Now the Bosses Want Shorter Hours
Now the Bosses Want Shorter Hours They No Longer Worry What "Hands" Will Do With Time But They Want to Haw Wages Cat to Suit the Shorter Working Week By WILLIAM TL FEIGENBAUM Thirteen...
...Alderman -Paul Gauer, also a Socialist, refused to make the trip* for the same reason...
...The Mayor turned''down tin City Council's offer to pay-his expenses If he would go to Los Angeles for the forthcoming meeting of the American Association of Port Authorities...
...months...
...McPartland: "Go to the municipal lodging house...
...But capitalism is concerned about one thing alone—to safeguard its profits...
...It was not so long ago that spokesmen In Congress of the Southern cotton mill owners sang the praises of the mill system as a means of getting children off .the streets and out of mischief into the wholesome mills, where they could profitably employ their time...
...Indeed I will not take my six children to the dirty flophouse...
...a woman screamed...
...May he never get up...
...Maybe you were not afraid of the black-andtans, but we'll make you scared of us...
...This inevitably leads to the question whether the remedy does not lie in a further general reduction tn hours of work...
...Workers Of the World, Unite!' Is a slogan to be heeded now more than ever before,", Thomas declared...
...It all comes down to the fundamental lesson, the ABC's of Socialist teachings...
...Private ownership will be | protected, the profit system left | intact and the workers kept drunk . on the heady wine of nationalism...
...Closing their eyes to the gaudy escapades of their awn sons and daughters it is possible they honestly (believed that leisure was a bad thing for working people...
...Next day It was raised to felonious assault...
...The spokesmen and apologists for the exploiters did not quite have the impudence to proclaim that their object was to squeeze all possible vitality from the workers, and so they had to rationalize...
...There was a scuffle...
...I will not," Mrs...
...McPartland said...
...Hoan Scorns California i MILWAUKEE...
...Irish bums," Irish police called the prisoners, black-jacking them In the patrol wagon...
...In the failure of the Republican and Democratic parties to meet the elementary needs of the people there is plenty of ground for political revolt...
...spired by ideals of economic equality and Industrial rights...
...Capitalism is seeking some way out, and finds it in an attempt to spread necessary work over a larger number of workers—with a consequent spread of money paid in wages...
...The presentation of Norman Thomas' name as candidate for president on the Liberty party ticket was unauthorised," Senior said...
...There Is a change, now that there are so many workers operating on a no-hour working week...
...Just as we regard employment conditions of half a century ago," the article concludes, "as servitude because they gave the individual practically no time for himself or his family, so we may eventually credit 1932 as the year that marked a new realization of the possibilities of reducing working time and increasing leisure, to the gain of humanity...
...Liberty Party' Just Another False Alarm Socialist Party Repudiates Kind Offer of Fusion With Monetary Reformers CHICAGO...
...Their bodies streaked with vivid blue welts, tbelr ribs aching, they met Capt...
...k'' The four—Hugh McKlernan, John Mullally, John Rooney and Martin Morlarty—had tried to save a home from being wrecked by dispossess process...
...It Is Inconsistent and unintelligent for workers to belong to unions from which bosses are barred and then to Join the Republican and Democrat parties which are owned and* controlled by the bosses, "Why did Congress saddle the workers of the country with the ill-dlsguised sales taxes under which they are now burdened...
...Daniel W. Hoan, Milwaukee's Socialist Mayor, said this week he win not set foot upon soil of California as long as Tom Mooney and Warren K. Billings are kept in prison there...
...Sure, hadn't he come from Scull la the County Cork himself...
...Denial that the Socialist party ia included in the fusion which resulted In the formation of a new "Liberty Party" in Kansas City this week was made today by Clarence Senior, Socialist Party national secretary and manager of the Socialist national campaign, Senior said he spoke for Norman Thomas, Socialist candidate for president, as well as-for the Socialist national campaign committee In repudiating the reported fusion into the "Liberty party...
...The reported Inclusion of the Socialists In the fusion is therefore false...
...i| it way the logic of •vents that caused them once tc Justify an Intolerably long work ing weak, now It is again Um logic of events' that ia causing them to advocate a shorter working week...
...The 84-hour week was good for them for it kept them out of mischief...
...Now when the workers begin to learn something, when the workers begin to see that the point of attack Is the very existence of the profit system, we will begin to be getting somewhere...
...and Morlarty—that a Kerry name, yes...
...All the reasons but one," says the writer, "which can be advanced against a shorter week can be satisfactorily answered...
...The leading article, preceding the Teagle statement, Is entitled, "Divide the Work," and it begins, "Forty-five years ago the United States Commissioner ol Labor wrote into his annual report the opinion that the world was suffering from overproduction, due to the introduction of machinery and that, accordingly, it was almost futile to expect much further progress or prosperity...
...Irish Lads Facing Jail One had fought ia New York's Fighting 69th Regiment to the World War...
...The charge was disorderly conduct...
...newspapers with a combined circulation of over 700,000...
...The Socialist party was not represented at the Kansas City conference...
...This one reason is the uncertainty as to its general acceptance by all employers within competitive groups...
...The progress lsvlsm of the much-publicized progressives is nothing more than a desire to salvage what little can now be salvaged from the wreckage of the capitalist system, to return the country to the days of almost complete Individualism and Thomas Jefferson's one-horse shay when machinery rules the world and cries 'Cooperate, cooperate.' "The political party ef the workers and the union of, the workers have separate and distinct functions...
...And now many members of the exploiting class'are advocating a shorter working week, for the working people...
...We'll send a truck for the furniture...
...And Catholic Charities' officials advised Mrs...
...it makes it possible for more people to have money to spend, and moat important of all—from the standpoint of the employing class—It tends to-remove the danger of a growing protest against present conditions, a dangerous questioning of the wisdom of the capitalist system...
...Nothing is the matter with the present industrial arrangement EXCEPT THE PROFIT SYSTEM...
...Hosiery Workers Cheer Thomas...
...Labor must fight on both the economic and political fronts to ' protect its existence—to substlI tute for a world ruled by dictators, a world of democracy In...
...one was an unemployed railroader and the other a librarian...
...Those arc the persons who contribute to the campaign funds of the old parties...
...The Lakes of Klllarney . . . " Not tough, merely workers— they face possible long terms In prison...
...Caffrey of the detective squad...
...and outstanding national leadership, In the person of Norman Thomas and James H. Maurer, flanked by local leadership of similar quality...
...He believed In giving fellow Irishmen a break...
...In Bronx County Court, alongside gunmen, rapists and thieves, they pleaded not guilty to charges of felonious assault...
...Divll a bit loss is that...
...It is possible that heads of families whose younger members employed their time seeking ways of wasting their time in the most spectacular possible way were sincere about it...
...S.wamp Motion to Endorse Foster (Hy (i Neio Leader Correspondent) PHILADELPHIA...
...While the Socialist party welcomes all forward-looking citizens to rally around its candidates and Its platform," Senior added, "we can see no use in fostering the growth of fly-by-night 'Liberty parties' or any other of the 26 varieties of 'third parties' which have come out of the ground In the last few...
...Try to Prevent Eviction...
...over five million pieces of literature sent out from national headquarters alone in 1931...
...Labor that fights only on the industrial front fights like a cripple...
...Because Congress is particularly tender to persons having Incomes of $10,000 or more...
...The nature of the work required 24 hours a day at the blazing furnaces, and what with changes from the day shift to the night shift every two weeks half the workers were required to put in a 24-hour day once a month...
...Teagle,, establishing the five-day week In his company- (with corresponding reductions in pay—but why bring that up...
...It was flung into ttia faces of Socialists and labor agitators seeking a modification of the greed of capitalism...
...As a basis for this movement, the Socialist party offers a steadily mounting membership trained and experienced In political, organisation and1 educational work...
...This Standard Oil statement is significant o* ' a new trend., Jfc states the case accurately—capitalism realizes that the "rugged individualism" of the old laissezfaire system Is a complete and absolute failure...
...Bhat argument was always the chief stumbling block when reformers and humanitarians sought to Improve conditions by lightening the burdens of those who did the work ol the world...
...To think of taking the Republican or Democratic parties away from Wall Street and RaskoD U. to act "like the mice who wished to bell the cat but got no further...
...Before Thomas appeared a Communist delegate proposed a motion endorsing the candidacy of Foster and Ford...
...The polis'man's under the bed...
...But what becomes of the concern over what the people will do with their spare time...
...or even considering the dreadful work, a sixhour day with four shifts, they always had a pat answer...
...It happens that it is today profitable to have a shorter working weak...
...Then the writer says, 'There are about 8,000,000 unemployed in this country...
...An Old Story Rationalising the results of the cold-blooded greed of capitalism Into pretended philanthropy is an old story...
...It will be a sorry day for American Labor when the Gerard ' Swope type of stabillsatl.u Is ef1 fected...
...A New Policy The article, it happens, introduces a manifesto by Mr...
...No employer can operate Indefinitely on shorter hours per individual if a competitor Insists upon retaining the customary schedule of working time at a resulting lower unit of labor cost...
...Tinkering with currency and espousal of unmeasured Inflation will serve only to divert Interest from the major Issue of restoring not only government but also industry to the people...
...Carefully measuring out calories of relief for some of its unemployed, the city had nothing for the evicted McPartland family...
...They would get drunk, they would carouse, they would injure themselves...
...That answer was made in perfect good faith, according to the light of those who made it...
...now . they're talking about "increasing leisure, to the gain of humanity...
...Now the Bosses Want Shorter Hours They No Longer Worry What "Hands" Will Do With Time But They Want to Haw Wages Cat to Suit the Shorter Working Week By WILLIAM TL FEIGENBAUM Thirteen years ago the desperate strike of the slaves of the United States Steel Corporation called attention to horrible conditions in the Pittsburgh steel mills...
...In the first case It wai unbridled greed, in the latter it is a dreadful fear, plus their greed There is before us at the moment a copy of "The Lamp,' house organ of the Standard 01 Company of New Jersey, its current issue carrying a statement signed by Walter C. Teagle, president...
...one had been a building trades laborer till crippled at work three years ago...
...Neighbors, with members of a' nearby Irish organisation who were meeting nearby, returned the furniture to the house...
...McKlernan— from Leltrim . . . dear old Lei trim...
...An Old Prediction "When a man makes a prediction he should n ver forget the 'if.' This the commissioner did...
...Let no one believe the possibility is remote or fantastic...
...The motion was defeated, two delegates voting In its favor...
...someone shouted...
...What would the Hunks and Polaks do with their spare time...
...once a month they were given the glorious privilege of 24 hours off...
...You fellows don't look tough either," said this stout, cheerful man who might have been a benevolent parish priest talking to his erring flock...
...over 1,000 local organizations with regular meetings and literature distribution...
...Why are not Inheritance*and Income taxes higher...
...In that case what would have happened to the public's purchasing power...
...Wildly cheered by the delegates and visitors to the biennial convention of the American Federation ol Full-Fashioned Hosiery Workers in this city, Norman Thomas, Socialist presidential candidate, embraced the opportunity of warning the workers that if they did not unite politically in their own party America was In grave danger of some sort of Fascism...
...That is precisely the argument that was made at the very beginning of the factory system, when humanitarians were shocked at the employment of men, women and children 12, 15 and often 18 hours a day, argument always made In opposition to attempts to lighten" the burdens of the workers...
...What would the workers do with their spare time...
...Nevertheless, the Socialist party believes that what is needed is a cohesive party of the workers and farmers on a platform of thorough-going economic reorganization which will transfer the nation's Industry and resources to the producing masses...
...Capitalism Is slowly learning something...
...There were many evil things there, but possibly the worst single evil was the 12-hour day and, sevenday week...
...When the bosses were asksd why it would not be possible to have an eight-hour day, with three shifts a day...
...The furniture sprawled on the sidewalk...
...Organization on the political and industrial fronts is the only possible preventative to the establishment of Fascism In this country...
...They must not sad cannot dictate to each other but they must have a common understanding, a common philosophy and a common goal—Social ownership of the world's wealth sad production for use instead ef profit...
...And while the cases were pending in magistrate's court the men were indicted by grand Jury...
...The next forty years proved that he would have been absolutely right in his statement had he'added to it, "unless the hours of labor be shortened.'" The article goes on, "Suppose that the twelve-hour day of the 'eighties had continued in force along with the development of new machines, the Increase in unit capacity and development of other factors all multiplying man's productive activities . . . the manufacturing industries of the United States would have employed only about 60 per cent of the numbei actually employed in the year 1928 to produce the products of that year...
Vol. 14 • July 1932 • No. 3
