Crisis of Capitalism Reveals Big Changes in Old Order
Crisis of Capitalism Reveals Big Changes in Old Order THE debts of three world powers since 1919 are graphically shown iti this chart. Brcat Britain is the largest and the United States debt is...
...WORKERS' NEED OF REPRESENTATION Discussing the lack of labor representation on the code authorities, the A. F. of L. survey says that recovery will be short-lived unless balance between production and consumption is kept...
...But the ultimate aim is not thoroughgoing Socialism...
...Even when a full membership is present there may be more or less delay because of difference of opinion in the board, but when only a few attend meetings little is done at all...
...Toward curbing excessive profits, YES, but there's no agreement as to what constitutes excessive profits...
...Just where it will lead remains to be seen...
...The great majority of policy-making officials think in terms of the profit system...
...Is the Roosevelt program socialistic...
...It isn't doctrinaire...
...It knows that the only chance of getting back the rrreat sums already spent and the still greater sums to be spent lief in the success of the recovery program...
...Code control," it continues, "will become a domination by the very management groups that have shown their inability to keep wages and consuming power proportionate with producing power...
...Add the debts of the states, cities, counties, etc., in the United States, estimated at 18 billions, and the combined American debts will be nearly 50 billions in 1935...
...Simpson Elected Controller in Toronto Socialist and Trode-Unloiilsf Carries Canadian City with 47,358 Votes...
...They know that the whole recovery program aims not at revolution but seeks to preserve the present system by eliminating or toning down some of Its worst evils...
...The employers as a general rule can hold out longer than the workers in this period of depression...
...AN important issue has arisen in the National Labor Board at Washington which has been accumulating for months...
...LABOR'S EXPERIENCE WITH THE NRA Officials of organized labor are bitter over the effect of NRA codes on the pay of skilled workers and over the failure of NRA heads to give labor representation on the Code authorities, as the code governing bodies are known...
...Simpson polled 47,358 votes, while Mrs...
...While the Government's proposed budget can be called "staggering," to use a word now frequently employed the public debt burden in the United States Is not as heavy as in some nations...
...This was the first time the C.C.F...
...Roosevelt has started something and he cannot let go...
...Alice Buck, Communist candidate, polled 9,767 for the same office...
...Comrade Shiplaeoff has been ill for a long time, but during the summer he was able to get away to the Deborah Sani- A. I. Shiplaeoff tarium In New Jersey, where he built up a considerable reserve of health and strength...
...The rect very program does seek to preserve profits and the profit system, but it is dealing blows at the laisaez (aire idea that may in the end be a deciding factor in bringing fur...
...The latest A. F. of L. monthly survey of business, however, takes up the two grievances wiih considerable directness...
...These vaporings range from fevered denunciations of the Roosevelt regime as "Socialism," to cautious and gentlemanly remarks such as: "Industry fears that recovery measures being formulated at Washington place an inac equate evaluation on the profit motive...
...it is now a permanent program...
...This situation brings out the inequality of class status of wageworkers in the functioning of a board that is expected to be "impartial...
...Brcat Britain is the largest and the United States debt is approaching the size of Great Britain's...
...In addition he has been vicepresident of the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada, and has frequently been a delegate to the A. F. of L. conventions...
...They may and they may not have a legitimate reason for being absent...
...Unless labor is given representation on the code authorities, the survey says, "there will be no agent an the Code Authorities to see that wages and buying power increase prcportionately with producing power, no strong organized group interested in keeping economic nalance...
...ship^coffIuTt post graduate hospital Socialists and members of the labor movement will be grieved to hear of the serious illness of A. I. Shiplaeoff, who is in the Post Graduate Hospital in New York...
...Karl Marx is not in mini...
...But however optimistically the public debt may be viewed, the Government attempt at bringing recovery will entail an enormous bill which will put tin...
...The United States Government is today the most extensive .employer of workers in all history...
...ULTIMATE AIM IS UNCERTAIN Light is thrown on the real business by information service, run by a man who has long been giving his subscribers what purports to be the "low down" on Washington affairs...
...He has built and set in motion a colossal "recovery" machine, which, at least, makes the appearance of forward motion...
...An awakened working class organized into a clear-headed Socialist Party and into unions and farmers' organisations conscious of the need of political power to represent the nation's toilers...
...He is a member of the typographical union, and has served as president of his local, as well as 6? the Toronto central labor body...
...All that Is required to drag out and delay decisions Is for the Industrial members to not attend meetings...
...So far unskilled labor has been the principal beneficiary...
...The foregoing is perhaps one of the best brief analyses of the aims of the Roosevelt program that has appeared...
...It is possible that the steps will lead so far that there can be no turning back and that the destination will be one not contemplated by President Roosevelt and most of his advisers...
...Another opinion says that the President is playing a smart game and that he really does not intend to spend all, he asks, the idea being that later, the Administration can take credit for not using the full appropriation's total...
...His friends hope and expect that that reserve will enable him to pass over his present illness successfully and that before long his sweet nature and winning personality will be with us again...
...He has written much on Socialism and labor problems, and has lectured in Canada, the United States, England, New Zealand and Australia for labor and Socialism...
...On Monday, for example, when the board had before it the ; critical captive mine Issue, none of the Ave industrial members were present...
...But they are few...
...Jimmy" Simpson, who has been Controller of Toronto for a number of years, is one of the most popular and important figures in the Canadian labor movement, and is well known in the American Federation of Labor...
...One opinion holds that the Administration must be "powerfully scairt" to propose borrowing 10 billion dollars this year, the bulk of which is to be spent on the recovery program...
...The purpose behind the new socialistic policies is not to embrace Socialise, but rathe> to sate capitalism...
...but workers of average or higher wages have been forced to a lower iving standard...
...His service recently said: "The essence of the Roosevelt program lies in social control, rather than State Socialism...
...in 1933 it was 6,249,888...
...lamental economic change...
...Simpson is 60 years old, a native of England, and the son of an active trade unionist...
...Very often the time clement is so important in a strike that it becomes vital to the strikers...
...Certainly YES, the trend is more and more in thia direction...
...Much of the Wall Streit criticisms show little appreciation of the real aim of the Roosevelt program...
...To Save Capitalism, Not To Build Socialism, Is the Aim of Roosevelt ¦By ObserverWashington, D. C. WASHINGTON doesn't know what to make of the President's huge budget program...
...A few radicals within the Administration would secretly like to abolish the profit system, and substitute government dictation as the force to make men work and do right...
...Especially do the outpourings >f Wall Street amuse he insiders...
...The proposed expenditures, with the existing public debt, forecast a debt of some 31 billions by July 1, 1936, an all-time high figure...
...Is Roosevelt policy heeded toward abolition of private profits...
...What is lacking to guide this change into Socialist channels...
...If he docs, disaster seems sure, whereas if he hangs on he may be the winner...
...Reviewing 1933 from the workers' standpoint, the survey says: "In wages there have been definite gains under codes for the lowest-wage groups...
...ticket as Trustee of the Board of Education in the Fifth Ward...
...There comes a time in some strikes when every day of delay in making a decision really contributes to strengthen the bosses...
...Probably the truth ie that the President is like the man in the celebrated story who had the bear by the tail...
...The owners of industry, whatever their problems may be, do not have to worry about meals for themselves and their families...
...Rose Henderson was elected on the C.C.F...
...There will be -1 much talk of making the wealthy pay the larger share, through higher income and inheritance taxes and other means, but as usual it will be the common people who will do most of the paying...
...on the other hand, it may be a subtle form of sabotage against the striking workers if they do not attend...
...In failing to expedite complaints made to the board by trade unions, especially those that are involved in a strike, the workers are not only placed at a disadvantage, but the employing class involved in strikes gain by the delay...
...Running for the first time under the banner of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, the political federation of trade unions, farmers' organisations and Socialist bodies, James Simpson was re-elected Controller of Toronto at the recent city elections by a heavy majority...
...Then note this...
...Insiders who know best what is In the minds of ruling Washington officialdom have many a laugh st assertions that 'he Roosevelt Administration Is dead set on achieving Socialism...
...A U. S. Court 5 to 4 decision on Monday sustained a Minnesota law establishing a moratorium on mortgage foreclosures, which forecasts judicial support of the emergency powers of President Roosevelt under the NRA...
...The idea is to have government regulate and supervise business in a general way, rather than have the government do the business itself...
...For several weeks it has been difficult to get the members together...
...But though many Wall Streeters may "view with alarm" the Roosevelt experiment, quite likely the "big boyi-" in the street car not seriously alarmed at the danger of Roosevelt "Socialism," though they do -iot like the "redistribution of wealth" talk and other ballyhoo that comes out in connection with NRA...
...The NRA began as emergency legislation...
...ftreatest burden on the masses...
...otherwise it would not risk the wrath of the taxpayer...
...This Is a fact that Socialists and trade unionists will do well to emphasize, pointing out that the wage workers will pay the cost of attempting » preserve an outworn economic fcystem...
...The 48 state sovereignties decline to a lesser role in the scheme of government...
...This is noted by a Wall Street commentator, who remarks: "As Great Britain's debt of 87 billions or 80 per cent of the total wealth, compares with the prospective United States debt of 82 billions, or less than 10 per cent of its wealth, this country seems to be far away from its limit...
...To the British debt must be added the debt of local governing bodies, both totaling more than 40 billion dollars...
...But as a matter of pollicy they have not said much recently, especially about the pay of skilled workers...
...The same complaint was recently voiced by the eonservativu Matthew Woll, A. F. of L. vice-president, who said that under the codes millions have been set to wotk and the average real wage maintained despite shortened hours...
...TORONTO...
...What u happening...
...It's merely a step-by-step procedure, each step being taken for some immediate practical reason...
...With the working class this worry dogs them day and night after a strike has continued for .. certain time, the period depending upon the resources of the union and the aid that can be obtained from sympathetic organizations...
...he was if raid to let go and so he hung on and ran like biases with the bear...
...This occurs when a struggle has lasted a few weeks and the issue Is before the board...
...WALL STREET HAS THE JITTERS The Administration must be convinced that the expenditures of stupendous sums of money is necessary to prevent disaster...
...in 1931 it was 1,175,475...
...If even partial success is achieved the Government's income will jump and there will be hope of reducing the public debt and the burden of taxation...
...Remember that the existence of the Government depends on taxes, and taxes under our present system depend mainly on profits...
...If codes are to establish effective machinery for general upward progress in living standards, then workers who are producers and consumers must be represented on the policy-making boards...
...Thus far," he added, "this has happened largely at the expense of skilled workers already employed, whose wages have been somewhat lowered...
...In the same election Dr...
...He was secretary of the Canadian Labor Party prior to the organization of the C.C.F., and for decades has been an active Socialist...
...In 1916 the number employed was 768,270...
...He must give it all the fuel (money) it needs, in the hope that it will eventually bring recovery...
...The industrial and governing system is slowly changing under the impact of the crisis of capitalism...
...They see the program either as red revolution or as a guarantee of profits...
...Success would be vindication of the Administration's program and policies and would tend to silence the taxpayers' howls of anguish...
...Delays by Labor Board Injure Workers Strikes An Imperiled Wh,» Labor Members Foil te Skew Up...
...had ever appeared as such in an election in Toronto, Simpson and other Socialist candidates having run in previous elections under other designations...
Vol. 17 • January 1934 • No. 2
