Labor Needs Leadership
Labor Needs Leadership T^Ju^in ZedSFtionJ*a* *° M e e t t h Talks at Booze When the Workers Need* CriBsirse;a d it n p H E Executive Council of the American Federation of Lalx>r met this week...
...Let us sum up...
...The fad is that the United States is the only moderr nation in the world that is now following th< policy of public and private dotes...
...We can afford ;o havi a little cotton to bandage the wounds inflicted b; Hoover prosperity...
...As a solution the proposal is stupid...
...There is little doubt that this practice is general in most of the large cities as American police departments have a reputation for'brutality that pairs with the old czarist police of Russia...
...00Japuy' .~.1tUdtq tlrIIt...
...Today one half of the laborers can produce more than sufficient to supply the markets ef the world, and the other half, the major part of the time, arc compelled either to beg or starve.—Dr...
...But he has already drawn ah indictment against capitalism and the politics that sopport it...
...opened Oft an offer of the ~hour we...
...The resources of the cities and states are practically exhausted...
...There are seven million jobless workers...
...across the grain belt to the cotton region begin mng- in Oklahoma and Texas and then East al most to the Atlantic coast agriculture has reach© ttrer lowest level in our history...
...eotiD...
...It would make a shift of workers from occupations related to the dry period to* occupations created by modification...
...The dough boys, it adds, are not content with "accumulating all the money of the country" belt they also evade the law or change it to suit their own purposes...
...The silk hat offender is generally treated with that consideration that is due to the possessor of a large pile of dollars...
...It may in one moment probe the fundamentals of capitalism and the next moment wander into vague speculations and conclusions...
...This is followed by denials from many officials of cities that are singled out for mention in the report...
...Moreover, "government charity throws the burden of relief upon the very ones who have been the victims...
...InNew York City a,denial comes from Police Commissioner Mulrooney although there have been several cases in this city in recent years in which it was proven that the third degree was used...
...This, we are assured, will stimulate sixty industries and provide jobs.^ How many jobs...
...We have had panics and millions of unemployed in the old wet era...
...Would the "victims" of un- employment pay these taxes or would the "bur- ( den" fall upon the fat exploiters ? I Then what ;s meant by saying that "industry « itself should provide the sustenance required by * our people f Industry has broken down...
...We Socialists will fight the good fight for the working- masses, confident that history will pass judgment upon thpsc who A Socialist Duty IALISTS should consider the duty they in the menacing conditions that are it throughout the nation...
...What Will Booze Accomplish...
...We commend to the council members the final chapter of Taine's Ancient Regime where fine ladies and gentlemen listened with much humor to a tale of tbe tumbrils that were to roll through the streets of Paris with their hu' man freight within a few years...
...Without passing judgment on modification as a policy, our guess is as good as any other...
...The union sought - to force the Boston and Main* Railroad and the sub-contractor delivering the steel to hire uni Cop Brutality Fails To End R. I. Strike PROVIDI:NCJC...
...The editor declares that the National Tribune "is in no way opposed to what is called capitalism...
...JAB that was required to bring complete bank roptxy to all agriculture was this tragedy that ha come to the cotton growers...
...But the United States "must not be forced or fooled into the adoption of the dole...
...R. 1. - (FP)BUorta of the Ba1sb~ Y:U18, iD PutmlUl...
...In one case the accused was in Sing Sing awaiting electrocution because of a confession extorted by police officials...
...compromiM with the deDiaDda 'of ita workers eau.ed • pouee attaelt .OD the picket lJne wlltD the mil...
...A Socialist administration would make the abolition of this brutality one of its first duties...
...e e e The steel Ingot output declined during July be...
...The steel for: the new building was being handled from1 freight cars to the Job by scab labor, and th* hoisting engineers refused to handle it...
...Nevertheless it is,a sign of an awakening that is needed...
...Several workera 'were' ar~ and ODe wemAD Wu .enoU81y lDjund by the cop...
...Since that era new machines and processes have displaced a few million workers...
...If the Federation chiefs had turned to the preamble of the A. F. of L. constitution^-they would have found a guide...
...The report, in referring to New York City, cities among other instances a former head of the Italian squad who went into the Tombs with a sawed-off baseball bat and the "victims came through with everything they knew...
...It guesses regarding new jobs...
...If we do not we fail to rise to the responsibility imposed ttpon us...
...It does not e r a recommend the most obvious of financial measures, heavier taxation of the super-rich by the states and Congress...
...Its Labor Committee reported that unless some "enormous charity" is available we face a "vast destitution...
...That is, we must in some way induce those who have power and wealth to cease worshipping both...
...The report itself, however, is too convincing to be dismissed because accused officials offer denials...
...Modification wouid at best help only & tiny fraction of the jobless...
...Would this shift mean a net increase, m jobs and, if so, how many ? The committee does not attempt to answer...
...with a reduction In waau...
...useful if he has a good head on him and is pointed in the right direction, but even though he is driven, he can only go as far as his head will let him.—Hells...
...Industry cannot "provide sustenance" because industry is largely paralyzed...
...They lack power but, like the city workers, their numbers make them a potential power i t mobilized for common action...
...Babies are the chief sufferers in the strike...
...Naturally, we'do not expect these officials to admit that they follow a practice that belongs to the medieval period of history...
...Court Orders Workers To Scab in Boston BOSTON.—(FP) — Because "it is impossible to construct a building" i n Boston without the help ef the hoisting engineers' union, the Federal Court issued an injunction ordering the union men back to work and summoning its officers to court to show cause why they should not be permanently restrained from striking against the contractor on the new Federal building...
...In* bedding, the graved, their vary clothing is damp...
...The Cotton Crisis *t*HE enormous crash in prices of cotton, a "•""".drop of 122 to 142 points, brings a stagger ing problem to an agricultural area that since th< Qvfl War has been a region of chronic poverty ir means that millions of cotton growers ar< pronged to lower depths of destitution than i: found in the grain belt of the West...
...Seven million of the jobless are consigned to a hopeless winter of destitution and starvation...
...All these factors • f e t t e that our action is especially difficult, and ItfftHdd to certain methods that are imposed by ftiese" conditions, but however limited they may Be we should take fall advantage of them...
...What is the answer...
...to o~ em...
...Twelve families live in this colony and 41 more are due to be evicted next week...
...A Protestant Episcopal Bishop brings an es couraging message to the Jobless of the nation He urges the unemployed masses to improve theii leisure which is a "magic gift'' We should un our idle hours profitably for mind, body and soul When you have an empty stomach and the childrei have nothing to eat, think of the advice of thi well-fed and well-dressed Bishop and be happy...
...We do not know, the committee does Hot know, and nobody knows...
...The Need for Leadership The Executive Council recommends absolutely nothing that will serve the suffering working class...
...The collapse of cotton prices involves Negrc and- white tenants and share-croppers, the vas nasrjority of whom never in all their lives had ; decant suit of clothes or a nourishing meal sucl as the northern wage worker is accustomed to Their conditions were revolting enough but i there is no recovery of cotton prices the mass o tbtsc workers will have to be fed or there .wil b e i n a r c h of peasants* upon villages, towns an< rriSK next winter...
...To all others that have not acted we urge them to do so at once...
...hi the other hand the public powers- are genin the hands of -the politicians of capital^BOlLMost of them are stupid and reactionary ?H™there is no hope from that quarter unless great-pressure is brought to force action...
...If we ffgT many Labor and Socialist representatives in tjje-dty councils and state legislatures we would have many spearheads in the seats of power but the, workers have failed to use their voting power fdf themselves and they are powerless...
...ess owners to worst is the program of Socialism...
...What is'this "charity" which they mention but a dole...
...The coal barons Ignored their pleas...
...If we have had stark misery in the old era how if it possible to give jobs tc seven million of workers by going back to the old era...
...It is possessed with fear, it is puzzled, and it cannot think through to logical conclusions...
...Onli 15 .trlkera weut back, the othera formlD&' a. maa piCket lJne before the miD ptea...
...The Third Degree TTHE Wickersham report gives attention to nation-wide police brutality and employment* of the third degree to extort confessions from persons accused of crime...
...Outside, task rain sizzles on the stove and beats on th* kitchen cabinet which a rude abetter of poles and board roof cannot protect • . e • • Further along la another shelter covered with a kitchen linoleum and hung wtah ruga, where Mrs...
...e e * Have you noticed how progressively the progres sives progress in meeting the problem of the Job leas millions...
...The reasoning is characteristic of much of the reaction against the frightful conditions that capitalism has produced all over the world...
...Whether these babies must die unless their fathers go back to work under the same old conditions, depends upon whether the rist of America will give dunes and dollars to buy milk so the miners • can be assured of their Children's immediate safety while they fight for their future...
...An its members so blind that they cannot see thai since October, 1929, we have had the dole and will have it next-winter...
...The struggle between the "oppressors and the oppressed" is the vital underlying fact of capitalism but the op, pressed have found no leadership in this humiliating document...
...In this way it agrees that there is an intimate relation between the class that owns the economic powers of the nation and politics...
...There are seven million jobless and with their families the total of men, women, and children facing stark want number not less than 21 million...
...Her htue girl stirs a pat of beans, but the stove smokes and th* wood is wet—wood,, in a land rich with coal...
...third degree \\ a form of class "justice* 'that 1s intended chiefly for workingmen and those hi general who have no "pull" with ponce authorities...
...Money and clothing should be sent to the West Virginia Miners' Union...
...Several months ago the National Executive Cotnmittee of the Party sent a program of cooperation in the cities and states with all labor forces in unemployment councils...
...Hoover should sen this mother on* of his speeches In which he ad vises that the hungry should not lose their char acter and individualism and the mother can writ hbn of how ah* saved the life of herself had ehll dren...
...They were of me Bourbon tribe that sever learned anything new and never forgot anything old...
...He has a good premise and a lame conclusion...
...New low records in the price of cotton have beei reached and there is only one consolation to b derived from this news...
...H. S. Alley, • • • Man Is like a tack...
...Will modification provide them with jobs ? Certainly not...
...Keep at it first, last and all the time...
...It is merely guessing...
...Their only alternative then was to exercise the only right left them in this feudalists industry—the withholding of their muscle power from the mining of coal...
...Whatever happens in the tragic winter months ahead Socialists should be able to say that they did theit dbTfin striving to meet the calamity...
...Four In the mud underfoot and try th f1*ft*r> lip t&8 make a creek the tent The °ooksTwith^nd^rhVey«« *t his new surroundings...
...They are compelled to accept public or private doles and many do not get even this aid...
...Still more amazing is the assertion that gov ernment relief throws the burden "upon the ven ones who have been the victims...
...The atrtkena a,t the Pawtucket tJl11lJ .of the ~ W...
...Workers and suspects without funds provide the largest number of the victims of the third degree...
...The Dllu...
...8b# fa far gone with ejberculosis sad the rainy weather hiss brongm on bronchitis...
...What abou increasing the inheritance and income „ the stales and the nation and provide unemploy- i ment insurance...
...Even the frui asSttons of the South tell the same story of heart breaking destitution...
...Thou- , sands of plants are closed and other thousands are working part time...
...W. Va...
...The industries are involved in the general economic collapse and to say that they "should provide sustenance" is to become silly...
...the Steel output of prcs^Useiat corporations Rain in West Virginia By t\Wm ^ B i M l f i Wl B y W. ^ ^ " y o u ^ be reirf"?ums on^youj • a d spatters your - - 7" . V ia the aendenning's borne - * battered old tab* thotnrh which the rain comes in waterfalls into the beds, the dreaser, the beat covered with a rug...
...want a dole...
...Old Kanawha Valle;- Bank Building, Charleston...
...A few indignant words agains Hoover and clinging to their jobs obtained by sop porting the Hoover party mask the prrigrsatin nets of the progressives' progress, • • e In one Mlnneaots town It is reported that i widow and three children killed and ate a pe dog to ward cat starvation...
...The reasoning is logical bat its author hesitates to draw a logical conclusion from his own premise...
...And even then, many Will be victimized for their union activity...
...They are profit-making enterprises and nothing else...
...The union is providing tents or lumber and tar paper for shacks as fast as it can, but people are being thrown out of then* homes all up and, down the creeks...
...Their elders can get along on a little beans and bacon, or go-out and gather greens and herbs, or tighten up their belts on frame* gaunt from years of scanty fare, but if the union cannot furnish milk for the babies, their suffering is pitiful indeed...
...This they have succeeded in doing for five weeks...
...Of the working farmers the same thing may b* said...
...Having become involved in this contradiction he goes on to say that the solution is to forsake the worship of money and restore it "to its proper place as a medium of exchange...
...Modification of the Volstead Act...
...they have to go back to work before the battle" is won, hunger will have driven them back...
...Labor Needs Leadership T^Ju^in ZedSFtionJ*a* *° M e e t t h Talks at Booze When the Workers Need* CriBsirse;a d it n p H E Executive Council of the American Federation of Lalx>r met this week and considered the oppressed...
...AMMERING away ' the United States, oldest newspaper organ of the its war against the "boys with It asserts that "these men have no difficulty in finding politicians who are willing to do their bidding...
...The repeated collapses of capitalism snow that it is afflicted with a fatal disease and the ailment is capitalist ownership of the means of production and distribution,- Vest th* ownership in society and put the work...
...Furthermore, the "industrial mechanism of the nation is responsible" and "industry itself should provide the sustenance required by our people...
...Whether this is possible and how it might be accomplished are not stated...
...The workers of the nation, organized and unorganized, must look elsewhere for counsel in tBese tragic days...
...The labor orions'axe weak in comparison with other ies and the labor chiefs reveal a hangover ef- the conservatism of the nineteenth century, of the members of the unions face distress masses in general will not starve and without protest in the coming months...
...Now in an are ranging from the Canadian border and Sout...
...The miners have asked for better conditions, first as individuals and later as a* group...
...She ajadMissi for th* cluttered appearance of their "home...
...The "Yitthm" of Unemployment Then the council does not...
...That is all...
...We assert that it is doubtful whether modification would make a net increase of 100,000 jobs.* To merely indulge, in guessing is to dodge responsibility and to drift into a hell of suffering for millions of workers...
...It expects an enormous increase of jobs through modification and larger revenue from the taxation of liquor...
...How many party locals have acted we do not know but some have^with some measure of success...
...Kelly crouches under a quilt on the bed and soughs...
...Finally, about "onehalf of the states and most of the larger industrial cities have- entirely or almost exhausted their funds, this winter either through employment or charity...
...opened...
...In other words, the...
...The capitalistic system of production has dt eitned more rapidly and on a more extensive seal this country than any Socialist ever antic We expected the passing of the "pro* of the post-war years and much suffer in t consequence but the frightful situation th< ! evident to all exceeds anything anticipate More and more does it call fc and more action by party members to it its victims of the road to poorer and ho -a system that is ripe for extinction...
...8 ~umero~ ~ &DC ~~ fIDeI...
...Nothing else can...
...The owners do not run j the* plants for humanitarian motives...
Vol. 13 • August 1931 • No. 7
