THF HOOVER POLICY D0LES F0R wealthy STARVATION FOR THE POOR
Levinson, Edward
THF HOOVER POLICY D0LES F0R wealthy STARVATION FOR THE POOR President Denies Labor U !/• *S. Assistance He Gave Lavishly to Industry rjiWO EVENTS last week reveal the hopelessness of the...
...that it would exclude unemployed workers who have not labored for six consecutive months for the same employer (this would exclude most building trade workers, Mr...
...It was a mistake to copy the principles of the workmen's compensation bill, as the Hastings bill did, be said...
...Such aid would sap the individual virility and character of those who are helped That is not a function of government...
...If this entire Red Cross fund is distributed in these two states alone it will mean that each victim will receive ten dollars...
...It pe T*—**" is not by any means open to the criticism which E i t» the proposal to spend $3,400,000,000 to pay off the •j ^gpe the present proposal will over-ride the Hoover Gat what the veterans got they got because they were fairly Steed...
...The question he said, was "should w e encourage in* dlviduals to rely on the government, or should we encourage industry to solve its own problems...
...The fund desired is $10,000,000...
...Noel Sargent for the National Association of Manufacturers and Mark Daly, lobbyist for the Associated Industries of New York State...
...The payments by the state was necessary for creation of a large enough fund...
...It is not an academic problem, but a real Immediate one...
...In the background of this action one observes stricken farmers in line waiting for their "dole" of Red Cross soup...
...All accounts agree that in the two states of Arkansas and Kentucky alone there are at least a million farmers in nee^l of food...
...The vote on this bill is significant...
...Almost an' equal number of Republicans and democrats voted for it in the Senate...
...BjBxance by industries means that weaker industries may • • f t on funds...
...All your smug talk of "individualism" cannot conceal this humiliating fact...
...also at the Forward Rand School, 7 E. 15th Street: Brownsville Labor Lyceum, 219 Sackman St, Bklyn...
...The house adopted it by a viva voce vote...
...Advances to farmers "shall be secured by liens on crops or by other security...
...Unemployment was a general industrial and social problem for which industry as a whole ought to be held responsible, rather than individual employers...
...with Hoover's own record of government nursing of capitalist enterprise, his present sanctimonious objections to direct aid to the starving farmers and the jobless wage workers is revolting...
...It will not help the hundreds of thousands which the Department of Commerce helped turn into the streets...
...Socialist building, 175 E. Broadway...
...Hence the Federal gnmt, facing the national disaster of unemployment, should te'|0if and public works by income and inheritance taxation...
...Nor could sufficient funds be raised by having the employers alone contribute...
...It is well known that unemployment has* reached the point of being a national calamity, he said In the meantime, unemployment insurance schemes have been in operation in several countries and tbefr experiences are now available...
...History is a cemetery in which other systems lie buried because they were no longer serving human progress...
...A President who offers such abstractions as "self help" and building of "character" to the jobless and the hungry is utterly lacking in that social vision which is essential to grappling with this national disaster...
...More shocking, is the fact that the sufferers without material resources have no assurance of aid even through this usurious arrangement...
...When they fail in an emergency like this they lack even the human touch that prompted the owner of slaves to see that his bondmen were assured against stark privation...
...at the...
...The man does not have an idea in economics mote modern than Adam Smith's, "Wealth of Nations" which was published at the birth of the American republic...
...Government aid would be a "dole'' but private charity would not be a dole...
...Morris Hillquit, National Chairman of the party, made the chief plea for unemployment Insurance...
...As President the work of this department has continued...
...fInsurance by industries means either inadequate benefits or pig on to consumers of too great a cost in the shape of higher The real beneficiaries of unemployment are dividend reI who should pay half the costs of adequate insurance...
...HUiquit objected was one barring out unemployed men or women who have ceased employment because of strike or lockout...
...Through eight years of this wotk Secretary Hoover helped to discharge hundreds pf thousands of workers in industry...
...Such relief belongs to the states and volunteer agencies...
...On the contrary, you act for the classes that own your party but you give theory to hungry men, women, and children...
...Kpf^h the plain fact Hoover wants to dodge...
...Daly urged the committee not to even think of unemployment insurance...
...They have every reason for abolishing k.J Let us turn to the task of Socialist education and organization, making the utmost of the shocking incompetence displayed at Washington last week by the agents of parries that represent a decaying and outgrown social system...
...Hillquit felt that contributions should be paid by both employers and the state...
...Hillquit pointed out...
...It is on trial...
...He helped to intensify labor exploitation...
...I had a grand agtfi Milwaukee Sunday, and previous to that good meetings Mind, Ohio and Richmond, Indiana u^der Socialist auspices, • b o n d comrades, only "recently organized, pulled off a parpae decorated cars, a supper and a High School meeting...
...The parties of capitalism are archaic...
...door, $1.50...
...And for this crime against humanity both parties are responsible...
...A bone is tossed to them and the statesmen turn to their dinners with satisfaction...
...Among the weak points in the bill, he said, 'was the provision that it would apply only to employers who have ten or more employees...
...spite some local opposition...
...The speech of the President and the action of Congress were kicks administered to millions of unfortunate workers...
...So says Hoover...
...Did the aid given to the railroad, timber, stone, mineral, manufacturing and banking.genrjemen destroy their "initiative," Mr...
...Its limitations would act to bar most workers in the state from enjoying the benefits of unemployment insurance, he declared...
...Both did yeoman service for the slave oligarchy in the twilight days of its dominion...
...ht labor man wants to deny this...
...B l B f so-called stabilization is good, all stabilization schemes Bafe fewer employees and insurance plans based on them or • t o promote them will and do leave workers now out of Bast perpetually out in -the cold...
...Hillquit made a number of salient criticisms of the Hastings measure...
...The moment you attempt to define it your whole argument falls like a child's house of cards that topples over because of its weight...
...The Socialist movement is organized to bury the system with -the others that became archaic and a barrier to further progress...
...Assistance He Gave Lavishly to Industry rjiWO EVENTS last week reveal the hopelessness of the twoparty system, of capitalistic politics...
...The Republican oligarchy at Washington voted empires of land to railroad gamblers...
...Daly added...
...Immigration officers estimate that there are 480,000 aliens who can be deported on various grounds...
...These unfortunates are plunged into an economies hell for which capitalism is responsible...
...There is nothing in the way of facts on the subject that is nott available...
...that it would bar out employees of companies engaged in interstate commerce, which would mean practically all workers in manufacturing industries...
...Your theory butters no bread...
...John F. O'F f i " ; for the State Federation of Labor, urged action be delayed until a commission could study the assembly committee on labor was held at the instigation of State Senator John A . Hastings who has introduced a bill modelled in underlying principle on the John R. Commons proposals whereby individual employers would:be responsible for insuring their own employees...
...Manufacturers Speak " I do not want you to onsider this proposition as a novel or a theoretical idea," Mr...
...He assured the committee that ths "best brains" were wrestling with the problem and hadn't found a solution yet...
...Besides, in meetings not under Socialist Vfte interest is keen...
...cynical, and bankrupt...
...Hoover's address revealed a man even more dull than Harding or Coolidge...
...The two performances were revolting...
...Tickets have •Ike hands of party branch•kjeks and branches of the B h Circle and friendly B*gram measures up to Betation...
...Bt PROTECTS THE BIG INCOMES talk of Hoover by certain newspaper editors and others uLgt sow the Federal Government must not break down the •nee of state and local governments in the matter of relief _m or subconscious camouflage for their desire to protect Sjitm of income receivers from taxation for relief...
...It is a disgrace to see the way this problem is being handled by childish, disgraceful methods...
...Capitalism is also in the dock today...
...Another section to which Mr...
...In doing all this the administration has followed a policy which became marked after the Civil War...
...He made his department a special bureau for assisting the owners of industry in piling up greater fortunes...
...Hillquit was followed by Abraham Epstein, who supported Mr...
...It has miserably failed...
...A SHOCKING COMPROMISE BILL And what of the other starvelings in other states...
...ThiWs the utmost that can be obtained from the statesmen at Washington...
...Given sufficient time, industry will solve the problem by Itself, he said...
...He helped the masters of industry to sweat more dividends from the labor of men, women, and children...
...They would receive the tender care of a father by the administration...
...Some who voted for it were not satisfied with the provisions but they offered nothing that would be a worth while substitute...
...How far will ten dollars go in keeping human beings alive who have no resources at all...
...The feudal order rooted in the serfdom of millions sufferecT the same fate...
...Farmers who have nothing to mortgage are left ta • the tender mercy of private charity...
...HOOVER NURSES BIG BUSINESS The theory is that the hungry and the jobless should not look to the Federal Government for assistance...
...It provides a fund of 120,000,000 from which advances are to be made to drought-stricken farmers providing they can give adequate security for payment of loans...
...The government became a fat sow for those gentlemen with each of them enjoying a tariff teat...
...A second fundamental criticism of the bill mads by Mr...
...especially the A . F. of L. leaders whose apathy has made possible the heartlessness of politicians and their own misery...
...No more powerful argument could be made for a party pledged to the interests of workingmen and women than the action taken in Congress-last week on this "relief" bill...
...HUiquit said, in conclusion...
...It will not cloche a shivering child...
...With an ox-cart mind and a smug self-satisfied outlook on life, the President again turned to "individualism" as a balm for the worst industrial calamity that has afflicted us since 1893-94...
...Through^ timber, stone, and mineral acts it voted fortunes into the hands of other gamblers...
...And iff* isn't worse off than elsewhere...
...At large government expense he contributed much to helping masters of industry to reduce expenses...
...Those who are most destitute get the least consideration 1 If the wretched men, women, and children in the stricken re gion were by some magic transformed into a fat capitalist enterprise their treatment would be otherwise...
...It jacked up tariffs for capitalists who drove hard bargains wiith Lincoln during the Civil War...
...The millions who now suffer have fed the sow...
...Now the upper -groups of capitalists and financiers who rule . the republic, the class that utterly destroyed state rights in the revolution of 1865-1876 which made it supreme, through Hoover, pay homage to this ancient dogma...
...All this was inevitable in the long run but Hoovet served as a government ^nurse in this work...
...President Hoover chose Lincoln's birthday as the occasion for broadcasting meaningless words to jobless wage workers and starving farmers...
...It is accompanied with terms which require that the farmer shall mortgage what few resources he has as security for the beggar s pittance allowed...
...But*the veterans and the victims of the w a r v with E poverty will get nothing...
...GROWTH IN SOCIALIST INTEREST Kp no travel diary I'm writing but I do want to speak of m growth of Socialist interest everywhere...
...But the main problem he said was not drawing up an .exact bill...
...This bill was passed in the Senate by a vote of 36 Republicans and 31 Democrats...
...Sargent opposed "compulsion" on industry to insure its workers...
...President Hoover shares with Congress the responsibility for the Compromise passed last Saturday...
...Make haste slowly on this kind of legislation...
...And was tjiis policy one of following your absurd theory of "individualism...
...Not only is the fund inadequate for the emergency...
...But standing with the Bj parties are the workers and...
...The price of admission in advance is $1.00...
...CAPITALISM IN THE DOCK All the more essential is it for the Socialist Party to reach flfl laboring masses with its program of immediate measures which lead to the reconstruction of the capitalist system of production on a basis of social equity...
...Just as shocking is your insistence that the Red Cross should take care of the hungry farmers...
...Will they live on your sweet words...
...Here are children, hundreds of them, whose daily "dole** keeps them alive...
...It cannot keep the industrial machine going...
...To make it possible for vetBJ erans to borrow more on their policies is fair ^ ^ ^ ^ enough, despite the moans of Andy Mellon...
...A couple of carloads of InB b comrades came down and Ed Henry presided in great Bour meeting...
...In the richest nation In the world they are thrust back into poverty and destitution...
...CONGRESS A HOPELESS BODY All of which indicates that little hope of relief for the hungry millions can be expected' from the Executive and from Congress...
...Many of these have Jobs, says the department, and these jobs can b e . filled by citizens...
...Out of its enormous abundance it ewrmot assure a bare living to those who produce the wealth of the nation...
...Hillquit coattnaed...
...The faa is that because of lack of social legislation to meet the tragic situation that now afflicts millions of human beings these millions are dependent upon "doles...
...The working people have no interests bound up with the pre>- < ervation of the system...
...The bill proposed might serve only as a beginning The Manufacturers Plead for Delay—State Federation Urges Further Study bill would set up an insurance system to which employers would be the sole contributors...
...14, and - the 1,000 dancers lined u p and searched for proofs of lawful residence...
...k$aat those expecting Bptheir tickets in •pets are on sale EflP...
...In every way his department took tender care of every upper class group that desired the service of his department...
...Bjnkmnent offices to be maintained by industries out of xfijund are unscientific, tend to break down proper pubHBHT Invite bureaucracy and waste and encourage blackthe -bosses who will dominate such offices in weekly or* H trades...
...That's all...
...and * * to bring me to speak at his college...
...The two parties and their representatives at Washington are hopelessly the servants of the masters of our industries, aVlroads, banks, and other powers of production, distribution and exchange...
...Hillquit...
...Every ruling group in our history has at one time or another turned to these two ideas...
...Coupled with this archaic droning of "individual initiative" and fostering of individual "character" was a revival of the old idea of "state rights...
...From the point of view of Intelligent capitalists, he said, the preservation of the existing economic order requires unemployment insurance...
...Hillquit's objections to the bill...
...Hillquit declared...
...Hillquit was levelled a t the aainmir to be paid out in unemployment benefits,—two-fifths of the workel's salary...
...With this history of government "doles" to upper groups of gamblers, speculators, adventurers and swindlers an open book...
...These were the positive criticisms made by the Socialist spokesman...
...Experiments wete carried on and the results were made known to representatives of industries who were called into special conferences...
...Congress will adjourn A4tfc without having assured an extra session and wtth, M y direct provision tor relief to an amy of the unIpift.Mv numbering- a quarter, at least,' ofdtbe whole force of salary and wage workers...
...But they are * human beings, workers, who feed, house and clothe the statesmen...
...Let friends of unemmt insurance examine their state bills with this in view and fee them with the model Socialist bill...
...A dance at the Finnish Workers Educational Assn., a Socialist building, was raided by federal officers and city police, Saturday, Feb...
...The alleged relief extended by this bill reveals the souls of usurers preying upon misfortune...
...The attractions gpgfnt Lopes and his f aP*<stra...
...Raids so far have included the municipal lodging house, the Seamen's Institute and a Salvation Army Hillquit Urges Unemployment Insurance Bill Be Adopted at Once in New York Socialist Leader Says Problem Not an Academic One—Opposes Commission By Edward Levi neon ALBANY.—The busden of attack in favor of early enactment of a comprehensive program of unemployment insurance fell on the Socialist party in the state capitol this week...
...that it would bar out actors and actresses...
...That bill is bad ttilbBowing reasons: • 1 1 provides only $10, or at most $15, a week benefits for ^8 weeks and not even that if the fund to be raised from 1%% •Sjpsa employers' payrolls gi^es out...
...After two hours of grilling, sixteen were taken to Bills...
...Two days later Congress passed the compromise bill for the "relief" of farmers who do not have the food resources of the cave men of antiquity...
...Introduction of improved machinery should have been accompanied by reduction of working hours, be eaid# As for unemployment insurFederation of Labor was in favor of creation of a commission to study the proposal...
...Another line is made up of young men...
...It turned the nation's money over into the hands Of the banking class through the National Bank Art...
...The moral: pari at toce direct appropriation for relief and a liberty loan ;aaai«rka m UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE BILL pRjKaTELY I find a lot of unemployment insurance sentiaround the country...
...President Hoover signed it...
...A number of other objections were raised by Mr...
...To leave unemployment relief to charity is to admit governmental bankruptcy, the Socialist leader said The Hastings bill presents a system which to not an improvement over other systems, Mr...
...Our vast productive powers are capable of insuring ease, comfort and security to all but they provide ease and comfort only to a handful who own them...
...Moreover, this smug avoidance of tesponsibility comes from the man who, as Secretary of Commerce, employed the facilities of the department to carefully nurse capitalist enterprise...
...I miss being in N ew York to help B i s for the big Unemployment demonstration, eta, but it's labile to get out into this country...
...Hoover...
...There is much to be said on both sides, Mr...
...It passed the House without opposition...
...A huge Piays attends...
...It voted Urge funds to fertilize the enterprises of these gentlemen...
...Raid Workers' Dance In Deportation Drive Raids on all working class organizations are threatened in the drive of the department of immigration to find aliens who can be deported...
...The Roman Empire resting* upon captive slaves decayed and passed into the tomb...
...veterans of the World war will probably be able to borrow up to 50% of the face value of their insurance...
...A telegram from Owen D. Young urged further study of the problem...
...The [uminmcrit can tax incomes and tax them uniformly, city Sggt cannot tax incomes at all, many states can't or won't and they won't tax uniformly...
...B;*a annual affair which paw a feature in the labor git tor many years...
...Apple-selling- does not represent the solution of the problem, nor does any other form of charity no matter how elaborate may he its scope...
...at the quarters...
...LrtnrMG to reports, unless we hustle...
...A Congress of Republicans and Democrats that enacts this cynical compromise is equally hopeless...
...You have never defined it...
...Mr...
...As Ptesident he signed a tariff bill which has passed the greatest "dole" in history to the mastets of American industry...
...AID TO GAMBLERS AND ADVENTURERS Other important service to these classes was rendered, service that cannot be reconciled with his drivel regarding "individualism.'' The consular service was reorganized all over the world...
...J1 encourages the false hope that individual employers can itkt» end unemployment—which is inherent in the whole sysgtrstahuization which they will put into effect in order to Paw ton-den on themselves...
...While fully endorsing the principle of unemployment insurance, Mr...
...But unfortunately the bills being •sat'Sie usually based on the wholly unsatisfactory A.A.L.Lu •ansa Association for Labor Legislation) bill...
...Its agents intensified the hunt fot markets and trade, for loans and investments, for our ruling classes...
...they take better care of p t a . This is prosperous America Gola Crowd to Attend Forward Ball Tonight BjBTS and their friends, • j * * * * trade unionists, pat the Workmen's Circle, MJU sympathisers are* exM* fill the 71st Regiment fcttth Street and Park Ave•haday evening, when the fc*tod ball will be held...
...Opposes Commission Idea The time for fact-finding and investigation was passed, Mr...
...Epstein declared...
...And is not this Red Cross and other private charity a "dole...
...Among the stars * promised to be present' B~*jt Satz, Mx>lly Picon, •Hpaartz, George Jessel, •J™****"- p * u l Muni, and BP8 * Hundreds of interjgjaes and tableaux will BJ*h» the contest for the BBftt offered...
...Island for further investigation...
...The man hasn't learned how to think...
...U n employment Insurance had saved England from a revolution, Mr...
...There is thus no need for a new commission...
...Possibly a week or two...
...middle-aged men, grizzled fathers and grandfathers receiving cheap clothing or shoes...
...The class that, transformed the Southern States into Roman provinces to be ruled by military generals until capitalism was supreme throughout the republic, now makes a theoretical retreat behind state lines to avoid responsibility # in caring for the victims of its dominion...
...A compromise measure will do something for the help of I drought victims...
...Ellis 'Island now has over 500 rounded up in New York alone for deportation...
...R ' ' - - . pMTEE'S SOCIAL-MJNDEDNESS •aaukee County they tell me one out of every five of the g*> is having to receive some public or private relief...
...It is a soBit where men and women fc families meet to have a Bp and to renew acquffmP * proceeds of the ball will Pk) Socialist Party which P * « additional incentive to M> affair memorable in the IjJ the party...
...Among the serious omissions in the bill, he added, were sections which would set up employment bureaus, and agencies for registration, training and re-training of workers displaced from industry by technological unemployment...
...And the workers get what they get—in the neck I they aren't organized or are badly led and insist on ^Lnhlican and Democratic...
...Oh yes, I mustn't forget" •jes how that enthusiastic Socialist of Lima, Ohio and BluffBjgw, John Keller, drove 170 miles between 10 p.m...
...This was entirely too low...
...If not, what do you mean by a "dole," anyway...
...In opposition there appeared...
...O'Hanlon, the first speaker, declared that lack of foresight on the part of the owners of industry has caused unemployment...
...Timely Topics By Norman Thomas W-fcer» O * W h a t They Asked For—Hoover jypfrfor Wealth—The Wrong Kind of Un.—~~»t Insurance—Socialism in Several F**E«t«ern Cities—Milwankee's Seedy « CINCINNATI, OHIO...
Vol. 12 • February 1931 • No. 8
