LABOR SPY CRUSHES CIVIL LIBERTIES
LABOR SPY CRUSHES CIVIL LIBERTIES Senate Group Fights Use of Stoolpigeons Unions Merit Rights Equal to Employers L tOIERT M. LaFOLLETTE' 3fa pest year we have seen the fljulft increases in...
...Not even at the conference table is labor immune from the activities of the spy...
...While his press agent organization was getting out the statements, an elderly couple in Hackensack, both just discharged from Hackensack Hospital,' were unable to obtain emergency relief because they could not walk to the office of the Overseer of the Poor to apply for it . . . And in another community a cosmetic factory recruited girls 16 and 17 years old through the Overseer of the Poor, who told the girls that unless they accepted jobs in this factory (removed from New York to the "better" labor market in New Jersey) he would refuse their families any further relief...
...The boys in Trenton sought to stem the avalanche of criticism by such "sentimental" organizations as the American Association of Social Workers...
...In consequence, many continued to receive nothing and, according to * late report, Hoboken received a mere pittance...
...Officials in one community declared that the poor should he willing to work for less than others...
...German Unrest Hurts War Power By HERBERT morrison K- Leader of the London City CounciL '"^VENTS in Germany haye^ provided first-class news for the tf* world's press...
...The committee has found that labor .spying pervades American industry to an extent heretofore unsuspected...
...When spies reported the names of union members, they were fired or blacklisted, and their organizing plans subverted...
...Let them first clean their own house...
...They said that relief was a "right" of those who were willing to work but couldn't find work...
...However, little money was made available, and most of the towns and cities in Boss Hague's territories, including Hoboken, didn't care to meet the tax requirements...
...lt is a wonder there has not beep trouble before, for dicta torhave never completed their work until every institution and, I*0 far as possible, every individual has become subordinated to its amj» Of course there are difficulties...
...But the New Jersey Legislature, under dictation from Frank Hague and his Republican machine, decided that this was maudlin sentiment...
...The names and distribution of these firms conclusively demonstrate the tenacious hold which the spying habit has on American busi' ness...
...In view of their past record and their stubborn hostility to labor, it ill behooves such industrialists and their spokesmen to take the attitude of impartial critics...
...Then and then only may they enter the arena of public discussion with clean hands...
...KBEWTiAL UNION kW HEED FREEDOM IT stay not be clear how these afjaausental rights are involved il the formation of labor unions...
...This campaign employed methods which denied the exercise of the fundamental rights of citizenship, free speech, and free assembly...
...TPHIS happened in New Jersey...
...For many years an influential section of industry has regarded with callous indifference the civil rights of its employees—and has not hesitated to exercise force, deceit, and corruption to defeat them...
...Closely allied with these agencies, sometimes by interlocking business arrangements, were three firms selling tear and sickening gag to industry for use in strikes...
...He not only reports union secrets, he is often able to dominate union policy, to cast suspicion upon loyal members, to create internal dissension, to sabotage organization efforts, and to provoke premature strikes...
...The practices which the commit- - tee proved and many employers confessed are not new...
...They have removed experiMilitary officers and they are now appointing military offi2» on grounds of political acceptability rather than of military CAW PnHpaany got into a first-class war, the elements of discontent joeld soon get their chance...
...A State Financial Assistance Commission was established and charged with * the duty of apportioning funds to municipalities which met certain requirements regarding taxation...
...On April 27, they passed an act providing "in principle" for state aid to municipalities and civic and private charity organizations...
...In addition to all this, most municipalities refused to aid those failing to come under the legal settlement period of five years...
...The subcommittee proved that the labor spy plays an important role in the labor policy of a substantial number of companies...
...Death ensued, and because of this an unemployed mason, Joseph Scutellari, frantically worried and har"assed husband and father, will stand trial for murder in a New Jersey court...
...It is at any for the time being a disturbing thing from the military point ?Jjew, and the Nazis had better be careful about plunging into /%bjy have now spread disaffection among, at any rate minora?i of every class in the community...
...t I ET us see what industry has done to thwart labor's right to organize and bargain collectively...
...Such is New Jersey—corrupt and content— where Hague is "The Law...
...It exploded sentimentality and forced stern realism...
...But, I am • sorry to say...
...That is the weaknesS*of Fascist as against ? Communist dictatorship...
...In fact, they regard the old man's heart as merely a sort of personification of the heart of the whole New Jersey system...
...In the direct sense at any rate, it is unlikely that the freedom of the German people will come from the army, the Junkers, or the middle class...
...Having delivered blow after blow at the army, Herr Hitler has commenced to rain blows upon the East Junkers in their.castles in East Prussia...
...IN July, in Atlantic City, a baby in one large family died for lack of milk and the family was unable to purchase medicine for the 15month-old child with whooping cough, but on the 11th of that month, well-fed Percy C. Magnus of the New York Board of Trade reported with satisfaction that since New Jersey had ended state aid, the number of cases on the relief rolls had dropped sharply...
...It laid low a growing political and social menace...
...New Jersey was secretly alarmed...
...But the conflict of class interests cannot be ended permanently as long as classes exist...
...BY BRYCE OLIVER WEYD's Labor Commentator THIS is the story of a desk spike—and of a human heart which was filed thereon...
...The list of clients of detective agencies contained ir* the report of the committee includes a number of our greatest corporations...
...Hailed by the chambers of commerce, New Jersey's Elizabethan poor law system has at last come to trial...
...They show that the theory that everything goes smoothly with fcllurships is an unsound theory...
...They also are largely isolated and can easily be dealt with...
...The committee found that many employers, to avoid dealing with free, undominated, bona fide trade unions, encouraged the establishment of illicit, camouflaged company unions...
...Most prominent were those by unions to the effect that their members, we're being spied upon by industrial detective agencies and that their efforts to organize were being broken up by these spies...
...The spike is an ordinary one, of the kind often favored by newspaper editors for the receiving of rejected copy...
...Much of its evidence came from the unwilling admission of management i itself...
...The National Labor Relations Act is really a codification of those fundamental rights as far as they concern the American workingman...
...The most commonplace feature of the labor espionage business is the methodical recruiting and corrupting of honest workers to act as labor spies...
...Many were verified by the American Association of Social Workers, with headquarters in New York...
...It is a long spike, set in a leaded base, and people who use them often slam papers over the sharp end in varying degrees of irritation...
...Let them show that they are willing to meet in good faith, and enter into agreements with independent organizations of labor...
...overseer ef the poor, oa the overseer's desk spike...
...It broke the relief trust...
...The German ermy is no friend of the German working class or of democracy...
...It seeks further to create public distrust of unions and of democratic organizations of workingmen...
...the process of suppression extends to the Liberals, to iesisaiervatives and to the Churches (who also in the main stood wheeTthe German workers were being suppressed), and even, 5?»aintainir,g capitalism itself, the capitalists and landlords *j«kjected to increasingly irksome regulation in the interests Fascist political bosses...
...Stab That Killed Overseer Indicts Jersey Relief System MURDER OF HOBOKEN POORMASTER REVEALS FAILURE OF POLICY WHICH PLACES RELIEF BURDEN ON LOCAL MUNICIPAL HEADS...
...our country over 100 years I it is an advance we all should rjft, —terial gains it has brought jjjij not be lost sight of at this SJ7 In the steel industry alone, fg instance, according to figures j&e Iron and Steel Institute, the 5il wsge pay roll for August before organization had be?| a factor, totaled some $63,?JSor, when well organized, helps Menace progressive social legisuka...
...This applied to men who were hungry before the ten hours started...
...to Ss^Bste and assemble together in ¦sskp, to decide on policies, and dat steers...
...The act seeks to give the employee redress if he is discharged or discriminated against for freely exercising his fundamental rights, and to free him altogether, from the fear of punishment or retaliation by his employer if he joins or is active in a union...
...When this strategy was unsuccessful, a large number of employers resorted to espionage...
...This is the true American way, the way of freedom and of liberty...
...The dilemma for Herr Hitler ymont this military, business probably was that if he turned the fjj*y >nto ah exclusive instrument of the Nazis, he might underT*™* the German military spirit, weaken fhe army's esprit de m one sense and replace it in a less valuable sense, and be -;7**d to remove on political grounds military* officers -of wide fjjjjj*^^' and high technical efficiency...
...This subcommittee was appointed in June 1936 under Senate Resolution 266, which authorized the investigation of violations with the right of labor to j organize and bargain collectively...
...vicious work of the labor SPY INFORMATION obtained in these * and other ways is not the only source of the "background" to la- ' bor policy which the spy can provide...
...also of the treatment of New* Jersey's unemployed by the selfish interests which dictate that treatment through the political machinery created by Frank Hague ("I Am the Law") and Hague's subsidiary Republican organization...
...The spike in this story was used for the reception of applications for aid, which the political machines of New Jersey, operated by Hague but owned by the corporations, had refused to grant...
...The economic condition of Ger^ new jg bad, but it would inevitably deteriorate under war !2itkms...
...Several times Harry Barck had been attacked by frantic seekers for relief...
...how TTAS INDUSTRY WARRED ON LABOR...
...In many instances the employer armed these strikebreakers, often illegally, with tear or vomiting gas, pistols, and machine guns...
...It may be rather less brutal and crude than is the tyranny of Herr Hitler and his Nazis, but it is bad enough in all conscience...
...On more than one occasion Fascist dponments have issued statements to the foreign press which ¦aey have kept away from their own people—which illustrates the ^attempt that dictatorship governments have for their own people...
...Moreover, he had to be ry*fid about biting off more than he could chew at one time and EJ**"*nig too much simultaneous opposition over a wide and varied gpsst...
...We may be sure that - i» every incident that becomes public, a hundred or a thousand incidents are kept away from the public gaze...
...In those communities where aC organizations are strongest sa find democracy advanced and Sn liberties most freely exercised...
...The living defendant Is Joseph Seatellari by name, bat the real defendant in that trial will be the system which finally drove Scutellari to file the heart of old Harry Barck...
...There was * adopted a system of compulsory road work at 20 cents an hour with a limit of a $2 weekly food order, no matter what the size of the family...
...And even now the extraordinary fact emerges that the world •ehnde Germany knows more of these German events than the ' wmsrn people themselves...
...Thus New Jersey forced labor...
...The overseer refused even the necessary aid to get them back to New York where they could obtain relief...
...Nobody accepts the view ^*** the trouble is entirely caused by Field' Marshal Von Blomjjyi nurrying a girl who sprung from the "lower orders," thus WfaKhhg the snobbish traditions of the Prussian army...
...It made relief a supplement to individual effort...
...no FRIEND OF DEMOCRACY 1J7HILST from the point of view of ending tyranny almost any " kind of trouble that breaks out in a dictatorship state is welcome to the democrat, we shall be wise not to expect too much from this episode, although it may not be without its significance in the long run...
...Illy cannot do these things flafcfcey cannot form unions...
...The purpose of the law was: First, to set the children of the poor to work and, second, to put idle adults to work...
...He insisted that they must sell all their household goods for $20, the amount necessary to get them back'to New York...
...Let them first give convincing evidence that they will uproot and destroy the system and habit of industrial espionage...
...It means the extension into the realm of industry'of those fundamental rights for which the founding fathers fought...
...His attitude was described as supercilious, and he regarded the unfortunates who had been caught in the depression as worthless scum...
...He reflected the smug belief of those who controlled the New Jersey Legislature in April, 1936, which decided to be "sensible" and stop this foolish relief...
...But there are those who are of the opinion that a haart much harder than that of old Harry Barck was filed on the spike...
...It requires only that the rights of our political democracy shall be freely exercised in the economic world so that industrial democracy may become a reality...
...To these happenings, however, including the assault upon the frf„ unlikely to strengthen Germany economically, politically *lffhe military sense...
...This phase of the committee's inquiry has now been concluded, and legislation to curb these abuses will shortly be introduced in the Senate...
...they judged their cont duct toward their employees by another standard...
...LABOR SPY CRUSHES CIVIL LIBERTIES Senate Group Fights Use of Stoolpigeons Unions Merit Rights Equal to Employers L tOIERT M. LaFOLLETTE' 3fa pest year we have seen the fljulft increases in the ranks /^Kanized labor since unions beaT...
...Hailing New Jersey for its "courage to meet the relief problem in a sensible manner," Magnus to-ld the nation: , . "Last April, our neighboring state across the Hudson, by refusing to appropriate state funds for relief purposes, did something more than merely turn the problem over to the ^.municipalities where it rightfully belonged...
...Even with a contented country, Germany would have tfMttYtXi enough to face in the economic sphere and in sea *^?^inth a people that has had its initiative and self-reliance ?gsToy*d> with parts of every class of the community and every -Unooj denomination unhappy and some positively discontented, '^TiJim experiencing difficulties in the, army which appear likely - ht remedied by decreasing of its leadership, Germany would al^1 certainly be doomed to defeat in a war with any substantial „adWneti— of Powers which lasted about six months...
...jiere are some people who rejg(d this recent increase in union Hp} with feelings of alarm...
...Our subcommittee had received numerous complaints...
...IT was an ordinary heart that fluttered its last * on the point of the rejection spike...
...It is curious that this purge of the army 2ltid nsve followed so soon after the Soviet purge...
...One family, who had lived in New Jersey for only a few months, was stranded when the breadwinner lost his job...
...Only affter this segment of industrial management has demonstrated that they themselves are responsible and honest in their dealings with labor, are their criticisms of labor entitled to serious attention...
...From retail stores to steel 1 makers, from airplanes to automobiles, from small units to giant enterprises, scarcely an industry ' that is not represented among the clients of detective agencies...
...NEED for civil LIBERTIES group IT was the resistance to the Wagner Act which in part was responsible for creation of the subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Education and Labor, of which the able and distinguished Senator Elbert D. Thomas of Utah and I are members...
...It is true that the control of Ipe press, the suppression of free speech and the regulation of all ftrms of public communications in dictatorship countries gives an ...Jsasory impression to many people of smoothness in government -jjfA administration and general contentment...
...The cost of labor espionage to American industry can only be ' approximated...
...In the face of the law, employers have continued to commit their labor policy to the tender care ,of detective agencies, to spend thousands^ of dollars on gas and guns and other hundreds of thousands on union wrecking through espionage...
...It is commonly "known as"the "Civil Liberties Committee...
...Preliminary investigation revealed that this espionage was, in itself, a business, carried on by detective agencies under contract with employers who were determined to prevent organization, of their employees...
...Now their turn has come...
...Nor did they abandon these practices when, in 1933, Federal legislation for the first time attempted to safeguard for all workers the civil rights enshrined in the Constitution...
...If a union withstood these preliminary barrages and engaged in a strike, it often found itself pitted against a small army of notorious strikebreakers, recruited from the gutter with criminal records as their certificates of proficiency...
...These people have been in a sense the spoilt darlings of the late President Hindenberg and of Herr Hitler...
...The "New Dealers" took the attitude that people who suf, fered were entitled to subsistence at the least...
...These three activities, which may roughly be classified as espionage by detective agencies, strikebreaking by detective agencies, and industrial munitioning, formed the subject matter of the first phase of the committee's work...
...Food orders were, given to those who signed a statement, such as: "I, having declared myself to be a pauper . . . etc...
...The rejections were slammed down over the point, with considerable irritation, by old Harry Barck, Hoboken'^ Overseer of the Poor, and at length—on a Friday in the last week of February—old Harry Barck's heart, itself, was spitted over the sharp point of the file...
...the fight • ? for POWER LET the capitalists and land owners of all countries note: Fascism, largely financed by the propertied classes in .its fight for power, first exercised its brutality upon the Socialist, Trade Union and Co-operative organizations, but the lust for power even so is not satisfied until every possible competitor is rendered harmless...
...te crisis EXPLAINED i"*JpVERTHELESS, the outside world is mystified by the inner ^q...
...One community, according to Ellis, insisted upon ten hours of work before a weekly $2 food order would be given...
...They also have stood by and watched with approval the suppression of the German working class and its political and industrial institutions...
...t*.So w*'ted» and I suppose let the military people suffer from **Bet delusion that he would never dare touch them too harshly Aaffnow the army, having stood by and watched or assisted in the suppression of other elements in the nation, may find itself helpless and isolated in its time of trial...
...At that time, you may remember, the National Labor Relations Act was held up all over the land by injunctions, and the Labor Board could hardly function...
...third, to raise funds for materials of this work from local tax rates and to provide necessary relief of the lame, the impotent, the old, the blind and others found to be in unworkable categories...
...If *asi is likely to be fired from his JHr blacklisted^ because he talks fmm the union, or goes to a union | meeting, or participates in union activities, he is not free to exercise his civil rights...
...l Faced with this record of cori ruption and treachery, the corpoi rate representatives who testified i before the committee unbhishingly ! asserted their right to know the - thought and conduct of their em5 ployees and defended the means which they Jiad chosen to obtain t that information...
...They *rerc quick t to condemn the filching of trade - secrets from a competitor, whether i by bribery or theft...
...For instance, spy officials have even on occasions impersonated Federal officers and pretended that reports from the worker were to be used for official governmental purposes...
...These rights are in the Constitute, sad to fear the results of their exsfdse is to fear democracy it¦tt Their exercise by workers lltasMS, ultimately, to extend deiwrsrr and to organize the labor print which is so essential to the •tSwiy functioning of our highly ¦Sgrated industrial system...
...nr of these are neither ultraltyn ulii i nor non-union, feel aftty at the prospect of growing ggodsstion among the ranks of j^Htrial workers...
...M people desiring- to associate tasssshres for economic better¦sJLfest in local groups and next at national body, must be free to qssk to one another, to have the Xto use the printed word and ¦cans of communication...
...Immediately, there were two major developments...
...In short, let them demonstrate that they are willing to permit others to exercise those rights which they claim for themselves...
...One witness, until recently i the labor relations director of a large automobile manufacturer, i said of labor spy reports that "we i used them as the background on ; which we built our whole struct- < ure...
...meaning of the German troubles...
...If the German people are to achieve a freedom that is worth while, the achievement will have to be in all essentials their own work...
...And so, despite the hallelujah chorus from the chambers of commerce in every section in the country...
...In many cases tab feeling is due to the fact that tfcw people do not realize that {pifieVrth and development of uniSM depend upon the exercise of ttt of our most cherished rights— tat right of free speech and the npkt of assembly...
...I ITERALLY thousands of cases similar to these were known...
...A sample group of selected clients of de'¦ tective agencies were found to have i spent in the 4 years from 1933 to : 1937 approximately $10,000,000 for - labor espionage, industrial munitioning, strikebreaking, and allied . services...
...This "relief" system was a reversion to the pauper law passed in England, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in 1572, and transplanted to New Jersey...
...INDUSTRY STILL rafs wagner act 1*0DAY, when the National La* bor Relations Act has been approved toy the Supreme Court, when the practice of espionage has been finally revealed to public view, this same section of industry seeks by loud public clamor to weaken or destroy the Wagner Act which has made effective our fundamental constitutional guaranties to labor...
...Any one of a number of seemingly legitimate reasons are employed to "hook" the future labor spy...
...The five detective ' agencies examined by the commit' tee reported incomes in 1935 aggregating over $4,900,000...
...Out of a list of approximately 300 Pinkerton industrial spies, 100 were union officials, many of them high in the ranks of labor organizations, formulating the policies for thousands of workers...
...1) Actual cases of starvation began to be disclosed and (2> chambers of commerce all over the nation issued statements applauding New Jersey...
...Fascism preserves the elements of the class struggle...
...fourth, to apprentice orphans and children of those unable to support their own...
...The basic fact appears to be that within fairly wide limits EN German army had lived its own life, thought its own thoughts, •pd enjoyed a limited degree of independence of the Nazi organi*bon...
...The detective agencies which engaged in this work also offered other anti-labor services, such as providing strikebreakers and thugs in times of labor disputes...
...The National Labor Relations Act imposes only one duty on the employer in matters of association or organization, and that is to grant to his employees the same right and freedom to self-organization which he exercises himself...
...And so, on April 15, 1936, New Jersey provided no state funds for the continuation of emergency relief and turned the administration of relief back to the towns and municipalities, many of which had no funds for the purpose...
...On the surface it is hard to see how such a simple and fair statute as the National Labor Relations Act, having these objectives, could have raised such a storm of excitement and protest...
...The hostility to the act can be understood only in view of the long and relentless campaign waged by many employers and groups of employers in this country against the organization of workers into independent trade unions...
...No sooner has the unfortunate worker been misled, written his first report, and signed a receipt for his meager pay, than the detective agency official, under threat of exposing him as a stool pigeon, blackmails him into acting as a tool for the spy agency...
Vol. 21 • March 1938 • No. 10
