What Socialists Think About Unions'Endorsement of Roosevelt
What Socialists Think About Unions'Endorsement of Roosevelt It is the duty of Socialists to recognize new ! facts when they make their appearance. It is i oar dory also to keep our balance, to...
...Later they said he might speak from the sssae platform si the white contestants, but the latter should file off the platform.as he came on...
...On Monday the crippled pilgrims finally succeeded in telling Mr...
...In all probability what is called the Old Guard—at least the New York portion participate...
...They are against things as they are...
...Well, might he smile...
...Behind the Scenes in Washington By Benjamin Meiman | Our Washington Correspondent | Hope for Labor Legislation in This Session Abandoned— I The President's "Gift to \f Labor" and Labor's "Gift to the President"—Social Security Program to Begin —Flirtations B e t w e en Roosevelt and Big Business —Modest Demands of the Physically Handicapped...
...While thus intellectually vacillating, however, he and his associates in control of the N.E.C...
...Labor's 'Gift to the President' Notwithstanding all that, last j Monday, President Roosevelt was informed by Major Berry as pres| ident of Labor's Non-Partisan League, and John L. Lewis, chairman of the board, that they have cpened headquarters in the W i l - lard Hotel and wrll campaign for his re-election, i Berry, head of the Pressmen's union, and Lewis, president of the Miners, said after their audience with the President that this is the first direct information he has had of the formation of the league...
...Says George N . Shuster of.Ja Commonweal, if his address at a* Hotel Commodore is correctly a> ported: "The truest thing one au say about Marxism is that it ess* out of the universities...
...City last week, Bit presence was embarrassing to fat local managers...
...CIRCUS POLITICS A S the big parties and politicians plan for the conS. ventions, one is impressed by the fact that power and loot are more important than anything else...
...Acrobats should also find plenty of employment...
...Let us answer, not quibble, for tipesooner we^rive straight answers the sooner will there be straight thinking in the movement itself...
...Second," went on Friedman, "we want them to rescind the N o vember 1 ruling that nobody on relief before that date is eligible for W P A jobs...
...It is i oar dory also to keep our balance, to gfve the ' new fact due weight without forgetting everything else...
...books and a reprint of several standard publications that are now difficult to obtain...
...They agree that child labor is little short of criminal...
...This tardiness has been due to conditions within the party...
...To compromise with confusion is to bring more confusion...
...I t is not capitalism that he condemns, hut "the monopolistic system...
...That fact is almost three years old...
...Put "ma* nonsensical" in place of "traest," and the statement would he torred...
...Undoubtedly the President did i discuss the question of unemployment and how i t could be met~- ' but the suspicion is strong that this was not the primary object I of the conferences...
...Roosevelt and Big Business Last week some of the big ;' moguls in Industry and Commerce were seen in and around the White House...
...One is often asked what is the difference between Socialism and Communism as fifty years ago the question was asked what is the difference between Socialism and Anarchism...
...Roosevelt's "Gift to Labor" Major Berry was President Roosevelt's "gift to labor...
...1 eaders in both Houses* of Congress agreed to pass revenue and relief measures and the necessary appropriation bills and get ready tor adjournment before the political conventions take place in June...
...Even in the cities, many of which, are of recent growth, those ideas still prevail as a hangover f r om former days...
...The circus program is already being rounded out...
...even to Major George L. Berry, that all hope for labor legislation in this session of Congress must be abandoned...
...At any rate, the "campaign of education" is under way while millions vegetate in destitution...
...W e will either drive monopoly and price-fixing out of our system and restore to the disinherited millions their rightful opportunity in the economic world," he says, or we will move to absolute govern-1 mental regimentation...
...renenW sullen and reckless through breaking of their strikes, the cab...
...They [ ! say one thing in man-to-man conversation, but do something else as an official...
...above all, had the unions not stopped with picking a presidential candidate, but concerned mamselves about getting a good number of Congressmen selected by Labor from Labor's own ranks—in such a case the argument for Socialists going along would have been much stronger than it is...
...If not—if the convention offers us a covertly bolshevistic, undemocratic, essentially anti-labor party masquerading under the Socialist name, loyalty to Socialist ideals will forbid us to support it...
...Hopkins what they demand of the government...
...Copies of the pi eposes • » have keen seat to member* * Congress...
...class more ruthlessly exploits] b> more tyrannically abusftc '.has jit the seamen...
...The legislative program of Berry aimed to achieve in general .erms the purposes of the National Recovery Administration...
...Our literary and oral propaganda must present a clear demarcation from the sects spawned in the post-war period...
...A T last it became evident...
...c Important as it is that, if possible, we make the decision which time wul prove to have been the right one, even more important is it that we face the problem honestly, recognize that there are two sides to die question, weigh the arguments calmly and draw the conclusion from them, instead of starting...
...He imagines that by some hocus pocus the fullgrown tiger can be conjured back into the playful and harmless cub he used to be...
...NEED OF STRAIGHT THINKING / * \ NE task of the Socialist movement in this country is \J the publication of a number of new pamphlets anc...
...Their mode of life fits them more for service ,to Tammany Hall and the Bath House Johns of Chicago than for anything else...
...had die endorsement at least bean made conditional on definite pledges exacted, not from Mr...
...What should be the Socialist attitude...
...If such a party does emerge from the Cleveland convention, we shall give it enthusiastic support, not guessing as to how many votes it is likely to poll, bat thinking only how much it can do to educate the working class...
...Washington...
...That is the , Wagner-low -cost housing bill which embodies some of the major housing objectives of the Administration...
...If .the *~~*rifi' public can be made to realiu|f' dangers they incur wher they 38 on a vessel manned either by X> skilled and degraded scab...
...chief of the W P A . They also wanted to see President Roosevelt but never got near him...
...AN APPALLING TREND ONE may search labor history in vain to find in the uprooted jobless masses an element easy to organize into the Labor and Socialist movement...
...j'f The seamen may now get effat ive sympathy by the same rouaV about process...
...After j their departure the President ex- j plained he was discussing with • various members of the group ways and means of stimulating j employment...
...First comes the circus known as the "convention," in which rival chiefs will bargain and sell delegates like an auctioneer disposing of his wares...
...Roosevelt as an individual, but from the Democratic party, to which he owes allegiance...
...Both biHs are now in the Senate...
...Should a Socialist party in such a juncture join the nitons in supporting an old-party candidate...
...Accordingly, the House passed the Tax bill and the Deficiency bill, which contains $1,425,000,000 for Work-relief...
...First," said Harry Friedman, "we want 5,000 jobs in N e w York City for the handicapped...
...This is a brand new fact...
...a • * The General Court of the Patriotic Societies of America hn» pressive title, isn't it?—tuMisg its "second annual concentratUS* in the Hotel Grama tan at B+oaV ville, called on all affiliated p a * ots to work for a return to lie economic principles of Geonp Washington's time...
...A drastic reduction of the hours of labor is imperative or this new menace will undermine the trade unions in the coming years...
...How > to obtain that sympathy is another j question...
...They came to Washington to ask for work instead of a dole...
...It is especially so in this period when millions of workers walk the streets in vain looking for work...
...On Reactionary Radicalism And Sundry Other Topics a blistering attack on the principal leaders and backers of his party, who, he said, "believe in the monopolistic system and are its defenders...
...American Socialists have been slow in evaluating it...
...Under this system, even in the flush tunes of 1928-29, he declared, "36,006 families at the dizzy top enjoyed a greater income than 12,000,000 families I at the foot of the ladder" and fhalf the p o p u l a t i on had less than an adequate diet," and so forth...
...Federal loans to small enterprises...
...As the Far West j accustoms itself to the conditions I : of industrial society it will get I away from this despondent, negi ative, backward-looking kind of i radicalism and will turn its face ; hopefully and resolutely to thetaste, the dangers, and the vic! tories of days to come...
...About thirty-five years ago the purchasers of ready-made clothes, learning that tuberculosis was rife in the sweatshops, took alarm lest the garments they bought might carry Use disease into ta*ir aua§j| Their fears promoted factory |E ishvthm, which in turn aidea-a* growth of unions la the neaUt industry...
...Just as the anarchist sects of the seventies and eighties hovered around the Labor and Socialist movement with numerous pamphlets and tracts and even used the word "Socialist" approvingly, so do a variety of Communist sects today...
...The real tragedy, after all, is not that Organized Labor does not yet see eye to eye with.us...
...The deficiency bill also contains ' $39,900 for the Tennessee Valley Authority, $400,000 for continuing the Communications Commission's telephone inquiry and various new ; and deficiency amounts for other i agencies...
...This will start j the ball a rollin...
...Should it flatly oppose Labor on what Labor professes to regard as a life-and-death matter...
...Norman Thomas, for example, in August, 1933, explicitly recognized and even overstated the revolutionary impcrt of the New Deal...
...The Senator from Idaho talks the language of the Muckrakers and the Trust Busters of thirty to fifty years ago...
...The New Deal is a fact of profound historic significance...
...Progressive or constructive they are not...
...But it now seems that this measure will also be caught tn the legislative jam that will crush thousands of other bills...
...The social security set-up will ; provide 11,765 full-time positions, • but eventually, under plans of the j N e w Deal, this number may be | multiplied by 10, nearly equalling j the standing army...
...Here is a united front of two capitalist parties on an issue upon which the whole labor movement and masses of other people are agreed...
...New comes a second fact of cardinal importance, growing out of the first one—die endorsement of President Roosevelt by one international union after another, with the virtual certainty that Organized Labor as a whole will take this line...
...but since then he has alternately sneered at it as a futile effort to patch up i apitahjp and viewed it with alarm as a step towaro fascism...
...This being so, we believe that in the long run the interests of the working class would be better served and its political development more promoted by having in the field a genuine Socialist ticket, backed by a genuine Socialist Party...
...His ideas, alike on domestic and on international affairs, correspond to the conditions of an agrarian society in -its pioneer days...
...President of the Pressmen's Union, he .vas appointed as Federal Indus.rial Coordinator, to assemble an industrial council and recommend egislation aimed to bring cooperaion and harmony between employer and employee...
...As it stands, the action of the unions, even if all the rest of them .fall in line with those which have already spoken, does not mean even the beginning of that Labor parry which we desire, and in favor of which we would gladly give up our partisan separateness...
...Socialist duty is the same today...
...Victor Ridder, the N e w Y o r k City W P A administrator, has been to Washington to plead our cause, and yet | Saturday they said here they I never heard of us...
...A committee af Southern gentlemen had occasion fewrite to Booker T. Washington...
...But, although exclusion from the "official" party may make It a merely academic question for us — that is...
...1 Borah is a perfect type of what passes for radicalism among large I elements in the Far West...
...Our self-styled leaders have given no intelligible lead...
...Why they are missing this year we do not know...
...The new member joining today does not have access to that variety of excellent Socialist literature that was once available, while the publications of the national office, with few exceptions, are of little use in educating members...
...Comparatively few, it i seems, can he very deeply stirred by appeals to their humane feel- I fngs or their sense of justice, unless they are themselves engaged in a similar struggle...
...Thi6 weak mean to re-establish chattel slavery for the Negroes, give back to men the power to dispose d their wives' propel t> and earning*, outlaw trade unions and make it a crime for wage workers » strike, repeal all workmen's compensation laws and...
...If we do not go back, we must g o forward—and he '\ax\ see nothing ahead but tyranny and degradation...
...Peterson naSJE says the dispatch, "and said, V understand...
...If the test of radicalism is vehemence of protest and of censure, these elements arc indeed radical...
...The Democrats will counter with a similar program and also threaten to employ "more jubilee singers, more choruses, perhaps even a symphony orchestra, and certainly more traditional brass bands...
...It is a great advantage for any I body of workers struggling for ! better conditions to have the sym: pathy of as large a part of the i general public as possible...
...Not for sixty years has there been a body of legislation equally novel and equally important...
...Several conferences were held during the week between the President, Adnihtstrative officials and members of Congress to shape the measure to a format conforming to budget allocations...
...The conventions in 1932 engaged various Hollywood comedians...
...Sometimes their fellow-feeling is awakened by more selfish considerations...
...In that event, our alternative wul not be to endorse a "good man" on a capitalist party ticket, but to buckle down to the hard task of building a party for 1938 and 1940...
...Its consideration cannot be postponed...
...W i t h perhaps some exaggera| tion, it is at any rate a nerce | enough denunciation of the exist1 ing system to satisfy any of us...
...all factory legislation, abolish income and inheritance taxes, wipe out the pallie school system, and restore sack blessed institutions as imprisonment for debt and the right tt masters to whip their apprentice...
...MURDER IN THE DARK THE Senate Judiciary Committee of the New York State Legislature, composed of Republicans and Democrats, last week voted not to report the bill for ratification of the child labor amendment to the Senate...
...Some estimate I it will run even higher...
...Bernard Baruch, Owen V. Young, Gerard Swope, Myron C- | Taylor, Walter C. Teagle, Walter ; P. Chrysler, and others...
...Social Security In addition to relief appropriation, the deficiency bill passed in | the House last Monday carries $438,631,800 for the Social SeI currty program...
...And, third, we want it understood there are to be no dismissals for handicapped workers already employed by the W P A . " Terribly modest demands of a rich and powerful country, but the answer was awfully evasive: The usual—"we will investigate...
...There is only one other measure which the President has indicated comes close to the 'must" classification...
...Thirty-four young men and women, handicapped in their struggle for a living by physical disabilities had to camp for f o r t y hours in the headquarters of Harry L Hopkins before they could obtain a promise to%ee th...
...The incident' recalls one that occurred in the time of the elder Roosevelt...
...This is the proposal sank in a bill sponsored b) a mysteries* organization of "American la*** Men...
...Fortunately, the proposal is hapractieable as wed pernicious...
...I A denunciation, yes—but what then...
...Worse yet, it k lately that neither of them wul altogether satisfy any one of us who cares more for living reality than for traditional formulas...
...So far, so good...
...declaration of a national industrial pplicy...
...To "restore," to bring back what society has outlived, is the Senator's dream...
...ajft white men, when inspired • ? class arrogance which they ca?a> cial pride, can .make tbenuuMa supremely ridiculous...
...The real tragedy is that the cards seem to be stacked against the redemption of the official Socialist party from the moral rum —yet worse than its numerical ruin—to which it has been reduced since 1932...
...They were stamped, until m of them remembered that this S* gro was a doctor of phUosoar...
...It is that the leaders of big business and industry have become convinced that President Roosevelt will be re-elected and that thus they must live with him for another four years...
...They lose hope, all sense of honor, and with it goes that ideal of human solidarity upon which the labor movement must rely...
...And, under either the reign of monopoly or ; the reign of governmental regimentation, the free American citizens will disappear as certainly as the free citizens disappeared in i Germany and Italy...
...The Republicans are planning racial and national songs to win the various nationalities, including the Scandinavian...
...There is probably no iarge action of the American werkgu...
...They sink so low and become so accustomed to living by their wits and by doing the work of agents of corrupt politics that they form a separate and distinct layer in society...
...Y e s , " interjected Jack Martin.' j "we've studied the W P A run- 1 around system from A to Z. W e ' v e ' I seen what their word means...
...Had Organized Labor taken the matter up more deliberately...
...What the Cleveland convention will d o God only knows...
...Some obseri-- j ers believe that Mr...
...Should it try to take a middle hue, not openly declaring for Roosevelt, but sot nominating against him • No one of the three solutions will satisfy all of us...
...Its major proposals included creation of a commission to set minimum wage tnd hour standards...
...Major Berry 3skl: "Wfth Congress centering its full attention on tlie new- tax legislation, and faced with the necessity of an early adjournment, it would be impossible to obtain the legislation at this session...
...Caleb Petersen, a young Peeav kill Negro, won first prise hV • national declamation contest «t Oklahoma...
...The chances of there being a real Socialist Party in the field in 1936 do not at mis moment look very bright...
...Even today the party has not clearly made up its mind...
...or |»> union men who have beer...
...f w - Lack of the rich Socialist literature once available is not the only source of confusion...
...The Physically Handicapped As if in contrast to the big moguls was the delegation of the New York League for the Physically Handicapped...
...What they favor is not so clear, but as nearly as one can make out they favor a return to what is irrevocably past...
...is on both counts worthy of us sort of people who go around advertising themselves as patriae...
...panies may be taught that it >fc good business to give some Vat of decent treatment to :ht inn in their employ...
...The decision was made behind closed doors and an agreement was made between the Republican and Democratic/ members not to reveal the record of the vote...
...We believe that it was Sheridan who once said what may well be repeated here: "Silence is a fit advocate to plead a cause too foul for human speech...
...although it would hardly be possible for the excluded elements at this late hour to put a national ticket in the field—we ought to know how we should deckle if the decision were for us to make...
...Military Dictatorship For Unions Proposed By Queer Organisation WASHINGTON, D. C. — Fat* the labor movement under tar*' rectien of fire-high-ranking arte" officers...
...ity...
...To illustrate the magnitude of jthe work to be undertaken, officials ! o f the Security Board said that j in order to administer the old age benefits and unemployment insurance alone, records will be made initially of 25,000,000 or more persons...
...with ready made conclusions and deciding without real deliberation...
...had there been a general conference of all the unions called on r i f f n trM notice to allow of real discussion...
...and provision of funds for -continuance of the council and an adequate staff...
...Roosevelt ,is j seeking to woo big business now that the election is approaching and that in another week or two the Democrats will form another "nonpartisan" organization — this 1 time the "Businessmen for Roosevelt League," or something similar...
...Marx, Engels and their colleagues insisted on a cleai break, with the confusionists, and this was the course followed...
...That total will grow until virtually the whole of the working population orf approximately 50,000,000 persons will be listed under a complicated system showing earnings of each individual...
...For this reason the continuance of a mere relief policy for the millions of jobless is to create a vast class of human beings who will finally lose their self-respect and become for the North and West what the poor whites have been for the South for two hundred years...
...Through some queer logic theydi not so much mind writing "Dear Dr...
...and the national office have been so busy usurping authority and splitting or expelling state organizations that the party has been disabled from calmly discussing the New Deal and forming a sound judgment...
...It weald provide a saw tary dictaterahip over all was* unions...
...First they ruled that Pefrrta* would have to speak in the ihs Crow high school building, the judges going over there to listea to him...
...There are nearly 5,000,000 more men employed today than there were in 1933, but the,number on relief in this same period has increased from 17 million to 20 million] These figures -are appalling, for if nearly 5,000.000 are re-employed In three years only to have 3,000,000 human beings added to the relief rolls, it is obvious that the trend towards creating a permanent class of degraded human beings is continuous...
...bad amendment of the constitution to protect labor legislation from being nullified by the courts been one of the things pledged...
...Ute confusion was not cleared up by compromise...
...They Keep on getting out of holes by just acting the nice guy...
...Certs.nly net*, ing can justify, and ps thing hat subserviee to the wealthy site, owning interest can explain, tor brutal conduct of the police m Eleventh Avenue last Monday...
...But there is another viewpoint here...
...Hopes were great but results very poor...
...It seems Oklihomans like to imagine that ther are unreconstructed Southerner...
...They couldn't bring them selvet t» start the letter with "Dear Sir* or "Dear Mr...
...Maybe the international union has some va -c ream for not backing the present strike —and maybe not...
...curbing of unfair , trade . practices, through the Federal Trade Commission...
...Washington " Taa smacked too much of social osjaj...
...His social ideal is that earlier stage of capitalist development in which the monopolistic tendency of private ownership of socially operated means of production was not y e t clearly ap| parent and was foreseen only by the Socialists...
...The result is confusion now as there was in the earlier period...
Vol. 19 • May 1936 • No. 20
