Timely Topics

...The shorter work periods will mean scanty rations if not actual distress and privation for many thousands of families, for whom Christmas will be far from merry...

...It is the opinion in NRA circles that the st< k shelves which were partly filled ly the boom in production to beat the code wages, are now becoming depleted and that production is again rising, responding to higher purchasing power due to NRA payrolls...

...Silver ranks away down in the li American industries, but it has political impor partly because of the connection of silver money ai.d more largely because there are five eminently silver states that have ten senator...

...It was never a complete general transportation strike...

...Amnesty *1*0 President Roosevelt go heartiest thanks ¦ congratulations for doing what we have 1 vainly upon every president since the war, na restoration of civil rights to 1,500 men, victin war hysteria, who were sentenced and servet their sentence under the draft and espionage Prsident Johnson did a similar thing right aftc Civil War...

...Mr...

...of- new shoes rather than hand-me-downs r i more, for the self-respect as well as the heaitl comfort of a worker than all of the Arrow cc which, according to the advertisements, helj bright young man to get a .oh...

...The Boot and Shoe Workers' ' nlc 1 was an outrageous example of what s union ought not to be or do...

...All the democratic nations of El did similar things long ago...

...The .National Labor Roa.d fought the strike and in ." sense bribed off the bakery workers by suddenly announcing an award to them of an inert »>..• in wares so great 1 that after the troubles arc over it is doubtful whether the bakery employers will accept...

...Meanwhile the taxi strike is still supported by many unions, some with grievances of their own and all with sure recognition of the fact that if the P.R.T...

...If they do not accomplish these objects labor's de> maiiil for modification to set shorter hours and higher wages will be tremendously strengthened...

...Again Socialists , took the lead hi the matter snd the union owes a ! great deal to the practical and legal counsel of . Joseph Bearak...

...The replies are reported to be likely an important factor in final determination of the extraordinary appropriations to be a.sktd of Congress for the recovery agencies...

...The industry is now running into what is called a "normal" January and February slump...

...At long last we caught up in this one respect...

...Sol Rosen assistant keeper of the Blue Eagle for the m picture industry, says he sympathizes with ushers, but that butters no bread, Silver llfORKF.KS won't have any noticeable diffe in the amount of money in their possessio cause the President has decided tg purchase a tain amount of ailver at a price away abovi market level...

...The ..ew phase should bring home to the woi !;ers .he truth of the dictum of Socialism and trade unionism that the workers' salvation depends upon the workers themselves...

...some other basis than the private profit of pr bankers...

...Nevertheless, the National Labor Board verbally rebuked the defiant arrogance of the employers, as did the State of Pennsylvania which is now holding a hearing on the right of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company to continue its franchise in the taxi field...

...I think he will prove to be still more hi capped by the lack of any strong and militant 1 avowedly existing to make New York serve interests of workers with hand and brain, honeymoon period when Ogden Mills and the 1 of the labor unions are all for LaGuardia wil last long...

...They are in for "share-thc-work" with a vengeance...

...Enforcement will be the new phase of the NRA program, and organized labor can play a big role there...

...In the case of the hosiery industry it is explained there was a huge "overproduction" before the code went into effect last August and in addition, the customary increase in Bales during the fall failed to materialize...

...This requires redu of fie capital structure of a great man...

...million dollars in behalf of the unemployed...

...from all informed Federal agencies, the Associated Press reports...

...Certainly the latest employment report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows no gains, employment and payrolls falling for the first time since March, 1933...

...It broke or almost broke the strike against the strong Hyde Company in Cambridge by making an agreement with the bosses behind the backs of the striking workers...

...The great Budd Manufacturing Corporation, which turns nut automobile bodies, and the P.R.T., which has a transit monopoly, openly flouted collective bargain' ing...

...It causes families of the workers inconvenience and in spite of the best arrangements some actual suffering...

...though their total population is much less than of Chicago...

...They recognize there was a reduction in production after codes became effective, while at the same time there was an increase in the number placed on payrolls...

...Final needs a socialised banking system which can co credit, infinitely more important than currenc...

...The New Leader pointed to an instance of this in the automobile industry in an editorial last v cek...

...If the codes are not strictly enforced .there will be no real test of their .Tcctivcness in bringing reemployment and Increased purchasing power...

...I The Movie Ushers' Code I TO the list of poor codes and of corporations 1 I put the worst possible interpretation upon i even when they do not break them outright adc eral important chains of movie houses oper under the motion picture code, which takes of the ushers in one brief paragraph setting is supposedly a minimum wage of 25 cents an in cities .over 15,000...

...NRA officials privately claim an Increase in employment under the codes of about 2,000,000 to October, following the gain of a million from March to June, before anycodes went into effect...

...Our old friend, "overproduction," is the excuse for the slash i output...

...The nexi report, covering the month ending December 15, v ill be issued tht middle of January...

...The convention decided to affiliate 1 with no outside body, which means neither the T.U...

...The Hosiery Code Authority, with NRA approval', has declared a three-day week for hosiery plants...

...Production In the cotton textile industry has been cut 25 per cent and cuts in other branches of the textile industry are imminent...

...If the President makes pu' lie these j reports, with no omissions of significant facts and no "editing," they should make interesting reading and give a real line on alleged economic improvement...

...The only people who will be bene arc silver mine owners and, to a less extent, workers...

...1 U.I...

...So production is cut, though there are millions of people who need the products of the hosiery workers must * eke out an existence on miserably low incomes and great numbers of people go without the things the hosiery workers are eager to make...

...Speaker Rainey spoke of $0,000,000,000...

...The Mayor is handicapped it first place by, restrictions on the power of the to tackle vigorously its own debt problems am like...

...Real lest of the NRA Will Come in the New Year —————— By Observer ^—————— Washington, D. C. \VM 11 the new year t'te National Recovery Act program enters a new phase...

...For j many unions it was called ¦ off at the end of the second day under definite or I ders from Daniel Tobin, president of the International Teamsters' Union...

...One practical way is to back their de that some of the government relief agencies 1 on new shoes produced under union conditio...

...18 and will continue for five weeks and then' may be extended for three weeks more...

...the A. F. of L. can preach a desirsble affiliation it must find a way to clean house of such activities by its affiliated unions...

...SICK TEXTILES FACE A BLEAK WINTER WORKERS in the great cotton " textile, hosiery and allied industries face a bleak winter...

...As far as the hosiery workers are concerned, the NRA has given with one hand and taken swsy with the other...

...Just at present business and industry seem to be gaining, but how long this will continue is problematical...

...This means part-time labor...

...President Roosevelt has ordered up-to-the-minute reports on busi, ness and employment condition...

...The Shoe Unions : IT is good news that some six—or is it eight—in¦ dependent shoe manufacturing unions have got I together in the United Shoe and Leather 'Yorkers' r Union...

...THE NflVV YEAR AND THE N7A * S 1034 begins, the real situation ** in business and industry is obscure...

...Its president was himself a stockholder in 1 a big shoe company...

...There are still difficulties to e ironed out I and a constitution to be perfected, but an Immense ¦ and inspiring gain has been made...

...Apparently they also show some gains since the fall slump...

...The curtailed week, designed to reduce production by 40 per ent, begdn Dec...

...A year will not be sufficient to give the NRA expei Mir nt a thorough test, but it will in all ,.:obabilitj give a good idea < f its effectiveness...

...will do is to take back the nking drivers whom it first locked out as there may lie vacancies...

...That is to say, they will have I to go to work alongside of the men who stole their ' jobs, many of them gangsters and ruffians...

...Congressional leaders expressed the opinion that large appropriations for the 1934 fiscal ytai would be male...

...Reports of the Department of Commerce and various business indices show sharp gains in basic industries during December over the same month in 1032...

...Befor...

...For this reason President Rous probably did politically a shrewd thing in tryii bribe off the silver inflationists at this choap ] What America needs is the wiping out or, at rate, drastic reduction in an intolerable and mounting burden of debt...

...can forever make Philadelphia dance to its tune there is no hope for any body of workers...

...For thousands of men it was a sympathetic strike...

...This forecasts a big increase in the already huge public debt, which, as Norman Thomas emphasized in "Timely Topics," is an issue which cannot be dodged...

...In the light of this experience I earnestly hope that some other unions—I am thinking psrtici of the Retail Clerks here in the East—will far more thorough job of investigating and dii ing certain charges brought against their of or else thst it will repudiate those officials, has been done by the Retail Clerks from an gating standpoint so fsr is neat door to wort Mesnwhile we should cooperate in every po way with the United Shoe and Leather W01 Union...

...Yet it was effective enough to obtain a kind of fury of action...

...Now the largest part of the code- are in operation and (he remainder will be promulgated in the next few months and 1934 will see them given a test —a test involving the welfare of a great majority of the workers...

...A general transportation strike is a pai...

...If they are strongly organized and cct with intelligence and decision they may gain much under the codes, barring another » headlong plunge into the depths of depression...

...The report, however, covered the month 1 from October 15 to November 16 and there may have been an iro provement since then...

...Drawing up codes was the main busiliess*of 1933...

...indui ard a capital levy by the government It nee discover a way to build useful public work issuing treasury notes under careful restraint not by piling up interest-bearing bonds...

...nor the A. F. of L. Of course, I hope thst i before much time hsa elspsed the union may be ' taken in to the A. F. of L., for there are Immense advantages in one strong affiliation of industrial , unions...

...Incidentally, the cut in hours will more than nullify the 6 per cent wage increase given union hosiery workers by decision of the NRA National Labor Board...

...It was a political strike in the sense that it was directed towards compelling government agencies to make arrogant cor Iporations live up to the collective bargaining sec . tions of the NRA...

...That paragraph has interpreted to set a fixed wage so that act wsges of ushers in many circuits have been rei to 110 for a 40-hour week...

...I thing...

...Nevertheless, it must be admitted thst one ¦ could hsrdly expect the convention to fsvor A. F. . of L. affiliation in view of the fact that the old , A. F. of I., union has degenerated into a strike, breaking bunch controlled by a bureaucracy which . over and over has worked hand in glove with the 1 bosses...

...We hail the awakening of American labor in Philadelphia and we are proud that this ' awakening was so largely initiated by the labor • activities of the Socialist Party...

...The Honeymoon of "Good Governme MAYOR LAGUARDIA and his well-chosen *" ciates go into office under circumstances v will give America a laboratory test in what an Mayor with radical leanings and competent elates can do under a "good government" for for a great city...

...By Norman Thomas TIMELY ToPICS The Philadelphia Strike |7 A K and away the most significant event for * months or years in the labor field was the general strike of transportation workers in Philadelphia...

...The best P.R.T...

...It is infinitely better than continuance of wage slavery to arrogant corporations, punctuated by occasional riots...