TIMELY TOPICS
THOMAS, NORMAN
By Norman Thomas TIMELY TOPICS Every week Norman Thomas writes in hia pungent style hit own comments upon the salient events of the moment "Buy AsaaricaB" IT is impossible to carry out the...
...Frank J. Manning, district or ganizer of the Socialist Party un der whose sponsorship the jobles -were organized, secured the use o the city's beautiful new Conven tion Hall after the City Commis sioners had once refused his re quest, when he faced them for a second time with several hundret jobless at hia back...
...The radius seems to be increasing, for following the broadcast last week by William M. Foigenbaum requeati came for information and sample copies from points even further off...
...Very wrf, here is a Socialist immediate program on whk-i...
...Not content with that, he noV announces the city will accept no loans from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, not even loans heartily approved by a special committee set up by Governor Lehman...
...You are to "Buy American" but you...
...The administration of this allowance cost be through local boards...
...Shame...
...The resolution received two votes...
...This svfbsidy should lw for six months for a first trial period with tit prlviso that it can be renewed or modified at tk end of the six months, as experience dictates...
...Socialism is Debated in The Canadian Parliament QTTAWA...
...At least a third of« people are improperly housed in shacks and alua In a notable speech Charles Solomon during ti campaign pointed out that an entire new housin program could be carried on for less than si raised in Liberty Loans for purposes of destnictu in the war...
...We need no more investments...
...It is impossible to carry out that slogsn and be loyal to thst far greater slogan: "Workers of the World, unite...
...Meanwhile the banks in one of the greatest industrial states in the Union are closed...
...invite the comments of my fellow Socialists: 1. Let the Federal government at once authoni at least a $10 a week maintenance allowance ¦ every unemployed family in the United State, with a $5 allowance to single unemployed men a, women...
...The ctiy will borrow money, it seems, from Tammany's banker friends or not borrow at all...
...Hia budget cuta which have met their enthusiastic approval are nearly all at the expense of vital social services...
...First he said the fault was Ford's...
...It is not a propaganda play...
...The vote to allow the use of Convention Hall was then taken, and carried...
...It is worth pointing out that with Tammany in a mood of such gracious deference to bankers and real estate interests it is not ljkely there will be a very strong fusion movement...
...We had local boards ti draft men into war...
...That remark created a Parliamentary "scene...
...The debate was of enormous value in turning the House of Commons into a debating society with Socialism as the subject, and the big newspapers carried full reports of the debate, with the Socialist arguments featured, to the people of the country...
...There are now 182 branches n a total of 7,886 members...
...Fortunately the Party office in its Press Service has sent out a corking editorial on this subject...
...MICHIGAN, whose Democratic Governor and asphalted industrial magnate have made a complete mess of the strike situation in Detroit and of economic matters generally, have now found themselves in a position where in order to save the banks of the state an eight-day closing of all banks had to be ordered...
...6,500 Jobless in Camdei Demonstration pAMDEN, N. J. —The jobless ^ men and women of Camder County voiced their demands to the Governor and the State Legislature in a huge parade and masa meeting of 6,500 delegates at Convention Hall here...
...are not to know what it is dangerous to buy...
...Following the first New Leader broadcast, a talk by Goldine HiUson of The New Leader staff, letters requesting information and sample copies of The New Leader came to the office from as far as New Hampshire...
...loans to finance a limited dividend housing project in the Bronx...
...Conservative members explained that the C. C. F., and the Socialism it represents, is identical with Communism, which is interesting news since the Communists are violently denouncing the Socialists as "Fascists" and as "lackeys of the Tories...
...We must have adequate unemployment insurant* but we have not time now to build up reserves aa we cannot insure jobs that have already been lea We must have the 30-hour week, but that of itael will not cure our ilia...
...James IT...
...Maurer brought hi: audience to its feet cheering whet he told them that they, and onl...
...The resolution is reminiscent of the famous Socialist resolution introduced in the House of Commons ef Great Britain forty years ago by J. Keir Hardie, and which the great Socialist pioneer defended in a twenty minute address that was one of the greatest speeches ever heard in the Mother of Parliaments...
...This policy is quite in line with the action of Joseph MrKee when he was Mayor, refusing R.F.C...
...It may not be necessary to go far with i third measure if the first two work ss effectiW as 1 hope they will...
...It has been estimated that at least OH of the cost of housing could be returned through re) S. As a final emergency measure state a Federal action should be taken to make it poial to bring idle factories and idle men together, i that at least the unemployed may produce for th« selves...
...Bennett personally but upon the means by which his personal fortunes were built up...
...Woodsworth's motion was not, of courae, expected to pass but it brilliantly accomplished its purpose...
...Of course, all rorpw tions must be non-profit making and controlled I society...
...ANOTHER example of that "new deal" for which the Democratic Party supposedly stands is given in New York City...
...Withdraw!, Withdraw...
...He was identified as Arthur Newland, 42, a World War veteran who had crawled into the cul<"rt during a recent storm and I died there, too weak from hun- to call for help...
...Has tho Prime Minister's own fortune been gained by honest toil...
...Order...
...Samuel A. ("Chatterbox") DeWitt speaka for The New Leader on WEVD Friday, Feb...
...How long can it last...
...A Definite Program EVERYWHERE I go the cry goes up: "Tell, something that we can do immediately to n lieve the terrible misery of the hour...
...Yet I find even some Socialist workers inclined to fall for Hearst's latest bunk...
...Now as never before is the time we must push organization...
...A World Fit for Heroes | SELBY...
...No limited dividend housing propositions can go to the heart of New York's slum problem, but some good can be done by them...
...Yet because the hanks and the real estate interests do not want anything to impair the value of the slum properties they hold they persuaded the Tammany administration to block even this slight gesture of decent consideration for the well-being of the millions who have to live in houses that are barracks and not homes...
...Assembling at the call of the Unemployed Unior of Camden, the jobless worken laid down a seven-point progran for which they will fight in thi coming months...
...Mayor O'Brien in his ponderous, dull, plodding sort of way haa gone over body, soul and breeches to the banking and real estate interests of New York...
...If we con finance war we can finance this war against poveri "We, the People" /VWING to my repeated absences from home, have only just seen Elmer Rice's remarkal play, "We, the People...
...24, at 4:45 p. m. The New Leader is on the air every Friday from 4:45 to 5 p. m. over WEVD, the Debs memorial radio station (230.6 M, 1800 KC), with members of the staff and noted contributors...
...Of course, $10 a week it u enough, but it can be supplemented by diitrid grants from local and state bodies ss need dictates A Housing Program 2. At once an effective commission on whitt labor should be represented should be set to wort to draw up plans for the most useful public wont So far as possible these should be remunerate The heart of them should be a housing progru There is no single new need of America, outside i the need for food and drink, that compares wit the need for decent shelter...
...In his speech opening debate upon the resolution Woodsworth said, "Does anyone mean to say that the great fortunes in Canada have been built up by what could be termed honest toil...
...Argentine Socialists Gnu BUENOS AIRES.—The Social Party of the province of Bueet Aires has in the psst two y*j more than doubled its members...
...DeWitt Broadcasts For The New Leader The New • Leader period on WEVD ia taking hold...
...Ten years ago Philip Snowden introduced a similar resolution, and after brilliant speeches by Arthur Henderson, J. Ramsay MacDonald, J. H. Thomas, Tom Johnson, Dan Irving and other leaders (at that time) of British Socialism it received 122 votes...
...From a reliable and well-informed source I learn that Hearst has* forbidden all his papers to so much as mention that significant book, "A Hundred Million Guinea Pigs...
...The one thing needful is to pj immediate purchasing power...
...Order...
...Yet lots of good folks go around saying, as I understand Major LaGuardia said the other night in New York—mind you, he ought to kaj better—thst the only question in city govenuasj is the question of honest snd efficient admiman tion...
...If Tammany can give it to them, why should they bother with amateur reformers...
...In the municipal electional Rio Colorado the Socialists eleetj both justices, snd four out of ¦ five city councillors...
...By Norman Thomas TIMELY TOPICS Every week Norman Thomas writes in hia pungent style hit own comments upon the salient events of the moment "Buy AsaaricaB" IT is impossible to carry out the slogan: "Buy * Amtrican" snd keep any sort of world trade, havo coffee, sufsr, rubber, tin, or any of the other things we nesd...
...What will take its place...
...we can have local boardi ti draft them out of poverty...
...it is a true p« It is not a cheerful play, because it is a true pi* I devoutly hope its run will be long, for there t millions of Americans who can be educated by ** they see on the stage as they cannot be educated I the confused spectacle of life itself...
...Nonsense...
...In a later issue I shall deal with the queitim how can we finance this program...
...This book by Arthur Kallet and S. J. Shlink stating the dangers in everyday foods, drugs, and cosmetics, published by the Vanguard Press, is a book that Socialist speakers ought to be familiar with, that ought to be in Socialist homes and libraries...
...Manning declared that the Com' missioners, so comfortably seated in leather-cushioned chairs In th< fine new City Hall, might be replaced by men in overalls at the next election, whereat the jobless wildly cheered...
...On top of his budget cuts the Mayor has now insisted on practically wiping out an entire program of public works in New York City, thereby atill further reducing any likelihood of employment...
...Every singe episode in tk extraordinary play can be matched straight fi» life...
...They are scarcely at all at the expense of the political chair-warmers who draw1 aalaries from the city for running Tammany Hall...
...Men will money in their pockets will start to buy for tk needa of their family...
...Assuming that we are not as yet organized so i to put in at once a complete program of socitlii tion, this is the very best immediate program th I think is practicable...
...Here I inert want to insist that it can be done if we mean tsu ness as we meant business in war...
...Members who could sit unperturbed in the face of desperate economic distress could not endure the "affront" to their sacred dignity and shouted "Shame...
...We have plenty i factories...
...The failure of Capitalism and the pressing need for Socialism reached the order of business of the Canadian House of Commons, when I. S. Woodsworth, M. P., leader of the C.C.F (Cooperative Commonwealth Federation) moved: Whereas, Under ear present economic arrangement large numbers of our people ere unemployed snd Mlhout the mesns of earning a livelihood for themselves and their dependents, and Whereas, The prevalence of the preaent depression throughout the world indicates fundamental detects in the existing economic system, be It therefore Resolved, That In the opinion of this House the Government should immediately take measures looking to the setting np of a cooperative commonwealth in which all natural resources and the socially necessary machinery of production will be ased in the interests of the people and not for the benefit of the few...
...and after a lot of excitement Woodsworth was allowed to go on when he explained that he was not reflecting upon Mr...
...Even although the law nx the weekly wage must not be cut, I do not belie* it will be possible to enforce such a law under tk capitalist aystem...
...then he said It wasn't...
...How about a three billion dollar b ginning on housing, which sum should be sdmi istered through a Federal housing corporation a through state and municipal corporations set i under proper regulations...
...they, possessed the power to abol ish a system that permits unem ployment...
...A heated, exciting and often brilliant debate resulted, widely reported in the Canadian preas, with Socialist speeches by Woodsworth, Miss Agnes MePhgil, William Irvine, A. A. Heaps, and other Socialists reported in foil on the front pages of the leading Canadian newspapers, so that millions of people learned of the alms of Socialism, and at the earns time were informed of the formation of the C. C. F. [explained in a recent series of three articles in The New Leader] and of its work...
...The fusion movement was based on the desire of property interests for a cheaper government...
...Cel.—In a railroad culvert in Selby was discovered the body of a man whose threadbare clothing evidenced his poverty and whose emaciated face and body told of death from starvation and exposure...
...It looks definitely toward complete socialization and should be accompani by measures for socializing public utilities snd '•' banking system...
...The question of city goversna is the asms as the question of state and fede* government It is a question for whose benefit as in whose interest is government carried on...
...The most remote point thus far heard from was Damarlscotts, Maine...
...This fact indicates the growing popularity I and usefulness of WEVD...
Vol. 15 • February 1933 • No. 7
