BILLS DON'T GO FAR ENOUGH MERRILL TELLS LEGISLATORS
Shiplacoff Memorial Friday, February 8 Meeting to Honor Socialist and Labor Leader on the universary of His Death gfjfPiam Si. nicpiiiKiwrJ L^L^L^LGri' ——^— ¦jilkSDAY, February 7th, BQi the...
...It was apparent, however, that a great majority of those present agreed with Algernon Lee, Norman Thomas and others who maintained in substance: (1) The national recognition of the principle of old age security and unemployment indemnity marks an Important advance for the workng class...
...he knew his (and our) danger when the rascally ex-bartender and prizefighter Martin G. McCue openly incited to...
...3) they should sharply point out the deficiencies in the bills and agitate for their, improvement...
...who prsyihe sweetness of his charKjiistharrn and his bubbling ¦¦Mggften loved him as a man mtmMhat they forgot his sterlMbHr and his matchless deWMMd that was hardly to be MHp at, considering how great MJbonal charm was...
...The auditorium was filled to overflowing with comrades who had come out to participate in a discussion of an immediate economic problem...
...Morris Feinstone, Secretary of the United Hebrew Jjfce...
...Israel Katz, Louis Wald•iHind August Claessens, who also served with Shiplacoff in faJUti Sadie Rivkin, and Dr...
...In the discussion which followed the addresses a wide varU ety of opinions was expressed with regard to what should be the attitude of Socialists in relation to the program now before Congress...
...Louis Sadoff, intimate associates Brownsville movement...
...nicpiiiKiwrJ L^L^L^LGri' ——^— ¦jilkSDAY, February 7th, BQi the first anniversary ¦U^ssinK of the beloved K||ni I. Shiplacoff after a KStJ agonizing itlne-s...
...He knew he stood with his comrades far from the source of Socialist strength in New York City when reactionaries seriously proposed that restaurants and hotels refuse to serve the Socialists...
...He sleeps today out in Mount Carmel beside his old teacher, B. Feigenbaum, who had for him the affection of a father for a beloved son, and near Ben Schlesinger, Meyer London, Max Pine, Vladimir Medem, and other great heroes of the Socialist and Labor movement...
...They agreed, also, in saying that the so-called unemployment insurance plan is essentially unsound, thiit it will not work, and may do harm by discrediting the .very idea of unemployment insurance...
...Harry Lopatin, a product of Shiplacoff's Socialist edujftl William M. Feigenbaum, who served in the New York IjpNy under Shiplacoff's leadership...
...A. I. ShiplacofT was a man and it will be long before his like will be seen again...
...Some workers would receive compensation and other*, just because they happened to work on another side of an imaginary line, would receive none...
...For these und other reasens the speakers agreed" that' thxr part- of- the- ,{sSa«should be defeated...
...He was a great leader...
...Shiplacoff stood at the very peak...
...Hut his courage never failed, und his temper was never ruffled...
...No one could impeach his sincerity, his honesty, his intrepidity, his courage...
...has approve...
...His work in the labor movement is another story that has never been fully told...
...Norman Thomas drew attention to the fact that because of our method of distributing a large part of our income to investors who are absentee owners home states sre actually ton poor to embark on any state plan of insurance...
...Harry Rcgoff of the Jewish Daily Forward...
...Iltt kWhose who knew him and Lfcid frith him in the Socialist Ithi fifc*r movement, ShiplacofT Eaji^Pnever will be merely n ly* m takes his place among Cgaptlist immortals with men Laatwn of stich diverse charErittk' and contributions to our El It Meyer London and WillKjWlJy, Ben Hanford and BenKjtfiigenbaum, Anna A.Maley Blafene V. Debs, Ben SchlesBrind Morris Hillquit, comrades Hfil nothing mattered except ¦•Sgress of the cause to which HKd devoted their lives...
...It was his very being,, ' This is not the occasion to recount individual incidents of his devotion and his heroism—and they wore many...
...Many, perhaps most, of the states will not cooperate, and we should have have under its terms a ridiculous situation...
...Louis P. GoldHbane of ShiplacofT* closest associates in the Brownsville •joient...
...the lion-like courage he showed, together with his colleague, the late Joseph A. Whitehorn, in the 1917 legislature, when the "patriots" were howling for blood...
...Joseph Weinberg, President of the Workjjjjfc Circle...
...bL ShipUcoff were combined ¦MrUng and a beautiful char¦r, remarkable ability , and a ¦tfjEfd devotion to his cause...
...A thorMfeuig secularist in religion, Ppted by the orthodox for Nlriing" the youth by bringing them the Soeisrrst ideal, nevertheless he was the most soughtafter man in Brownsville by these very orthodox religionists for advice on every problem under the sun, from bringing up their children and family tangles to industrial and economic troubles...
...May we who have inherited from him the sad world he left all too soon be worthy of the legacy of inspiration they hive left for us...
...of a bill introduced into.4h« legislature of Pennsylvania by Darlington Hoopes...
...lynching...
...He knew they hated him, although in their hearts they had to admire him...
...One speaker expressed the ophv ion that the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party should have presented before this a set of model security bills.whlets , Socialists could enthusiastically support...
...Tin i same bill, he continued, will be Introduced Into the legislature of Connecticut by the Socialist assemblymen and can be used by Socialists to show what it is thai they stand for in this field ot leg.slation...
...but it is safe tu say that he set a standard of lofty idealism and unselfish devotion that may well stand forever us an inspiration to labor leaders everywhere...
...Both said, moreover, that what we want is unemployment "indemnity" rather than unemployment "insurance...
...Gifted with a mellow voice, a winning smile, a delightful sense of fun, and a wealth of information, firm logic and a gift of expression, married to indomitable courage, a speech by "Ship" was always something to listen to...
...For Bjjpycars before his death KJJcoft had heen too ill tu ¦unite <n active work, and B»are therefore many < i the meml)ers of the party to En h( is 1,111 a name...
...nor ptiplacoff Memorial Meeting Friday HBRE will be a meeting to honor the memory of A. I. Shiplacoff MMay, February 8th, at the Debs Auditorium, 7 F.iest 15th ¦Ht, at 8:30...
...of the procession in this field of activity...
...To hear'him speak anywhere—on the street corner or in a lecture hall, in a committee or convention or in a legislative body —was a delight...
...Those who watched him during his three terms in the New York Legislature will never forget the lone fight he waged against the "bloody five"—Governor Whitman's militarist bills—when he stood alone in the 1916 Legislature...
...Prof...
...A workingman, and a workingman's son, he never rose out of his class, but remained intimately...
...He knew our enemies were thirsting for blood, and that nothing would suit them better than to commit violence upon him...
...JNjere will be brief speeches by men and women who were intiatftljr associated with him in one or another of the various activIflpiff his life, and a musical program by Rebel Arts Chorus, 'jffte speakers will be Abe Miller of the New York Joint Board *";fa) Amalgamated...
...The amounts provided are [inadequate, but the scheme is a national one, it will work, and the amounts can be increased from time to time...
...a Much Evil and Some little Good Found in President's Security Legislation •y William f. Bonn 1*HE Socialist Party membership * meeting called by the Educational Committee on January 31st in the Debs Auditorium was in one respect, at least, a great success...
...No satisfactory system of payments to be unemployed can be laced on an acturlsl basis...
...This, he said, would give us a positive program to pluce before the workers of America, In reply, Norman Thomas drew attention to the fact that the N.E.C...
...He was, Kip 1* sa'd und done, a lovely Bf tnd women of all walks of WSf, devoted to...
...He spoke their lan-, guage, and they understood him...
...His humanity was real...
...Working^ men "loved him, whether they were, his fellow Jewish tailors or Irish plumbers...
...identified with his fellow workers to the day of his death...
...The addresses by Norman Thomas and Professor Eveline M, Burns of Columbia gave a clear analysis of the main features of the security bills now before Congress and drew sharp attention to shortcomings in the amounts provided and vicious featuaes in the forms of administration proposed...
...nor the courage he showed when accompanied by nine comrades—of whom the writer of this tribute was one—in the 1918 legislature...
...The two speakers agreed that the part of the program dealing with old age is essentially sound in principle und should, therefore, be adopted...
...The chief weakness of this measure lies in the fact that is a state scheme rather thun a national one...
...An early convert to Socialism, the pupil of the late B. Feigenbaum whom he worshipped as his "rabbi"—and who warmly returned the affection—he brought to his Socialist agitation a warmth and a humanity that it so often lacks, something that^rajne from his heart and soul...
...He was a great soul, a great Socialist, a grout leader of workers...
...Burns' fine speech will be printed in full in an early issue of The New Leader.—Ed.| The discussion which followed brought into the open some difference of opinion in the audience...
...HMtrho knew him well...
...2) Socialists and other workers should support the principle and whatever is good in the details of the bills presented...
...Matthew M. Levy, chairman of the meeting, opened the proceedings by reading from the Socialist Party piatform of 1904 a plank demanding unemployment insurance and congratulated the Socialists on being more than thirty years ahead...
...there is room here merely to recount -the fact that with his frail, .often ailing body, he faced all enemies with the courage, of a hero, regardless of cost to himself...
...It ¦¦far those who did not know ¦•realize the magnitude and ¦HUdl.his activities, for such a k|>j}|y appears among us...
Vol. 18 • February 1935 • No. 66
