitler against aggression in Europe...
...Reasons given for the raising of the 42 per cent tariff on textiles are these: 1. A recommendation by the Tariff Commission that production costs abroad are substantially below those in the United States, a situation under which the President may legally raise the tariff by as much as 50" per cent...
...They, however, had tin decency to wait until they sj| drunk after adjournment befsa they struck up the Sutr-SpsatM Banner...
...Felix Frankfurter sneaked into the conference room...
...Our capitalists profit by war abroad.' Our politicians help them by fooling the people with the false hope that this country can escape the war danger by doing business aa usual with nations that break the peace...
...THE RAILWAY WORKERS' VICTORY THE agreement between the railway workers' unions and the railway companies, whereby workers dis-employed as a result of technical improvements are assured of substantial dismissal pay, is more than a victory for the unions—it is, as Marx said of the first women workers' ten-hour law in 1849, "the victory of a principle...
...The Pharisees devoured widows' houses and for a pretense s*|| long prayers...
...while the «ew Rexhrt or Catholic Fascist Party wins 21 ."IA a house enlarged to 202 members, the three extreme groups have 46 seats, as compared with l 1 out of 187 in the old chamber...
...What a lesson in sneaking duplicity to give our youth...
...It points out that safety lies in the firm use of economic sanctions by a sufficient number of nations acting in concert...
...It may often be said that it takes two to avoid a fight, unless one of the two is willing to lie down or able to run away: The statement on war and peace issued by the National Council of British Labor, which we report on another page, faces this fact fairly and squarely...
...No, Waldman and I has w reason to blush for not hasjjto such a mockery...
...As old Cato used to close every speech, on whatever topic, with "Carthage must be destroyed," so we find no theme that does not lead up to the cry: "The Constitution must be amended...
...a,new Guffey BUI —or rather a shadow of the Guffev bill—made its debut on Capitol Hill...
...Anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, anti-foreign and anti-radical, it is an old brew served since Know-Nothing days, and pictures of Black Legionists arrested in Michigan indicate that some are psychopathic cases...
...What the new bill omits is that portion of the old measure which prescribes a method for setting minimum wages and enforcing collective bargaining procedure: It carried a statement of policy on labor relations but with no provision for enforcement...
...Retaliation is asked by Japanese textile manufacturers, who suggest that Japanese purchases of raw cotton be diverted from America to her competitors...
...The Communist gain of six seats just doubles the Socialist loss of three...
...DELENDA EST CARTHAGO" SCORE again for the Supreme Court...
...And they they sang it "with a vangsssjg* as a song of exulting hate...
...The coalition of Socialists, Clericals and Liberals still has a more than three-to-one majority, which would be safe enough if the opposition were committed to democratic procedure...
...Under the very different conditions of the mining industry it is far less so...
...Higher Tariffs en Textile Imparts* A big question mark is accompanying the President's raising by 42 per cent the tariff on certain t>pes of cotton cloth imports, chiefly from -Japan...
...What the new bill retains is that part of the old measure which allows setting of minimum prices, the machinery to enforce this being a tax of 15 per cent levied on coal production with 13ti per cent remitted to firms that comply with the • code set up in the bill...
...as it did in Italy...
Vol. 19 • May 1936 • No. 22
