THE ELECTION-AND A GLANCE FORWARE
HILLQUIT, MORRIS
THE ELECTION—AND A GLANCE FORWARD Why American Labor Voted As It Did—Hilquit Sees Socialism Here Stronger Than Before The Poll The following article was written by Comrade Hillquit,...
...What do they get in return...
...Even the cipitaUst Chicago Daily News suspects that The demand of Mr...
...This is clearly, the latest strategy of the wealthy oil famines centering around the Rockefeller throne...
...considering the extra time they must spend to traveling to and from the Job...
...The Issue is the demand of the ruling class for absolute loyalty on the part of its underlings, a loyalty which will accept decapitation to its service without a murmur...
...THE ELECTION—AND A GLANCE FORWARD Why American Labor Voted As It Did—Hilquit Sees Socialism Here Stronger Than Before The Poll The following article was written by Comrade Hillquit, International Secretary of the Socialist party and a member of its Xational Executive Committee, for the European Socialist press at the request of the Secretary of the Socialist and Labor International...
...When Ford has squeezed a man to the last drop, he la through with him...
...Debevotse or Mr...
...When Jim Mulligan, the structural iron worker, misses his footinsr and nluneee nifty stories downward to an untimely at-' raise, nothing may compensate Mrs...
...I have seen any number of men in passing under this line," the student reported, "get such blows that it seemed that their head must have been split open...
...mediate "practical success...
...Ford's 8-hour day is to reality an 11-hour day...
...There are the accumulated savings of the working masses that can be drawn upon...
...Throughout 1927 and 1938 Standard Oil publicity machines were flooding the mzry with propaganda urging the nezzz'ity of unified control of oil produe:n...
...The entire system needs to be changed, but I fear it will be Impossible to change It as long as Mr...
...This trust will avoid federal Interference by utilizing the relatively.modem principle of minority control, restricting its ownership, say to 40% of the capital stock of any single corporation...
...This does not include the much larger amounts spent by the state and local organisation...
...is merely one of the banker branches of the Rockefeller-Standard Oil combine...
...Where and when tbe extent is fairly normal, some Individual provision for it can be made...
...While actual measurements of the extent of poverty are lacking, only those who wilfully close their eyes to the realities of the present order can doubt its existence...
...Now the company has shifted its operations to River Rouge, to the south of the city, and workers who took the company's advice have to travel 18 to 15 miles to get to their work...
...he can be fired at will, rehired at lower wages, squeezed out when he gets too old (which means over 45), and the company makes no effort to pension old workers...
...On the other hand the Chicago Journal of Commerce says: "It is significant that every member of the board of directors has gone on record unequivocally as being completely to accord with Colonel Stewart's position and as commending his Integrity ss well as his ability...
...At a conservative estimate the combined campaign expenses of the two old parties amounted to $25,000,000...
...The leaders at this conference outside of the Jewish Federation were the Forward Association, the Workmen's Circle and a couple of prominent "Socialists" like Louis Marshall and Felix Warburg...
...The purpose of the conference, as stated...
...Paradoxical as it may sound, tht a* cialist party has emerged from the esnv paign stronger than it was in enttajsy into it, to spite of Us loss of votes, h was the only party that introduces a tone of serious political and eeonsnh discussion In the din of the itiiintsug trivialities of the campaign...
...The whole history of our movement bears evidence that the better situated worker Is more readily accessible to the philosophy and ideals of Socialism than the pauperised slum proletarian...
...In one department, a student found the only possible place to eat lunch was to the path of a traveling crane, which forced him to move two or three times in the 30-minute lunch period...
...The presidential campaign of 1938 was largely a radio campaign...
...In a sense, all insurance is social, of course, but technically, social insurance is a convenient term to draw the line of distinction as against private insurance...
...It must be remembered that the election of 1938 was not confined to the choice of a President...
...Marshall and Mr...
...In 1920...
...They win in the future appeal to the workers in this country to support the Republican ticket or they will have no tariff to protect their N The Socialist newspapers throughout the country ought to say something about it and at least give the cue to the members and the officials of the different unions bow to act and thus educate the workers to realisation that tariff is not the solution...
...Have they helped in any way...
...It means an unemployment insurance system which not only would do away with the distressing consequence of business fluctuations, but would undoubtedly help to stabilize business by preventing fluctuations in effective demand on the part of unemployed workmen...
...each fought under different conditions and election laws, and often on different issues...
...Another obvious reason for the political recession of American Socialism was the disorganised condition of the Socialist Party...
...A Strengthened Party There is as yet no class consciousness among the American workers, but there are classes and class struggles in America and the latter have often assumed an extent and a ferocity unparallelled in the annate of nuropean worhkmaS CUsses and clam ttniggtas am mnk' acts of economic devakmment...
...But daring the short period of America's psrttrtpsHnri in the World War and ta the tea* years of enraged patriotic terrorism following the war, the Socialist party, particularly to...
...Men Want Unions Near the oven a conveyer belt, at the height ot 5 feet, brought plates of sheet iron 1/16 of an Inch thick...
...He says: "What have Deberoise or Rockefeller, Jr., to say in regard to future earnings...
...These coming pastors were astounded by the casualneas of Ford's attitude toward workers...
...Of Irish extraction and Catholic religion, his candidacy challenged the established political traditions of the country...
...The constant appeals for private philanthropy, organised and unorganized, offer an eloquent illustration...
...Why The Slump...
...Meanwhile their brokers are perfecting a new type of monopoly less -.ulnerable than the old style trust...
...All those things have been done in Europe and the only inertia on the part of the working mass and the resistance on the part of the unemploying interests stand in the way of its establishment in this country...
...It Included a campaign for the election of a new House of Representatives, a number of United States sentators, state governors and other local officers...
...and the worker Is out," observed a pastor-worker...
...Each state had its own campaign organization and machinery...
...Stewart drove oxen on his father's Iowa farm...
...The Socialists ot the United States did not enter the Presidential campaign with over-sanguine hopes...
...There remains perhaps the greatest hazard of modern industrial life, one that is much more dependent upon industrial organization—unemployment...
...Is to buy machinery and send it over to the Jews in Russia...
...It has gaunt the respect ot the decent irtti sua among its opponents...
...What Of The Aged...
...But this conveyer crossed two important aisles used by workmen...
...The lineup in the battle for control of Indiana Standard presents the issue In cleanest fashion...
...A political campaign of six weeks and after that you do not know that there is a Socialist party to existence during the rest of the year...
...during which time it paid out over $200,000,000 in cash dividends...
...The American Socialists, while ehss» pointed with the election results, are kf no means discouraged or dishearUosi, Their defeat In 1938 is spurring them at to increased efforts for victory in IM...
...Many said they would rather work longer hours for less money, to escape Ford slavery...
...But even if Socialist success were commensurate with the degree of workingclass misery, Socialism could be a power in America' today...
...From the cloisters of the divinity school, the soon-to-be pastors were thrown Into rough Job* by Ford's employment managers...
...When a student started to June, he was one of six men who were inspecting 3000 steering wheels a day...
...Then the Socialist party last placed an independent presidential ticket in the field, it received over 930,000 votes—almost 4% of the whole popular vote...
...The very fact that the organised lek* movement of the Untied States he touched bottom in its intellectual end pa, trUcal development Justine* the HialU tion of a decided rebound and reMnh in the near future...
...A Righteous Rockefeller The Economics of the Fight on Stewart By Leland Olds CONSOLIDATION of the entire oil industry on a scale scarcely dreamed of in old Standard Oil days is being carried to completion by Rockefeller interests under cover of the morality barrage laid down by John D. Rockefeller jr...
...The attitude of the hereditary owning families, who see in Stewart's attitude '¦¦¦¦¦'hill* akin to disloyalty to the crown...
...chat mm artousncas is » part poychok«toal ean*> tion...
...We perhaps do not realise that the economic loss resulting from illness is at least five or six times as great as that due to Industrial accidents...
...Of course others among the labor leaders Interested in an increase in tariff are probably good Republicans...
...Nevertheless, every period of unemployment In this country results in lneroaced mendicancy, Increased applications to charitable organisations, both private and public, increased crime, disease, and general demoralization...
...Misplaced Energy and Lost Opportunities The Socialists and the Unions: Some Criticism By Louis Fuchs npHE Socialist Party is passing up a A great many chances to which It could be very useful to labor unions and which would bring it closer to labor than it is today...
...Practically, what does social insurance mean...
...done in this regard...
...Such data as exist Indicate that annually perhaps a hundred thousand families to this country are forced to appeal to charitable organizations for relief, and a much greater number suffers without making such appeals...
...About thirty years ago there was striking similarity in the psychology and political and social intelligence of the British and American trade unionists...
...I. M. Rubinow HPHE most rf-tmning Indictment of the A present economic order, particularly in our day and generation -is our failure to abolish poverty, not comparative poverty and want which may cause a great deal of unhappiness, but absolute, fundamental poverty—a genuine insufficiency of the necessities for a minimum standard of health and decency—the poverty from which a substantial proportion of our population suffers always even in times of plenty and more acutely in times of economic depression such as we are going through today...
...Difficult but by no means hopeless...
...These excursions into the field of voluntary combination, however, were only preliminary...
...Workers were sweat dry on the Job and their health badly impaired...
...Of the Utter over 107,000 ohm from the State of New York, about equally divided between the city with Ma Industrial population largely of foreign origin and the agricultural -up-stete" districts of native American stock...
...Always with us to some extent, it rises every now and then to enormous proportions...
...T feel that the Ford process means embitterment of workers not only toward the plant and the system, but toward the whole of life...
...The Times also refers to the general belief in Wall Street that Rockefeller will have the support of better than a majority of the stock held by the big estates "because there Is more or less of a community of interest between them and the Rockefeller interests...
...One found himself in the heat of summer, working around a vulcanizing furnace whose heat was 300 degrees...
...They have never visited a refinery or sales station or producing property ot the company, nor outside of one or two officers or directors do they know a person to the entire organization...
...It is recognised tint society has a decided interest in prateaV tag the survivors, or Mulligan hhaseaVd he is only injured or incapacitated far a few months or perhaps for life, tht social and scooomle responsibilities an universally recognised...
...Surely, a people which registers each year an increase in its national wealth, measured in nine' or ten digits, can hardly claim with a straight face that this misery is socially inevitable...
...e • o The tariff issue presents another illustration...
...Three renewals from John Koskto of Ohio...
...There is not one reason why Socialism should not eventually attain as commanding a position in the United States as it has in the leading countries of EuropeW The much vaunted and badly exaggerated prosperity of the workers is no real obstacle to the growth of Socialism...
...Comrade Hillquit h.<as chairman of the committee which conducted the recent presidential campaign of the Socialist party and his analysis of the results contains observations which vill be of pritne interest to Amer'can readers...
...In the election of 193S it found itself with only onetenth of its former membership and with active organisations to very few states...
...the West and Middle West, was Bterany and physically wiped out of existence...
...Under these circumstances, the task of ArvVf" Socialism is extraordinarily difficult...
...o • The Line-«p On fuJHus Oil The Rockefellers and their feudal allies msy suppress the present bloodless revolt in their Standard Oil of Indiana province, but the Irritation at their Interference will continue to grow...
...The boastful assertion of our capitalists that the American soil is not adapted to the growth of Socialism is devoid of ail justification...
...A New OU Trust Is Born There have been various attempts at voluntary cooperation among producers especially to regulate crude oil production in certain fields...
...What Socialist forces survived the capitalist onslaught were largely disorganised or destroyed by the Communist split The Condition of the Party The Socialist party has not yet recovered from the double blow...
...The Times says: "It was learned yesterday at the Standard Oil building that the elder Rockefeller regards Stewart's attitude ss an affront and the word has been passed along to all his connections that every possible effort Is to be made to wrest control of the Standard ot Indiana from the present chairman...
...Replying to an attack by T. M Debevoise, Rockefeller attorney to this fight, Stewart emphasises the contrast between the absentee owners and the actual administration...
...because usually it requires a governmental or social participation In the cost...
...Instead, the men, their hands greasy, have to eat standing up or sitting on machinery...
...tag that emotional loss at least net ¦ the states where workmen's ocmpanli tion for Industrial accidents is fairly go> erous and Just, as for instance, in Res York or California...
...The street meetings and hall meetings which played such a large part in the past have been relegated to the background by the radio...
...But they felt that to keep* their Jobs they must keep their tongues, too...
...Its national campaigns were oaadueted on a national scale...
...Rockefeller, Jr...
...Labor's Backwardness But aside from these casual checks and handicaps, the deep-lying cause of Socialist weakness is, of course, the political Immaturity of the American workers...
...a product of education...
...Ot humble origin, unschooled and poor, be was the typical "son of the people...
...But not under the circumstances the labor movement Is laboring now, and when I talk of the labor movement, I mean that part of the movement that is supporting the Socialist party and sjl the subsidiaries that give money to organisations in need to time of strikes, etc...
...Yet the fact that the largest insurance company in he world, which is also the largest financial institution in the world, has voluntarily relinquished the profit element through mutusllration would seem to be a strong argument that profit-making—legitimate as it may be in many lines of business—Is not a necessary factor in insurance...
...On the one side the Rockefellers...
...A Vain Search Divinity Students Could Not "Find Christ or His Spirit" in Ford's Detroit Plants GRADUATE students In a prominent eastern divinity school, turned loose in the Ford factories to Detroit, have submitted reports ranging from the conclusion that "Ford's only thought is for more production and more profits with no regard for the welfare of the workers," to "I could not find Jesus Christ or his spirit in Ford's auto plants...
...Practically every etvUisad Demur in Europe and a good many efinf continents have social health insurance...
...I can enumerate many more Instances where the Socialist Party is passing up opportunities of taking the Vri'ng part on very important questions concerning labor unions...
...The ground chosen was the im-jrirnce of conservation, elimination of • ^s.e.'ul drilling etc...
...The broadcasting stations in the United States are private commercial enterprises, selling time as newspapers sell advertising space...
...and, finally, because, In the vast majority of cases, it eliminates ihe element of profit...
...And these are not the ordinary type of directors: bankers, trust officers, fiduciary managers, and such important stockholders, who have only vague and general Information of the executive direction of a corporation...
...The people are vitally interested because, If, for instance, ready made neckwear is imported in great quantities, it would mean that neckwear workers would all be out of work...
...They had no illusions about the overwhelming difficulties which confronted them...
...A group of non-proletarian intellectuals may initiate a Socialist movement, formulate its program and influence its direction, but an effective political mass movement of Socialism Is, of course, quite unthinkable without substantial workingclass support...
...It means an early establishment of a comprehensive health insurance system...
...sfaV hgan and the little Mulligans for tk* emotional lota sustained, but at lent there Is no economic distress acoraapasf...
...The election was conducted primarily as a series of forty-eight separate state campaigns...
...Ford lives...
...Moreover he seemed to have a good chance of election and the prospect of replacing the smug and reactionary Republican administration by a man of his type proved of irresistible allurement to many...
...Ford's vaunted efficiency, it was* ahw found, turns out to be nothing but dangerous inefficiency...
...Certainly the ckwkmakera cannot expect anything ta aid, either financially or morally from Marshall or any other wealthy Jew to this city or this country...
...It wouldn't mean dictating—it would mean advising...
...It is due to all these factors that social insurance frequently appears "dangerous" to employers, to private Insurance interests, to taxpayers, to Babbitts in general...
...The workers of the United States are not class conscious politically and very little economically...
...That is because a good many of our Socialists are going into the charity business...
...Of the other proletarian parties the Communists polled 48.338 votes, the socialist Labor party 31,181 and the remnant of the Farmer-Labor party 6,391...
...Yet the results fell far below even their most conservative estimates...
...And what about old age...
...I suppos that that's the object of the whole movement...
...influence...
...These met with some success and led to the suggestion that a permanent president of the American Petroleum institute be chosen to serve as a dictator or czar of the industry...
...Today, the American Federation of Labor baa reached its lowest point to militancy, achievement and Influence...
...Another factor which operated against the Socialist party wss the growing expense of American political campaigns dus to the changes to electioneering methods...
...is reflected to a New York Times account of the Reckefeller, Sr...
...If only a majority of the chronically/"unemployed and the underpaid workers in the mines and in the seasonal industries would have supported the Socialist ticket, our vote in the Presiedntial election would have mounted into many millions...
...The worker has no "stake" in his Job, they found out...
...October saw the announcement that 15 leading oil companies were getting together to form an export association to control distribution to the foreign field...
...For them...
...Let the gentlemen like Mr...
...The National Committee of the BepubBoan party has officially reported campaign: expenses in the sum of $6,500,000 and the Democratic National Committee is on record as having spent about $8,006,000...
...Too Efficient...
...What accounts for the heavy slump...
...The socialist party) straining every effort, managed te raise a campaign fund of lees than •100,000...
...The misery of the Cloak Makes to our own city should certainly be nearer to us than the misery ot the Jews to Russia even if the latter Is a worthy cause also...
...Chief among them is Al Smith...
...Warburg take ear* of the Jews in Russia, as I presume they do, and let the Socialist party first take care of the American working people who are going downward because of the fact that their organizations are ruined...
...I do not believe I talked with one man who did not favor the unions", another student reported...
...The United States remains the only glaring exception...
...By September, two men were inspecting 6,0001 He was taken off the Job when he was found looking too closely at the wheels...
...The new oil trust sponsored by Blair at Co...
...These divinity school students also deplored Ford's advice to his men in the old Highland Park plant to buy homes nearby...
...About two weeks ago a conference was held under the auspices of the Jewish Socialist Federation, the purpose of which was to help the Jews to Russia to become small business men...
...As Governor of Mew York for eight years, he had gained a reputation for sympathetic onderstanding of the needs of the workers and of the poor...
...The Socialist party would certainly get the credit for it and strengthen its position...
...After an the Jewish labor movement Is called on to support so many different things, the Socialist party Included...
...Rockefeller for and absolutely frank and open line of conduct oa the part of on leaders may well have had its root hi the need of the industry for saeh a reputation in order to see are public aesusrseence ta the Mg moves far sack a combination...
...vt This process ot working-class eeuaV Hon has always bean one of the ana tasks of the Socialist movement, ft a the all-absorbing teak of cialism and a task which seems to beat out * definite promise of success at hat time...
...Today executives feel that wealthy idlers have no kick coming so long as the enormous dividend tribute la paid regularly...
...On the other, Robert W. Stewart and the entire administrative personnel of the big corporation...
...By Morris Hillquit •T^i^nT - f »I*a i r*neae* h »tlnominee of the Socialist Parts-, Herman Thomas, waa 367,889...
...Social Insurance Stepping Stones to a New Social Order By Dr...
...But the control will be none the less absolute, especially since individual multimillionaires Interested in the trust will also control large blocks of stock to the operating companies...
...But while the British workers have steadily advanced during that period their American brethren have as steadily retrogressed...
...In the country of the most advanced capitalism less than twenty per cent, of the industrial workers are organized in labor unions, and such labor unions as there exist are conservative to a degree vwhlch must be quite incomprehensible to their European fellow workers...
...f The crushing defeat of the Desmemat party to its effort to conquer the at* tional government has sobered up lamj numbers of forward looking workers sag radicals who had enlisted under tht Smith banner solely out of desks of in...
...Already*haK of them are nocking to the *—*shsj movement...
...I don't know whether the Socialist party is aware of the fact that at the last convention of the A F. of L. a committee was organised representing about 35 labor unions interested In the Importation of goods that effect these unions...
...On the contrary they are active executives in the company who have spent their daily lives with it for years, who are Just aa concerned as the average director for the welfare of the company and much better informed as to what is good for it...
...What," be asks, "have Mr...
...But the old prejudices and abaurdta* are still brought forth when a phs b made for a similarly sensible, eqiutake ar-d economical system of handling tht Identical family situation if it is cane* by a non-occupational accident (SiAM persona are killed in the United Statn annually by automobiles alone) or kf disease...
...Such a rich firm as Ford's in the view of these students, should be able to afford decent iunch rooms for workers...
...Ordinarily if the labor movement were in good condition this would be a very good cause to participate in.—of course without Marshall and Warburg...
...Four other industrial states, California, nhnois, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin contributed each snout 30,000 votes to the Socialist column, while the remaining it states of the Union mustered a combined total of only 80,000 votes...
...in his attack on Chairman Stewart of Indiana Standard...
...But in business (.olumns it was pretty plainly suggested that control of production was necessary ta the interest of profitable prices...
...The Socialist party is now cemahng an extensive campaign for new mamhai and planning an elaborate program at renewed nation-wide activities...
...Before the war the Socialist party bad active and eflectrw crg^nlmtVwia in praottoeHy every stats ot the Union...
...The result wss that while the two parties of the bourgeoisie operated on 48 separate fronts, the direction of the Socialist campaign was practically confined to one center, New York...
...They hung down from the belt...
...Recently, a report emanating from private sources disclosed the fact that some 40 per cent of persons over 65 years af age reach their old age without having saved anything, without an Income, and dependent either upon their children or upon charity for support...
...The present organization took the Indiana company to 1918, at that time worth $170,000,000, and to 10 years, without asking a cent from the stockholders has made it Into a company worth about $900,000,000...
...Rockefeller grew up as the crown prince of the country's richest capitalist estate...
...The question in my mind is whether the same group that called this conference couldn't do a better service if they called a conference to help raise funds to rebuild an organisation like the International Ladles Garment Workers Union which is struggling to come back to its former status and whether it wouldn't be better If all the ¦~-<-1t>« to this city would create a movement to build up the unions other than the I. L. O. W. u. which are Just as important...
...The big news of January 1939 told of first steps toward the formation of a biltian dollar oil Investment trust backed by interests controlling $3,500,000,000 of tons!limits to the petroleum industry...
...Surely, not all unemployed Immediately suffered distress, immediately became applicants for charitable relief...
...But the management calmly installed a gas furnace of 700 degrees and no effort whatsoever was made to install a ventilating system...
...It deserves this dignified appellation of "social" because it is intended to cover the larger masses—those who are unable to make sufficient provision through private insurance: because it implies a legislative or social effort...
...The Republican party would certainly welcome the fact that the workers of this country have begun to realise that high tariff Is very important for the working people...
...It is safe to assert that hundreds of thousands of voters who ordinarily support the Socialist ticket voted for Smith...
...In the cold and sober light of retrospective analysis a few clear and simple causes stand out in bold relief...
...I have not told of the favorable side of the Ford plant because I could not find it," asserts one divinity student...
...J. P. Morgan, the Harkness family and a majority of the old estates associated with the Rockefeller fortune...
...Suggestions that the line be carried higher or a guard Installed were met with a shrug of the shoulders...
...It means an effort to meet the problem of old age immediately by a system of old age pensiosn to the needy, to be gradually replaced, or at least supplemented, by a system of compulsory contribution to old age insurance...
...In spite of the strong support which he received from soma capitalist tand reactionary elements, Smith stood in the last election as the symbol of social revolt in the minds of the American workers and liberals...
...Rockefeller's Vatee Qnosttoned...
...Public opinion is being misled into believing that the second generation of oil aristocrats has changed its buccaneer costumes for angellc robes...
...Tomorrow, perhaps, they will begin to feel the necessity of supporting this functfcnuess nobility as an unjustifiable burden...
...In view of the high rates charged by the radio concerns and the Immense area of the country a one-Hour radio speech over a nation-wide "hook-up" costs a fortune...
...A sum total of social results which surely is much graver than the presumed demoralising effect of the English so-called dole system...
...I was one of the committee—so was my good friend A. I. Shiplacoff, who Is also a good Socialist...
...In this they are following such industries as copper, steel, sine, phosphate, sulphur, sugar, rubber, wood, chemical and food products which bare formed export combines under the Webb act...
...Hardly anyone* willing now to admit opposition to nw principle of workmen's ecmpsnaatka even those who fought it so strsnnsn*/ twenty years ago...
...The combined working- class vote at the last Presidential election, 343,618, thus represents a little less than 1% of the total vote cast...
...For twenty years the problem of old age and superannuation has been studied in this country by government, state, and private organisations...
Vol. 8 • February 1929 • No. 6
