Labor Will Not Turn Back
MEANY, GEORGE
Br George Meany President, New York State Federation of Labor labor Will Not Turn Back Program of the Organized Workers for 1936 U Part of Great Forward Movement of the Masses for a Better...
...Another case involved the right to conduct "mass picketing...
...Two-Leg Communism While a complete denial of the power of education is thus essential to the Communist claim, the positive portion of their program depends upon the force they have just denied, upon man's power to change things if he deems them wrong...
...Surely we must all recognise the fact that our 11,000,000 unemployed constitute the largest single problem we face as a nation today...
...it has two legs, but they belong to different animals, headed in opposite directions...
...No, Mr...
...Br George Meany President, New York State Federation of Labor labor Will Not Turn Back Program of the Organized Workers for 1936 U Part of Great Forward Movement of the Masses for a Better World—Bourbons Will Be Defeated in Their Attempt to Turn Back the Clock of Progress, ¦THE J*** 1936 should prove •an eventful year for labor inJMgachf as it is possible and highly probable that events and decisions of the coming* months unS vitally affect the welfare of jjj workers for a long time to come...
...The proposal that all American workers be limited by law to , a five-day thirty-hour week is not an idealistic speculation on which we rest our hope for recovery...
...This can be attained only in one of two ways: by complete scientific apprehension of the universe...
...Economic determinism is now forgotten...
...To those who disagree with this simple answer to the problem indicated by eleven million unemployed I say what is your solution...
...And when enough individuals are better, this will be a better world (as anarchism proclaims) ; or when enough individuals are better, they will change the system (as Socialism tells...
...Few persons are willing or competent to trace the influence of philosophy in everyday life...
...w Surely we must recognize and subscribe to the simple theory that workmen displaced in large numbers by machinery such as the numbers displaced in the automotive industry can only be re-employed by reducing the working hours of those who remain in employment...
...No sound student of economy can challenge labor's philosophy that the first requirement of orderly recovery is that every man or woman able and willing to work be returned to work at a wage high enough so that collectively we will be able to buy all the goods produced by Industry...
...sense the author's fingers—oh...
...Of the two sides of man's activity, the ethical and the practical (economic), if the second does not completely form and control the first, the argument for Communism crumbles...
...Let the I rest of us observe, and learn as I much as we can...
...But planning a world demands a knowledge of what a good world would be, which involves some notion of man's goal, of the future...
...Censorship, intolerance, suppression in all forms are the concomitants, the inevitable aides, of brute force...
...Cites Law Protecting Rights TTHREE interesting cases, involving questions of fundamental civil rights, came before Magistrate Chas...
...Wages must be maintained, standards must be raised and workers must have a legal right to bargain collectively with any and all employers...
...If the capitalistic system does not inevitably make capitalists grasping, if within that system other forces than economic can have power, then violence loses its claim: then by education and other forces of the mind and spirit individuals should be wrought upon...
...The writer of social I plays must be aware, -must keep I !n mind, that many will be only to* - I ?ager to raise that charge, to ease I their conscience by crying "Props I randa...
...Judge Solomon | made this decision in the case of Jacob Weiaberg and Joseph Strum, members of a B?tail Clerks' Union, who were arrested December 5th while picketing outside of a grocery and dairy store...
...or by revelation, by faith in some revealed religion, upon which even a bland humanitarianism leans for its ideals...
...But the deliberate preaching of any doctrine raises the question of "propaganda...
...presence of a judge with a labor and social point of view is important in setting precedents for future decisions...
...Purpose ef Drama /' I The first concern of the social, I playwright must not be his "mes» ! ;age...
...the earliest opportunity finds him backsliding...
...Grant for a moment that dictatorship of the proletariat »—for which the more flavorous term workers' republic is being substituted—can impose a good system...
...And what is "propaganda...
...In addition the New York State Federation of Labor is preparing again to press its fight for State ratification of the Federal Child Labor Amendment in order that the great Empire State will be lined up with those progressive states that have already acted on this question favorably...
...J*1 f* wipes out the second— while itself moving in the mystic ways of a religious faith...
...we must strengthen man's will, man's social conscience, until he is ready to adopt the best system he can devise, and strong enough to resist the inevitable invitations to privilege and comparative ease in even the best of systems...
...this is of course true^ I if we define propaganda as the...
...presentation of a point of view...
...I the facts for any man's, grasping...
...I The only effective propaganda %o I the truth...
...For over a «cor* of years a student and constant observer of the theatre, he now speaks the lost word in the eeriee he organized, on th...
...Since Communist art involves acceptance of their point of view, from which their notion of propaganda naturally follows, this dramatic critic will in his humble way bow to the remainder of the editorial staff and set down what he sees as the insurmountable objections to Communism...
...he must endeavor, honestly I and as fully and impartially as he I -an, to present the phase of life I ie has chosen to dramatize...
...These decisions contrast sharply with three months' jail terms imposed on pickets by Judge W. R. Bayes in the same court recently, and 30-day terms by Magistrate Sabbatini upon anothertecent occasion...
...The same gentlemen, if JwrpSease, who in 1933 begged for me enactment of the National Injgtrial Recovery Act or for somefar more drastic -»what are the plans of these reactionaries in/ regard to the unemployed...
...Who overcomes By force, hath overcome but half his foe...
...Can any one question a plan that oroposes to give these people work instead of relief by the comparatively simple method of reducing lours of all to a point where all available for employment can be absorbed by industry...
...on the contrary it must be extended...
...And those who think the "run" is too I long, and try to shorten it by I preaching, and by practicing vio! lence, simply rouse a counterviolence that breeds warped minds, land emotional distortions: shuttisf I off free thought, reaping the whin* I wind, and setting back, lengthily I delaying, the very goal they would bring near...
...and if we chance I to be playwrights, let us set down I sur observations in terms of the I theatre, sure that in the long ran I -ruth will win...
...These eleven million represent with their dependents forty million souls without income or any permanent means of support...
...Even Communism can hardly claim the first...
...Because there is I no other definition of truth...
...The complaint said they were part of a group of about 100 persons marching to picket the relief station...
...so I slightly!—pressing the scales, ar- ' I ranging an incident here, shifting I an.emphasis there, one tarns away'' I with disgust from the "proseI randa...
...but to remember—I repeat because it is so simple yet so esssttaaC and so easy to sup by—that, to the extent of his power, honesty and fullness of presentation of life is both the artist's one .duty, (and one way of producing aril), and the one way of making art's permanently valid weapon for so...
...This Communist attitude is one of the moot points in the idea that "the theatre is a weapon in the class war...
...By Joseph T. Shipley Two Views of the Struggle Socialists and Communists Have Vitally Different...
...We will in this state also press for the enactment of legislation calling for the regulation and licensing of fee-charging employment agencies as well as the socalled private detective agencies which specialize in the contemptible practice of supplying strikebreakers and labor spies in industrial disputes...
...They are always exercised, of course, "only for the emergency...
...Whereas Socialism's movement declares: Let*, us have good men on earth...
...the Communists seem to possess it—witness (again) Robert Forsythe: "As a betting proposition, no odds could be long enough on Communism...
...speeches of these spokesmen of os* ganized industry and I have yet to hear of any plan for the reemployment of those now unemployed...
...I (which truly characterizes many I of these works but which 'is kept] I carefully out of the discussion) I propaganda as a tipping of the I scales, as a deliberate advocacy of' I a point of view, as a partial plead I ing...
...Evidently big business chooses to close its eyes to the one big lesson of this, depression— to the one fact that stands out clear and uncontrovertible...
...I Tbe author's personality, his out...
...Picketing in the middle of the sidewalk is not disorderly conduct, according to Magistrate Solomon...
...I tired business man...
...Drama and Propaganda The points might be pressed further...
...Who can say...
...Are they not the same captains of industry and finance who pleaded far governmental cooperation sad assistance in March of WW when every financial institution in the nation had closed its doors ? Are they not the same people who begged government for regulation in 1933 in order that they might eliminate some of the jatoasely desperate, competition brought'oat by this'bank collapse which came after four years of depression...
...Even if the first method, of imposing a system up to which men must grow, could work—since the men must in any case grow to a better spiritual state for permanent social gain why seek to induw that state by violence, with all its attendant His and basic threats to its very goal...
...one of their •pokesmen, "a retreat from the htpraetible enactments masquerading in the name of security" are ** same gentlemen Who flocked to wsrfiington obsequiously pleading «*., government cooperation and *adst?nea...
...For as soon as one e...
...and turning away, back to I Broadway and the comfortable I conscience-tickling, easy play that I raises no basic issues to worry til...
...In the first place, many recent dramas of the radical groups, if they have not directly proclaimed the saving grace 'of Communism, have either openly or by implication hailed force, violence, as the pathway to social betterment...
...Others See Disaster inViolence...
...The charge further was -that David insisted they would hold a street meeting...
...Are not these people who ore ***** decrying governmental interference with business the same g***» who welcomed governmental hnerferesjee when that interference *j*k the form, of loans totaling Minera ef dollars to banks, rail - roads and industrial corporations...
...We have just mentioned truth...
...then earth Will be, nay, is good...
...The Federal Child Labor Amendment must be enacted in order that we can eliminate the disgrace of having* our children of tender years competing in industry with their elders...
...The eternal watchword of those who would alleviate tbe burden of the workers is "ever forward, ever onward...
...We do not strengthen the will by removing temptations —nor can any conceivable system remove myriads of temptations...
...Does recognizing the arto, the theatre, as "a weapon in the class war," I mean deliberate use of , prendv ganda...
...Still other, arguments could be summoned...
...it still puts the cart before the horse...
...It encourages the abandonment of other, more lasting though slower forces, such as education, for what may seem a quick solution—until further violence is necessary...
...such plays as J have alluded to, seek to justify them on the ground that every work is I propaganda...
...J The defenders of...
...Big business during the past few weeks has given definite notice that it is their in tenUse to wipe-out the progress made by labor in the past few years...
...It is tantamount to saying: Let us have men on a good earth...
...The doctrine of the violent overthrow of the capitalistic system depends upon a rigorous economic determinism...
...They were charged with disorderly conduct in that they walked in the middle of the sidewalk at a rapid pace and refused to move over to the curb when ordered to do so by the police officer who made the arrest...
...we must be careful not to bend them to an opposite extreme (on the curiously' perverse principle that the end justifies tfijL means, when really the vicious nan of the means destroys the end...
...Needless to say that labor's drive for the five-day thirty-hour week is to be waged on the principle of maintaining wage levels...
...Thus it would be wrong, philosophically, to say that Communism hasn't a leg to stand on...
...Every one of these demands indicates s desire of big business to return to the system that brought as to the greatest economic catastrophe in history — a catastrophe which proved beyond a shadow ef t doubt the fallacy of that system...
...What has this all to do with the theatre...
...But violence as a policy hastens the use of violence...
...Violence breeds violence...
...They were ordered to disperse, it was complained, and failed to do so, David insisting that he knew his rights...
...then men will become good...
...and many countries today helt us feel the time may not be so far off as our noisy and violent Communists pretend to think...
...of oar rain and who were the authors of our misery during the last six years...
...Any program for industrial recovery which fails to recognize the responsibility of industry itself for this unemployment must fall by the wayside...
...It works...
...But if the second part of the Communist program be true, if they can deliberately work toward the creation of a Soviet State, it may work, but at what cost...
...Every one of these demands is s direct attack on the millions of werking men and women in this country, both those presently empissed sad those unemployed...
...Magistrate Solomon ruled that it is the constitutional right of a person to move in any direction he chooses after being ordered to "move on" by a policeman in dismissing disorderly conduct charges against Jenny Gotten, who, according to police, was one of the demonstrators outside E.R.B...
...Mystic Ways ef Faith And if the first part of the Comnomic determinism dictate, then, their own wild antics are to be excused as merely part of the inevitable drive of circumstances, forcing them to behave as they "do, 1ywHi"g them, and all of us, toward —what...
...they must be fed and they most be clothed...
...The Unemployed Tes, I can say that these gentleman .who are today demanding, in tat language of...
...that they were stopped by the police and told they could picket with no more than two pickets...
...Every occasion for saucing the goose is propaganda...
...Labor's Philosopsy That in simple language is the philosophy back of the thirty-hour week for which labor is prepared to wage an intensive campaign...
...Other critics sponsored and financed by gigantic combinations of intrenched wealth and sewer are preaching the doctrine that our troubles will be soon over if we allew the law of supply and demand to take its course...
...The theatre, and the cinema, constitute a. vital social force, now too often basely pandering to the powers that be, to the preservation of Things as They...
...Yet, jf feasible, better-then violence...
...it is bound to win...
...Solomon in the Coney Island court the current week that indicate that even in so-called small cases fundamental principles may be involved and in which th...
...Which is more in keeping with our American ideals—relief or work...
...But the emergency ends when opposition is stilled...
...We have no doubt as to the eventual outcome...
...There is a fit symbol of this confusion, of this inner and ineradicable contradiction, in the fact that the League Against War and Fascism calls its journal "Fight...
...No, we are not going to go back to the system of so-called rugged individualism which brought us to the gates of complete chaos and ruin...
...they may shrug impatient shoulders and say: "What h* it contradicts philosophy...
...The apostles of greed are singing their age-old song of "leave us alone...
...I have listened to the...
...These preach a doctrine I believe to be false...
...Industrialist, please be assured that labor is ready and willing to fight for continued progress in legislation and on the industrial battle ground...
...Some Important Questions And who are these captains of industry and giants of finance who ars preaching.for a revival of the philosophy that brought about this terrible economic depression from ' which we have not as...
...I To preach is not the drama's, not I art's role...
...Points of View in Looking at the Strivings of Man For a Better World—Some See No Hope in Democracy And Trust in Mankind...
...They must be housed...
...Every day we hear the cries of ike representatives of reaction and Bcurboaism demanding that government keep ita hands off business...
...on October 15...
...Surely the truth of life today lis a grim enough, ghastly enough I picture...
...cial good...
...Under the first assumption, however, as Soviet Russia well shows, man will be good only as long as he is forced to be...
...Then i if e will make clear its own mesaI '.ng and message, disengaged front...
...Joseph T. Shipley, author ef "The Art of Eugene OWetBVTae Quest fer Literature," and many ether works, instructor fa i*WMg and dramatic criticism at the City College, hoe been dramatic editor ef The Ne» Looier from ite first issue...
...Regardless of whether they are Communists, Republicans, Democrats or Socialists, they have legal rights that I must protect I know of no warrant in law for the police to limit these people to two pickets under the circumstances disclosed in this case...
...those intelligent enough to follow the argument are neither Communists nor in that curious left-wing "bolting" group which strides those two animals I mentioned earlier, as desperately as tbe criminals who used to be tied to the backs of two steeds whipped away in opposite directions...
...That there may rise occasions when physical force seems inevitable—mad dog, highwayman, etc.—the most ardent pacifist would find it hard to deny...
...A large proportion of these forty million are now being housed, clothed and few by the taxpayers through some form or another of local or federal relief...
...This is labor's answer to the challenge of those who preach the doctrine of privil?ge...
...The thirty-hour week is no idle dream nor is the desire for a shorter week born of indolence...
...theatre and cinema ae a social force.—Editor] •THE NEW LEADER Series on the Theatre (and Cinema) as a social force' included aspects of the subject from a picture of secret agents in Hollywood, a survey of the theatre through the country by Katharine Cornell, Arthur Hopkin's warning to theatre groups, to the statements of their records and aims by the city's several groups, from Theatre Guild to Theatre Union...
...In the first place, philosophically, the two elements of the political theory, the destructive and the constructive, are contradictory and irreconcilable...
...For violence, in addition to the immediate suffering involved, the tremendous material and physical losses of war, engenders a chain of spiritual evils that is likely to outweigh any gain through the operation of the violence...
...It hat openly - been declared by jsskesinan after s pok earn aa that tan having for their purpose the jrsKciion and security of workers mi- their families are unsound, svAmerican and unconstitutional...
...But beyond this wide and innocuous meaning of the I word, which these mep use in argu! ment, is another sense of the tertr...
...but it would probably be idle...
...Are we going to retreat from the position we have taken during the last few years in regard to labor's status in recovery measures...
...And what is labor's answer to the challenge laid down by the spokesmen for big business and organized capital...
...Slow...
...In this state labor is prepared to back tbe national policies and program of the American Federation of Labor for the future to the very utmost of our ability...
...everyone is urged to act, as though one could choose his course of action and mold the world to his will...
...of those who fashioned the patter...
...Are...
...let him preach who has I A-ithin himself all wisdom...
...This year will most likely bring an intense struggle between those who preach the doctrine of reaction and those who advocate , better balanced economy and a better day for all our people...
...surely indignation can I swell to art on the wings of U BjK, I in any of a scopre, a hundred, dff • I feront aspects of the social scese, I the industrial world, of our tine...
...There can be no measure of prosperity unless those at tbe bottom of our social structure are provided with a decent share of the purchasing power of the nation...
...A determined effort will be made this year to strengthen the State laws having for their purpose the j protection of women and minors in industry and we will also ask the legislature to reduce the ""«mm work week for women employed in hotels and restaurants, . The fight to extend the legal rights sad social welfare of the great mass of our citizenry who work for 'wages cannot ever be allowed to lag...
...I look, inevitably color, de te rrnjno, I his work...
...The charm of being a regular contributor to a radical magazine," says Robert Forsythe, "is that you can start by reviewing a movie as innocuous as The Iron Man' or as vicious as 'Black Fury' and end with a dissertation on the place of joy in Communistic behavior...
...Martin David, Sophie Stolpansky, Jack Smith and Mollie Smith were arrested outside of a Home Relief Bureau at Kings Highway and 'East 17th St., Brooklyn, charged with disorderly conduct...
...Immediate Measures The field-of security legislation must not be curtailed...
...Opposition, that is, freedom of thought, and that challenging of all opinion which is man's clearest road to such truth as man can compass...
...Solomon, in dismissing the complaint, said: "You [addressing the police officers] may not approve of the methods employed by these people (said to be Communists) in bringing their grievances to the attention of the relief authorities...
...Neither may I. But that is beside the point...
...We accept the challenge and onder the banner of the great enlightened American trade anion movement we are prepared to battle for the present and future security of all the great mass of oar citizens who work for others...
...In this struggle which will be saw Hti "Ht a struggle between the ill sad the new, labor has a most «taf stake...
...yet recovered?- Who are these men who beast of the resourcefulness and ingenuity of the American business man sad hh)' ability to meet all eraersosjshs jamided by government...
...Pickets Freed by Solomon...
...These I say what is your solution...
...Those already of the same I opinion may cheer, but not merely I the hostile, even the open-mmd?d»' I will be repelled as soon as-they I le tec t a bias...
...no consideration of the public arts as a social force should avoid that issue...
Vol. 19 • January 1936 • No. 3
