43 Newly Elected Democrats Follow the Socialist Lead
McDowell, Arthur G.
By Arthur a McDowell 43 Newly Elected Democrats Follow the Socialist Lead Pennsylvania Party Bo*ees Haven't Control of Them Yet—Representative* Hoopes and Wilton Fight for Cash...
...Of course, no wages were involved...
...I certainly do," said Bill, "but we as workers want to know what ia to replace Tammany Hall...
...Is that intelligent action for us...
...The course you advise is based on that lack of confidence...
...Hoopes Fights Hoopes aggressively maintained his claim to the floor and the motion which was aimed to choke off discussion was delayed...
...7-J VOU probably never heard of I 1 J. Webb Richman, and that' is nardly surprising...
...the people ashed...
...I That was because...
...Don't get ugly, Bill, or I'll settle accounts right her...
...But he got the platform ready and saw to it that there was a glass of water for the speaker...
...Is that your idea of what the working class should do...
...Applesauce," he replied...
...i under his ¦ of names...
...Which he did by casually announcing, "Here's where I make Mussolini a second Hitler...
...There was no time for anything but the work of the pary...
...More years passed...
...Yellow-Dog Contracts A bill to outlaw the "Yellow Dog" contract has again been introduced in the Pennsylvania General Assembly by Socialist Representative Darlington Hoopes...
...Germany was considered guilty of starting the war...
...He was one of the quietest men we ever knew, one of the best listeners...
...P of coffee, while Webb the Union elopes and letters were ¦lists estabwith W. J. Copelin as editors, and co-workers including Wm...
...Don't you favor that...
...More and more work was imposed on those who remained loyal...
...Only a few Socialists remained on guard...
...This will not be the first time a nation has been ruled from a madhouse...
...Hitler's first step was to plan a "putsch" with General Ludendorf in a beer cellar...
...Richman was a delegate to the national convention of the party in Detroit in 1921, and so far as we can recall that was the only time he reached the national arena And even in that convention— which made decisions of farreaching importance—he was content to sit quietly and listen rather than take the floor in debate...
...What kind of nutb...
...Hitler, mortified with embarrassment, looked up Freud for guidance and learned that it was up to him to conceal his feelings by assuming an air of nonchalance...
...You admit that you will have to settle accounts with the conservatives even if Tammany is displaced...
...The war was fought to make the world safe for democracy—safe in the North Pole, the Sahara Desert and 20 leagues under the sea...
...Webb was too modest to consider writing articles, but he knew there was a job to be done, and he did it...
...WThey K which •a lot of ¦MadHn...
...For outside of those who came into close association with him in the Socialist Party and in his union, very few people knew more of him than his name, and not so many people even knew his name...
...The thing flopped because the General tarried too long at the free lunch counter...
...W. M. F. News from ther Nuthouse ADOLF (HANDSOME) HITLER is the new Chancellor of Germany...
...Webb Richman was one of them...
...1 Young aid many to W drew up I advised ft turnips aa America H But ih* organized their own fused t» I in-Amerist ixng to win * through » war and *» thr Aiby way of *•* seme »>rals who settles, atlemen of tt *ax, an *an> losses ¦^overtime Jwd...
...He continued his plea while two Republican prominent leaders, Turner of Delaware and Witkin of Philadelphia, attempted to close discussion on technical points of order...
...Consider this problem a little more fully...
...All of which goes to prove that there really never was "any war...
...You're the most stubborn mule that ever came down the pike," said Joe...
...These attacks drew ironical comment from Hoopes on the intense dislike of "certain members of the House to hear the unemployment besetting the nation discussed...
...It has only been of recent years that the employing class has revived the use of this weapon against organized labor on a large scale...
...By Arthur a McDowell 43 Newly Elected Democrats Follow the Socialist Lead Pennsylvania Party Bo*ees Haven't Control of Them Yet—Representative* Hoopes and Wilton Fight for Cash Payment JJARRISBURG.*- Forty-three Democratic members of the Legislature, most of them workingmen unexpectedly elected last Novmber in the Roosevelt sweep, followed the lead of Representatives Darlington Hoopes and Lilith M. Wilson, Socialists, in a battle for cash payment of unemployment relief...
...Immediately the resolution was read, the Republican chairman of the rules committee, who last week succeeded in getting the Socialist spokesman denied the floor, moved to commit the measure to the blanket Unemployment Relief Committee especially appointed to consider all unemployment measures and even more completely packed with reactionaries than the ordinary House committees...
...Well, hardly, and yet the house smells and it should be cleaned up," Joe replied...
...And so when he got a touch of 'flu he quickly died...
...According to the treaty, Germany was to pay the Allies the full cost of the war, 10 per cent extra for breakage and an advance on1 the next war...
...The people decided he'd make good dessert to top off the wsr...
...But why not settle accounts with Tammany first and then start the fight against the respectables...
...We are never to make that house our own...
...The measure was killed by a vote of 142-45, the significance of the vote being the fact that the new Democratic members followed the first fighting lead furnished in the House...
...We'll not disagree thst things are bad in New York City and that there should be a change, but we should know what kind of change is desirable...
...Nerts to you...
...This is sn inferiority complex that must be shaken off if we are to make that progress you so much desire...
...he saw to it that the audience was there, and the committee supplied with literature...
...What you would do is help the conservatives settle accounts with Tammany when our job is to settle accounts with both...
...The boys from the nuthouse went ont for a picnic snd all's hell above and below...
...he took care of the mail...
...Cle*n up your idea* and we'll settle with our enemies," Bill replied ss they parted somewhat ruffled by the discussion...
...They ask working people to step in and help them dean it up, but we who clean it up are not to occupy it...
...The bill, a brief and concise measure of a couple of paragraphs, would eliminate forever the yellow dog contract of non-union slavery as a basis for court attack on striking or unionizing workers...
...You're too particular...
...Il in the nil The Wai lished a * Ghent u h Richman i m a clack...
...Oh, I get your drift," said Joe...
...Night after night he sat long hours preparing 12,000 wrappers a week...
...The City Party wants to make a clean sweep of Tammany Hall...
...And so he grew weak, his resistance was lowered...
...Both groups appeal to us, each one wanting us to give it the power but both being opposed to us having the power...
...It was the time of roaring "prosperity," boom prices, naked corruption in high places, easy-come-easy-go and to hell with everything...
...During keep awake, itively little were not so I during the refore take his office in here during 'ould get up and nearly party headIways a job 9 and more Mito Webb, uld do them ive hundred addressed...
...iue...
...klvv • e e • ik'!' The man it eraty," laid a tkanet patttrby...
...Being a telegrapher, Richman naturally had a fine, clear handwriting...
...Well, I'm impatient and I want to see something accomplished that will indicate some progress," Joe replied with some heat...
...asked Joe...
...There was something very quiet about Richman, so that it was some time before people began noticing him at all...
...The move to kill was unsuccessful by a vote of 142 to 46...
...Sorry, you feel that way about it, Joe, but did it ever occur to you that the working masses have a habit of fighting the battles of almost every class but their own ? If we never begin the fight for our own interests we will always remain powerless...
...Why should we fight for theirs...
...He worked at the Union Station and then went straight to party headquarters and swept out the rooms...
...The City Party should have the support of all who are opposed to Tammany...
...P^saf rihjfjjodsThen Handsome Adolf appeared on the scene and announced that what Germany needed was a turnip that could turn into a radish and bite the mouth that swallowed it...
...He had a clear head, he was thoughtful, and in private conversation he had decided opinions, and he expressed them...
...A motion was immediately made following the conclusion of Hoopes' oft-interrupted speech to refer the resolution to Committee...
...You're afraid to take bold and courageous action," Joe replied with some disgust Why Fight for Others...
...hey didn't '°<*i out a * 0*» D. "MsGer...
...It was a mad war, a mad peace and a mad aftermath...
...Unwilling to do our own work, we turn to helping others do theirs and do it for their interests, not our own...
...We cannot recall that he ever wrote anything more exciting than the minutes of a business meeting or a letter to the membership...
...Nothing was too hard for him to do, nothing too menial...
...It wab the time of cynicism, of sneering with Mencken at the Booboisie...
...Aa far back as 1894, the Pennsylvania legislature adopted a law making it a felony for a corporation to attempt to coerce tbeir employees into signing a version of the yellow dog contract The court* declared it unconstitutional on the technical grounds that it mentioned only corporations...
...said Joe...
...Bill paused for an answer...
...Than Germany was to pay an equal i the war...
...And do these words sound like the words of Ben Hanford's immortal "Jimmie Higgins...
...If it is, why should working people support it...
...For he painted the picture and he built the platform...
...That's just the point," said Bill...
...was utterly >• period of also served parity in the Telegraphers, w for all his nr...
...Tht man it gaga," said a second chance passerby...
...Most of the newly elected Democrats a majority of whom were workmen swept into office unexpectedly last November, gave their support to the Socialist demand...
...yet those who knew him recall him with real admiration and genuine affection nearly ten years after his passing, for there were in him those qualities that make up the flesh and blood and the very soul of the Socialist and labor movement Richman was a railway telegrapher who worked in the Union Station in Washington...
...The rulina conservative interests are divided into two groups, the ill-smelling Tammany group and the respectable group that does not like the Tammany odor, that does not like its costly housekeeping and that would like to reduce the cost and reduce it* taxes...
...M| JL1 During his party in some a Order of and bowk work will Partd when we I work, ft Termini...
...We should all unite and turn the rascals out...
...I or eight...
...They do—for it was the likes of J. Webb Richman that Ben Hanford was thinking of when he wrote his classic . . . about the one indispensible man of the movement...
...Quiet, unobtrusive, almost selfeffacing...
...Don't get mushy, Joe," Bill replied...
...Introduced in 1931 first by Hoopes, in that session the measure actually escaped committee and gained the floor for a vote, where it met defeat in the Hons* by a vote of 60-60...
...that peril but then else to <k many tod night Hi party work the statin the long i early in II every nijk quarters...
...We cannot recall that he ever made a public speech...
...Kerby, and the writer of these sketches...
...But isn't it Important to get clean city government even if it represents only conservative property interests...
...Soon there was an election and Hitler was a candidate...
...The war came, and the ranks of the party were decimated...
...You break ranks when politicians of the upper world summon you to fight their battles...
...Is it to be a party of labor thst will represent labor and will light for labor or is it to be a political movement to represent conservative property interests...
...M. Coleman, Percy H. Skinner, Fred hi...
...We fully agree about the state of that house," said Bill, "but our main task is to strive for power for ourselves...
...Joe, I'm getting discouraged with you...
...Joe asked...
...was his platform...
...The record made by those members who either voted against the outlawery measure or signified their opposition by refusing to vote figured rather prominently in the defeat of certain members of the House from Philadelphia textile districts in 1932...
...The two Socialist members opposed and demanded a roll call vote, first record votes of the session...
...That put Hitler In a quandary and he Was embarrassed, because he had forgot to put his straitjacket on...
...leaning • Dirty House *"Th»t is to say, the interests that are opposed to labor have found that they have a very dirty house on their hands," Bill replied...
...That's your idea of bold and courageous action...
...Anyone who thinks it's possible to emerge sane from a world war is crazy...
...The unofficial Democratic group of 65 members, however, was not in evidence...
...Bill Is So Stubborn "And what do the working masses in this country lack more than anything else...
...You'll break my heart yet," Bill replied with a mock gestur* of pain...
...Confidence in themselves, confidence in the power that their vast number give them," said Bill with intense earnestness...
...1 to be dot chores n because V» willingly I envelope...
...We've been pals in .many a labor struggle and you've gone the limit in displaying labor solidarity in these fights, but it'* almost impossible to get you to carry that labor solidarity into politics...
...Socialist Profiles No...
...In larger gatherings he was far from tongue-tied, but he rarely spoke, for he felt that others could speak better than he...
...In small groups he was a delightful companion...
...That is to say, that you know that the reformers are not the allies of the working people and that, if they are victorious, we will have the same struggle before us that we have now...
...he was at meetings at night and at conferences by day...
...Joe Want* to Clean Up a Dirty House Bill Favors It, But They Disagree Regarding Art of House-Cleaning By AutolycuB •"THERE'S going to be s greet fight this year to clean up New York City for good government," said Joe as he met Bill at the corner...
...You want to give the power to one of those groups...
...Year after year more and more work was loaded on the willing shoulders of Richman...
...To put it into other words, is the City Party intended to represent clean capitalism in politics against dirty capitalism in politics...
...r was solved hours of his luty at the ht to seven ng...
...Webb Richman did not speak on the platform and he did not know the tonic of applause...
...He bad little, but out of his little he gave all...
...When we sey that he became active we do not mean that be began making speeches or writing articles...
...and it was not long before he was serving as branch secretary and in other party oftvfl loyal...
...The respectable groups and the dirty groups of conservative politics have never fought for our interests...
...Webb wed arm togen After the i and we **i would stri Station « records...
...If it were not for the likes of him there could not have been a meeting;, and there could not have been a movement...
...Along about 1909 he began taking an active part in the affairs of the Socialist Party in the District of Columbia, and from that time until his death in October 1923 he never ceased his incessant activitiea...
...Fortunately his devoted wife, Evelyn, was wholly with him and she did not begrudge the party her husband...
...The resolution by Hoopes de-' manding cash payment of relief to unemployed was killed after a floor fight that clearly demonstrated the hatred of the dominant old Party majority of any discussion In the open of the unemployed and their problem...
...If you were as impatient to awaken the confidence of the workers In their own initiative and will to power as you are to help conservative elements to clean up thir dirty house, we would be making progress...
...And so time passed...
...After « paying f« losing it, I lies a r*> damages Allied g*J had failed After » Versailles •musem**1 tax and I bill on the The G* know ho* turnip...
...The resolution was sponsored by Hoopes at the request of the organized unemployed of Reading and was called up for action on a Tuesday morning with a full House and a gallery packed with visitors...
...The man is crazy enough to be Chancellor," said a third and last-chance passerby...
...Now Hitler is the Chancellor...
...P. II...
...Clemenceau, Lloyd George and their pals were getting bored by the tiresome repetition of battles, and they decided to have some real excitement So they drew up the' Treaty of Versailles...
...And he and Frank Roosevelt will soon be exchanging errand boys...
Vol. 15 • February 1933 • No. 5
