Society Owes Duty to All Workers
Waldman, Louis
By Louis Waldman Society Owes Duty to All Workers In Face of Tragic Unemployment, So-called "Relief ia Pitiful Indeed Unemployment and Other Social insurance it a Right, Not a Dole—If...
...After thirty years of Socialist agitation there is a growing recognition of the need for the enactment of legislation for the security of the aged...
...As part of a system of unemployment insurance provision should be made for the establishment of an adequate number of employment exchanges and the setting, up of agencies for the retraining, of those workers permanently displaced by technological improvements, the merger and other factors of modern efficiency...
...Today our iiy.item )% In a tragic condition...
...Unemployment insurance has proven itself a sound, economic and social policy...
...Out of every 100 workers employed in manufacturing in New York State in 1929, 45.3 are now idle...
...A Matter of Right We urge for the veterans of industry annuities or pensions as a matter of right in the same way as veterans of war and employees in Civil Service are pensioned...
...3. Drastic increase In Income and inheritance taxes on the higher income brackets, so as to aid in a wholesome redistribution of income, and assist in developing needed public works and social servircs...
...and 3 per cent for more than six weeks...
...On the other hand, in the United States, not more than 1,000,000, mostly of the .wealthier class, out of an satire population of 125,000,000 are partly insured against illness and invalidism...
...The tragedy of American labor was never greater than it is today...
...Monday night Mayor Daniel W. Hoan, of Milwaukee, and Louis Waldman, Socialist candidate for Governor, spoke to the •nthusiastie throng, i crowd that equalled In •ise and spirit the vast turnout that greeted Norman Thomas and Charles Solomon lets in September...
...They also know that State action alone is impossible as the problem transcends state lines...
...Louis I. Dublin and Robert J. Vane, Jr., on the causes of death by occupation show that death rates for tuberculosis, to mention only one serious affliction among the working population, is from two and a half to nearly four times as high as among professional, mercantile and agricultural groups...
...They are pulled hither and thither by their own ignorance of the trends and needs of the times, by corrupt political machines, powerful special interests, short-visioned executives and archaic courts and, between these anything in behalf of the common various pulls,' the wonder is that people of the country comes out of their collective deliberations...
...Louis and Other centers are as low, and lower...
...In Germany there are 10,738,000 workers covered by unemployment insurance...
...6.5 per cent were disabled for from eight to twelve weeks...
...Not since the days of Eugene V. Debs has the theatre housed so large an audience for any political party...
...The Socialists, nevertheless, recognize the possibilities of Congress as a great instrument for social change, when the people begin to send to its halls rien and women representative of the lasting interests of labor, rather than of those who defend the present system of disorder, of insecurity, of gross inequality...
...National action is required to make the system effective...
...The Socialists resent the pauperism of our working men and women...
...Yet, in the states where they are in control, the Democrats did nothing about it...
...The worst sufferers in tbe event of illnesj of the breadwinner are the women and children...
...for Socialism is the chief hope of the world today...
...In 1929, the average worker could do in b'/j hours what it took his predecessor in 1919 to do in 8. Why should not increasing productivity lead to decreased hours of labor 1 6 An amendment to the Constitution giving Congress affirmative power to enact federal system of old age pensions, unemployment, sickness and invalidity insurance, to pass legislation for the abolition of child labor and to enact other laws for the general welfare of the people of the United States...
...The Socialist Party will continue to wage relentless war against indifference towards the millions of aged men and women in the United States who are depending in whole or in part upon charity to live through the declining days of their lives...
...They cannot afford it The average .wage for 36.000,000 wage earners, even la the so-called prosperous years, prior te 1929, was $2117 a week...
...Socialists would seek, if elected, to transfer as speedily as practicable the great monopolistic utilities, natural resources and banking facilities from private to national ownership and efficient, democratic operation...
...By Louis Waldman Society Owes Duty to All Workers In Face of Tragic Unemployment, So-called "Relief ia Pitiful Indeed - Unemployment and Other Social insurance it a Right, Not a Dole—If War Veterans Can be Pensioned Off, Why Not Those Who Build, Not Destroy...
...Just as a persistent and patient campaign by the Socialist .novcment forced the Democratic and Republican parties to d i s c a r d their individualistic Isieses fahre attitude and adopt workmen's compensation laws fee Industrial accidents, just so do we urge the American people te give the Socialists political power te enact adequate laws providing for the security ef the aged, the sick and the unemployed...
...United States are utterly negligible...
...Clearly voluntary unemployment insurance cannot be relied upon...
...The Republican, platform is completely silent en the question, while the Democratic platform makes a weak gesture of favoring insurance by state action...
...The price the community will be called upon to pay for this is incalculable...
...The two old parties are perfectly willing to countenance the pauperization of the American workers through the dole of private or public charity...
...The public local relief agencies are tragically inadequate...
...It is without rudder, adequate leadership or social philosophy...
...Fighting with its back to the wall, against great odds, to maintain rapidly vanishing standards of wages and conditions of unemployment, labor has been eonfronted with an ever-increasing army of unemployed, an army now estimated to be as high as 11,000,000...
...Certainly no family can live on such sum without undermining health, decency and morality...
...The shamefully inadequate allowance to those who are receiving 'relief in New York City shows the |ow standard of living our government is forcing upon the victims of unemployment...
...Had such system been in existence since 1920 an insurance fund would have been built up, by 1929, large enough materially to reduce the disgraceful consequences of the depression and would certainly have prevented the bread lines in our cities...
...The Republican and Democratic leaders consistently shirked the duty of protecting the workers through a Federal system of unemployment insurance...
...It is bewildered by the social drift of the last three terrible years...
...A Social Responsibility The government must see to it that work is supplied to those willing and able to take it, or must by law compel industry and the community to provide for the jobless workers and their families by the enactment of a universal system of unemployment insurance...
...In Germany close to 32,000,000 are insured against invalidism and sickness...
...5. A six-hour day and a fiveday week...
...9. Measures enforcing the civil rights of men and women of all races and nations guaranteed by the first Amendment to the Constitution...
...Socialist Party Demands a Compreheniive System of Social Insurance IN this the third year of the • severest economic depression in the Nation's history, this one fact stands out: there is a complete absence of social legislation to protect the Amercan wage earners from want because of unemployment, or ill health, or old age...
...Waldman devoted a large pert of his speech to the so-called "Swops plan" of the General Bee* trie company, and showed that ne such plan can solve the problems that face the world today...
...Aside from the social deterioration of our people, the governments of city, state and nation will pay for its neglect to the unemployed in increased crime bills, hospital bills, and other institutional charges...
...A state investigation conducted in Ohio found that, even in normal times, the burden of sickness falls with crushing force upon the working people, About twenty per cent of the population were disabled for more than ono week each year...
...An international program for the building up of more wholesome and brotherly relations between nations, including the recognition of Soviet Russia, the stesdy reduction of tariffs, the cancellation of war debts, the stesdy reduction of armaments, with a view of total disarmament, the cessation of all economic Imperialistic ventures abroad, the entrance of the United States into the World Court, snd into the League of Nations under conditions which' would tend to transform the League into a genuine instrument for world peace, snd the building up of economic and political organizations on a world scale...
...I 7. The abolition of the use of federal injunctions in labor disputes...
...The streets outside were black with citizens listening to the speeches through amplifiers...
...John R. liegeman, of .Saratoga, candidate for State Sees tor, presided...
...Unemployment and industrial crisis, however, cannot bo avoided unless the greet n.ass of the nation's workers by hand and brain unite In a mighty effort to build a powerful parly of their own, and through their own representatives in city, state and nation, begin the building of a cooperative order...
...In a recent survey made by the United States Department of Labor, it was found: That 79 unemployment benefits or employment guarantee plans were in existence...
...THOUSANDS GREET WALDMAN AND HOAN AT SCHENECTADY MEET SCHENECTADY.—For the second time in two weeks the large Hudson theatre was jammed to the doors for a Socialist meeting, with hundreds turned away unable to gain admittance...
...The only disquieting feature about it Is that the old political parties reluctantly yielding to public pr ssure for Justice to the good, emasculated the principle and offered sugar-coated poor laws instead...
...1 A 16,000,000,000 public works program, with a view of putting millions to work clearing the slums of the great cities, building decent and beautiful homes for the workers, reforesting our waste lands, constructing needed highways and bridges and tunnels and harbors...
...Private unemployment benefit plans in th...
...It Is estimated that In New York City 450,000 persons are disabled for from four to eight weeks each year and that 140,000 persons are disabled for from eight to twelve weeks a year...
...I 4. Pending a federal system of social insurance, the granting of federal aid to states adopting such systems...
...Socialism Is the Hope of the World By Harry W. Laidler A Socialist conceives of Congress as potentially a far more important body from the standpoint of the workers by hand and brain in this country than it is at present...
...We are happy that this principle is gaining a foot, hold in American public life...
...It must be accomplished by law...
...I agree with many things which Will Rogers says about presentday Congress...
...The amounts doled out to the needy unemployed in Philadelphia, Chicago, St...
...We urge upon the Nation and the several states the adoption of unemployment insurance as a measure of Justice...
...At best they attempt to cover the extreme cases of starvation and distress...
...Disintegration may be averted for a few years by a fascist control of industry and politics or by a ftw temporary palliatives...
...One-fifth were disabled for from four to eight weeks...
...Compensation laws cover disability due to, industrial accidents arising from employment only...
...In England 18,000,000 persons are so insured...
...Immediately they would likewise urge: 1. Adequate federal relief for the unemployed, to the end that no man, woman or child be without sufficient food, clothing and shelter during these tragic times...
...Its representatives are largely afraid to call their souls their own...
...Legislation in behalf of proportional representation and other democratic measures and a further amendment to the Constitution making amendments less cumbersome...
...All other non-industrial accidents and diseases are the hazards of the unfortunate victims who are often compelled to become objects of charity or to suffer real privation...
...Most of what fiere is of disability insurance doe* not cover the great mass of our working I population...
...In line with the principle that it is the function of government to guarantee to its citizens and people security against want, the Socialists have urged and are pressing upon public attention today a program of health and maternity insurance...
...New members are coming in almost daily, attd it is confidently predicted that soon again this city, the old home .of the lata Socialist wisard Charles P. Steinmets, will be a Socialist city...
...Evary day, the local Socialists say, the movement is coming back with greater and greater momentum...
...Of all advanced industrial countries in the world, American labor is least insured against the risks of unemployment...
...In Great Britain and Ireland, 12,000,000 are similarly protected and in all of continental Kurope a total of 47,500,000 wage earners are entitled to receive insurance benefits during periods of unemployment...
...Left In the Cold These unemployed are callously left to shift for themselves by state Democratic administration in this, the wealthiest nation in the world...
...The 40,000,000 wage and salary workers and their families are not protected by private insurance against disabling sickness...
...8. A program of agricultural reconstruction, involving the development of cooperatives, the reorganization of the system of taxation, the creation of a federal marketing agency for the purchase and marketing of agricultural products and other social measures...
...The number of employees potentially affected by these plans 'was about 226,000, but, for reasons noted below the number actually eligible to benefit at the time of the survey (between April and July 1031) considerably less than this number...
...The Workers' Disease A recent study made by Dr...
...and, in France, by an act signed July, 1930, over 9,000,000 persons are likewise insured...
...How pitiable to have considerably less than 226,000 out of 40,000,000 wage earners affected by loosely administrated, so-called unemployment plans...
...In this tssk the Socialist Party urges all to jVn...
...It is a • cardinal Socialist principle that one of the primary functions of government is to guarantee to its people security against want...
...Reports from other parts of the nation show conditions in industrial centers as being equally bad...
...State Industrial Commissioner Frances Perkins, in a recent report shows that there was a further decline in New York State factory employment, and records the sharpest June drop on re ord...
...The 55,000 families receiving relief are averaging about 50 cents a day...
Vol. 14 • October 1932 • No. 15
