Fifty Years Devoted to Socialism
Fifty Years Devoted to Socialism STORIES of the NRA Do you know of any case* of nibbling at the NRA in a code industry? We recently asked our readers to report eaeee of violations. Do...
...He was in danger of indictment or of lynching...
...His services to the needle unions continued to the very end...
...In the fall he waa named for Mayor...
...This question of organization of professional men bears significance and will be an all-important factor in the cooperative commonwealth...
...Later the party's peace plans, much garbled, re-appeared as Wilson's Fourteen Points...
...For regular engineering work that we are performing, therefore, we receive the munificent wages of 40 cents an hour...
...Here are a few reports from the NRA front...
...In most cases that covers little more than the gas and oil, but the men cannot afford to pay more as they have to take the money out of their wages of $19.20 for a nominal 48-hour week, which recently was unofficially cut to 45 hours by letting us go home at 1 o'clock on Saturdays...
...Hillquit was again in the front rank of those who fought for peace, and of those who rejoiced at the Russian' revolution...
...He spent the fall and winter in Bermuda, returning to 'attend committee "meetings, and the winter and spring in Switzerland...
...The only means of access to the beach ia by automobile...
...as he deserved to be loved...
...Good night, dear eouL May songs of Comrades ring you to your sleep...
...Ah some wag put it, "We are not in the blanket business, anyhow...
...A beneficiary of that fusion was a young congressman named LaGuardia, who accepted Tammany support in the bi-partisan deal to "save" the city from Socialist officials and for Tammany and tho Republican reactionaries...
...again he followed with keen Interest the affairs of the party and of the .unions...
...In the death of Comrsde Hillquit the Socialist Party, every lover of freed one, and the working class in all lands suffer an irreparable loss...
...In 1916 he drew up the party's positions on terms of peace, and together with Congressman Meyer London and James H. Maurer he went to Washington to argue them with President Wilson...
...That would be reasonable...
...The First Battle Prior to 1906 Hillquit was one of' the popular party speakers and writers, wise in counsel and loved for his warmth of character...
...it is possible that he never had shown more brilliance, more persistence, more courage than then...
...But the welcome he received upon hia return ahowed that despite differences of opinion his comrades loved him...
...P.S.—We are lucky...
...Then more years passed...
...The Last Years And so the last few years hurried by...
...The beacon of our harbor ia extinguished...
...He left what was virtually his deathbed to argue the Cloakmakers' Code that he drew up and he won...
...We have 6 days weekly...
...Do not rely on gossip and do not exaggerate...
...I have joined the Federation of Technicians, Architects (employees), Chemists and Engineers in New York...
...Then came 1917...
...At Home But Hillquit's interest in world affairs did not blind him to the important of work st home...
...And Hillquit left a sickbed at the risk of his health and his life U defend the five Socialists...
...There, in August, 1918, he spoke at the funeral of August Bebel, and his address was considered the greatest among .those delivered by the greatest men and women of world Socialism...
...Whst a battle that wasl Hillquit revealed unexpected qualities as a popular campaigner...
...So, here's for bigger snd better industrial unionization...
...Increasingly as the years passed his influence grew in the Socialist Psrty, in the unions snd in the country at large...
...This group recently submitted a code to Washington calling for a minimum of $66 for a 40-hour week for senior technicians, $45 for juniors, and $30 for apprentices...
...In that year he was elected National Chairman of the party...
...Yet Nassau County, on whose payroll we still mysteriously are listed as laborers (no expense for engineering work having been included in the estimate originally), cannot afford to live up to the law...
...Returning in tho fall, he was greeted with wild enthusiasm by his comrades, and he plunged into party work again, and into the struggles of the unions...
...For nine years thereafter Hillquit served the party as counselor and friend, as committeeman and guide...
...That campaign began the upbuilding of Socialism in New York, snd out of thst growth came the building up of the unions to the strength they later won...
...He was pitted against the corporation lawyers of the highest standing...
...By G. F. IAM an engineer employed as a relief worker on survey work for the new Jones Beach Causeway...
...his very last work was to fly to Washington by plane to argue a code for the Cloakmakers...
...the 1920 convention, and the struggle against the neo-Communism that sought to aplit and destroy the Socialist movement snd again Hillquit risked unpopularity to defend the position of Social Democracy...
...The relief statute, I believe, calls for 50 cents an hour minimum...
...His writings were read with eagerness, his lectures, debates, speeches listened to with joy...
...The great of the world—those in high places and those honored by persecution— held him in the highest esteem...
...Then came another breakdown, this time more serious than the previous one...
...In 1913, for example, he was counsel for the waist snd dressmakers following a great strike in proceedings before an impartial arbitration board...
...His battle was in the LaFollette movement to accept the Socialist Party, and in the Socialist Party to accept the LaFollette movement...
...Hia comrades counted upon him, and he did not fail them...
...J. P. Morgan and other prominent beneficiaries of Wall Street, who yelled "blue murder" at a stock sales tax recently, have their shacks out in these woods...
...America was dragged into the war and - Russia drove out the Czar...
...It was in the winter of 1920 that he again threw himself into the struggle...
...As engineers, with a working knowledge of mathematics, we haven't yet found out how $18 can ever food, clothing, shelter, fuel, etc., with rising commodity prices snd the fifth winter of the capital-' ist collapse fast approaching...
...Forest St The lecture, which will be on NRA, will be under New Leader auspices, in cooperation with' Local Stamford...
...I shall endeavor to organize a branch in Nassau County...
...but he never gave one inch...
...The defense was masterly, it was courageous, it was brilliant...
...He basked in the love of comrades, a love that came to a climax in 1929, when tho whole world celebrated his 60th birthday, and he gaily promised us "at least twenty or twenty-five years more...
...After months of doubts And trepidations, 'many of the boys are...
...His courage in facing unpopularity with his own comrades for what he believed right waa aa great aa his courage in fighting the foee of his cause...
...In many International Congresses Hillquit was known for his matchless oratory as well as his good humor, his good sense and his warm heart...
...Non-engineers working st Jones Besch 8 days per week st 8.2 per day, lose their time when it rains and have a heck of a job chasing around to get food tickets to make up the difference or to get permission to make up the lost time...
...In 'the troubled period from 1922 to 1929, when Socialism was a powerful force in Central Europe, Hillquit rose to the stature of world statesmanship of genuine importance...
...At the funeral ceremonies at Cooper Union it was related by David Dubinsky, president of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, that Hillquit was the first to propose that a union draft its own code, and fight for it, rather than to fight against unfavorable provision in codes offered them...
...In that year came the notorious Sweet ouster of the regularly elected Socialist Assemblymen of New York...
...In that year he waged the first of the campaigns for which' he became famous, the first battle to redeem the East Side from Tammany Hall and to win it for the workers...
...will never be forgotten by those who heard it...
...And so cracked a noble heart...
...Yeer after year Hillquit visited Europe snd became intimately acquainted with virtually all the great leaders of world Socialism He was in their confidence, and in many world conferences his wise counsel was welcomed...
...The project we are working on is a New York State appropriation, classed as a self-liquidating investment,-not merely nonessential work created as an alternative to a direct dole...
...We want the facte...
...His work in the labor movement, especially in the needle trades, is a shining chapter in American labor history...
...In that year Professor Franklin H. Giddings, head of the department of Sociology at Columbia, advised members of his graduate classes to go downtown and work for the election of Hillquit if they wanted to do something for American democracy...
...Flanked by such men as William Mailly, Robert Hunter, James Oneal, who came in from the West about that time, and others, besides the men of his own generation in the New York movement, Hillquit waged a fight that stirred the city...
...And then agsin party work...
...In 1924 he led the party in the La Folic He adventure...
...So everything is hunky-dorry...
...Night after night he went from place to place, speaking like the man he was, saying what was in our hearts to say, and we were proud to be his comrades...
...In strike after strike he counseled with the workers...
...Hillquit: U/ITII a broken hesrt beyond " words I mourn my dead chief and preceptor...
...Claessens in Stamford For The New Leader August Claessens of New York speaks in Stamford Sunday, 8 p. m., at Horticultural Hall...
...He had a clear, sparkling style and his books and articles ranked high for literary value as well as content...
...his victories ovef them was won ridiculous ease...
...but that did not matter...
...was .dangerous to the Socialist movement...
...There is room here only te mention the splendid literary work of Morris Hillquit...
...For Congress In the fall of 1916 he ran for Congress in Harlem, and again waged a fight that attracted the attention of the entire country...
...Again he went away in quest of health...
...Hia lunga were troubling him again, but he kept the information to himself...
...A pioneer ia the American movement, he served the Cause with unconquerable will, rare fidelity, and in times of war as well as peace he fought with unflinching courage for its lofty principles and high idesls with a faithfulness that was an inspiration and Joy to |)Is comrades Gifted with n brilliant mind, a capacity for clear thinking, cogent argument hia voice and pen wielded a great influence in directing the course of the Socialist movement in this country...
...Blanket codes are something that were never heard of out here...
...It will stand as a monument in the battle for free institutions...
...The party, the whole country and the world began to realize his greatness in its .true perspective...
...In 1914 he was on his way to Europe to attend the International Congress in Paris when war broke out and he returned, te take the lead in the party's anti-war campaign...
...In 1918 he again ran for Congress, but in absentia, and he did not return to New York until the fall of 1919, and then for only a short time...
...After the magnificent -mayoralty battle of 1932 he began to fail rapidly, and so came the end...
...he found time, as always, for debates with opponents of Socialism...
...some day it will be written and the world will know the matchless services of this great man...
...many other unions took the hint and did accordingly...
...The election returns showed that the Tammany man had won, and he took his seat but no one believed that the figures came within five thousand votes of the actual results...
...Hatred, prejudice, threats of mob violence, even anti-Semitism...
...They call for union, otherwise the architects' employer's proposed code of $12, $14, and $15 weekly may he accepted by the NRA...
...and his settlements were of incalculable value to them...
...Those of us who have cars have some of their running expenses covered by contributions averaging twenty cents per day from those who ride with them...
...Only the fact that his work was done in cooperation with Socialist colleagues who were important political figures, while he represented s party that was relat i v e 1 y weak, robbed him of the recognition his importance in those spheres deserved...
...In 1912, for example, he felt that a certain tendency represented by the syndicalism of the I.W.W...
...Illness struck him agsin...
...Although it was supported by the then popular William D. Haywood, Hillquit did not hesitate to wage war upon it and he led the fight in the 1912 convention at Indianapolis that led t« a clarification of the party's position...
...becoming class-conscious...
...This leaves most of us with about $18 purchasing power each week...
...Hillquit faced opposition that year that no one who was not in the struggle can ever imagine...
...In that yesr he suffered his first breakdown from tuberculosis...
...Two years later a city-wide Tammany-Republican fusion defeated him in Harlem as well as Meyer London on the East Side...
...In that year Hillquit outdid himself...
...In 1908 Hillquit ran again, and again he beat the Republican by thousands, and was defeated .only by Tammany arithmetic...
...From A. I. Shiplacoff Comrade Shiplacoff, who ie ill at a eanitorium in New Jersey, wired these words to Mre...
...But alas...
...He found time for brilliant legal defense of victims of wartime fury and hysteria...
...His great speech at Madison Square Garden in March, with the refrain, "RUSSIA IS FREE...
...But this time it was Republican arithmetic that defeated him by a slender majority...
...AN DUuTARABLE LOSS By Tbeodore Debe TB* death of Ceauade Morris 1 Hillquit witt fill the hearts of Socialists threaghosit the world with prof oand sadness...
...he was wrong...
...Morris Hillquit led us in that campaign, and we who fought under hia leadership will ever cherish the memory of the battle, and of hia inspired leadership...
...Where shall we look for light...
Vol. 16 • October 1933 • No. 16
