Behind the Scenes in Washington
Meiman, Benjamin
Behind the Scenes in Washington Congress Resting en the President's Oars—John L. Lewis Urges Industrial . Unionism Referendum — Mussolini's "Nationalization" Predicted by Washington Two...
...life in America more secure—secure in employment, in housing, in health ana in honorable old age—such phenomena as Huey Long, Father Coughlin and Dr...
...From my acquaintance with the so-called intellectuals who do the scolding, if their own bread and butter were at stake, they would not behave one whit better than do the workingmen whom they affect to despise...
...aaaBBBBBBBBBBa...
...A Times dispatch from Copenhagen says that the Danish government "is taking dictatorial action" to end a certain labor dispute...
...The expense of state and local authorities in caring for the needy has increased one-half in the past three years while the Federal expense has increased onefifth between 1933 and 1936...
...That is a very tateretUnjt'jfc in 1936...
...On the other hand it is equally untrue to say that Green is "blindly...
...S eh ri ftgi esser asked...
...O , * Mussolini's "Nationalization" Will ity surprise you very -much if I tell you that...
...f^M If my predictions are conte true even more quickly than lit' peered, the credit is not doi_&l2f but to the great thinkers atd'M equipped the Socialist ' jMmBB with a sound thoughtm«?i$il kot before I ever heard- of ih^^xteV enee...
...flourish, no matter how many investigations are made...
...which is doing its best *Sj§» from getting knocked out iff i courts...
...And the State of Pennsylvania, by and large, has been the kind of State willing to abdicate sovereignty to Steel...
...So many machine guns, so many revolvers, so many gas bombs, so many this, so many that, piling up a war sapply that Emperor Haile Selassie might well envy...
...But no one is fooled by it...
...I don't want to spread myself out too thin...
...Panama, Bolivia and Mexico and 'in Venezuela the Socialist movement is now organizing...
...Except for occasional flare-ups from''Senate or House investigations, like the lobby and Townsend plan inquiries, Capita Hill these days is doing little to make the front page...
...There is more truth...
...Townsend wo...
...Behind the Scenes in Washington Congress Resting en the President's Oars—John L. Lewis Urges Industrial . Unionism Referendum — Mussolini's "Nationalization" Predicted by Washington Two Years Ago — Investigating the Townsend Pension Plan...
...Th» ia 1S96 and that is the way of the emperors of Steel in 1936...
...The prize offered was what every human desires next to life itself— security with comfort...
...What, we cried, has Theodor Steuning turned Bolshevik...
...Newspaper correspondents, it appears, can write silly nonsense op occasion...
...No one asks any more, "Mussolini, quo vadis...
...They had been told that social security was a form of foreign socialism, alien to our rieh, dynamic republic...
...The American masses had lived through the fool's paradise of "prosperity...
...In Chile there are three parties but it...
...We pricked up our ears...
...There, is the difference jb*» rween Manripn Secouuts and & pians—the letter Tely UP°* (jftm| tific knowledge, the former ^SK what William James called "Ok> fui thinking...
...And one of the two came—maybe both...
...Not only are all the nineteen unions again brought to¦ gethex ia eoo building trades department...
...Insttr field.-- of activity, if through ?%n| period our earnest and patitati*, j forts do not bring the ex poetato suits, we do not content oursshn with finding out in what war tag are being frustrated by-Mohanable conditions...
...i-SM It is easy to explain this facfclj reference to peculiar economic Ml social conditions prevailing hM The explanation is correct, latje that all that we have to say asset ourselves on tbe subject...
...Napaa* had it Mussolini had rt: se'»» Hitler...
...He spoke of trae "inevitability" of war and of "the decisive importaacefin, the event of war" of these key industries...
...assisting the "exploitation of thousands of workers...
...lies really in the lesson we can learn from it...
...mmmAll that this SnSfflP^p that fascist militarism is to be more efficiently r^^mized through state ownership of some industries and control of mixed enterprises in which private and government capital will be invested...
...The correspondent m.ght t»oi in extenuation that he ofijBH much of a hurry getting vtBjH cable m time fer Sm *&mmmweigh his weeds with SOMg^H he might add: "If year9 Thomas;tes say that the NewJH is Fascism, why mayn't I sarSa democratic legislation is daOJfjBJJ ship...
...Mussolini's Nationalization, or confiscation, was predicted in Washington two years ago ? It was...
...Suddenly came the depression, sweeping millions into an economic abyss...
...Who doesn't remember the Coal and Iron police—and the rotten borough judges...
...The New Leader...
...another...
...Except in those very rare times when practically everybody is employed, a question of jurisdiction is for the rank and file on either side a question'of bread and butter...
...Clements...
...The Peruvian Socialists are anxious for the movements in the Western Hemisphere to establish closer relations and eventually set up a Socialist federation that will include the Socialist parties of North, South, andWjentral America...
...rffijM Meanwhile it has to be aUadSO that labor isn't presenting'seta* much of a threat to .Steri...
...Nothing can be gained and much may be lost by heated and exaggerated statements over such an important issue...
...bondage...
...this question: 'Shall the A. F. of L. issue industrial union charters to werkers in mass production industries'?' "The answer, yea or nay, will allay this ghost of juissension...
...It hat 0* in the world, in one forai' tea' other, for a long time...
...Socialized ownership, not a vain attempt to resuscitate small competitive enterprise, is the cure for tbe evils of concentration...
...well know that the Communists would only bring chaos and division, not unity...
...Last week I spoke about PrjaoV Aberhart of Alberta, and saa|SH "failure [of his Social ~&K scheme] is erelong going to-asm him into oblivion...
...in that surmise than there 4s-in-the others...
...Within tnsjS four hours after those worapSS printed came news of Mr...
...Comrade Revolle is an aviator and reports that the Peruvian Socialists desire to establish fraternal relations with the Socialist movements in all North and South American countries...
...is difficult to define their programs and in Brazil Communism has attracted more attention than Socialism...
...I can't and I don't want- to support a labor party this year because I want to re-elect Franklin D* Roosevelt...
...But then) we read on and found that the Premier has advised parliament to enact a law providing for aUMsJB *l?eadylineS p^lufwlnSS gsnized employers reje?h 3m B the whole of his "dictaJOatSflH non...
...The one purpose of guns is to shoot bullets that will kill men...
...ggm??mli??m?mgm Trast-Busting for Buncos*] Again » Order of the nasi rsfAMSSS VU Sari IIVI /-VI'":-»als7^»¦ -By Algernon Lee 'I'Mt...
...Fatate* our party survives all kinds «t esternai and internal dangers,?* have to admit that for the W twenty-five years it has had m fa country as a whole no steadySi solid numerical gains...
...It is interesting, however, that the Rome correspondent of the New York Times suggests that as the Communist dictatorship has been moving away from Communism while Italian fascism is shifting from private capitalism, therefore the two may be meeting "somewhere in the middle...
...i Socialists in Peru Predict Victory Soon •T'HE Socialist Party of Peru ex* pects to elect 40 Deputies to Congress in the election next May...
...I promise th?- co-operation of the committee, knowing that the answer will be so overwhelmingly in favor of the modern, practical policy of industrial unionism, that officers of the A. F. of L. will be compelled to make this system effective or resign their jobs...
...The administration's social security program is functioning at last...
...Belatedly, the government has reckoned with this human verity...
...The Nye Committee started out to get facts to bear on neutrality legislation and it is winding up in Steel...
...Frick gets his gune Ber as* minus a discount...
...Comrade Revolle believes that a federation qf the American Socialist movements is now possible and it merely remains to set up machinery to accomplish this desirable end...
...Nebraska's average (Federal and state funds combined) is $4.54 a month, Missouri's $9.02, Delaware's $9.95, Vermont's $10.72 and Washington's $20.57...
...Before the end of the year, Comrade Revolle declared, the Socialist Party expected to have a majority...
...Labor Relations are tbe kind of Relations you kick out, with the injunction, "dont ever come beck...
...This would imply* a temporary, a passing event...
...That alone might have meant only a trae...
...The members of the C.I.O...
...And-harder hit than the rest were the aging and the old...
...These injunctions have involved nearly 290 years of operating delays and have cost nearly $13,000,000...
...y'\f...
...W? • • * . It is in no spirit af setf-congjun lation that we watch the osanni and going of new-old utoeim ast compare it with the contauoot-tife of our own movement...
...For any one "unfair practice" that tbe law may ban, the trust magnates can quickly devise half a dozen which serve their purpose just as well...
...The lower house of the Peruvian Congress has 120 Deputies and the upper house 40 Senators...
...The Townsend planners found these old folks and their families desperately eager to be convinced...
...so has Stalin...
...This is based upon the rapid development a^nd organization of the party in Peru...
...Steel has been that way ever since Andrew Carnegie set the pace...
...I wal be a free agent after November...
...Such failure only feeds movements like the Townsend Plan...
...whatever it is, events m Congress are marked at the moment by almost unprecedented dullness...
...It tends to pauperize millions of workers and the demand more and more should be for self-sustaining work on a higher level of income...
...I 1 Why is it that in about twenty months an obscure, depression-hit Long Beach seller of lots and a retired country doctor were able to build, upon a scheme which every reputable economist ridicules, a nation-wide organization embracing 7,000 clubs with members and sympathizers numbering some 12,000,000, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the poorest classes in the nation, and enabling them to threaten and punish congressmen, governors and even presidential candidates...
...He cannot reverse that policy if h? wanted to...
...They see n*rit the Brutus stab...
...Townsend ano his ? loader, Mr...
...The enormous influence and power of the power companies is evident from these figures...
...Mm...
...From what be has seen of the few countries he has visited so far...
...but LABOR HAS /g iWIN IN UNITY or ioreWjSm...
...He also expected to attend the- New Leader dinner Friday night...
...U. S. Steel Buvs Guns To Use Against LsMBy Chester M. Wright ?TEEL is stocking up with guns **•* and gas masks and clubs and all the things with which war is made...
...When they lay the blame on'the union officials they are barking up the wrong tree...
...Why don't you lead a real Farmer-Labor Party in the coming ?lection?'' "I can do only one thing at a time," Lewis replied...
...In most other countries public ownership and control of such service is taken for granted but here power has become a giant which has its clammy hands upon every form of propaganda from newspapers to colleges and school rooms...
...No wonder that ControlledIn flat ion Patman and Barkis-IsWilling Borah are competing for the honor of getting a law against chain stores passed at this session...
...He reports strong parties in Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay...
...They say he is going fast, and will soon reach the end of his rope...
...That we non» But having done it, we set to ont with equal care to find out bvjnt what way we ought to chaos* Of methods in order to get, OsSt existing conditions, the...
...It is disappointing to learn that the states are not living up to that bargain...
...Neutrality is not exactly the function the State ought to play in the kind of war that is being planned by Steel...
...It is inerery a further extension of fascist dictatorship and an extension away from the democracy of Socialist collectivism...
...HTS* breaking its neck to oiaaitsM^ Organization is what WniSg Steel doesn't want to sheetr*Sj» crs who go and come ahoetjlg J work, never talking to workers, or joining with ihmi'Steel fears it wil...
...This government charity is the leading industry in the United States today and its continuance is becoming an increasing menace to the labor movement itself...
...The first reports of states that have qualified for Federal money under old age assistance laws show an average "pension" so low as to make a jest of security...
...By'Benjamin Meiman Our Washington Corre'pondent IT may be that the President's ''fishing pursuits keeps him onhis flotilla in the tepid waters of the West Indies, or it may be due to politics in a Presidential campaign year, or the darned thing may be credited or debited to tlie seasonal spring fever that is terribly contageons among our dear old legislators...
...Talking for Buncome is the order of the day at Washington...
...I said aoOM the Townsend Plan "seems «S nearing its finish...
...The great combinations of capital have thriven on anti-trust legislation...
...That isnj j side of s hard fact, of which p] procession of short-hived utopia»tij tbe other side...
...WsettJS essential difference between, -jH and other dictator* ? Some will say, "This cant ft* forever...
...No waste tasjt Good sound business maHMjeonlfc If there is irony m fluit, R ar*» : irony of fact...
...jurisdiction...
...War is Steers idea of LABOR RELATIONS...
...Poor old Mussolini tries to cushion the blow to capitalism by declaring that his seizure of big business is a war move...
...The scolders speak confidently out of the depths of their ignorance...
...But at the present time Congress is resting on the President's oars...
...That one of two things is bound to come: either general bankruptcy or nationalization, in one form or...
...be coafwg with worker* who are orSsnaP into a union and it is prvpidSf to SHOOT AT THAT...
...Nothing > easier than for outsiders to sneer and rail at unions for occasionally fighting bitterly among themselves over questions of...
...The situation might intarsio* National Labor Relations "B...
...Things ere expected to liven up when the tax bill and relief proposition : emerge from the committee stage and provide opportunity for political sniping on the part of 'Republican sharpshooters...
...Civilization — progress — modern times—it depends upon the point of view...
...It will do the chain-store capitalists no harm, and for a few months it will feed the hopes and win the gratitude of tens of thousands of struggling small dealers all over the country...
...When guns are bought, they are bought because somebody wants to have guns for use...
...He is following a policy voted by a convention of the Federation regardless of his personal views of industrial organization...
...LeasUof all the capitalists...
...They know where he is going...
...Most of die restraining orders have been sought within the past five.years...
...The power com pani ss have become a huge capitalistic empire within the republic and its enormous revenues ?hat now enrich a few could be made available for social purposes if it were publicly owned...
...Gentlemen just like those M are buying guns to shoot ?t saSO " are firing away in the kill the Labor Relation* Bwari Their idea ie to let ttothmt QJg between the baren and hls chomP» k's a greet idea...
...At Washington Lewis accused President Green of the American Federation of Labor of "blindly pursuing a .policy that is assisting the harsh employers of America to continue their economie exploitation of thousands of workers...
...mmm But really, newspaper r^ttshajl be held to a higher stassHH accuracy than can be demsudaad "militants...
...Of course, labor in unity, for "it can't go S9 ever...
...Read elsewhere the figures about what Steel has been buying in the way of munitions...
...The government is today supporting about four million persons by means of emergency work and the latest ?I F. of L. figures show that the number of the unemployed is 12,550,000, only 214,000 less than in February of last year...
...This bend is literally appalling...
...FASCIST NATIONALIZATION MUSSOLINI nationalizes key industries and it is interpreted in some quarters as "State Socialism" and even as a drift towards the Marxian idea of collectivism...
...THE-POWER EMPIRE SINCE 1888, a report by the Federal Power Commission to the U. S. Senate declares, there have been 278 petitions filed for injunctions to restrain local authorities from constructing, extending or operating publicly owned electrical generating or distributing systems in this country...
...As an old-time trust-buster Senator Borah certainly knows the futility of such legislation...
...While travelling in other Ameriean nations Comrade Revolle is studying the Labor and Socialist movement in each country and will make an extensive report to the executive of the "Partido Socialista" when he returns home...
...Under it the Federal Government offers to go 50-50 with the .states in pensioning the needy aged past 66...
...The answer lies "in the tragic fact that their "market" was ripe...
...There's an outside chance, too, that Democratic insurgency, both on taxation and relief, may produce spectacular developments...
...rennpst which we are aiming...
...Of the 278 petitions sought 52 were granted...
...The Socialist Party in Panama is very strong* and its president is Don Demetrio Porras...
...fS heart's announcement that.UanK pie will have to wart at leestiaV other year before his govsTtnaOs can begin to pay those dividasi ($25.00 a month to every atjS , which he promised thorn UM§ campaign eight months aga.ll conple of days later the pr?test ported the outbreak of h«8tiW...
...That the Communists are trying to use the issue of industrial unionism for their own purposes is obvious, but that the Committee for Industrial Organization invites this Communist "aid" or in any way welcomes it is certainIy not true...
...He is a Socialist Deputy and the son of ex-President Porras...
...This forecast is made by Lizard© Revolle, official representative of the "Partido Socialista del Peru," in an interview with...
...But,S*j| go on for a long time to unless workers DO get togemSO The guns of Steel can •*mM rrogrea...
...federation permit the Labor Department . to conduct a national referendum of all A. F. of L affiliates, by means of the Australian ballot system, on...
...EXAGGERATED STATEMENTS AT Pittsburgh Louis J. Leonard of the Amalgamated o» Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers charged that the Committee for Industrial Organization headed by John L. Lewis is being used btf the Communists to "bore into" the trade union movement...
...mSmi?amm???mm^: ¦ as ~. .1...
...These two statements are examples of "how not to do it...
...Leave the ownership of capital in private hands, and it inevitably' concentrates through the greater cheapness of largescale operation, whether in industry or commerce...
...Election Day is only seven months off...
...However, I have no commitment past the present campaign...
...Mr...
...Lewis Proposes Referendum In a Town Hall speech, last Sunday evening, John L. Lewis, President of the United Mine Workers, said: "I propose that on behalf -of the Committee on Industrial Unionism, which is represented by approximately one-third of the members of the A. F. of L., that th...
...Only a convention can change it...
...If responsible labor men will keep their heads this period of transition will be productive of good results for all concerned...
...He has taught some" of us courage when courage was needed...
...Unless states and the nation co-operate to mak...
...The Italian dictator's speech shows that it is simply a part of the fascist program of military preparation for war...
...significant thing is the establishment of machinery for judicial settlement of jurisdiction disputes' when they arise...
...whole American labor move's meat is to be congratulated upon what looks like s fair and workable settlement of the disastrous conflict among the building trades unions...
...AN APPALLING TREND NOTHING is more calculated to foster sodden resignation t>> an unemployed existence upon a low standard of living and destroy the human will to fight for better conditions and final emancipation than for the masses to become accustomed to being fed by government agencies...
...New deal economists drew up a "confidential report," the substance of which was that industry in 'Italy was so weakened by taxation and "involuntary subscription to government securities" that were not secure, that it will be impossible for them to carry on...
...On its guns the Frick company ¦ ' " "> '/'i J gets "the usual discount," OHt means R is a steady casOssJev* ; A discount on death...
...between Dr...
...Investigating Townsend Plea The significance of the House investigation of the Townsend pension plan and its planners, as interesting as it is by itself...
...Since Homestead there has been no learning about Labor in the great barony of Steel...
...And that is exactlyriSPIt can't go on forever...
...They had been encouraged to spend and borrow and gamble...
...In ten southern states and in Wyoming and New Mexico the Federal Government has contributed 90 percent or more to relief...
...We cannot recruit fighters in the labor struggle-from human beings who have become stupified by years of privation...
Vol. 19 • April 1936 • No. 14
