Letters to the Editor:
Letters to the Editor: THOUSANDS OF CHRISTIAN NAZI VICTIMS NEED AID Editor of The New Leader: By reason of newspaper reports and headlines, particularly the latter, there has developed in...
...When the simple tools operated by hand are combined into a machine, power propelled, expensive to own and complicated to operate, individual self-employment of the worker declines...
...T« George bawls out the labor men and liberals who seek to htorto Fred E. Beal...
...There has been no competition between us, the problem being much larger than anything, either or both our organizations could handle...
...and A. F. of L. are endangering the very existence of the Wagner Act and inviting hostile legislation to restrict Labor's activities...
...The very paper in which Harrison Gaanji now writes, while insisting on Beal's innocence, praised hit fin leadership...
...up, I ran over to the Federal prison...
...While there prevails an active and effective demand for shoes, their cost, plus a profit, may be realized...
...Recent terrorist acts of Nazis in New York City have raised the issue...
...Whether the idea was theirs or tot party's seems in dispute...
...If he did not help murder the policeman, then he ¦ clearly in prison because he stood at the head of a strike...
...Beal, he claims, "was ujgtorks* hiding under a bed while this (the shooting) was going on...
...Whether his speedy <s> illusionment with Stalinland is justified or not is beyond the pott here...
...He preferred tat chance, even the certainty, of returning to a North Carolina prise rather than remain in present-day Russia...
...To many persons the term, "Christian refugee," is strangely unfamiliar...
...But Harrison George, worshipping from afar, remains a Sttlinist of the Stalinists...
...Foreign owners of mines are also under fire...
...In his Daily Worker column on April 26 he writes: "We note that some labor officials and liberals have suddenly become pathetic over Fred E. Beal, and local unions are now instructed to support a so-called 'non-partisan' committee whiel » trying to get Beal out of jail...
...A FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY J-JOW a bourgeois and a Communist paper can report the . same event is told in the following item from London...
...They have about $200,000,000 of "patriotism" at stake in Mexico...
...This is a dangerous situation and we may look for propa ganda urging American intervention...
...The advocates of dictatorship and terror openly sneer at and denounce democracy while pleading for its privileges until they can destroy it...
...Like Daniel Drew and other millionaires of a past generation...
...In other words, the two who settled in Russia broke v4* Stalinism and were broken in turn...
...amhj"" the freedom of a labor leader now serving a twenty yeanrlS for a crime he did net commit...
...It would be just as sensible to extend democratic tolerance to gunmen and permit them to hold meetings to expound their barbaric views and conduct...
...That was the famous esw 4 the Gastonia boys...
...Among the LW.W...
...Free Eta and his comrades must and shall be freed...
...Never were more complex problems presented to any Labor congress...
...This should not be, for actually there are as many Christian refugees from Germany, as there undoubtedly will be from Austria...
...The Near Leader sends fraternal greetings to the delegates and expresses the hope that their decisions will contribute much to a unified and stabilized Labor Movement which tragedy, division^ and suffering now make so imperative...
...But we waste no time with them...
...This number includes liberals, Socialists, and Christians of Jewish ancestry, —that is, persons or families who have lived as Christians for many years but who have been technically declared Jews by the Nazi race laws...
...Goods, or commodities, no longer are produced directry for consumption by the worker and his family, or to be exchanged for the products of other workers...
...The Sstialnn, Anarchists, liberals didn't say: "This fellow George has the wmsj attitude toward our sacred ideas, let him rot in prison!' Y*5 George brings himself to attack labor leaders and liberals sst today are trying to get Beal out of prison...
...We offer the above quotation and claim the award...
...The benefit of every new tool, mechanical device, or method that lightened labor and increased production which the primitive worker controlled accrued directly to labor and was therefore an unqualified blessing...
...Unable to own the machine and to compete with...
...North Carolina...
...German democracy perished because it tolerated them...
...The ever more expensive and complicated machinery and methods transform wealth productive processes and tend to eliminate the independent, the self-employing worker, who becomes a machine operative and a wage worker...
...Labor was expended to produce the things necessary for the satisfaction of human wants and comforts and did not cease until these wants were supplied...
...America" has been offering a prize for the most notable example of bigotry cited in this country...
...Chief Economist of the N.L.R.B., and his assistant, Elizabeth Bliss, exposing the current anti-Labor drive of "Big Business" through the employer-inspired "back-to-work movements," "independent unions," "vigilantism," etc...
...AND now we come to the ugly and tragic part of the atarj...
...The corporations carried a wage dispute to the Mexican Supreme Court and- lost, the decision requiring them to pay wage increases of about $1 1,000,000...
...WHERE THE NEWS ENDS By EUGENE LYONS: F'S NOT a pretty igtarr, to* * aas* tafifeg bee...
...If the two statesmen know of any third program jet • hear from them...
...To answer this we must turn to the figures...
...1"HEN Beal, while free on bail, "skipped" to Russia, along a* * the other defendants...
...The pre-Hitler Jewish population of Germany was 550,000, thus setting a high for the total possible German-Jewish refugees...
...The fact is that those who seek to deny democracy to all but themselves forfeit any right to its privilege...
...He couldn't stomach it...
...Otter groups—labor and liberal organizations, even some consemthw with a keener sense of elementary justice—demanded his liberates...
...This of a man who led a Communist strike, is in prison latfdj because of his Communist membership, and whom the Comnumto in endless editorials and pamphlets held up as a hero and a martyr...
...The American Committee for Christian German Refugees, 287 Fourth Avenue, New York, has worked side by side with the Joint Distribution Committee...
...There is a limit to human patience and endurance, and if industrial and political leaders, through perversity »nd stupidity, refuse or fail to provide a road of escape from the curse of unemployment and- poverty, they should abdicate before they are deposed...
...he Manchester Guardian of March 17 said...
...The working class as a whole should giory ¦ the fact that they got away...
...The infamous Josef Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda agent, once said: "Democracy is a timid cow being driven to slaughter...
...On the contrary, George makes a point a* emphasizing that Beal was not involved In the shooting...
...Does/it also concede the right to terrorists to enlist disciplined, uniformed armed thugs to beat down ail opponents...
...its processes by the use of simple hand tools, the handicraftsman becomes a wage worker in the employ oi the individual or corporation, which produces goods by machinery to satisfy human requirements...
...David J. Saposs...
...But Harrison George did not aw* Russia (except perhaps for occasional visits) and has thereto) been neither expelled nor liquidated...
...George makes no such pretence...
...Why should we give them the opportunity...
...The American Committee was created by a group of American churchmen so that American Christians could show their Christianity to their fellowmen of Germany, and now of Austria...
...There is only one alternative tc spending if we are to avoid actual starvation and that is foi public authorities to take over industries which the owners cannot operate...
...Ashleigh was expats...
...Any individual, any movement, which thus goes on neoii * favor of injustice has reached the lowest depths of moral deprafi* because it is no longer even aware of its own obscene degradation...
...It ,is, of course, readily understandable how the misconception grew that the problems of Nazi persecution were largely Jewish...
...Ford knows little of value to mankind, but this huge pile of dollars is translated into brains by our educated vulgarians...
...Any istut any Communist publication during that period will show test to organization valued Beal's fighting courage...
...from the Communist Party in the early '30's and returned tojj| home in England...
...He said it, and it proved no more interesting or informative than anything else he ever said...
...As the agency charged with caring for Christian refugees from Nazi persecution, the American Committee for Christian German Refugees has found that this prevalent misconception among Americans has handicapped its work...
...WANTS MOKE ARTICLES EXPOSING ANTI-LABOR DRIVES Of EMPLOYERS Editor of The New Leader: Your publication is to be congratulated for publishing the recent splendid and timely articles by Dr...
...With few and simple tools, constant effort was required to supply the needs of the individual, leaving but a very small, if any, surplus of goods to meet unforeseen emergencies...
...WE'RE LIS'NING SENATOR BYRD (Democrat) and Representative Snell (Re publican) recently met at the waiting wall to mourn ovei the vast program of spending at Washington, but neither pre sen ted any proposal to put the unemployed to work and neithei even mentioned the jobless...
...last week both press and radio kept millions of people in a stew over what the automobile magnate might say at a dinner...
...With best wishes and the hope that you will continue to have articles along the line of those of Dr...
...Minister Who Destroyed Socialists Commits Suicide...
...Under the prison rules I was permitted to see only three ark, oners, and I chose them almost at random: George Andreytrteat, Charles Ashleigh—and this Harrison George...
...THE ROAD TO "RECOVERY" . *J*HE New York Times recently carried a delightful headline which read: "End of Surplus Profits Tax to Relieve Unemployment" The text of the news also declared that the special Senate Committee on Unemployment Relief favored modification- of the capital gains levy...
...Each pair of shoes embodies a certain amount of exchange value, based on the cost of production, which includes the outlay for labor, machinery, and material...
...Secondly, Jewry, though never suspecting a future need for helping German Jewry, was prepared to help distressed European Jewry through such permanent relief organizations as the Joint Distribution Committee...
...Lake Andreychine as Ashleigh, Beal had settled in Russia—and broke with Stalinism...
...A pamphlet issued by the Communist Party, signed by Wiltes F. Dunne, said of Beal: "Well-known for years to the text* workers of Lawrence and New Bedford, Massachusetts, as on* it the most courageous and experienced leaders of their strugfiet We defend the right of workers to organize unions, to organist tc defend their families...
...Andreychine was liquidated—probably shot—« the recent Stalin blood purge...
...tentiary some twenty years ago under the war-time espionage Is* was one Harrison George...
...Saposs and Miss Bliss...
...They want Beal in prison despw his innocence because they don't like his social opinions...
...Herein lies the mystery of capitalist production of all forms of wealth...
...The third, who did not anjfc the experience of the Stalin reaction in his own person, is ansa* the brethren of the faith, does daily obeisances to the totsUtoS super-state, and yells for the blood of heretics...
...The Communists were not alone in defending Beal...
...The Daily Workei said: "Austrian Patriot's Suicide...
...We're all lis' ning...
...Chairman...
...He em lets his inflamed imagination carry him into exaggerating to measure of that innocence...
...AN ISSUE OF DEMOCRACY f\OE5 the philosophy of democracy defend the right of organi. zations to advance the idea of dictatorship, including the extension of foreign dictatorships, through intimidation, coercion, and terror...
...The corporation: now defy the decision...
...It was disgusting homage paid to the Golden Calf.- » "JEWRY FOR COMMUNISM...
...It is time that we answer these questions...
...Suffice that only the party couki ten provided the funds for their journey and obtained the official vm for their entry into Russia...
...Or as Gas* puts it so eloquently: "He is no labor prisoner—just a coesd and a rat...
...It is not our desire to over-dramatize the plight of the refugee, but we do want to present the picture of the Christian refugee in its proper perspective so that those desirous of doing their 9part in helping these unfortunates may know of their plight and act accordingly...
...The worker to a large extent created his own opportunity, and generally1 got the full fruits of his efforts, however, meager such might here been...
...Harrison George, when he was himself a political prisoae was defended by labor men and liberals and progressives who W no use for his political and economic points of view...
...GREETINGS TO THE AMALGAMATED "THE national convention of the Amalgamated Clothing Work* ers Union opens its sessions at Atlantic City at a critical period in the nation and in the Labor Movement...
...Fraternally yours, Brooklyn, N. Y. Louis Goldberg...
...we suppress them so that civilized human beings can live in peace and safety...
...In any case, Beal settled in Russia...
...It appears from this that the road to bliss, re-employment and higher wages is to increase the incomes of the super-rich I WATCH SINCLAIR AND STANDARD OIL ^MERICAN-MEXICAN relations are again threatened because the Mexican Government has nationalized the petroleum industry, largely owned by British and American corporations...
...Why raise it in the case of advocates of dictatorship apd terror...
...No one in his senses would think of raising the issue of free speech for such criminals...
...No compromise on this issue...
...If he was hiding uned a bed, certainly he did not murder to policeman...
...James M. Speers...
...THE Catholic weekly review, "America," has frequently expressed its affection for the clerical fascism of Austria which has been destroyed by the Pagan fascism of Hitler, and it has been equally* affectionate for the totalitarian regime General Franco seeks to establish in Spain, but it has never been quite so frank in its views as in an editorial in the issue of April 30...
...They want to slaughter us...
...The work of the American Committee for Christian German Refugees is purely humanitarian...
...Why," we are often asked, "collect funds for Christian refugees ? There are none...
...I am of the opinion that you would be making a real contribution to Organized Labor and its friends and students by having these articles printed in pamphlet form...
...The cobbler made shoes directly by hand for his own use or for his customers, while the shoe manufacturer produces shoes with machinery for the general market and governs the activity of his factory by the market demand for shoes...
...The machine system of wealth production is impelled by an entirely different motive...
...Production for Profits Rules With the mechanization of industry comes mass production, the division and specialisation of labor, and the establishment of the public marketing system by which goods, wares, and merchandise are bought, sold, and exchanged on the basis of costs rather than usefulness...
...By allying Jewry and Communism in that sentence, "America" manages to qualify for Hitler's approval...
...The Nazi race-laws are anti-Jewish and the most dramatic and most ibvious results of their discriminatory practices have been leveled at lews...
...Reporting the suicide of Major Fey in Vienna, the same Fey .who crushed the trade unions and the Social Democratic Party...
...Suffice that William Z. Foster, tto the head of the party, resigned from the American Civil llbetto Union in protest against that organization's hostile attitude towarf the bail forfeiture...
...He says that Bed, having turned against the Stilin system, is a "rodent" and atesk be kept in prison despite the fact that he is the innocent veto of class justice...
...While in falsa, Oklahoma, harping t» save another I.W.W., Charles Ktjeger, from a Standard Oil frssn...
...DOLLARS AND BRAINS WHY intelligent human beings should be interested in what Henry Ford says about economic issues is beyond us, and yet...
...The item leads with a consideration of Masonry, for which we do not and cannot speak, but in the course of the editorial we also find this amazing sentence: "The alliance of inter' national Jewry and international Communism and international Masonry is natural...
...Now, of course, unions ear t" many a man in jail who wants to get out, but if they wish to teb any prisoner, why pick out a rodent like Fred Beal...
...He is today a fur etwees' in the American Communist Party'and writes a column tmm official organ...
...Now that Nazism has spread to Austria, a similar feeling is growing up about the Austrian refugees...
...One may search the writings of Milton, Mill, and other teachers of democracy in vain to get an affirmative answer to these questions, and yet there ere those who fear that to answer "no" is to violate civil rights...
...The first two subsequently settled in the Soviet Union, wax* I came to know them more intimately...
...As a direct result of the strike, because of a violent episode a which a police officer was killed, Beal was arrested, convicted, m given a 17 to 20 years' sentence...
...it is operated for the creation of exchange values and only incidentally for the production of articles for use...
...Did Harrison George and the Daily Worker perhaps «iseo«« belatedly that Beal had been guilty of the crime charged sgstot him ? Not at all...
...Suffice that the Daily Worker approve that forfeiture of bail, asserting, on August 27, 1930: "Tier art quite justified in escaping the vicious sentence imposed upon ton by placing themselves beyond reach of the Southern rsinttalit class justice...
...Ultimately he rejected it vicientb;, wrote a book condemning the Soviet system...
...Paul The breadline and the soup-kitchen are incompatible with bursting granaries and overstocked warehouses of food and clothing and other necessities—and unless a peaceful solution is found, the present economic and social systems Will and should be abolished...
...Bed didn't do right by our Nellie (read Stalin) and well empty «sr totalitarian bile on anyone who tries to free him...
...Thus the circle is complete...
...My story begins vt& the fate of these three...
...political prisoners in Leavenworth p...
...Whatever his political views and affiliations, it was clear that at was not responsible for the policeman's death and that he «a being imprisoned because he tried to organise exploited worker...
...Particularly is this study timely when the reactionary forces are preparing new efforts to destroy labor (as shown in these articles) and the jurisdictional disputes between the C.I.O...
...W* this exception: the mill owners at least pretended that the las* leader was actually guilty...
...The implications of the story tragic, since they point to the moral bankruptcy of what start* as a revolutionary movement...
...No Enforced Idleness Among HaneHcraftrnen During a primitive industrial era, poverty prevailed but there was no forced unemployment...
...Certainly, the Labor movement recognizes the invaluable work that the Labor Board alongside the LaFollette Civil Liberties Committee have done in casting light upon the nefarious activities of the antiunion forces...
...NOW let me extend the cast of characters by referring to anoaw political prisoner, Fred E. Beal...
...I was at that time connected wha fte Workers' Defense Union, a non-partisan organisation headed te Elizabeth Gurley Flynn...
...Letters to the Editor: THOUSANDS OF CHRISTIAN NAZI VICTIMS NEED AID Editor of The New Leader: By reason of newspaper reports and headlines, particularly the latter, there has developed in this country a feeling that the problems growing out of Nasi persecution in Germany have been largely and peculiarly Jewish...
...Against this, there are in Germany hundreds of thousands of so-called "non-Aryan" Christians who are potential refugees...
...The Daily Worker, through to mouth of Harrison George, has come around to the viewpoint a* the North Carolina mill owners...
...A Labor Program to Beat Machinery, Unemployment Part II By WILLIAM MAHONEY Former Farmer-Labor Mayor of St...
...but if more shoes are produced than can be sold, the excess will result in a drop in price below the cost, and incur a loss of values, the creation of which is the main incentive of the manufacturer to produce shoes...
...No matter what label dictatorship and totalitarian despotism bears, it has no more place in a democracy than democracy has any place in it As it everywhere excludes democracy, democracy must exclude it if it hopes to survive...
...Watch Standard Oil and Sinclair...
...To do so is to help them to destroy free speech and establish a totalitarian despotism...
...Raised on the textile worker' struggles in his native town, Lawrence, Mass., Beal joined to Communist Party and in 1929 led a strike of Southern tartflt workers for that party in Gastonia...
Vol. 21 • May 1938 • No. 19
