Socialists Give Soukup Warm Welcome in U. S
Socialists Give Soukup Warm Welcome in U. S fXR. FRANZ SOUKUP, president " of the Senate of Czechoslovakia and member of the Bureau of the Labor and Socialist later-national, who arrived ia...
...Of course, that process cannot work smoothly or with perfect justice any more than the deflationary process worked smoothly and with justice...
...Much that extreme advocates of in-nation wsnt to accomplish could have been far better accomplished by paying off debts through a capita] levy and, I may add, by socialization of banking and credit...
...Next to Persideot Masaryk he is Use most popular man fox the Czechoslovak Republic, and is loved by every section of its polyglot population...
...It is even harder to work for an inflation of the price level at home and stabilisation of the value of the dollar abroad...
...What has happened with regard to the London Conference is that originally Mr, Roosevelt never intended to go as far toward a planned economic nationalism as he has gone in the Farm Relief Bill and the Industrial Control law...
...FRANZ SOUKUP, president " of the Senate of Czechoslovakia and member of the Bureau of the Labor and Socialist later-national, who arrived ia this country for a lecture tow oa the Berengarta, was greeted at the pier by a committee who welcomed him oa behalf ef the Socialist Party and who entertained aba antil it was time for him to leave the city...
...It ia between nationalist state capitalism with some concessions to labor and a rather vague type of capitalist inter, nationalism...
...Neither inflation nor deflation is essentially Socialist...
...So far he has gone at the business slowly...
...Jose A. Brouwer has been named general secretary, and Jose A. Mendieta is secretary for organization work...
...Inflation Is Not Socialism THIS brings us to the difficult problem of inflation...
...To a Socialist a stock market boom in a land of the unemployed ia no sign of true prosperity...
...Panama Socialists Organize PANAMA.—Socialists in the Republic of Panama have formed a temporary organization, after severs...
...Presidential "Economy" ^ IF the government is to preach with any sincerity * and power tha gospel of high wages to employers it must practice what it preaches...
...Particular victims of these cuts were the substitute postal clerks...
...To support or even to appear to support such tactics will prove almost fatal to any sound and truly revolutionary leadership of the Socialist Party in the great business of building the Cooperative Commonwealth...
...The first con-dition is that it should be controlled so that at the outside limit it will not do more than to bring back the price level of 1926...
...Wk 4Gp4 ? Nevertheless dual unions, I B/^sf^ T with all the miserable /a ibbC J fighting between each / ^| Jf • other that they encourage, \ ^^^kfes/t may be better than no \ \^^TsSs_ 'unions or the wrong sort \ \ ^¦K">k of unions...
...in October of that year he was one of the moving spirits of the revolution and one of the Directory of five men who proclaimed the Republic of Czechoslovakia...
...A police department may be appealed to to protect the rights of citizens...
...Surely it is not very honest to compel debtors to pay back debts in dollars that purchase a great deal more than when the debts were incurred...
...frmmt Soukup mian Singing Societies, after which be is scheduled to leave for Cleveland, to return in time for the annual Chicago party picnic in PUsen Park, July 2. Soukup'* presence in the United States is particularly significant, since the Social Democracy of his country is the bulwark of Central European labor against Fascism, and especially since the German Socialist Party has moved its head quarters to Prague to carry on its work for the overthrow of Hitlerism...
...Moley, head of the "Brain Trust" and Assistant Secretary of State, is going to rush over to London to set his nominal chief, Secretary Hull, right No wonder foreigners complain...
...Comrade Soukap, who is 62 years old...
...Unfortunately to say this is not unnecessary...
...Basle, 1912...
...On three conditions it might do more good than harm...
...Son of the working class, he educated himself by his own efforts, studying in Prague, Grata and Vienna and securing a law degree in his native city...
...years of preliminary work...
...That is different from using either an injunction or the police in internecine disputes between workers...
...But that program looks in the direction of them more then anything he said during the campaign...
...Both are old-time capitalist devices...
...Nothing is dearer than that inflation or in fact any change, however good of itself it may seem to be, In the money system cannot of itself bring about true prosperity in a world still managed in order to provide profits for absentee owners...
...Some aspects of that longstanding problem in proper organization are being investigated by a Party committee...
...Nevertheless I am of the opinion that in our American capitalist society some degree of inflation is inevitable...
...A. F. of L.—were never ^B^k 0 j more evident than now...
...If workers don't organise their own unions, _^ aams^sssssasi and industrial unions at IE " that company unions ^r^^^^y under the law will acquire KJ a status of respectability '. . A and even necessity...
...Forty years ago he joined the Socialist movement, and thirty-five years ago he became editor of Prat* Lid* (The People's Rights), a post be still holds...
...First the President and his Secretary of State announced in effect that they pinned all their hopes to it...
...Of course, as a Socialist I have no love for a Communist-controlled union, especially in view of some of the past history of the leadership...
...Ho has begun by trying to restore confidence and increase credit rather than to print money...
...Now Mr...
...The B* advantages of one strong Awfe at...
...The third condition, which is slmost a sub-division of the second, is that wages should be forced up as fast, or rather faster, than the price level...
...It also means that he should reconsider some of his salary cuts to government employees...
...is one of the bestdoved and most trusted Socialist la Europe...
...Ia the first revolutionary cabinet he was Minister of Justice...
...I am suspicious of any use of injunctions by labor in labor disputes...
...These men, who have to serve as substitutes from three to seven or even from three to ten years before they get a regular position, have been cut 15 per cent although in New York City a large number of them are averaging only about $6 a week...
...And this I aay with full knowledge of the evils inherent in any competitive depreciation of cur-rency and in full hope that international stabilization may soon be possible...
...Hamburg, 1923...
...Both the law and life ' I itself compel the unions Norssaa Tanas aa to sit down with the bosses and reach some sort of agreement That is one thing...
...Whether what happens next will be good or had will largely depend upon labor...
...Moley Flies to London AMERICA'S reputation abroad has not been ** helped by the extraordinary policy of the Roosevelt administration with regard to the London Economic Conference...
...We want the \ Y^Hh right sort of unions in * one federation...
...On the whole, I am reluctantly coming to the opinion that the governments represented at London are not in a state of mind, and that conditions have not reached the point where a very genuine and satisfactory economic internationalism can be worked out In particular I doubt if at this stage of the game the dollar can be successfully stabilized in international markets with the consequent effect of stopping the present rise in prices at home...
...It would seem as if in the party of 'Gene Debs and Meyer London to make such statements would be obvious and wholly unnecessary...
...In 1912 his native Prague elected him to the Austrian Reichsrath, where be sat antil 1918...
...The second condition is that inflation should be directed primarily to an increase of spending power of the masses, particularly of the unemployed...
...In this conflict it is almost inevitable that temporarily at least economic nationalism will win...
...But there is s pretty strong case for using them defensively against employers...
...E _', nrday night 1_ 1 |f_fl F«H be is to at- W~''~.I tend a per- I Wd formance of I I—-'' "The Bar- I W ¦ tered Bride" ¦ . I^afl , 1 given by the I' ¦ ' — | United Bo be- r...
...Stuttgart, 1907...
...Where should we stand in the matter of nationalism or internationalism at this juncture...
...Marseilles, 1925, Brussels, 1928, and Vienna, 1931...
...Comrade Soukup was a member of the executive of the Second International, and has been a delegate to every International Socialist Congress since 1904: Amsterdam, 1904...
...How should we stand on the question of inflation T If the alternative were nationalism, either capitalist or even Socialist, and Socialist internationalism, no true Socialist could hesitate...
...In 1920 be was elected to the Senate and tea years later President of the Senate...
...Thst means not only that the President should reyise drastically his cuts in benefits to disabled veterans...
...Sat- IV...
...Indeed, no man of sense can doubt that both peace sad prosperity 2 be very inreeerioea ea the basis of lugh-presa^ aathnaBna ¦ *tw"1*1" *¦ aa int*rdepen«W world where aa aattca is genuinely aalf-dependent Alas, the present choice b not between nationaliam and Socialist internationalism...
...I refer to the situation in the fur industry...
...Whatever happens will be a happening under capitalism and for which capitalism is responsible...
...The delegation apparently assented, or almost assented, to a stabilization of the dollar, which was at once repudiated in Washington...
...Some capitalist later-nationalism is more obviously in the interest of holders of foreign investments than of workers...
...Upon leaving New York, Comrade Soukup took a train for Chicago, where be was welcomed by a committee of the Socialist Party, Olga Baranek, editor of SpravdJnort, Socialist daily ia the Bohemian language, who boarded the train at _____________ Gary, Ind., |H and a Lsry HBE^Mf, jjjjB crowd of So- ftm\\\W*\w^*wfl*Bt\ cialista who ^H_, \ • V JmanLl greeted him 1 at the Union ¦ ¦ Station...
...It is all the more necessary therefore to make it plain that as Socialists we do not endorse the use of an injunction, nominally brought against employers but not fought by them, to compel workers who have not been won otherwise to come into the right wing union...
...Some of the things advocated in the name of that capitalist internationalism, especially now that Hitler is in power, might well give us a stake in preserving the status quo which would he aa open door to war...
...Let me repest what I have said scores of times...
...It is, however probably a little more honest and more socially useful to work back to a level at which a great many of the outstanding debts were incurred than to stay where we are...
...For union officials, however, to use police, injunctions, or government pull to organize unions that they cannot organize otherwise is another and much worse thing...
...Copenhagen, 1910...
...It's pretty hard to fix domestic prices and at the same time lower tariffs...
...I do not think that these three conditions are perfectly met in the Roosevelt program...
...federation of unions—the ¦ B^sTst...
...Then the President sent to it a mediocre delegation which did not agree within itself...
...They have formed an organisation and are making a vigorous fight worthy of all support against such, outrageous cuts...
...r- ¦-By Norman Thomas TIMELY TOPICS Every week Hotwamn Tbxmxaa writes hi The Unions and the Control Law THE Industrial Control law is getting away to as good a start aa could reasonably be exported...
...And that raises the problem for Socialists...
...A Socialist world order would want a stable medium of exchange...
Vol. 15 • June 1933 • No. 25
