Timely Topics
THOMAS, NORMAN
By Norman Thomas TIMELY TOPICS Every week Normen Thomas writes in his pungent style his own comments upon the salient events of the moment. Towards State Cepitelum EVERY thoughtful person...
...PLACE AN ORDER TODAY FOR A WEEKLY BUNDLE OF YOUR' PAPER...
...Empty Slogans IT is of nstionsl interest that some progress toward effective organization of workers for adequate unemployment relief has been made in New York...
...Even that will illustrate to labor the importance of getting the right sort of a President or, still better, the outstanding importance to the workers of capturing political power...
...Alton Lawrence, Chapel Hill, was elected secretory...
...While some units of these Communist unemployed organizations marched peacefully enough in the parade, at the end of a day of great progress the Communists gave the newspapers a new chance to talk about the' strife between the workers by insisting upon trying to force one of their own speakers upon the stand set up by the cooperating organizations...
...They got e hearing but little more...
...Other members of the state executive committee will be Haynes W.lloughby, N. I. White, Mrs...
...When the ballots were printed, three days before election day, it was found that the two non-partisan candidates were listed in one column with the instruction: Vote for One, and Walker pas listed in a separate column Slso headed by the instruction: |/ote for One...
...Another point of importance is this: While the licensing provision does give the President enormous power over industry, it is probably a necessary power...
...from 4:30 to 4:46 p.m...
...It was then learned that, accord teg to an old and forgotten municipal statute...
...Stagner and Vernon took the matter to court and obtained a hearing two' days later...
...WEVD NEW LEADER SPEAKER James Oneal, editor of The New Leader, will be the speaker of The New Leader period of Station WEVD, Friday, Jane 16...
...Ths other two candidates, so-called non partisans, received 9,160 sad 6,666 Votes...
...If for, let us say, a six months' period all working class organizations should direct their main fire at the common enemy...
...Frank's lectures Sunday afternoons at the Harlem headquarters are drawing big crowds...
...North Caroline Builds Party Organization CHAPEL HILL, N. C —One mors step toward ths reorganisation of the Socialist Party in the South wss taken recently when a convention formally organized the party In North Carolina...
...But the total amount available for relief Is only about a third of the minimum requirements ' for subsistence on the basis of figures laid down by the relief authorities themselves...
...I helped to organize it and only suggested that the delegates go back to their work when our task had been successfully accomplished at the hotel...
...W. C. Couch will be chairman...
...DO YOU WANT TO INCREASE THE SOCIALIST PARTY VOTE AND MEMBERSHIP...
...The second, and ultimately far more vital struggle, will be to see that those clauses* are used intelligently by an aggressive and well organized body of workers...
...Walker ran a close third in the primary and was apparently out of the race...
...Wealth is better able to escape income taxation in New York State than in the nation, and what can be done in the nation the House of Morgan has abundantly proved...
...This discovery was made on the last day lor the filing of such petitions...
...Unemployed Victims of Injustice TP HE greatest victims of injustice in the name of * economy are not the veterans nor the taxpayers, however legitimate are some of their grievances...
...Behind these election figures is Se interesting story of the fight made by Madison Socialists to get their candidate placed before ths yoters The State primary law provides that only the two highest tames be placed on the ballot...
...Walker could get a place on the ballot if he handed in e petition with 800 names...
...Madison Socialists Thwart Legal Barriers And Poll Heavy Vote MADISON, Wis.—Evidence of the raordinary advance of Socialism Wisconsin outside Milwaukee pas provided in the returns of the faceni municipal elections in Madiera, the capital of ths state, the Seat of the University of Wisconsin (ad stronghold of La Folletteism...
...Ostensibly to give the unemployed the pitiably inadequate, relief that tee city extends, outrageously burdensome taxes hare been levied on automobiles and bridge tolls...
...No racial discrimination trill be tolerated within the Socialist Party...
...They are the unemployed...
...Unquestionably, in these matters the Communists hsve taken the lead...
...No one can overestimate the anguish and misery that is piling up...
...Great objection was made by the Socialists and finally the 43,000 ballots were destroyed snd new ones printed...
...The exact contrary is the esse...
...It was obvious thst many who would vote for Walker would slso vote for one of the non-partisans and thus void their ballots...
...On the other hand, collective bargaining and other rights guaranteed to labor have genuine value...
...Nevertheless the labor clauses of the bill as introduced into Congress rightly used will give the workers an enormously powerful weapon for progress toward genuine Socialism...
...That is to say, if this licensing provision is stricken'out all that will remain wilf.be, first, a temporary modification of anti-trust laws without any adequate recompense to the workers or the public, and, second, a lot of pious good wishes for the wellbeing of labor...
...Frank Crosswaith calls my attention to the fact that a Negro demonstration under Communist auspices in Harlem was turned mostly into an attack on Socialism...
...It would be absurd to expect a Democratic administration to advance toward outright Socialism...
...But the first Milwaukee election following the passage of this law resulted in a tremendous gain for the Socialists whose strength has been increasing ever since...
...Workers, however, who may be carried away by the Communist slogan of the "united front" ought to know thst the Communist-controlled unemployed organisation wss invited to join in a united demonstration on the sole conditions that no political banners or placards should be displayed...
...I refer to these matters—and I might give far worse illustrations—because we ought to understand thst no matter how much our differences may play into the hsnds of our enemies, we csnnot find any way to surmount those difficulties until st the very least we stop campaigns of slander and falsehood...
...It refused to come in...
...It is the licensing clause that puts teeth in the bill...
...Within a few hours, 1,200 persons had Signed the petition...
...The Tammany dictatorship brazenly blunders on...
...The federal government, the state government, the city and county government united have scarcely done more than to grant enough relief so that the unemployed do not em1 barrass the comfortable by dying of starvation In city streets...
...The wrong President may do the wrong thing...
...Of a total mayoralty rote of 21,fD5, the Socialist candidate, Theo lore Walker, polled 6,069...
...Comrades Ross Stagner snd Leo Vernon, campaign managers, rushed to the City Clerk's office and, titer resisting attempts of the politicians to put them off, obtained the necessary petition forms...
...Norman Thomas polled 1,726 Totes in the entire county in November...
...It welcomes the Negro into its ri nka where, with his white comrade, he may work in the common cause of the cooperative society...
...Towards State Cepitelum EVERY thoughtful person recognises that the elaborate Industrial Control Bill is a long step toward state capitalism and not toward Socialism...
...After this victory, another obstacle was set up...
...DO YOU WANT TO INCREASE THE INTEREST IN SOCIALISM...
...S. Payne, Robert Y. Durand, C. H. Hamlin, George W. Streator and E. E. Ericson...
...In this sorry mess it is not primarily the Socialist Party or the Communist Party that suffers but the whole cause of the workers...
...Hy reference to Frank Crosswaith reminds me to add a sort of postscript to this paragraph for New Yorkers...
...This kind of blundering Tammany dictatorship will go on and its equivalent in other cities will go on until the workers are effectively organised...
...The first fight is to prevent the weakening of that part of the Industrial Control Bill which is important to labor...
...If, on the other hand, those labor provisions should be weakened by the revolt now on in the United States Senate the bill would set up a servile state, neither more nor less...
...There is no chance for us in the atmosphere of suspicion and recrimination...
...They are worth support...
...William M.Feigenbaam speaks Kr ids v. June 9th, at the same Urns...
...if even on vital questions of tactics snd organizations where they were obliged to differ they would fight out the issue on principle and not on personalities and slanders, we might suddenly find ourselves in an atmosphere where an honest, lawfully worked out and effective, united front on specific issues could be had...
...When the devil is not sick he soon ceases to be a monk...
...The City Clerk, however, still insisted that Walker's name could not go on the ballot...
...The city could raise all that is aseds (1) by reasonable seoeomies la soft jobs for fat boys, and (8) by getting the State Legislature to impose in its behalf extra taxes on stock transfers, which means in large measure on plain gambling, and by blocking holes in the income taxes of New York and raising the surtaxes in the higher brackets...
...New York is by no means the worst city...
...DO YOU WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHAT THE SOCIALIST PARTY PLANS TO DO IN THE COMING CAMPAIGN...
...Vhe judge's decision was, in effect, that he could not see sny objection So having Walker's name on the ballot: if the people did not want him, they did not have to vote for him...
...The listing of municipal candidates as "non-partsians" was put across in a State law enacted twenty years ago in an attempt to break the power of the Socialists in Milwaukee...
...SELL THE NEW LEADER AT ALL YOUR MEETINGS...
...The party therefore most emphatically condemns the capitalist practice of dividing the working class against itself on the issue of race...
...The Socialist Party," according to the Declaration of Principles adopted, "recognises the division of society into two classes only, the exploited and the exploiters...
...Walker ran on a straight Socialist platform and made his Shief issue the municipal ownership fend operation of utilities in MadiSoa...
...It is absurd to believe that the mere goodwill of employers will make this law of any appreciable benefit to the workers, especially if temporarily business picks up...
...The tale was impressively told to the Board of Estimate the other day when three unemployed i organizations united their forces to present their . case and were supported in it by the representatives of the Socialist Party, the City Affairs Committee, and by s hundred leading clergymen end axial service workers...
...Among other things, the absurd lie was again circulated to the effect that I broke up a rank and file picketing of the Hotel Cairo at the Continental Congress in Washington in behalf of the rights of colored citizens...
Vol. 15 • June 1933 • No. 23
