Anti-Labor Forces Maintain Lynch Gangs
BLISS, DAVID SAPOSS and ELIZABETH T.
Anti-Labor Forces Maintain Lynch Gangs Stooge Union Funds Hint Company Help INDUSTRIALISTS' STRIKEBREAKING FORMULA INCLUDES "BJCKTO-WOWt MOVEMENTS, "CITIZENS' COMMITTEES," INTIMIDATION. AND...
...Ih OMr-of Its inclusion of every device previously described, it represents, in a sense, an ideal type and has been widely publicized and- initiated as such...
...development...
...The prominent citizens of the community were organized into the" Citizens' Committee of Johnstown to bring pressure upon the strikers to go back to work...
...ROPES ARE READY...
...In some cases an attorney, who has had no previous experience with labor organizations and who has never indicated labor sympathies, has advanced the initial funds and has drafted the constitution, by-laws and incorporation papers without a definite understanding as to what his fee would be...
...This enabling act was passed by Congress in 1924, with the endorsement of all political parties...
...Send ie a 25-eeet three-months' trial sob and we'll send him too complete set...
...for these thousands, for whom the law was designed, were left in argument by the uninformed to shift for themselves...
...Rome...
...I asked him about fears of war in Europe and the prospects ssdjiiiiililiiiiii for peace...
...No matter what happens, we shall not abandon our parliamentary democracy...
...Twenty-eight states have ratified the amendment, and six more ratifications are necessary to its adoption...
...social activities as their sole source of income...
...Be careful...
...Yet for years this farm and home work bogey continued to be used, and even believed...
...There is complete equality for minorities under our consti-hstlon and we have full liberty of speech and the press...
...Yet if it had been possible to present adequately to enough people, the factual basis for much legislation, a lot of delay in its passage might have been avoided...
...movement...
...To us this is quite natural, especially as half of our Cabinet Ministers are the sons and daughters of i workmen and peasants...
...Long suppression by Imperial_ Austria-Hungary taught the Ciechoslovaks the priceless boon of democratic liberty...
...But one ought to know if other countries will follow this policy.,We remain a democratic country 'because we are workers and peasants...
...Or the sentimentality which remembers gay Colonial com-husking and tense Revolutionary trap-setting and forgets that not a cotton mill was operating in this country when the Constitution was drafted...
...And here is the answer: "Congress would not have the power, under the amendment, to regulate the work children do for their parents about the home or farm...
...Six states still permit children of fourteen to work eleven hours a day—ten states allow them to work until 8 P. M. or later...
...g "We are remedying all legitimate grievances and shall con-to do so...
...Oh," said the visitor, "you must be very proud of that...
...And only ten of the forty-eight states have the sixteen-year minimum for work during school hours...
...THE depression made the real revelation and * drove it home...
...It is certain that the formum~perfecfed by Rand and publicized by the National Association of Manufacturers did get the "attention of industrial America," that is, the anti-labor section of "industrial America...
...For ex-, ample, the sentimentality of an economic philosophy of individualism, dating back to the early days of the country, when children worked as a part of the family group and there was no child sxploitation...
...In ten states there is no prohibition of dangerous occupations for children under sixteen...
...Then they moaned about $300 a month for executives...
...The real objective of these movements is to break the spirit of the strikers and the backbone of the strike...
...P. H. Gee of the National Association of Hosiery Workers wrote Werner of the Berkshire Employees' Association, saying: "One big fault at Hershey was the fact that some of the delegates represented a group of nickle and dime outfits that cried all over the hall over the dues until they beat them down to the ridiculous figure of 25 cents per capita per year...
...The inadequacy of the dues for financing* neepS^ sary union activities leads to the conclusion that the "independents?* are not primarily interested in effective collective bargaining...
...But Congress should be enabled to regulate the employment of children up to 18, because children are exploited now, and subjected to hazards...
...Under the auspices of the Bethlehem Steel Company, the Steel Workers' Committee of Johnstown was set up to mobilize the workers for a backrto-wrk...
...organizers and union members are brutally beaten, tarred and feathered, and sometimes murdered...
...Is the suggested approach for agreement between the Great Powers, I asked, a right move in the direction of European peace ? "The question of European peace should not be divided," he replied...
...Czechoslovakia Fears Nothing By A. L. EASTERMAN European Correspondent of the London Daily Herald f«HX full g»re of the European limelight is now, after Austria 1 Spain, focused on the democratic Republic of Czechoslovakia...
...BANKS AND LAWYERS SERVE "INDEPENDENTS"—FREE...
...Western Europe must be strong," he said, "and should continue to show an interest in the little States of Europe...
...We continue the policy of collaboration with Western Europe, (he League of Nations and democracy...
...Sr...
...On the contrary, they are under-cutting the bona fide Union rates in an attempt to gain a competitive advantage in recruiting membership for the fight to destroy "regular labor" organizations...
...If it does, things will improve gradually...
...RAND ANTI-LABOR PLAN HAILED BY N.A.M...
...I have eight brothers and sisters...
...Two of my brothers are i railwaymen, one is a workman in America and two are school-i teachers...
...No girl under 18 shall be allowed to help her mother with the housework...
...9 One theme ran consistently through his rapidly spoken, eloquent words—pride in the freedom and well-being of a peasant and worker people...
...We, the Government and myself, have made a solemn declara-*°to.this effect and this will be realized...
...Laboring children...
...Children in textile mills—the awkwardness of youth accountable for accident hazard, for lost fingers, for a lost hand...
...This is contrary to normal banking practices...
...We discussed the main phases of the danger-laden European scene and the critical position within it of his own State...
...This little State, freed after the war from the top-heavy Aostro-Hungarian Empire, lies at the very hub and center of Europe and of the struggle between the forces of democracy and Fascism...
...I "We are not hostile to any nation, nor do we want to be used at an instrument against any nation...
...But we are preparing for all eventualities and would defend our democratic institutions if they Were attacked...
...union headquarters are raided and wrecked...
...Benes spoke with characteristic directness...
...Man is the only thing alive who lives upon its young...
...We are all workers and peasants or their sons and daughters," he told me...
...How clear it will be when the tumult and the talk are in the past...
...Very likely today the lack of a factual basis— that is, sentimentality—is responsible for much opposition to the child-labor amendment...
...KU KLUX KLAN P. O. Box 742...
...In so doing, it completely disregards the legal rights of one group in the community, the workers...
...Children in troth' roMcilee ood ^a|ber mills, pole-peeling, and logging in the swamps, at jobs that tax the shrimps—and of 3,386 pickers counted, 4X2 wore' estimated to be ooder sixteen...
...AND MURDER...
...yet 25 cents is quite a usual figure for the _n«onMsJy dues of these independents...
...The expression belongs to the savage post of the race, a survival of man's frantic struggle to stay alive...
...Such methods are obviously unreliable if a steady income is desired, and they afford no method of checking to determine whether all of the members are carrying their share of the financial burden in return for the benefits which they ireeerve from the organization...
...THE Remington-Rand Company devised what is* perhaps the * most highly developed back-to-work formula...
...As I see it, no nation really wants to provoke a war, Nor is the so-called drive towards rearmament an inevitable prelude liwar...
...creator of Czechoslovakia, was the son of a groom...
...tFor a certain time, therefore, we will not nave war...
...We are a small country and a little people, but we fear nothing...
...They are designed to terrorize and demoralize striking employees and to stampede them to return to work...
...v" . * * * tlfg words, which he gave me permission to publish, are dra-** ma tic, brave and peculiarly important at this moment...
...If you are strong and sseetre in your defense of peace, yon will always be able to •BSOfaV .- I inquired about Czechoslovakia's thorniest problem—the Ger-fW* minority, whose "persecution," alleged by the Nazis, is the Osuse of acute friction with Germany...
...The structure, procedure and general make-up of "independent" unions outlined above does not indicate that they can or expect to become substantial and self-supporting organisations for collective bargaining...
...Who has forgotten the cartoon of the father and mother left sitting at the table.while "the boy who has the family job goes out, with his dinner pail...
...Regardless of the final settlement of the dispute, here or at other Remington-Rand plants, Ilion has saade a real contribution to civic dignity...
...Benes about the relations between Czechoslovakia «nd Germany and whether his country was in danger of becoming soother 1914 Belgium...
...A few "independent" unions have resorted to the collection M dues which has always been regarded as the most •certain metksd of fund raising by substantial and self-supporting organisations^ whether they are labor organizations, fraternal orders, manufacturers' associations or chambers of commerce, in most cases, where such a provision has been made in the constitutions of "independents," dues are very low...
...I live in the President's palace while my brothers and sisters remain in the village...
...e "Peace should not be localized in one direction and abandoned in another...
...We are, however, now in a situation where there are theories in Europe that war must come again and that material force is esrisliu in history...
...yHERE are cases on record where banks have granted loans * without tangible collateral to "independents" which have not built up substantial treasuries...
...High-priced publicity men are hired to label the strikers as a minority group, forcing the majority of the workers to lose valuable working time, creating violence, destroying property, and causing heavy financial losses to the community...
...Her 15,000,000 people, a composite of Czechs, Slovaks, Ger-Bians, Hungarians and Poles, with the Czechs and Slovaks predominating, are for the most part workers and peasants, simple, hardworking, peaceloving...
...In some cases, they run as U>w^| 10 cents a month...
...BACK-TO-WORK MOVEMENTS AND VIGILANTISM DACK-TO-WORK movements and vigilantism are other threads in the pattern of anti-labor activities sponsored by employers...
...Lack of imagination is accountable for calendars of crimes...
...We want to be like Holland and Belgium—independent and free...
...Such a procedure suggests that those making the loan knew they could fall back on some other source, probably the company, for repayment of the loan in case the "independent" did not make good...
...What will democratic little Czechoslovakia do against the Nazi-Fascist menace that faces her...
...Some raise their funds directly and others through an affiliated organization such as a raffle club...
...Some lawyers have even been known to defend an "independent" in legal proceedings without any financial arrangement...
...Children crocheting hats—in tenements—at fifty to sixty cents a dozen, an hour to a hat...
...On this point, the passage by Congress of an amendment to be ratified by a majority pf the states, meets all minds...
...There is therefore time in which to strengthen the forces for peace and to solve outstanding international problems...
...Then there seemed no other way...
...By ZONA GALE Famous American Novelist 'THE visitor spoke with appreciation of the * meeting branches of maple and elm, arching the streets...
...He chooses to know, or he should, the factual basis of the proposal, and the discovered facts concerning its need or otherwise...
...Employing violent means it seeks to break up unions and to coerce workers to foreswear their right to organize...
...and to foster the back-to-work movement...
...It shows that back-to-work movements modeled on the "Mohawk Valley Formula" have been prominent in strikes all...
...This hope has failed...
...Or the sentimentality which, as one hard-headed man observed, would still ride a mule to a concrete highway and throw stones at the traffic light in order to cross...
...How barbaric it will seem that man ever "lived upon its young...
...Who ever saw a tiger club racing out to bring in red meat to...
...I ACK of sunshine, lack of out-door exercise, curtailment of education, limiting of a child's right to grow and develop...
...The "Mohawk Valley Formula," as it is called, played an important role in the employers' anti-union offensive, especially in the recent steel strike...
...Alone among the Central European States, they have raised and nurtured a progressive country with free institutions, Parliamentary nde, hberty of speech and the written word and equality of eitsBsnship...
...The combined activities of the Steel Workers' Committee and the Citizens' Committee of Johnstown were successful in creating a hostile.public opinion and ultimately in breaking the strike...
...That it is an enabling act and not a law...
...shall be glad all the same that new ways have come to pass...
...Everyone recognizes not only the need but the desirability of having children learn their place in .the family unit by doing their share of work at home...
...Paid agitators and strikebreakers are imported to incite the strikers to violence...
...Farm groups are coming to see that child labor abolition has a dollar and cents value to the fanner, because child labor means lowered wages, and low wage scales mean low purchasing power for farm products...
...Communism will not be tolerated...
...For example, the National Association of Manufacturers, after giving a detailed analysis of the means by which the strike was broken, announced: , "The N.A.M...
...Children at Work...
...Handbills similar to those below are used by the vigilantes to intimidate union organizers with threats of personal violence and even death: "WARNING...
...Whistle code shall be used as instructed...
...No boy under eighteen shall be permitted to help his father on the farm...
...SALLY CAN HELP MA WASH THE DISHES "PHIS present enabling act is the first to meet * the issue itself fairly, without interference of goods shipment or tax to trouble the issue...
...Finally, I broached the question which has become a vital factor ¦ the fierce hostility between Germany and Soviet Russia—the Nazi allegations that Czechoslovakia is being used as a "jumping-off" ground for a Soviet attack on Germany...
...Benes, his successor as President, is the...
...Occasionally a few of the organizers have advanced their own money or have borrowed from relatives or friends...
...I am...
...As in the case in suffrage for women, it was hoped for more than a hundred years that state legislation would take care of child-labor...
...Benes for his views on the Berlin-Rome "axis" | and the new "cordiality" to Germany and Italy shown by some of the States of Central Europe...
...Children making candlewick bedspreads—eleven cents for a full day's work...
...Back-to-work movements are usually instigated directly by the employer or indirectly through a company union, an "independent" union, a labor spy, or through business associates in the community...
...Benes' attention to repeated statements that there - were Russian aerodromes and aeroplanes in Czechoslovakia, and that Russian officers were in charge of them...
...k I then asked Dr...
...If we could see children at work: Children in the tiff mines, where even' very small children can collect lumps of tiff in buckets...
...Nobody would forbid all employment of all persons under eighteen years...
...No child of fourteen shall be privileged to work in mines and quarries and canneries and factories...
...Vigilante* are ready to take care of any radical organizers...
...The National Association of Manufacturers was explicit on this point in an article entitled, "Public Opinion Chief Factor in Ending Johnstown Steel Strike...
...Or when it is said that the child-labor amendment would prevent a farmer's boys from working for their father, or young daughters from helping theig mothers, the sentimental disputant is sometimes without facts to meet this...
...and of the men who had urged that planting, long ago...
...CHILD LABOR AMENDMENT AN ENABLING ACT WUT it may be just as true of well-meaning S^ persons speaking for the amendment, with tears concerning little children in the hot fields, the city streets, or at sweated home labor.' But when a critic declares that the open fields are the best place for children, that home work never hurt anybody and that newsboys daily become corporation presidents, the well-meaning one may be at a loss to reply...
...What...
...r- , . . * * * WARRIN&1 ROPES ARE READY AttMPSXJEV,•edtiWed Industrial Strife and the "Third Party," which was distributed by the National Association of Manufacturers with its Monthly Labor Relations Bulletin of August, 1937, gives a sympathetic description of the mobilisation of public opinion to break strikes...
...These activities appear ostensibly as civic movements, designed to support a spontaneous desire of a large number of employees to return to work...
...GO TO WORK...
...I am the son of a peasant and I shall always remain so even if I am President...
...Towards her the eyes of Hitler are ominously turned...
...half of his Cabinet Ministers are the sons of workers and peasants...
...There is nothing of the reticent formality of a ruler about him...
...Red-baiting is often a characteristic of this propaganda...
...We wish to collaborate mcerely and with friendship for peace with all our neighbors, Jthere must be no interference in internal affairs...
...Business and professional men, public officials and others in the community are likewise terrorised and browbeaten .by the threat of a permanent loss of the plant's payroll in order to fores them to fall in line with these unlawful procedures...
...In short, all the civil liber-tics of...
...Insufficient facts and insufficient imagination may hold up more desirable action than does actual Opposition on principle—not only on the part of legislators, of course, but of all of us whom they represent...
...or "What...
...If it does not, who knows what will happen to Europe as a whole...
...Gilbert and Sullivan might have had it in a song...
...Children dipping tarrpantipe, working free*, twelve to fourteen hours a day in summer, paid fifty to eighty : feats *h«rrel_fogjrum dipped...
...He answered my questions in excellent English...
...The Klan stands for Law and Order...
...The Ku Klux Klan is watching...
...If the organizers do not take the hint to leave town, they are t^burned in effigy...
...Nobody seemed to say: "What...
...Other "independents" rely on entertainments, picnics and other THE concluding section of Mr...
...This committee, heavily financed by Bethlehem Steel, engaged two prominent agencies to carry on a national advertising campaign to discredit the CJ.O...
...f?*OR the first time during our long conversation Dr...
...The major job of the nation is to provide the next generation with that which shall promote its development...
...I called Dr...
...Industry sought low-scale wage earners—and there were the children, ready to hand, for innumerable occupations...
...Agreement between the Great Powers must not be localized bat mast be applied to all Earope...
...From the time of passage, the two bogies arose among the uninformed: "What...
...I do not believe a European war to be either imminent or inevitable," he replied...
...For example, 31 states have virtually no regulations of the employment of 16-and 17-year-old boys and girls in hazardous occupations...
...This is the tale of legislation, in the city, state and nation...
...It states that crystallization of public opinion against strikers "has been expressed principally in two directions...
...The sums mentioned for dues and for salaries of executives" are both ridiculously low for an organization which expects ,tp^ bargain-effectively...
...However, investigation by the Board has invariably revealed that they are surreptitiously organized by employers involved in labor disputes, by employer groups which are resisting the organization of labor, and by business dependents in the community who have been subjected to the economic pressure of employers...
...There is no.guph thing...
...Whereas, both the "independents" and the back-to-work movements maintain an outward semblance of legality, vigilantism— another form .of employer stimulated anti-labor activity that is being used widely and that is often linked to back-to-work movements—puts'* itself above the law...
...These means are so inadequate, so unusual, or so uncerCkAgL when they are combined with other features peculiar «*•*»*¦>^t> dependents," it is difficult to believe that these organisations 'hMtjIJI to be bona fide collective bargaining agencies, free of employ** domination...
...Industry Must Stop Living Off the Young BUSINESS DISTORTS PURPOSES OF CHILD LABOR AMENDMENT IN EFFORT TO PREVENT LOSS OF CHEAP LABOR SOURCE...
...Slowly, and almost fiercely, he said: "Allegations of Russian direction of or participation in "our armed forces are absolute ^ nonsense...
...Negro Longshoremen Agitators are doing everything they can to gset you ip trouble...
...Today you can localize nothing...
...Furthermore, such a system of fund raising, by concealing individual contributions made in cash, makes it easy for the company to contribute without detection...
...Man only, though...
...Sepott' and Mist Bliss' revealing series on tee campaigns of the anti-union section of the American industrialists appears In next week's edition, fear tellow-eeloelrt* will want to read the entire series...
...It simply gives Congress power to "limit, regulate and prohibit the labor of persons under eighteen years of age...
...appreciates the opportunity, through these columns of bringing to the attention pf industrial America the constructive manner in which this controversy was handled by these villages...
...We may rock on our porches and say, "We opposed the Amendment, at the time," but we...
...over the country...
...He leaned forward eagerly...
...KU KLUX KLAN RIDES AGAIN...
...I asked Dr...
...She rocked through a pause, and added: "My husband opposed it at the time...
...And who that really cares about the education-of children could honestly fear that this amendment would permit Congress to "control education,'* as if the "labor" of getting an education entered remotely into the area of the amendment...
...Hitler, only a week ago, threatened to "protect" her German minority of 3,500,000, the "Sudeten-Deutsehen," whose leaders are his openly proclaimed henchmen...
...He should know exactly what the amendment is, and what its status is now...
...Yes," the older woman said, rocking on the porch, "and my husband was in the town council when they voted to plant the trees...
...Now wo recognize that long accepted practice for what it was...
...Nazi Germany, ron the west, surrounds nearly one-third of her entire frontier...
...Here again the procedure is so unusual that suspicions are aroused as to the nature of these organizations...
...By DAVID SAPOSS and ELIZABETH T. BLISS Chief Economist and Junior Economist of the National *| . Labor Relations Board ' SINCE it is now illegal for employers to contribute to'the' sjafe-port of a union, devious means are resorted to for fund ra^hfe...
...The Klan is against Communism and Agitators...
...Benes as-*^ sumed a sternly challenging attitude...
...Before the age of telegraph messengers was limited, I remember ringing for night messengers and seeing babies of nine and ten respond, and start off, half awake, to go half way down Manhattan to Park Boer with copy...
...1*HIS vital stronghold/^f democracy in Europe stands, perilously I isolated, on the polity »1 and military high road from Berlin to...
...the workers are flouted by the vigilantes, parading under the banner of "law and order," in their*lawless efforts to prevent organization or to break a strike...
...but every-thing depends on us, the statesmen, the people who direct affairs...
...on her other borders lie the vassal states of Hitler and Mussolini—Austria, Hungary, Poland—and dictator-ruled Rumania...
...Many persons believe that human rights never constitute a state problem but a problem of the nation...
...I am," the older woman agreed...
...It will be Ae same when all laboring children are al-loswd aerate...
...There is no'Other way to save peace...
...We haw given proof that we really wish to come to an agreement with Germany," he replied...
...Masaryk...
...The word 'labor' has been construed repeatedly by the courts to mean labor for hire, gainful employment...
...a spirit of vigilantism in different areas of the country . . . and, secondly, the formation of Citizens' Committees in communities afflicted with labor difficulties...
...What do her leaders think of her future in fear-ridden, dictator-driven Europe ? Following my recent interview with King Carol of Rumania, I had a long talk with President Edouard Benes in the grim old fortress-palace of the ancient Bohemian kings on the high hill overlooking Prague, his capital...
...My two sisters .are the wives of peasants...
...1 do not believe war in Europe is imminent or inevitable," he said...
...Threats by the management to move the factory, creation of hostile public opinion, opening of the plant with a great display of armed force, and the use of strikebreakers, "missionaries" and "independent" union officials to create the impression that unless the strikers return to work immediately, they will lose their jobs permanently, are all techniques of undermining the strikers' morale and breaking the strike...
...TN face of such ideas you can stop war only if the forces which ^Stand for peace are stronger than those which proclaim the ¦series of material power...
...Yet certainly nobody chooses to be sentimental in discussing a proposed constitutional amendment...
...They are obviously inadequate to finanee eowSi cational literature, necessary research, strike benefits, expert.,-bargainers and organizers, and legal counsel, and other necessary undertakings...
...son of a peasant...
...Another is a peasant...
...This objection was not made originally by the farmer, but by industries seeking to influence anti-child labor action...
...there never was and there is no reason that there should be...
Vol. 21 • March 1938 • No. 12
