Socialist Legislators for the Thirty-Hour Week for Women
McDowell, Arthur G.
By Arthur G. McDowell Socialist Legislators for the Thirty-Hour Week for Women Hoopes Start* for One-Cent Pell Tax, to End Disfranchisement of Pennsylvania's Unemployed. JJARR1SBURG, Pa....
...The second type consists of the pack ! hnlmala...
...Similar legislation to the Hoopes bill is now pending in both House and Senate of the W sconsin legislature, and organiz d unemployed groups in Milwaukee are planning Producers' and Consumers' Exchanges along the lines of the Hoopes measure, with or without state aid and sanction...
...Joe's Rugged Individualism "CASY with you, eh I You want no state bureaucracy to *-* regulate your life," Bill anawered with mounting anger...
...But a Tentative Peace Is Reached By Autotycus "INDIVIDUALISM made this the great country it is to* day," aaid Joe aa he and Bill waited for the union meeting to be called to order...
...There la a movement ia Congress for inflation, which means that we would atlll have nothing, but more of It...
...The reason was the Pennsylvania law making voting conditional on payment of taxes and denies the ballot to those who annot show the receipt indicating that they are property owners...
...Did you leave it with your rubbers under the bed...
...It is hard for people nowadays to realize the importance of the German gymnastic movement—the "Turners," they were called—in an earlier day...
...In tho event of such trial an acquittal would be inevitable, and in such esse it would bo impossible to keep Mooney and Billings in jail any longer on tho basis of convictions on earlier indictments...
...Such action is all the more significant in view of the fact that for many years American union« have not in general given much consideration to problems not directly related to their trade interests...
...You punched a time clock, got an identity check, and you were known by your number on the corporation's 1 books...
...The Wilson bill would not only reduce hours but would remove domestic workers and other large divisions of women workers from the exempt provisions of the present law...
...It's I had to make it i to believe that It When we ban little, we get means a Hat tin When we nan a lot, it bmsbi means we're I blow out...
...If tho court grants a trial it will be possible for the first time legally to introduce in evidence proof that tho testimony that sent Mooney and Billings to jail was bought and paid for perjury...
...The corporation bureaucracy has risen out of the thing that you bless...
...They call it deflation...
...Joe Comes Out of the Coma "I 1ST H.N, Joe," Bill continued, as Joe flushed with anger...
...You're some individuaUst...
...Now you're off on the worst intellectual aouse you've had in months," Bill replied with some heat...
...He went west, and for a while he was reduced to hobodom, tramping the country roads, doing any job that came to hand, even to punching cattle...
...Hoopes, who originated the Employment District bill at the Extraordinary Unemployment Relief session of the legislature last July, waa the advisor of the drafters of the Wisconsin bills...
...At the request of the State Executive of the Socialist Party, Hoopes has introduced a bill for a state-wide uniform le poll tax as the basis of voting...
...asked Joe With some humility...
...Only a real earthquake at the polls last year could have made possible the passage of a general 30-hour week bill, but by sponsoring the Women's Act, Representative Wilson felt that the re-aasertion of the principle of the 5-day week and 6 hour day would be valuable to the general drive of organised labor for this immediate reform in the nation'a industry...
...They certainly are not individualism over which you simper like tho kid with his first pair of skates...
...Yes, you're coming out of the coma that is induced by taking Doctor Hoover's famoua narcotic," said Bill...
...You mentioned Baby-face in the White House and his idea of individualism...
...Oh, yes...
...Bill Gets Joe's Number "11/HAT was your number in the corporation plant...
...Darlington Hoopes has introduced a bill to restore the right to a vote to the unemployed of the state through a uniform lc per year poll tax...
...A general 6-day week and ihour day for all workers in Pennsylvania industry, sponsored by Representative Wilson some weeks ago, haa been securely pickled by a sub-committe of tbe House Labor Committee composed exclusively of Representatives owing allegiance to the Grundy Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association...
...The "Lone Socialist" was the subject of countless newspaper stones, and every Washington correspondent was under instruction to get a story about him...
...In the last election, while the vote throughout the nation rose by several millions, that in Pennsylvania Jell about 800,000 from that cast in 1928...
...It destroyed your identity as a human being in its plants of production, like the convict in Sing Sing who is known by bis number...
...What do you call that policy...
...but if wo have a little and want a lot, then we must pay a lot for a little...
...Social.^ No...
...Mine Was 23," said Joe.' "You not only lost your name in that plant but you haven't oven got the brass check," Bill sneered...
...You're talking of something that might happen but ignoring what has happened...
...It was a genuine people's cultural movement, and through it many of the early Germans first became active as Socialists...
...For Shorter Week The Pennsylvania Federation of ¦ Labor has endorsed the demand of the Women's Trade Union League for the 44-hour week for women...
...He feu Vorwarts, a Gers and later the unl Democratic Ba paper that bat fluence in the it ger's weekly art notable feature] nalism for man} he resigned froa give all his tiro In 1892 the 1 Were in the Pops in was embeda than many peopli came the Ameria strike, and Benj a part in it that honorary membe At its end, wba was sent to Woe Berger who visit a Socialist of his organized a bm candidate for I Nuthouse IF you're out of work, hungry and * feel hopeless and you want to know what oae word best describes that condition—then you're a nut...
...Well, I don't think much of Hoover but you have to hand it to him as an expounder of individualism," said Joe...
...MCONEY HEARING ON MARCH 25TH The hearing in Superior Court in San Francisco, scheduled for Feb...
...If I didn't pay your car fare you'd have to Walk to Canarsie after the meeting...
...which nine months ago presented s joint plea for debt revision to President Hoover...
...Do you really think that you enjoy equality of opportunity with the handful of corporation masters who have turned millions of wage slaves into bums...
...e t And that's wkj big nuthouse full a nut to est aa e i But to go f* in teonomien W mg and tho otkn thing, wo pay fl tereet on what I wo ain't got sj Of Act fellow M torott wo pay.J got, eallo thit J in other poopl* e This Is a I* if we all had I want Interest « and there wewj nothing to par ¦ The mora t*j tho more inter*" few people whs I Bill and Joe Almost Come to Blows Disputing Hoover'* Individualism...
...While teaching he became attracted to one of kli Schlichting, ried, and with j rare happiness u the end...
...You're some individualist, 111 say, without a job for several months, your noom rent unpaid and touching me for six bits only yesterday...
...11, upon a motion that would lead to what is virtually a retrial of Tom Mooney and Warren K. Billings, has been postponed to March 26, to make it possible for Frank P. Walsh to appear in court in person...
...WAR DEBT REVISION {CLEVELAND, O., Feb...
...He became a teacher of German in the public schools and at the same time an active Socialist...
...Bill " asked...
...You're some rugged individualist, believe me," said Joe with a gesture of disgust...
...You can't square that with some big atate bureaucracy that regulates the lives of individuals...
...Back in New York, he learned the trade of metal polisher, and then drifted west to Milwaukee...
...We now have deflation, which means that WO have nothing...
...You worked for one of the biggest corporations in this country...
...It means equality of opportunity aa the right of every American...
...Under the watchful eye of the property class-conscious courts, the idea of limitation of hours first slipped through only in the guise of protecting the race's health through special legislation for women...
...District Boards would have the right of eminent domain, tax levy and bond issues to cover cost of acquirement or construction of works...
...As fsr ss the country as a whole was concerned he was a new figure in public life, but Milwaukee had known him for a quarter of a century, and so had tho Socialist movement...
...And in Milwaukee he stayed, to the day of his death and to the glory of that city...
...9-Victor '—.......umemeommmmmt «.....P...
...You're a cynic," said Joe...
...In" snd "do" are Juot prefixes working for flat ion - like hands In a factory...
...The Individualist is of two types," said Bill...
...Berger was born in Austria, February 28, 1860, and after studying at Budapest and Vienna, he came to the United States in 1878...
...It is considered as indicating the growth of a broader social vision in the ranks of Organized Labor...
...One consists of the ruling capitalists and bankers who favor corporate and government bureaucracy for their class and Whose collared politicians talk individualism to the pack anlbinls they exploit...
...Votera in all counties would vote on the setting up of such districts at the municipal elections this fall...
...Tho law says that If wo havo a lot and want only a little, then wo can havo a lot for a little...
...Well, what would you call an individualist...
...In both fields that bureaucracy ia satisfactory to the ruling classes...
...It bocomea a bureaucratic father not to the bums made by the corporations but to the corporations that made us bums...
...Employees would have to bo selected from persons unabls to secure employment at their own or similar occupation...
...While tens of millions of us are down and out the government showers hundreds of millions of dollars on the corporate persons...
...13—Th« ^ Brotherhood of Locomotiv< Firemen and Enginemen has just issued the first of a aeries ol pamphlets analysing the problem of the International war debts and urging the United States to promote a revision which will ease the burdens of the debtor countries lessen the danger of renewed war and help to overcome the worldwide economic depression...
...I'm talking of government bureaucracy...
...In law a corporation is a person and Hoover's heart bleeds for these persons...
...Berger became a leader in Turner circles, reaching rather high office in the movement, and it was his activity there that gave him the wide acquaintance that made his early Socialist work so effective...
...But I'm talking of government bureaucracy," Joe responded...
...The object of the hearing is to secure trial of an indictment still pending and not yet tried, charging Mooney with tho murder of another of the victims of tho Preparedness Day explosion in 1916...
...The fact is that we have the bureaucracy you fear both in industry and in government...
...But when we Aave « Utile and want a lot, thu lot for a little...
...Then you inflate it with air and blow it until it bursts—and that's the story of capitalism...
...B. OF L E. URGES...
...Wages, hours and working conditions would in all eases bo set by boards of mediation composed of two persons selected by the board, two by the employees and one by the other four...
...I 1/1CTOR L. BERGER was the first Socialist ever elected to Congress...
...J "No, a class conscious Soclslist," said Bill .. the rhalrman 1 failed the meeting to order...
...Now where ia that equality of opportunity...
...The prohibition against health-wrecking night work would be tightened and fines and imprisonment for violations of the law by employers would be raised five to six times the present mild penalties...
...I get the drift of your reasoning," said Joe, rather ruefully...
...Under the terms of the Women's Hours Act introduced in the legislature by Lilith Wilson, Berks Socialist, hours for women in industry would be limited to 30 per week, the six-hour day and five-day week being sought nationally for all labor...
...For Real Self¦ Help County Employment Service Districts to put unemployed to work producing their own food, clothing and shelter is the proposal contained in a bill introduced by Darlington Hoopes...
...When he came to Washington for his "freshman" term—a special session in April, 1911—the eyes of the whole country were upon him...
...The districts would direct their attention to the production and supplying primarily of essentials, such as food, fuel, dwellings and utility sd>vices...
...It has even turned you into the streets, you haven't a ten cents stake in this civilization, and yet here you are yawping individualism to me...
...There's a law known aa supply and demand...
...The national arena just suited him, and he became a atriking and influential figure almost immediately, and so he was until the end...
...Believing the setting to work of new productive forces can alone counteract continued industrial decline and demoralization, the So icalist members of the House will push the measure even ahead ol their pet unemployment insurance measures now in a House Committee for the fourth time...
...He si among the young quent speaker—i very end he am orator...
...The nuts have a name for it...
...It spawned Rockefeller, Morgan and Schwab also," said Bill, taking the aggressive...
...But I'm not talking of that," Joe replied hotly...
...But those corporation practices are not individualism and I'm not defending them," Joe replied...
...It made Lincoln...
...When the economic system gets a flat tire,—that'a deflation...
...When we have a lot and want a little, then wo give a little for a lot...
...You've been bit in the snoot and you ignore it entirely...
...What do you mean by individualism, anyway...
...It ia a bureaucracy of the ruling capitalist and banking classes...
...Say, just go a little easy with that stuff, Bill," said Joe...
...Under the present law women may work 54 houra per week in Pennsylvania manufacturing establishments, 6 days a week and as many as ten hours in a single dsy...
...An intelligent person who is knocked down will at least get up and ask who hit him...
...That is something no one will ever bt able to take away from me," he used to say...
...Believe it et economics...
...Oh, well, if mama's boy insists on it we'll consider that too," said Bill...
...What do we get...
...The capitalist corporations have made bums of millions of us, Now what does the government do...
...The Firemen's organization is one oi the seven leading railway union...
...The corporation destroyed the union and you are compelled to keep your union membership a secret...
...Well it seems to have been hit very hard," said Joe...
...Where is your equality of opportunity...
...Flation ia Just air, which is what tho 14,000,000 unemployed have...
...Charity...
Vol. 15 • February 1933 • No. 7
