TIMELy TOPICS

...A Three-Point Program for the Unions pRKSIDENT GREEN is right in asking for * definite and regularized representation of labor on the various committees that enforce the code...

...That would make the union a mere creature of the state, much as in Italy or Germany...

...The workers came out on top in the first battle, when the judge non-suited the prosecution on technical grounds...

...In every industrial country, since early in the nineteenth century, the world has experienced a series of such crisis...

...Even in so-called normal times the job of no wage earner is secure...

...It has been a joy to see how the workers understand this and how gallantly they are fighting for it in places that I have recently visited—the leather workers, for instance, in Wilmington, Del...

...It will probably be forced to go farther...

...The changes now being affected will influence the course of history and the lives of generations...

...Reemployment and the increase of purchasing power are going slowly...

...That, however, is not something to be enforced by government but to be brought about by the skill and energy that the A. F. of L. shows itself in organizing the unorganized, in ending racial discrimination, in stopping racketeering and in securing the rights of the rank and file in the consfituent unions...

...His position as the head of the State NRA is a public scandal...

...Slavery too, was of "divine origin," chanted the slaveholders as the abolitionists' tide began to rise almost a century ago...

...And so the list could be prolonged...

...In spite of the tragedy of destroying crops, and pork, and cotton in a cold and hungry world the farmers are still justly complaining of the inadequacy of returns on their labor...

...It does, however, have dangers...

...There is still a danger that it will merely tighten German feeling against the outside world, especially since a government-controlled press will not let German workers know the real facts...

...You can't change human nature" has been the defense offered against the logic of social progress...

...In spite of all the talk about the New Deal and the Forgotten Man, Mr...

...He is also right in his desire for one strong federation of labor unions...

...The power of Socialism will be judged by its ability to learn from mistakes as well as from successes...

...These owners are interested only in profit...

...A new tractor leaves at least two otherwise employable plowmen jobless...

...Most of them are true, even though there may be extenuating circumstances which Professor Hoover has not sufficiently stressed...

...The cause of our economic plight is the private ownership for profit of the natural resources and the technical equipments of production and distribution...

...IlfHILE the Administration at Washington has " moved mildly toward the left, that is, to a more pro-labor point of view than any previous administration in Washington, there is a lot of clarification still needed at the top concerning the rights of labor...

...These things, however, are for labor to bring about and cannot and will not be imposed by NRA, save to the degree to which labor wins recognition for them from government...

...The defendants were Hogan, Carter, Ritchie, Dawson nnd Presswood, all organizers for the United Textile Workers or the Full-Fnshioned Hosiery Workers...

...To it they sacrifice every aspiration, every ideal, every principle...

...This might be helped somewhat if labor would get the Administration to insert as a club in every Code a provision that wages fixed in Codes would automatically rise by readjustment, let us say, monthly, in the light of the price index, provided inflation is resorted to...

...Socialism declares that it is as morally wrong for a small parasitic element of the population privately to own for personal profit the essentials of the lives of their fellows as it is for one man physically to enslave another...

...Yet, with childish abandon, we continue to assert that collectively to own, opernte and maintain the factory in which he should work would require a change in human nature...

...Nowhere have Isveeen a more comprehensive analysis of the Hitler brand of Fascism...

...Add to these three points a recognition of the necessity for independent working class political action and American labor wi|l have advanced by more than seven-league boots towards the goal of the Cooperative Commonwealth...

...Of course, as matters stand it is possible to bring about soma revision of the Codes, but that will be difficult once they are settled...

...Toward the position of Socialism the world is rapidly and inevitably turning as the only alternative toward a disaster greater by far than any thus far witnessed by man...

...The chairman of the State NRA Board in New Jersey is none other than a certain Col...

...The Boycott •yHE International Conference at Paris seems to * have committed Socialists in principle to a boycott of Germany, or rather of German goods...

...Therefore, unless the course labor elects to pursue is predicated upon sound economic and sociul thinking we are likely to bequeath to succeeding generations a legacy so ignoble that they will curse our memory...

...There is nothing in his program thus far to indicate his willingness to go to the roots of the problem...

...the silk workers in Paterson, the radio workers, the white goods workers in New York City...

...That this belief is purely a wish—fulfillment should be obvious to all who give serious thought to social and economic forces under capitalism...

...Now, in the course of his analysis Professor Hoover has some critical things to say about German Socialists and German Communists...

...It is bad enough to prevent endless bootlegging under the Codes...

...If a boycott of German goods will bring the German government to something like ordinary reason and end the ruthless oppression of Jews and Socialists and Communists, we are all for it...

...Years ago a Charlestown, West Virginia, merchant told me that the coal companies made more selling goods to their miners than coal to the consumers...

...And in every instance the wage earners of hand and brain have been the chief sufferers...

...By Frank R. Crosswaith Forward, to Our Task Of Making a New Wo rid ll/l who today occupy the stage of life are privileged to witness one of the most interesting and fascinating moments in history, x moment that marks the sunset of civilization and thus a moment pregnant with possihilities of profound and farreaching nature...

...Socialism advocates therefore the ownership in common and democratic management of all socially necessary agencies of wealth production and distribution...

...Let us renew our faith in International Socialism...

...It is a matter that ought to be taken up carefully and officially by the Party here in America...

...There is or seems to be a pretty satisfactory recognition of the union, hough there is still doubt hi this point as I write, in other words, there are real gains...

...Steam shovels and ditching machines overnight displace armies of pick and shovel wieldcrs...

...The Mayor of Wilmington, Del., had the nerve to tell the crowds when the NRA flag was hoisted that, among other things, NRA stood for "No Rebel America...

...FORWARD COMRADES, TO OUR TASK...

...It is a more complex phenomenon than some of us have supposed...

...Let ut stretch our toil-scarred hands across oceans and rivers, over mountain topi, beyond national boundaries and across artificial lines of ract and creed and greet our comradei in every land, and with couragt pledge our solidarity and unwavering devotion to our great cause With the song of the social revolution on our myriad lips let us go forward undaunted and unafraid to the inspired dream of a world in which work and worth shall go hand in hand and where labor irrespective of race, creed or color, shall reap the full social value of its efforts...

...Obviously they are our hope...

...One of the greatest of them is that prices will soar far beyond the rise of wages...

...It has some genuinely radical tendencies but it still keeps the great essentials of capitalism and it adds to it a mystical devotion tqa tribal state which is a tragically dangerous and hurtful anomaly in an interdependent age...

...In-religion, in economics i" government and in our whole social relationship it is hecoming increasingly clear that capitalism has collapsed and that its collapse threatens the entire structure of what we call civilization...

...And when one goes farther down the ladder it is quite evident that the point of view, let us say, of Donald Richberg and Frances Perkins is not shared by local and state administrators...

...The King rules by divine right" once thundered those opposed to the principle of government of, for and by the people...

...Albeit, NRA offer., to labor an unprecedented opportunity to organize...

...One interesting fact which Professor Hoover does not record is the zeal with which the Socialist youth are carrying on...

...No longer can the workers be compelled to live in company houses nor buy at company stores...

...Indeed, it is hard to see how the Administration can resist a rather more direct type of inflation than it has yet used...

...But wishes count for little in the face of facts...

...The cry for inflation is heard once more—and that, too, in high quarters...

...Certainly it is not the business of government to impose by its force an A. F. of L. union against all comers...

...It is very unfortunate that on a matter of such importance the International did not make a more detailed statement and clearer suggestions as to procedure...

...Now is the time to push the three-point program— industrial unions, democracy and fair play guaranteed in unions, central organizations in the A. F. of L. as a whole, to reach the unorganized and to conduct more efficient strikes when necessary by more adequate provision for labor defense and relief...

...The masses of workers who must use these agencies can gain access to them only when the owners are reasonably assured of a profit...

...When they are enforced in whole or in part by men of this caliber the struggle is hopeless and the failure of the Codes will be worse than the failure of the prohibition amendment...

...Fourteen indictments charging rioting still rcn.uin against eleven textile workers...

...Enlightened labor must see the logic of Socialism and enlist for its realization...

...Wages aro cut, hours of work lengthened, children sacrificed,"homes destroyed, politic polutcd, culture crucified, morals demoralized, all for the sake of the guilded god profit...

...I repeat that if it can be directed and controlled, inflation is better than a long continuous deflation...

...It looks as if important victories had been won in the abolition of the worst traits of feudalism which, combined with the worst traits of capitalism, makes soft coal mining and soft coal towns a pretty close approach to hell on earth...

...Socialism alone offers a cure for our present ills, for it goes directly to the roots of the trouble...

...Under our present set-up society refuses to accept its full responsibility to the jobless worker until he is driven in desperation to become a criminal, and then we build a prison for him and collectively maintain hiin there...

...The trade union organizations, the Socialist party, the Conference for Progressive Labor Action and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have joined forces tp raise the $ 11,000 bond required...

...Germany Enters the Third Reich" pALVIN BRYCE HOOVER'S book, "Germany ^ Enters the Third Reich" (Macmillan), is not pleasant reading for Socialists, but it is tremendously important...

...The capitalist system can no more escape this law than can There are many who sincerely believe that President Roosevelt's miracle bird, NRA, will reconcile tho conflicting interest of the workers and those who exploit them, remove the inherent contradictions of capitalism and thereby turn the footsteps of the natnn back toward prosperity...

...Labor should take full advantage of this opportunity and wherever possible organize into industrial unions, realizing of course that these unions are not an end in themselves, but that they are just one of the weapons at labor's disposal to right the age-old wrong of human exploitation...

...Even today we hear "the divine origin" of capitalism echoed by those who cannot or will not need the lesson of human progress...

...Hence the value of an automatic clause such as I have suggested...

...Kverywhere old values are being exchanged for new ones...

...So far it has trusted to going off the gold standard which directly affects commodities whose price is fixed in world markets and to Federal Reserve transactions to make bank credits easier...

...But there is still no reason to believe that this sick industry can bo satisfactorilv organized while leaving it in the hands of private owners, most of them absentee, to be managed for private profit...

...Eisner, sweatshop employer, who is fighting the union, and has just succeeded in getting several Amalgamated Clothing workers jailed...

...Nevertheless the opinion that the boycott will be efficacious seems to be growing...

...thus commodities will be produced primarily to meet the needs of man and not as at present to enrich the idle few who simply own these wealth producing agencies...

...Newly invented machinery permits about 40 steel workers to produce as much rolled steel as a hundred did a few years ago, and sends GO of these workers to the bread line...

...The prime motive of advancing civilization is to secure not simply abstract freedom, but economic and sociul security for the masses...

...The answer, of course, is effective unionization...

...It was not the creation of big industrialists, though some of them supported it...

...Roosevelt believes in the adequacy of the present economic system...

...The immutable law of life is change...

...Within recent years electricallydriven gadgets have replaced thousands of telegraphers with a handful of typists...

...An Automatic Clause A SIDE from its social aspect, that is, aside from ** the question of help NRA gives to labor organization, there is a more purely economic aspect to NRA and to the whole so-called New Deal, Here there is no reason for too much optimism...

...Negroes and Whites Join in Labor Battle HIGH POINT, N. C—Attempts to crush organizing work in the needle trades here are meeting with scant success, as Negroes and whites are cooperating in their struggle...

...That we have failed in this is clear by the world-wide crisis...

...Labor must also see the political implications of the class-struggle and thus organize politically to promote and protect labors' best interest...