A Socialist View of the Week
Ward, William Allen
A Socialist View of the Week AMERICANS By william Allen Ward I INCOLN ... melancholy ...mod eyed, *~"ke freed slaves from ckatns of bondage. Harding . . . to whom the presidential ekair...
...Hoover fell from great heights and is today a mythical figure and ere Roosevelt completes his term of office he is likely to be discredited to make wsy for a new hero...
...Franklin D. Roosevelt is also undergoing a similar transformation in tha hands of his associates...
...L. reports a "spectacular increase" in industrial activity in the last three months but that much of the gain is speculative This agrees with the survey of the Labor Bureau Inc...
...The difficulty in organising the Industries of mass production lies not in the executive of the A. F. of L, but in the many trade aniens that have a wide measure of autonomy...
...In some boroughs these workers report for duty but refuse to work, an interesting I phase of-the old I.W.W...
...The first Roosevelt was the "Strenuous One," pursuer of "malefactors of great wealth" and the slayer of monopolies...
...What is happening in Jersey City as reported below is happening in other cities...
...ndustnal Commissioner Andrews for New York State reports an increase of 4 percent in jobs in factories and a rise of 6.7 percent in total wage payments...
...This legislative indifference is a blow ( in the face of jobless workers and their families...
...a name hard for future eckool children to remember...
...The Art of Making Clay into Demi-Goods PVERY man heaved into the pi-esi dency Bince the ascension of Theodore Roosevelt, to that office became a theme for the myth-makers...
...j All narrow views should be swept aside and supreme effort should be con* centrated upon getting workers into ' plant and industrial organizations...
...But the city, state and national governments follow another policy in order to stabilize their budgets...
...The effect upon the jobless of that city msy also be imagined...
...This is one of those contradictions of capitalism that makes it absurd...
...Washington and other centers where workers are employed in the Federal service are now feeling the full effect of the government's retrenchment...
...Further negotia] tions produced a compromise but it was I not effective...
...First is the program for increasing jobs and reviving industry...
...Even the limited measure in Wisconsin has been suspended until emp'oyment increases 20 percent or payrolls 50 percent greater than in December, 1932...
...A Socialist world would eliminate such ab-1 surdities...
...There Is also the prospect of 136,000 destitute families being deprived of homa relief and there is talk of an emergency session of the State Legislature to help* cope with this situation...
...Tax delinquencies are mounting and 4,000 pieces of property will be sold at auction...
...The A. F. of...
...These include machinists and tool and die makers and to what extent the omission of these will prevent complete solidarity experience alone will determine...
...American capitalis i continues shaken with the depression disease...
...One informed correspondent declares that the Conference delegates are trying to save their faces by continuing the discussions and thus avoid the charge of complete failure...
...Here is a background of legislative indifference, destitute millions in need, and workers lacking political influence and power...
...j The Board of Estimate failed to appropriate $8,000,000 for relief work this 1 month, the Home Relief Bureau's work has been financed on credit, with food dealers honoring food tickets of the bureau, while in the background are the banking usurers who decline to co-operate in the sale of relief bonds...
...The press agents had a difficult task with the ponderous and dull Taft and Harding and were not so successful...
...If there was ever a time when such legislation should go through with a rush it is in this period of fearful suffering...
...Its prospects are not brfaht and there are those who hold that it will eventually melt away \ ' hout accomplishing much...
...Organizing Workers In Mass Industries IT is reported that the A. F. of L. will * take up the job of organizing the automobile industry by plant and industry, ignoring craft and trade lines except for three anions...
...A Socialist View of the Week AMERICANS By william Allen Ward I INCOLN...
...This has become an art in capitalist politics for three decades and it has an influence in keeping the masses within the two-party system of politics...
...Legislative Indifference To Needs of the Jobless ANK aspect of the jobless wilderness into which some twelve millions of workers are plunged is significant...
...Representatives of other powers quietly insist that I President Roosevelt's statement wrecked the Conference and we are inclined to think that this will give the Republicans an "issue" in the Congressional elections next year...
...The fear and apprehension that brood over hundreds of thousands of working class families is sickening...
...There would be great progress in this and similar legislation ¦ if the workers <>, the nation had sent well-informed members of their class into the legislative Dodies to do their will...
...He urQes special vigilance in checking increased prices and warns that "Governments, powers will be used if necessary" against the profiteers...
...The ordinary human being vested with big responsibilities must be vested with the character of a superman...
...However, they stand as beggars before' the doors of legislatures and receivers of alms in thei homes and in the breadlines...
...Wilson became the academic wizard and master of polished rhetoric, the world's "Great Democrat" Coolidge was the quiet philosopher, the "Silent Caj," whose profound thought raised him above the common herd...
...hatever the expianst;on may be we think that some intoxication is wearing off...
...Profiteering in Bread As Many Cities Decay ACROSS the river Jersey City, a robber burg of the Democratic brand of capitalist politics like New York City, is facing a similar situation...
...Down all the stretch of history capitalism never made a mors ghastly failure than this...
...Contradictions in Government Policy TWO conflicting policies are being fol* lowed by public officials in the effort to overcome the depression...
...Administration Seek* To Speed up Slow NIRA THE National Industrial Recovery Act does not seem to be getting under way as rapidly as desired and on Tuesday President Roosevelt announced the appointment of a supreme council to coordinate the activities and direct the policies of the recovery program...
...Nearly 10,000 workers who have been receiving relief work are unpaid, 75,000 have received notice of pay cuts ranging from $4.60 to $16 per month...
...France has raised her tariff duties 30 to 150 percent in 64 categories of imports and this looks ominous for a return to the tariff war which was one reason driving the diplomats to London in the hope of salvaging a wrecked world...
...considered the next day which include housing improvements in slum districts, t ridge building and other "self-liquidating" plans...
...The Federal Government is also compelled to follow the same course...
...The A. F. of Lconvention next year recommended waiving of jurisdiction claims and at a conference of unions the following year President Green recommended industrial organization, but this was opposed by ¦ a number of unions...
...A Ghastly Crisis Facing New York City's Jobless ¦UKW YORK City has faced a number * ' of crises in recent years in providing for the jobless but serious as these have been the worst is now being faced...
...About 3,500 city employees have had their wages cut 40 percent which is sdded to a former 10 percent cut The finances of the city are sagging and the bankers will not extend credit for the rest of the year...
...They discharge public employes in order to effect financial economies and also reduce wages of those who are continued in the public service...
...The Economy Act also forced government workers to accept a 15 percent reduction in wages and they are among those who are being discharged...
...It fs like a stalled automobile on a railroad track with a train approaching and men end !_voring to get . out o. the way...
...President Green of the A. F. of L. calls attention to it "Federal employees are being furloughed and dismissed by the { thousands," he reports...
...The words "vigor,"* "speed" and "quick action" strike us as significant They imply that recovery is not progressing as- was expected end that the administration is becoming anxious...
...NonFederal works wen...
...Unemployment insurance would insure a certain income, however small, to the jobless man and it would not have the taint of degraded charity...
...Some bills called merely for an investigation and yet they were not passed...
...He is being groomed for greatness as Hoover was but the press agents should be careful...
...Harding . . . to whom the presidential ekair was auctioned much like an antique . . . cigar tmoker . . . golf player . . . ekureh number...
...Hoover . . . the forgotten man...
...method of1 "striking on the job...
...Two or three could block measures of common concern to all...
...Hoover was the "Great Engineer," the one man who knew the mechanism of capitalism and how to keep it going...
...Meantime the price of bread is soaring in some cities and this has induced Secretary of Agriculture Wallace to telegraph nearly fifty cities, warning against profiteering...
...On the same day it was announced that a list of Federal projects involving about $200,000,000 to put men to work was submitted to the President in an "effort to obtain quick action...
...It will consist of all Cabinet members and the administrators with the view of putting "vigor" and speed into the machinery of the act...
...The rival powers are sparring for time and position while the platform is burning beneath them...
...They recall the autonomous states that emerged from the American Revolution with large powers of sovereignty...
...i The World Economic i Conference Is Sick 1*11 E World Economic Conference in 1 London appeared to be on the toboggan late last week but a statement by Secretary of State Hull induced it to work on a new agenda...
...This is essential if the politicians lire to get capitalism out of its sick bed...
...The proposal to organise the automobile industry on industrial lines in 1925 came from the Metal Trades Department but quite a number of the craft unions objected...
...Unemploy- • ment insurance bill: were introduced in ] 2S state legislatures and in Congress and yet not one law has been enacted...
...The most fesrlest man in this country, if not in the world," says an admirer...
Vol. 16 • July 1933 • No. 3
