France Orders More 'Booze
France Orders More 'Booze Government Reverses Prohibition, Plans Greater Distillation; The Socialists' Position By EMIL VANDERVELDE EMIL VANDERVELDE ' (*f*Th« New'Leaser?* aBaeeijge, April...
...Politics of the moment...
...The State monopoly of alcohol, with forced consumption, has already poisoned French Indo-Cbina...
...In no district did more thai 60 per cent, of the grape crop escape...
...a • * France, as you know, Is the country where the cultivation of the grape plays the g r e a t e st part in the national economy and where wine crises make the most troubles for Governments and Parliamentary majorities...
...It demands more severe penalties for fraud and for speakeasies, the so-called 'private circles...
...The courts- were packed irk the interest of slave property and the Supreme Court had to be reconstructed because of this packing...
...Pointing out the admitted concentration of capital he declared: "If Thomas J e f f e r s o n V e r e alive today he would be the first to question the wisdom of this concentration of economic power...
...Roosevelt is certain that Thomas Jefferson "would regard with some misgivings some trends of American business life...
...While our capitalist class i s immensely richer the working class as a whole i s relatively less better off...
...But e v e n during the period when the chorus w a s s o often heard it ignored hideous social ulcers...
...Wise and sacrificial leadership can guide and serve it...
...Prior to this time the plain tiff had received a communication from the Labor Department of the National Government advising it against the employment of parties to .a communistic organization which had for its main purpose the undermining of the government...
...One could ride airywhere in the United States a n d , looking from car windows, could observe old s h a c k s w h e r e dirt and tjisease and poverty afflicted working class families...
...The rising tide of discontent with the present condition—dues...
...Whether wise or foolish it has continued for more than forty years...
...It is the wine question...
...IN A NUTSHELL According to a recent bulletin of Source Research Council Inc...
...So, in order to maintain, or to elevate again, the price of ordinary wine, the wine growers are to be encouraged — I mean obliged — to manufacture spirits...
...Among the members of the Parliamentary group of tbe French Section of the International there are many Deputies representing grape growing districts...
...Labor finally drove the firm Into line and for years it has been a union shop...
...Some of these leaders have made, and are making, reckless fools of themselves...
...arc I escaping from the disastrous grip of alcohol capital...
...The real question i> whether tlie Hoovers and RooseTrits w i l l restrain the tide with a feather or wheJfaer the tide will bear u s into t h e Socialist harbor...
...Now fight Socialism which may interfere with your "individualism...
...The question is whether they possess the mental and moral purpose to face the situation, and to come down where the people toil, and adjust the method and spirit of their leadership to the human , need about them...
...After 25 years of unfaltering following, the time came about five years ago whan we began to know in oar own heart that car...
...This theory is utterly absurd...
...then were 200,000 dens where gin (ear-1 whiskey) flowed like water, it U not necessary to be a total ah* . stabler to envy the nations which, to a greater degree than we...
...The union men won a reversal of the sentences by the U. S. Supreme Court...
...And while these leaders were busy with their game, the membership back of them was fading away in numbers and in unity of spirit...
...They undertook to use the prestige and influence of the vast membership back of them, a3 trading material in the game they were playing in Washington and New Tork and in many of the State capitols...
...Vandervelde is the first of a number of foreign correspondents with whom The New Leader is negotiating for monthly totters of comment and news...
...President Hoover should hurl this news at the skeptics who deny that prosperity is a fact...
...And now some of these leaders seem determined to spend what is left of their life in the desperate figat to held what they have...
...Good morning, noble freemen of the glorious republic...
...It condemns millions of workers to chronic want and unemployment...
...And the rank and file of workers know ItAll one needs to do to assure himself beyond a doubt that they know it is just to put his ear to the ground anywhere and listen...
...a a • The unemployed are in need of bread and a wise broker in Chicago declared that prosperity will come if we only have a failure of the wheat crop somewhere...
...If they w i n renew their hiaats touch, and give the word thsT means just what it pretends " mean, we will follow as loyally al ever...
...Failure is the basis of success...
...Only the sale of a minimum quantity of two liters for consumption at home is atffl tolerated, and detsptte tsafl toleration, which we ardently hosa ' to see disappear, the annuel ^ 9 sumption of liquor with aa S^H BoUc content of ?0 per cent | | j 9 | fallen since 1914'from six liters to two liters per capita, *v9 only half that of France, w M n tends to increase...
...A Judicial Aristocracy SENATOR ALLEN of Kansas in eupporting the appourtment of JudgeParker to the Supreme Court declared that "The question is whether the highest court in the land is to reflect in future the politics of the rnosTKTit, or to remain aloof and independent, subject only to the highest1 coqsideratiOPS of human justice...
...On tepcrlalisrn, on alcoholism, on the Bisialsn Revolution...
...We propose to continue to do so, no matter what some foolish leaders may try to do...
...LOUIS—(FP)—UaeawgiMJ ment and consequent undstraeaw...
...Lack of proper food, bad mpm ing conditions and the strain * trying to exist without a Joh"e*tj tribute to an " - - " i " ! aauiIsM rate among Negroes...
...Bucks attracted nationwide attention years ago as plaintiff to the historic Gompers-MitchellMorrison injunction against the A.F.L...
...IseaasMB vj'BTe r e c k l e s s fools, ^ias TaaTiT^ Si8iraa'"i - —— for Instance, John L. Lewis of ts* United Mine Workers...
...The m e n who make up the regulating c o m m i s sions are~often men who have served corporations in litigation before the courts...
...The corporations generally get what they want through the regulators and .through t h e courts...
...The diplomatic pressure** applied, in Belgium and elsewhere upon Governments that raise the duty on wine or try to strengthen their anti-alcohol legislation, either as to spirits or as to wines of high alcoholic content, comes mainly from France...
...But no human device can silence it...
...This commission has recently easV j ed its Work...
...It decided, in brief, | for the maintenance of the statist quo so far as the prohibition ef the retail sale of spirits was concerned...
...may publish pages every week of the Big Talk of these leaders, but the rank and file will not read it...
...What has been the result ? The complete failure of regulation...
...W t hope most of tbe leaders will at* the need of the times...
...But no matter bow tenacious this pressure may be— and we Belgians know something about that— it has, and can have, only a limited effect...
...Good...
...Nevertheless, this editorial is interesting in that it reveals a dissatisfaction that should help members to think...
...The need for the preaching and practice of the essential principles of Unionism was never greater than now...
...The Volstead Act closed the doors of the United States against it Argentina, With its vinyards in the Province of Mendoza, can almost supply itself...
...Thus in the first months bf the crisis was a very sharp and rapid development, arid then with January we have a slowing down of the rate of development of the crisis...
...If any labor leader thinks he can "carry on" without displaying a decent respect, for the opinions of manhtnfl, he is indeed a reckless fool...
...Within the ranks of t h e workers there are also large numbers whose standard o f living has improved little in the past thirty years...
...main we felt a sincere response to them from what seemed to us a decent moral sense within our soul...
...He has sat on the JaKMyl j eluding thTomce of aet^iAerj"ef^toAef'and ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ T Minister of Justice...
...The Socialists' Position By EMIL VANDERVELDE EMIL VANDERVELDE ' (*f*Th« New'Leaser?* aBaeeijge, April 15, U N . TLM...
...Here is one: "Power is like Dynamite, tt Is highly dangerous, tt makes reckless feels of most men who who taste it" (Page 70...
...a a a Judge Parker defends his "yellow dog'' decision because it follows a precedent of the Supreme Court Parker prefers to be barker with the judicial pack rather than do a little thinking of his own...
...The latter contended _ that the firm discriminated against Communists and in dealing with this contention the court said: "The action of tbe plaintiff in refusing to reengage its workmen without first procuring from them a statement as to whether they or any of them were Communists was justified...
...But when we see, in suck regions as Nonnandy or Brittaay, I the evil resulting from the lnteav 1 ive and chronic alcoholization pf a whole people...
...Suffering in the midst of plenty...
...and its education was being neglected...
...Even those in Europe^waSS are trying to keep in close toues with the experiment ,of absolute, prohibition being tried in AnteiwsI have some trouble in drawing the * line between the optimism of wJM drys and the pessimism of tap/' wets...
...Especially in the textile centers of the Democratic party In the South...
...With these shocking reminders staring us in the face the prosperity chorus continued to chirp its h a p p y anthem...
...The membership cannot be acquitted of responsibility...
...Aad we propose to continue to give the leader the benefit of every doubt, and to utter our warning aad protest only when the time comes that to do otherwise wfuld be a violation of the decent moral sense within...
...A. F. of L. leaders had Presidents and Senators and Courts at their feet...
...If ever men with power showed themselves reckless fools, some of the A. F. of L. leaders have done so since the War...
...We hope they will n it insist «* fighting Just for the spoils <* of what has been built *f wm sacrifice...
...Appointments have often been made to the Supreme Court because of political and economic considerations...
...The labor men were ordered to jail for violating an injunction against publishing the fact that Bucks was a scab shop...
...a a a Governor Roosevelt is alarmed over the power of the great corporations but we are sure that he meant no offense to John J. Raskob and General M o t o r s . . . . • • a ' The Democratic party must have funds in 1932 and Roosevelt dreams of the newspapers announcing that "Raskob General Motors to White House With President...
...Neither do we, but is, there anything in his oath of office that gives him the power to say that those holding political and economic opinions of which he disapproves should be injunctioned and deprived of employment ? Certainly not...
...Tbe general headquarters of the European press propaganda against American prohibition is located in France...
...i But if It must be s fig*, • it come...
...What they voted for is what they now receive...
...Patient education alone will bring more satisfactory progress...
...when we recel the time when in Belgium, with a population of 7.000,000...
...n o n U S of The New 1 vA Lender hare asked me for a mamOtf article an events in Franc* aad *«*flf*""» I yield to their desire, because I attach the greatest importance to having the contacts between the Socialists on both sides of the Atlantic as frequent and as close as possible...
...Announcement win be made in early leenrs of New Leader correspondents in England, Austria and Germany, The Prosperity Chorus " •T seems only yesterday that the prosperity * • chorus w a s assuring u s that American capitalism h a d realized happiness for all...
...Only one method has occurred to the wise m e n of the two parties in dealing with concentration...
...This is the policy of regulationr The giant economic organizations were to be sfcgu l a t e d by law...
...Bat, in pi eking up my pen, I am asking myself what there is at present in the domestic political life of tbe French-speaking countries calculated to be of interest to American readers...
...a • • A quarter of a century ago the consumption of spirits per head was greater in Belgium than in France...
...The better crop of 'white grapes around Raeims suffered most from tat j two-day frost...
...Too many members are not awake to the new problems of modern industry and modern trade unionism and we indulge in illusion when we assume that officai representatives of the unions are holding back a restless rank and file...
...Republican and Democratic administrations have, come and gone and concentration has proceeded regardless of which party has been in power...
...We do not have to try very bard, to imagine that President Broach had in mind some very present facts and conditions when be wrote these words...
...Clark t*»"*i A sharp increase in Negro dawsM from heart disease and pneaaetaM is due to the nerve strain of jM erty, ill-fed bodies and asaJH powers of resistance to da...
...The following lead editorial in the issue of April 17 is an example of this discussion...
...a a a For 30 years we have accepted the utterances of A. F. of L. leaders in good faith, and have put back of them whatever we might possess, because in the...
...Louis, has closed its doors and quit, claiming inability to meet non-union competition...
...And now some others seem bent on following in his footsteps...
...Since the American vines enabled the growers to triumph over the phylloxera, it is not merely in Champagne, in Burgundy, in Bordelais, or Cotes du Rhone, where the agricultural population derives its principal means of existence from cultivating grapes and producing wine, but in all Central and Southern France...
...Some' of' the many thousands standing in the bread lines today stood in line at the polls in the last national election...
...he Is a prnfraieraT tn the «mn> Vandervelde Free University of Wi a»anl* He served as president of the International Onclaleft Bmean from 1900 to 1918* he defended the Socialist Revolutionaries tat Russia in the famous, Moscow trial of 1912...
...Could the idiocy of capitalism be better stated...
...As regulators they become holy smotherers...
...He cannot bt fooled forgver by just Big Talk What a lot of our leaders' nest la to come down off their distsst pedestal of big salaries and fadBg 1 power, join the Common LelX*T*Wj and look at life from their seta of view...
...We are promised speedy action on the tariff bill and If the walls go higher the labor skinners may be considerate enough to leave us that extra shirt...
...The average man is a hero wot* shiper...
...Vandervelde is one of the most brilliant orators aad clearWt writers of current day poUtical life...
...What a contradiction...
...However, in our judgment, it errs in attributing lack of inspiration solely to leaders of the unions...
...Our little country was not only the paradise of capitalism (Marx), but also the paradise of alcoholism...
...So much for the rekt-' tion between production and profit under capitalism...
...Have you been, x-rayed, psychologized, measured^ studied with a time watch, punched a time machine, received your number and been tagged lUe a terrier at the dog pound...
...Wine Crop Destroyed (A few days after the receipt of Vandervelde's article came tht news from Paris that two uurdi > of tbe French wine crop has tree* j destroyed by frost...
...The French Government, however, neglects no effort, nor recoils before any means to serve the interests of alcohol capital and to force its wines and spirits upon other nations...
...Having played the game with Presidents and Senators a nd Courts and Dollar-a-Year men during the War, some of these labor leaders went blindly with the successors of these Princes of Power after the War...
...Committees do not function—unless it be individuals who want for themselves some of this power and pelf that they see these leaders trying to hold...
...Thus it appears that as* j result of reduced wine output, tan French alcohol interests may at able to command a higher prist than would otherwise have beta I possible...
...will grasp the opportsnlty for new vision and sacrifice...
...They have lost their interest to do anything effective...
...Some of the Union leaders undertook to go with Harding and the Ohio Gang in the quest for "normalcy...
...The railroad interests next promoted their lawyers to the bench and in recent years it is only too obvious that the great utility dynasts are safdy intrenched in the Federal courts...
...Russia, which has its own vinyards in the Caucasus, no longer furnishes, in the persons of its boyars, customers for the cellars of- Champagne...
...Everywhere protectionist barriers are being erected and, although France occupies first place in Europe in the per capita consumption of alcoholic drinks, she finds herself absolutely unable to absorb the over-production of her wines and brandies...
...la the...
...They became known as the "midnight judges" and their offices were created to preserve the interests of the classes who had been favored by Hamilton's measures...
...Anyhow, we hve in mind some very present facts and conditions when we head them...
...But in his book, "Union Progress," he has said many things that we will all do well to use for the stimulation of thought...
...Concentration of Capital T X his speech at the Jefferson Day dinner Governor Roosevelt revealed his political philosophy...
...Labor Unionism in America reached the peak of its influence during the War...
...One...
...Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal are formidable competitors...
...As for the jobless, wherein does their position differ from the wandering bands of the unemployed who made up Coxey's Army nearly forty years a g o ? Our industries are ripe for socialization and the Socialist program should have a favorable hearing such as it never had, before...
...Therefore there is a striking contrast, from this point of view, between France where, unhappily, the organization of labor remains weak, and Belgium where the militants hounded by the bosses always find asylum in the Houses of the People, the centers of the political, cooperative and trade union organization...
...The great philosopher has the floor: "The crisis is made much more serious by the fact of this extreme fluctuation in the industries, more than if the industries had more steadily declined down to the same or even a lower point...
...The farce has become so glaring t h a t t h e f u n damental issue of nationalization cannot be p u t off much longer...
...Now that capitalism is unable to guarantee millions work at any wages the chorus has retired from the stage...
...Never mind...
...j commission to study eventual modifications of the liquor law of 1911...
...They have grown sick of it...
...It won't work...
...We will then create an outlaw class of untouchables...
...Meanwhile these leaders had built themselves up into princely salaries, surrounded by treasuries that figured in millions...
...Thats how it happens that at this moment a Governmental project is being discussed at the Palais Bourbon which must strike Americans as an Impossible monstrosity and which is intended "to relieve the present congestion in the wine market by organizing the compulsory distillation of a fixed quantity of the existing stocks...
...LOUIS — (PP) — After 84 years In the field, the Bucks Stove & Range Co., St...
...J. T. Clark ef t*» tTrbna League says la his aa»sp report...
...Since 1919, through a law principally initiated by the Socialists, thi retail sale of hard liquor.is forbidden in public places...
...From 75 to 19)I per cent, of this crop was wiped out...
...It aiiiniu to us that tbe expounders of the capitalist system are afflicted with brain failure...
...It is amusing how often members of regulation commissions have been so satisfactory to the big corporations that they have been promoted tp service in the corporations...
...When our' Revolutionary Fathers decided to start a new chapter in history, they began by making their appeal in "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind...
...If we take a line representing the general course of economy, the development of the crisis from the highest to the lowest point is not one of a general downward line, but is a zigzag downward trend — plunge downward, a partial recovery, and then a downward line again...
...Negro T. B. Death Rate at Highest Level in Decade ST...
...If .-this -shocking political dedsion should become general there-is no reason why judges should not eventually inquire regarding the political and economic views of every person brought before the courts and decide each case on the basis of those views...
...I believe I have said enough to show that the problem of aicoawl ; is quite different in France, or in Belgium, than in the United States...
...iahment is largely responsible set the fact that in 1929 ths-talsij lost* death rate among St, t*M Negroes reached its highest -js* in 10 years, Sec...
...of Chicago one hope of relief for the farmers is "an Important crop failure in some part of the world during the current year...
...closing hours of John Adams's administration the Federalist Party created new Federal courts and Adams appointed judges in the dosing hours of the last day of his term of office...
...dues...
...A firm of shoe manufactures fated a strike of its workers...
...till it hurts, to suport the absentee futility of Big Talk devoid of leadership—no one can stem the tide...
...This unevenness and its sharpening by extreme fluctuations, are factors which result in extending the crisis and deepening it...
...Naturally.• fts, conclusions have merely an advisory value, but It lie as sure u day that If the advocates of 'liberty for alcohol" attempt an offensive against the law of 1919 they will find themselves opposed by a majority of the Chamber composed of the bloc of working class Deputies — Socialists sad Christian Democrats — reinforced by some right-thinking men of tat other parties...
...There is one question, however, which interests both the "drys" and the "wets" and which just now is preoccupy lug the French much more than the London Naval Conference, the Government of M. Tardieu or the posthumous revelation of Clemenceau's quarrels with Marshal Foch or General Pershing...
...From "The Unionist and Public Forum" BT QUOTING so frequently the words of H H Broach, International President of the Electrical Workers, we do not wish to be understood as ready to swallow everything he has said, or may say, with our eyea strut...
...Their economic philosophy accepts the fundamentals, of capitalism...
...It is in France herself where the Government, which cannot exist without the votes of the Deputies from the South, is now looking for ways and means to remedy something which is even worse for French agriculture than a poor market for wheat--an insufficient demand for wine, accompanied by a heavy reduction in its price...
...He has written historical works, on Socialism, on evolution, en agriculture...
...But while for years the production of French wine has not ceased to increase, the foreign market for it tends to become narrower...
...a. ' a a The Now We Understand COMMISSAR EARL BROWDER explains the economic crisis to his fellow Bolshies in the celebrated newspaper, The Daily Worker...
...a a • Some months ago the R»'«rli,aGovernment named an office...
...a : The Electric Bond and Share Company made a profit of 108 per cent...
...The implication is that this concentration' is a matter of approval or rejection, of whether it is wise or foolish...
...sFurtber, we have the unevenness of the tempo of the general development of the crisis...
...In fact, i t could not be otherwise...
...and with Coolidgc and the Industrialists in the praise of "prosperity...
...The grim contrast between working class want and capitalist riches is today as glaring as it has ever been in our history...
...Today, f K * T ' v * to propaganda and to legislation, the situation is entirely different...
...And now, on tbe contrary, its production is to be intensified...
...There are many other facts that could be cited, supporting this conception of the deepening of the crisis aside from the declining factors of economy in all spheres...
...The Unionist and Public Forum" at Sioux City, Iozia, is a stimulating and intelligently edited union weekly which has been discussing the problems of American trade unionism with vigor and insight...
...I venture to say, however, that tbe French Socialist Party, for reasons only too apparent, is not' in a position to wage war upon alcoholism with as much energy as, for example, the Belgian Labor Party...
...That is, the judge lectWes a 1»ly man living in a vacuum when he takes his seat and is not mtfaaired in his decisions by poUtical and economic considerations...
...In short, while making pretty speeches about the necessity of combatting alcoholism, one will broaden its ravages by adding to the injurious privilege enjoyed by the home distillers the still greater calamity of compulsory distillation...
...Today it i s apparent t o all t h a t the system h a s broken down...
...There may even be an upward turn of economy...
...It is only too evident -that the politics of big property interests has dominated most decisions of our judidal aristocracy...
...The Socialist Party, of course, cannot help but be disturbed by this policy and the consequences it is bound to entail...
...Now France herself, together with the neighboring countries, Is menaced by a similar poisoning by alcohol capital...
...There is not a dry in t h i s country o f w h i c h this is not true...
...will seaw the hunger of the rank and flk who toil...
...Bucks Stove and Range Quits ST...
...They berime that they found a way that would avert Socialism...
...Belgium, the classic land of cellars of Burgundy, puts a high tariff on wines...
...A Judicial Sample \ S though to confirm what- appears above our attention is called to an amazing opinion expresaea by a judge of the New York Supreme Court in gjanting^an injunction...
...Labor injunctions for more than thirty years are proof that trade unions are alien organizations before the robed lawyers of the corporations...
...Moreover, there has not been an important property interest that has emerged in American economic history that has not had its judicial representatives in our courts...
...Socialists are Socialists because of Oaatr lave of freedom and their horror ef slavery and they insist upon the essaal frttaetu of alL They want "'"•••H aad will accept nothing that is not granted to all upon Trade Union Leadership An Iowa Labor Journal Does Some Plain Speaking Dissatisfaction u1 i i h current trends in the labor mo-cement is found in criticism that is appearing in labor union journals...
...The Contrast, is all the more striking when it is compared with the increased productive powers of this post-war period...
...Among the party's militants there are a number of former workers who, driven from the factories because of their political views, have been obliged to make their living by running saloons and selling drinks...
...As a result of representations by France, Spain and Portugal, it proposes to allow the fails of wines with an alcoholic contest of as much as 20 per cent (which is certainly too high...
...The "wisdom" o f concentration is hot involved...
...An uneven development of a deepening tempo found right here in the United States...
...Is that opinion due to the poUtical and economic views of the judge or is it in accord with the law ? He does not approve of Communism...
...Bat he must have something heroic ts worship and follow...
...Moreover, there is little doubt that the gulf between the workers and the possessing classes has relatively widened...
...We propose to continue to support the A. F. of L. leaders just so far aa a decent moral sense within will permit...
...Roosevelt subscribes to this policy as do all Republican and Democratic politicians...
...And it has cost us much, aad brought us nothing—nothing hot a clear conscience and a good fight...
...It is die irresistable trend of capitalism and we have to accept it as a fact...
...The General Confederation of Labor many times has come out—not for a dry regime, American style—but for the absolute prohibition of hard liquor...
...Vandervelde Joins Staff of The A etc Leader tAaUons'nl^b^acsinj^leted aaTa'rrjsoJ t"of whlch% aader^eide"Sui contribute to Use New a,istse a awtaBlhly article stealing with pofl^ H|lSflfl *"* Labor totern*tion*l...
...T h e corporations even regulate t h e regulators...
...That is what we are...
Vol. 10 • March 1930 • No. 13
