The World We lire In
The World We lire In A Socialist View of the Week American Federation of Labor Surveys Wreckage of the Depression Era And Favorable Report on Unemployment Insurance Forecasts Future Work rE...
...Moreover, we take this position because of "practical considerations" a» well as theory...
...the streets—the city streets—ere slippery...
...Here is a great opportunity for Socialist-union cooperation in the coming months...
...In the seven years ending with the crash in 1929 wages and salaries had increased 46 per cent but dividends had increased more than threefold in this period...
...Intelligent Socialist voters cannot he delivered to this or that candidate...
...The N.A.A.C.P...
...Between the two, Socialists have no choke whatever...
...That they are a parasite swarm Socialists concede, but the fusionists would clean them out and rest content with that Down in the cellars of society are the millions" for,Whom the Herald Tribune and the fusionists do not speak and will not speak...
...It will be opposed by the ruling classes and their political agents mere than any other working class demand in our history...
...Not only have they been brutally treated but they have been paid starvation wages and it is estimated justice 'to them will mean about a million dollars a year in wages over a ten-year period...
...ia appealing to organizations willing to help these workers to wire their Senators to support the proposal for an investigation.-Mats meetings will also, he held on December 4 to focus attention on this matter and we hope that the result will be helpful to the Negro workers...
...He ia opposed to any intelligent housing program out of consideration for real estate interests...
...It is an attempt' 'at reformation within the ruling classes and that, ia no concern of the masses...
...Gimme . . . gimme...
...Just as the machine process of displacing workers was followed by approval of old age pensions, so at the recent meeting of the A. F. of L. Council the increasingly grave character of the depression was followed by approval of unemployment insurance...
...PracUfcilly every such reform and fusion Movement in New York City has been!wjlttls same character...
...Now we favor destroying Tammany's grip on the city but we will equally favor the ousting of a fusion administration if it succeeds Tammany...
...That convention worked out a philosophy one section of which opposed social legislation...
...There has been an absolute displacement of workers by machines...
...For years MeKee presided in the Board of Aldermen and went along with the gang...
...the old lady seated on the goods box pleads.., ., It is raining...
...Charles H. Tuttle, Republican and former U. 8. District Attorney, urges the G.O.P...
...A flood of publicity regarding the treatment of these workers will also be helpful to Negro workers in government-financed eater-prises where discrimination now prevails...
...It is astonished that Norman Thomas and Morris Hillquit declare that the Socialist Party will take no part in any fusion movement "to loosen Tammany's grip on the city...
...They would have these millions climb out ef the cellar one day, help the fusionists drive out the fats, and then return to their miserable haunts while Joe MeKee wields the executive power la the interests of the real estate speculators and tils corporate exploiters of the masses...
...Its social, character means-that only a social philosophy is available for its support...
...Tammany rata infest thousands of niches in the city government, and gnaw at the city's revenues...
...last week the State Commission on Old Age Security reported that in New York Stats the older job-seeker is barred from 69 per cent of available jobs and is discriminated against in 89 per cent of them...
...This change Is one to be welcomed and it will mean a fight in many states to get unemployment insurance on the statute books...
...How do these vkwa square with the attitude of Mayor McKee, the latest Mel of the fusion reformers...
...It's my kid's birth - * day," a friend requests . "Give it back tomorrow...
...to substitute a "New Guard" for the "Old Guard" leaders who regard Republican voters as "merchandise on the counter of a political flvs-snd-ten-cent store...
...Here we have people unable to provide for their own ilia who raise cotton to help otter people from freezing this winter...
...While wealth is rapidly concentrating into fewer handB the report estimates that about half the total population of the nation have been thrust below normal living standards, about 60,000,000 human beings being thus affected...
...The alms baga yielded less and less while the needa of the jobless became more acute...
...gimme...
...The period following the 1929 convention has been interesting...
...Dividends even increased in the first year of the depression but wages declined and the disparity between the two categories has continued...
...The City Streets By Waiiam Allen Ward "JJTTTRA" . . , the newsies shout . . . i ¦-* "big murder . . .!" "Buy a pencil," the street vender, Stooped with years, pleaded...
...What is all this but a stir in the royal castle of capital and finance...
...Well, we are not worried...
...They are mainly interested in cheap, government and Tammany does not give It to them...
...Whether the members are aware of it or not, there has been a recasting of the philosophy of the A. F. of I., in these years...
...The Socialist Party voices the claims of those In the social depths while Joe McKee is as responsive to the claims of those ia the upper ranges as a piece of steel is to a magnet, j That fusionists admire this gentleman ia no surprise to as...
...The "self-help" idea was not abandoned, although it cannot be reconciled with social legislation...
...Most of those votes would not be cast for any candidate if there were no Socialist candidate in the field...
...Hey, guy-, where's the army recruiting station...
...Such a struggle should do much to give hope and awaken the fighting spirit In the working masses as a whole...
...The same board has also made 600,000 bales of cotton available for making clothing, and half of the cotton has been traded for ready-made clothing for the destitute...
...Some Hideous Contrasts Of the Capitalist Order AMERICAN capitalism is in some *¦ respects being transformed into a national poor farm...
...to say, fusionists represent a cheap capitalist administration of the city and Tammany represents a costly capitalist administration...
...join the army .. . . buy a paper...
...The delegates were meeting in Toronto in October, 1929, when that period came to a close with a crash...
...That means that party organizations in the various states will have an opportunity to fight with the organized workers in wringing this Important concession from the reaction...
...Its survey of income by classes and groups shows what baa happened In the most powerful capitalist nation in the world...
...The impact upon the Federation and its affiliates in the depression years is evident from a number of facts...
...Meantime the number of the jobless millions increased from year to year and charity was the only resource of the unemployed...
...The loss of members by the affiliated unions is 367,289 compared with the figures of the last convention...
...To the Fusionists THE New York Herald Tribune on Monday pro * vided an excellent text for a Socialist sermon...
...Its labor character must also appeal to millions of workers, organized and unorganized, and awaken in them a desire to obtain this measure from a reluctant and, in some cases, a defiant reaction that will include the conservative press, empty politicians, chambers of commerce and organizations of the employing class...
...Gimme a quarter," the panhandler beg p. "Loan me a buck...
...The Fusionists In Now Jerk City ***VN this page we' pay our respects to v the Herald Tribune which regrets that Socialists will, not Join a fusion crusade in New'York City, but we have not exhausted this theme In the editorial column...
...The Comnf ttea on the Costs of Medical Care that made the survey suggests that without outside financial aid the prospect for the sick in this region ia hopeless...
...V Such is the hmguage of the streets Jn New York, 'Dallas, Denver, Oklahoma City, Anywhere streets run and people travel...
...At the same time Sam Koenig, Republican leader, recommends Mayor McKee sa a fusion candidate next year...
...Move on .. move on," the cop growls...
...Of the 3,072 counties in the United States, flour has been distributed to unfortunates in all but 173, and this is not the end of the distribution of Farm Board wheat...
...I'm hungry i v. gonna join the army...
...Recently he took the shocking position that children should not continue their schooling beyond the age of 14...
...For six years the publicity service of the A. F. of L. was devoted to Stressing this point of view but stark facta facing the delegates at Toronto compelled them to make the marked concession in favor of old age pensions...
...Senator Wagner of New York will introduce a resolution for a full investigation by a Senate committee, but the War Department ia apposed...
...For several years reports had been coming from local unions throughout the country of the displacement of workers by new devices and of workers with a trace of grey in their hair finding it increasingly difficult to get jobs...
...Delivery can be made of unthinking voters of other views and the Herald Tribune makes the mistake of placing Socialists in the same category...
...A fighting note is being struck by quite a number of delegates, but in the buildir.g trades there ia danger of a row over an old jurisdiction issue between the Machinists and Carpenters on the one band and five other unions on the other...
...They would transfer power from the valvar politicians of city capitalism to the "decent" politicians of city capitalism while Socialists would voice the claims of the masses below...
...Cotton was the cash crop in the three counties and the low price or a crop failure leaves whole communities without any money...
...Buy a pap...
...oranges to sell.., loan me a buck...
...The World We lire In A Socialist View of the Week American Federation of Labor Surveys Wreckage of the Depression Era And Favorable Report on Unemployment Insurance Forecasts Future Work rE report of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor ia in many way* the moat interesting oae it has made ia the past-war period...
...gimme...
...What the outcome will be remains to be seen, but a flood of light into this government pest hole wilt be of service to many Negro workers...
...This, we are told, will dishearten those familiar with our "devotion to theory as opposed to practical considerations...
...There may arise differences as to the details in working out this legislation in the states, but the principle is one on which there can be no disagreement between Socialists and the organized working class...
...At the Vancouver convention a year ago sentiment favoring it had mounted high and this year it carries all before it Moreover, for months the old "self-help" philosophy has disappeared from A. F. of L. publicity, ft passes away as a social philosophy cornea to the front in support of social legislation...
...Not fas oar generation has there appeared a mind s« email, so barren of any social vision of the millions vegetating in the lower levels of society...
...Maybe I can get somethln' to eat" So . . .the city streets chattered . . , "Extra...
...Something like this has been happening to workers in general throughout the nation...
...New York Committee of One Thousand is "cordial" to McKee after the latter's speech before the State Chamber of Commerce...
...The first significant evidence of this appeared as the old "prosperity" period was coming to a close...
...In the southern states there is also a "shocking inadequacy of medical care" as a survey of three typical counties in three states reveals...
...These are our practical considerations and We know what we are about An Appeal for Negro Workers WHAT the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People calls the "most critical stage of the fight against vicious exploitation of Negroes on the federal-financed Mississippi Flood Control Project ia at band" when Congress meets en December 5. A few months ago the revolting exploitation of Negro workers in this enterprise get into the headlines and then waa some squirming in Washington...
...Meetings will have to be held, publicity issued, literature printed and constant pressure be employed to get this proposal seriously considered by the various legislatures...
...Simultaneously with the crash of "prosperity" the convention approved old age pension legislation with but one dissenting vote...
...That is...
...Many of them depend upon, that wheat and cotton raised In stricken agricultural regions...
...We are warned that if we follow this course our vote is likely to slump to the 40,000 polled in 1925...
...As between the silk ' stocking and ' the blackleg, Socialists have no choice...
...Big property owners and conservative politicians are aroused over Tammany's misdeeds, although there has not been a jangle accusation that Tammany in any way is opposed, to their big-property philosophy...
...It does not occur to the Herald Tribune that if we support a fusion candidate, Instead of having even that minimum of 40,000 Socialist votes we will have none at all...
...Our practical aim ia to win the city for the Working masses and if a program having thla bask aim were presented to the fusion forces the latter pould accept Tammany rather than accept that program...
...A young fellow from the North Dakota wheat fields asks...
...It is such hideous contrasts that reveal bow serious the breakdown is...
...We are opposed to both...
...The Young Men's Board of Trade ia backing McKee, and William J. Schieffelin of the Citizens Union appreciates McKee's address and hopes that the Chamber of Commerce will get back of him...
...He participated In the notorious salary grab sad pocketed his share...
...The machine revolution, the Wall Street crash, and the support of old age pensions signalized the beginning of the end of a union phi'-sophy that had been stressed since the Portland convention of 1923...
...buy a pencil...
...Self-help" through union organization and cooperation with the managers of industry were relied upon to solve the problems of the workers...
Vol. 14 • November 1932 • No. 22
