Rocky Mountain Socialist Conference Recalls Grim Labor Battles of the Past
Hazlett, Ida Crouch
Rocky Mountain Socialist Conference Recalls Grim Labor Battles of the Past By Ida Crouch Hazlett Santa Fe, N. Mex. ^ WESTERN conference of Socialist Party organizations of the Rocky Mountain...
...While ihe national trade union congress deliberates the National Association of Manufacturers is also on the ground...
...Moyer was urged by his wife to give up his office, but stuck to his place in the struggle...
...Potentially, the middle classes are the easiest victims of fascist "This makes it doubly important for them to be won for Socialism...
...and the Communist—fish for all the votes they can get...
...At the recent by-election the Tory majority was eat to M01 In tho ls»t general atotsian the vote was HjS&b) tor the National candidate to 3,705 for the Socialist, who tost his dsposi t for failing to poll eight ear cent of she total vote...
...The great trouble is yon working monkeys want to feed your young monkeys equal with me, the monkey who owns the grove and the picking machine...
...Referring to the recant admission of Floyd L. Carlisle, chairman of the Consolidated Gas Co., that its stock is watered and its assets written-up, Bright called on the Supervisors to tell the Westchester Lighting Co...
...It could not be avoided as the enormous pi Mesne of the depression compelled unions to yield...
...The wage level declined, in some trades in sheer desperation union men quietly worked foe less than the union scale with fhe knowledge of union officials...
...Labor declared thai \y organization oi the industries it could solve its problems...
...Not a union man was convicted...
...Important legislation is reaching a critical stage...
...Every cocoannt each monkey picked'was his own, until oaa>4 a wise eld monkey isvented a eoeoanut picking machine...
...Socialists of Westchester In Battle With Utility Companies WHITE PLAINS, N. Y.— Before the hard-boiled Republican Budget and Appropriations Committee of the Westchester County Board of Supervisors foes of the Westchester Lighting Co...
...We are more likely to get Jhaa^to^n^Socialist appeal to reason, than by mere denunciation Contest Between Capitalism and Socialism T^PAT the general election will be a clear-cut contest between capW™1 ftahem and Socialism is admitted even by Tory members of the armament, which makes the position of MacDonald's National Labor #recp all the more uncomfortable...
...They want the old anarrh rule of their class which brought universal misery to the toilers in industry and agriculture...
...As reported in the Glasgow Forward of March 23, Comrade Ssjaai said: "Labor is reaching a sensible attitude towards the middle classes...
...Victor L. Berger, the first Socialist Congressman...
...Don't cry baby, Msf* rentes mother%w the run, • Did...
...Labor had already been moving away from its old isolation from government...
...Mpr would it be good for the party or the country if our electoral appeal was too narrow...
...The struggle is a dispute over the control of government agencies, over legislation and administntion...
...Even though I attach considerable ^^^¦e to the working class elements being powerful in the Labor wLW—Wmu must face fhe fact that we cannot win the country with Trade Union votes alone...
...So they agreed, and in one-sixth of the time formerly required they picked the crop and delivered onehalf to the wise old moneky...
...In the new can&dal legislature the Socialist deftgatlen has been increased from^to 44, in a total of 130...
...furry at the next general election...
...The strongest arguments against the Power Trust were presented by Leonsrd Bright, county executive secretary of the Socialist Party, who also represented Local 143, International Ladies' < Garment Workers' Union, and Local 445, International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
...So he had to consent...
...He would do as he pleased with them...
...Not long after I became Secretary of the Lon|as forty I realized that London could not be captured or held for later and Socialism unless we won considerable support among the 'paek-eosts.' I said so...
...w The Western Federation of Miners had among its advisers a number of men and women prominent in economic thought \ and radical ideas—among them, first and foremost, Eugene V. Debs, the martyr of working-class liberties in America...
...At too by-election the vote was 17.586 to 7,9*4 for the Social ist, a tojaseoi of votes in Labor's favor of 21,244 to a single district...
...Back in 1923, the American Federation of Labor decided not to present the claims of labor to Congress...
...The wise old monkey then asked them: "How are you going to pay me back...
...THEN earn* the war for sweet Democracy, Death and destruction and disease set free, And bombshells tore the ski**, tore the ground where they fell, Tore the tender flesh of boym, marching on to hell...
...Abundance of cocoanuts grew to this grove for all the ntonkeys in it...
...In other words, do we need J the right to live and the means to 1 live on this earth...
...The con¦pto certain to mark a new milestone in the progress of British Racialism and its outcome will be of the utmost importance to the ^toas of Europe...
...and president of the Montana Federation of Labor, as chairman...
...they take the position which had been taken in 1923 by the American Federation of Labor and which the latter has abandoned...
...Clarence Darrow, and other distinguished thinkers on economics and social and political problems...
...They waited to sec what the government would deThen came the National Industrial Recovery Act.„ The Ng* bankers and big business men came out of their hiding places...
...He was, however, attacked several times and beaten almost beyond the semblance of a man...
...But he refused, so the spokesmonkey said: "There is but one thing left for us to do, throw you out of the grove...
...They were in full flight before the terrible economic Storm thai swept them out of the picture...
...hie dad as bent On tending him to college if we borrow every cent...
...Litten...
...The masters of industry and finance have a vast majority of dollars...
...Before the following crop was ready to pick the monkeys were oat ef cocoanuts...
...Your baby'* crying, missus, fit to burnt hi* hide, Torn in twenty place***li# barbed wire outside, We can't g*> out to get him 'cause there's hell loose all around, And a thousand others like him on the bloody, stinking ground...
...Your Baby's Crying, Missus" 19...
...When the National Labor voter, who calls atoself a Socialist, reads in his newspaper or hears from speakers that "toe issue is between National Government and Socialism' he naturally Bh...
...Haywood was placed under indictment again and again—finally he left the country secretly and died in Russia...
...The spokesmonkey told the wise monkey when he died his brains would die with him and his young monkeys would have to help pick the cocoanuts...
...There is no father way bat the collective ownerfsnlp of the ¦¦¦¦¦ ef life...
...To keep-out of my room when Pm getting dressed...
...However, labor could not forever remain isolated frofa government...
...The reason is obvious...
...Then came support of legislation for iirtemployment insurance...
...but the same result occurred as the previous year...
...Labor feared goven ment intervention in industrial relations...
...They became a power, a menacing power to the organized workers...
...More and more the burdens of the capitalist failure fell upon the trade unions...
...the udemed amnss fcsM gast tying to the sun...
...It is also It tactics...
...look in the linen chest, Take one of dad's, but don't take the beet...
...The next stage in the [mlkical evolution of the organized working masses is the independent organization of their votes to defeat the dollars of the masters of industry and finance...
...The occupational census statistics proved it atoa I f°t my colleague...
...Organised capital and finance has mobilised defeat the measures the workers want...
...TV/^tholic party just held its ys seats, while the Liberal, Radical, and Communist parties each lost two, the Peasants' party lest three, and a new parte-, of somewl*t problematical character, made fa advent with three mera-hSnB#*^'' British Labor Party Scores Big Increase The British Labor party is moving forward irresistibly...
...The Future Political Struggle...
...Better somewhat fewer Labor ntotaaa a*ore Socialists than more votes and no real Socialist mandate...
...with the Belgian Labor Party participating in a mm government in which it is the main driving force determined to ¦pit** fundamental changes in the economic life of the nation, and ajta Socialist victories reported from Switzerland, attention is now aamed to the coming parliamentary elections in England...
...In a few years union treauasBsna were being exhausted...
...V Of course, they're expensive, but P4 rather choose To save on something else and get the right shoes...
...that they would not do bpsiness with the Power Trust a minute longer than is necessary and to make plans immediately for a county owned light and power plant which would serve the county and the consumers both...
...MacDonald is still a Socialist...
...Wear gear bath iajtoarfg emd y*wr vegetables ore dens, - So do*** try b*m*?%**&'pnr_ mother on th* rum...
...Unity on election day...
...The railway depot at Independence, m the Cripple Creek djft.-fct, was "blown up, scabs were sal' to have been killed and a reurn jaf tea?or ww*m ema, bob *U I""1 " prevailed...
...Charles H. Moyer, president, and Pettibone...
...Come here sister, if you want to play, Or pick up your toys and put them away...
...As already reported in The New Leader, the Socialists now have four seats instead of two in the council of mnvsters or executive body of the canton, which has seven member* to all...
...In my view, the more reasoned, anajrajtive sad frank Socialism we preach to the middle classes, the aare seaport we shall get from them...
...They want no thirty-hour week, no unemployment insurance by the government, no guarantee of genuine union bargaining over wages, hours and other conditions...
...J The Cripple Creek district has sever been able to rally as a union town again, and the blight that fell on Cripple Creek has extended and remains like a dust fog over fhe entire mining territory, while the submission of many toilers is l&e that of the bonded slave—glad Hpr his keep...
...Bierly rVNCE upon s time there was s eoeoanut grave inhabited by a large tribe of monkeys...
...The organized workers have become conscious of the need of having government power back of their demands...
...When the wise monkey saw that there ' was discontent among the monkeys, he said he would draw a title for the grove...
...The western organizing committee is a sub-committee of the National Executive Committee, with James D. Graham, a member of the N.E.C...
...Swiss Socialists Gain in Basel Elections The recent elections in the Swiw canton of Basel-Stadt* resulted in a substantial victory for the Social Democratic party...
...It had approved the principle of old-age pensions...
...Thousands of workers in this region are coming to understand that they must fight their way out of the abyss into which modern machines have thrust them...
...Stop bargaining with these crooks...
...E ; "The important thing for the Labor Party is so to educate the SaWtaraU in the principles of Socialism that its voters are welltotonaed and accept our Socialist views...
...A striking thing about this conflict is that labor has mass* all of its resources in a pressure drive upon the government...
...An interesting sidelight on this Hpt of the question is thrown by the Manchester Guardian Weekly, ¦ha considers MacDonald still a "Socialist...
...When they called for cocoanuts again to tide them over for the next crop, again came the reply: "You working monkeys mast learn to economise...
...It is a little too Banal, for, after all, Mr...
...over laws and their interpretation and enforcement It is a political struggle...
...Pettibone died under the pressure of the persecution...
...In itsr issue of April 5, ^¦journal writes: R"Ths Prime Minister's National Labor group is getting uncom...
...They had nothing to offer that would stay the ravage* of the collapse...
...The Power Trust," he said, "has robbed the people, it has spent large sums on 'educational' propaganda in schools and colleges, it has corrupted legislators—witness Senator Thayer—and is unworthy of any consideration...
...Labor Martyrs The union claimed that they were committed by assasins hired by the mine owners...
...The Tragedy That Came to Unionism Then came the terrible calamity near the and of the year 1929...
...The Western Federation of Miners was organised on advanced and aggressive lines such as no union in this country had ventured upon, an organisation that was overwhelmed and finally destroyed by the assault made upon it by organized capital...
...As the 'News-Letter,' the organ of Mr...
...It sees one Tory member of the Government after another ¦tag about the next election as a great fight between the National Hhmment and Socialism, and it dries not like it...
...WESTERN conference of Socialist Party organizations of the Rocky Mountain region, to be held in Denver or Salt Lake City next July, promises to be a notable gathering for the building of the party organization in the West...
...The industrial struggle correlates with the struggle to wrest something substantial from the governing powers...
...The Socialist vote is growing in Westchester," said Bright...
...demanded the rejection of ah offer made by the Power Trust to cut the rates for lighting of county parkways and buildings so as to save he county only $2,000 a month...
...The wise monkey answered: "You- cannot pay for past eonsumption and still have enough to liveon from your next picking...
...that would be a Bfyaay,' because within twelve months 'there would be such disjaii..........| on the part of its faithful and hopeful followers that would be a danger of a violent reaction.' The theory is, therelifc, that 'the thoughtful working man who calls himself an evolution¦X^eialist' sees this, and is quite content to vote against those who |kaSe themselves to introduce Socialism if only he can think 'that Ml Socialist leaders should sit in a National Cabinet and put their Br* into a common pool with the ideas of Conservative and Liberal assert,' The 'News-Letter' is hardly up to date in its metaphors...
...Especially in the liffht of what had happened alter the collapse in 1929...
...The Mai now most familiar to the working man, thoughtful or other, is toe into which you can put quite a lot but have only a thousand-to-one datoe of taking anything out...
...H. Dairies, to analyze them...
...But perhaps that is pretty much the jBpaof the Natiojral Labor group in the present Government's pool...
...As the .manufacturers issue a manifesto on how to recover from the depression, hundreds of delegates of the United States Cfmmber ©/ Commerce also gather in the capital...
...But the spokesmonkey said: "I told you we did not need to economfze befo re the' machine came and there are as many cocoanuts in the grove as ever, and what are you going to do with your surplus...
...ryXVT say ain't...
...They single .»!»*" the legislative measures tlte organized workers want as the "uncertainties" they oppose...
...The economic struggle is not negKStoel...
...if this kind of thing goes on the Government will get no Ijtsor support at all...
...So the spokesmonkey advised the monkeys, as a reward for his brains, should pick all the cocoanuts, break a fresh supply for the wise monkey each day and that be would need do nothing but eat ccoanuts and take his ease...
...They recovered from their fright and became aggressive...
...He used figures of the New York State Power Authority to bring out the extent of stockwatering by the utilities...
...Labor mees hi a special congress to hack up proposed legislation which iK0f* sidered vital to its existence and growth aad necessary...
...in the Black Hills of Iskota— practically throughout th*" JaTiSmining and milling industry of the West...
...So the organised labor movement today 'is government conscious, it knows the impu .leanI mi 1 i jjgngjhiili i power on its side...
...One gathering supports it and the other opposes it...
...I used to be told scornfully by the aa tarVI Left that I was 'fishing for middle class votes.' L L. P. and Communists After Votes "T\0 set let us humbug ourselves...
...The blame for these crimes was laid on the miners...
...He called all the monkeys together and told them he would build a machine for each six monkeys in the grove...
...Baker's shoes, they balance fhe weight...
...Listen, mom, the laundry never earns...
...QRGANIZED workers and organized capita] and finance 4t(^f rant each other in the nation's capital this week...
...Labor in industry and agriculture has a vast majority of votes...
...They wiggled themselves into every niche of the NRA...
...In 1931 the Labor party was defeated by 30346 votes...
...Both sections of organized capital and finance declare against tile intrusion of "government into business...
...The defendants were Bill Haywood, secretary of the Federation...
...Graham was also formerly the manager of the Montana News, the paper most influential in the big struggles of the Western Federation of Miners many years ago...
...On the contrary, it goes on as before...
...a •' - • "I know my dothes are out of style, , But I don't rare...
...Perth has always been considered a ho pleas district for Labor...
...But one wonders whether the National Labor group's idea of Hpt it any better...
...Tber make valuable recruits...
...So the struggle is waged Itetween organized workers and organized capital and finance within the shadow of the nation's capital...
...so they requested the wise old monkey to give these some of his cocoanuts to tide them over until the new crop was ready to pick, but the wise monkey told them they- had to learn to economize, to live within their income...
...If they would grant him such a title he would provide them with abundance f cocoanuts...
...So they did, and they had abundance until the crop was ready to pick and a long tiro after...
...They must own the machines or perish, and it is expected that the regional conference of Socialists will make clear to them the'importance of a party of their own...
...Look at her toy all over my floor...
...Of course he's going to college, I don't know where But he made a 90 average and he has a flair For history and language...
...The Parable of the Coconut Grove By B.F...
...The spokesmonkey answered: "From our next picking...
...The spokesmonkey answered him that they never needed to economize before the machine was invented and there were as many ccoanuts in the...
...That i...
...Labor wants the Wagner Labor Relations Bill, the Thirty-Hour Week Bill, the Social Security Bill arother measures...
...Despite these irrefutable facts...
...He wrote home to hi* mother, "Yours truly" took the prize For knocking co-eds gaga with his big blue eyes, Everythmg wa* "swell" except the food wa* not so "hot," And th* first year he warn homesick quite a lot...
...It is a dramatic spectacle, the representative of two classes confronting each other before the national legislature...
...mamees, * to bust hi, hide" Iks flame and b™ outsuie...
...And I ain't got a handkerchief to my name, . And gee, whiz, mom, will you tell that pent...
...in Cripple Creek, Colorado...
...When operated by six monkeys they could pick six times as many cocoanuts per monkey as they could by heed, and do it a great deal easier...
...The eases lasted over a year, at Cripple Creek, Boise and Rathdrum, Idaho...
...They tried to take care of their stricken members...
...Another by-election, this time in the Perth < (flaStituency in Scotland, shows the relentless tide toward Socialist vie...
...He replied that was none of their business as they were his cocoanuts, picked in his grove with his machines...
...At first the "captains of industry" deserted...
...They were pathetic in their cowardice...
...Some pertinent remarks on the importance of gaining the support at the middle classes were made recently by Herbert Morrison, leader at the London Labor Party and its chief representative in the London Casaty Council...
...yUung' fellow, like a good little chap, Put on your rubber* and take gear cap, fife blowing up cold and it's going to anew, Had old man Winter's going to lay you low, ¦ ' So don't be a smariie and don't be a asp, . But put on your rubbers and take your cap...
...From that day forth the machine was a blessing and the grove was again the heritage of all the monkeys...
...The codes provided by the N.I.K.A...
...Not having it, they, are required by the terrible conditions of the masses to call the spokesmen of the labor army "to Washington...
...A similar fate overtook the sheriff of Bakersfield, who had intended giving testimony at the trials in favor of the Western Federation, but after hearing one trial changed his mind and was about to give evidence against the union...
...Pettibone, one of the three defendants in the historic labor trials that followed, a Pimm* business msn and merely a friend ef the Western Federathat, «M tMl others in the bull-pen, and pknead through the stomach by « bayonet in the hands of a guard...
...MacPbaald's group, today says, "The number of Labor voters who support the Government has diminished since 1931.' The main cause, it thinks, jb this bad propaganda...
...With consummate brass the maniifaturcrs declare that 4hcy can spend twentv billion dollars in fac' ^ expansion and production if "political uncertainties'' are removed...
...Oar British comrades arc- preparing for the elections, which may ato alar* in the Fait, with a discipline and energy truly remarkable, ftoy are out to capture the support not only of the workers but also g tee middle classes in order to assure a solid majority for the fjaafist program...
...Carl D. Thompson, long the secretary of the Municipal i Ownership League of Chicago...
...Under such influences the Federation adopted as its political policy the platform of the Socialist Party, demanding the collective ownership of the means of production and distribution...
...That political evolution must in the end develop the independent labor party of the workers...
...It may well be imagined, with the economic and social chaos, what a state of mind such a declaration from the working Class would make upon the great exIdaho...
...provided they would give him half the cocoanuts they picked, and that they then would have three tiroes as many cocoanuts per day aa they had before with less labor...
...Robert Hunter, Socialist authority on housing and American poverty...
...They are as important to Labor as the rural workers...
...wiU you took at that *mnfel ,. Will you look mt these legs, are they strong, are they straight...
...We mast not hide our Socialism...
...Do we need Socialism in the ['Vest...
...All political parties—including " the LLP...
...also otade it imperative for organized^workers to) has« their sentinels at Wo*^to|§*9tV The ganized worker- were involved in a,maze of kjspgltoiva^jpfjgj^|j|b * ano-ine era wea or messjssaw iijwif gi^ratvanci^r^BS-a^MtwjPip^^BPilP*"^ vive even as a memory...
...Bible...
...The conference recalls the terrible struggle that organized labor made against the Mine Owners' Association and the smelter trust thirty years ago, a straggle in which Socialists participated...
...The masters established the bull-pen in Idaho, rith Ha totoal horrors, and atrocities "of" mm militia...
...HHpBt time, too...
...It is ' ......— The Workers Abroad An International Review of the Socialist and Labor Movement of the World British Labor Prepares for Battle gjrfTH Socialist governments at work in the three Scandinavian B^gpantries and our comrades in Czechoslovakia preparing for a ¦tpgad election which is expected to enhance the power and prestige df their movement...
...One union movement and one labor party, both united for common aims, both cooperating in every struggle of the masses for relief now and liberation in the future...
...The but year woe great, • He made Phi Bete H* won a language scholarship to study in Franee And wore hi* father's dress-suit to th* senior dance...
...The Governor of Idaho was blown into bits as he was entering his own gate...
...A Fact That Must Be Faced <*np fact must be faced that what is generally known as the I aahfle class is the only growing class in the community...
...grove as there ever were...
...It does not want the return of a Socialist Goverament pledged to introduce Socialist measures...
...Govdswment must do this and must do that, they said...
...Organized Labor Meets in Washington Conference Organized Manufacturers and Chamber of OlCoffimerce March on Nation's Capital in Opposition to Labor's Program and Demand Its Destruction...
Vol. 18 • May 1935 • No. 18
