The Traveler Moves On
BUTCHER, HAROLD
The Traveler Moves On Chicago: A Second-Rate New York By HAROLD BUTCHER PART II CHICAGO.—Chicago is New York dumped down in the Middle West. The same skyscrapers, crowds and din. The stores on...
...You ought to know me well enough to know what I would think of any book such as "American Labor...
...Yen see, I haven't lived in Chicago as I have in New York...
...But the...
...If you > buy more than you need, you must return them and get your money back before leaving the store...
...It gave me a laugh at breakfast when a reference to the Reorganization Bill had to be called the "Dictator Bill.'' Gave the day a good start, withj a joke...
...this first successful job of the Democratic - Republican coalition ha» whetted its appetite for mere victories, and there are indications that some may urge use of the axe on, social security legislation at the oThense of millions of its beneficiaries...
...Regarding your question as to whether this is the first^ recent history of labor in America, the answer is that it is not...
...But I can see why the Hull House people realise that its work can progress only by a general cleanup of the city...
...I would think of it as a second-rate New York...
...ny Bloc Sim MeaSp to Attack "#AsWN©Tdrl, D.#C.— Action by .a large majority of Republicans aajHjentoaata tn.eutttog the WPA ilipiiijKi xe^et anproptiaSoh rec-iiBsftiiffftr' by- President Roosevelt xnbht fjfrre.OOO.OOO to $725,000,000 centos...
...I got it...
...The Communist Daily Worker used to get my goat because it couldn't tell a straight story...
...Well, mister, those days are gone —forever, I hope...
...Otherwise you'll be out of pocket, because they are no good except in the machines for which they were designed...
...Just over a hundred years old...
...THE "GREAT" TRIBUNE QNE building, "gets" me...
...Classes in English and civics, in music and art, in woodcraft and dancing...
...What I wanted was an expression of opinion from one who looked art life, labor, and the pursuit of happiness from behind the dollar sign...
...I Nothing at all...
...two OPINIONS IJERE is one man's impression ** of Chicago...
...Despite the fact that handing out slugs is usually the duty of the cashier, there are places—hotels, for example—where a girl has to be employed for no other purpose...
...James F. • * • BOUND TO ENDURE December 27, 1938...
...Well, if you were looking for a letter jiust sueh as this., now you've got ft...
...GOOD DESCRIPTION Of I NEWSPAPER GUILD December 24, IMS...
...around before they selected a flophouse for the night...
...to ex-Governor Frank Murphy opens bis drive for a bill which wHI cripple unions just as the vigilante pro-fascist measure has crippled them in Oregon...
...But, hell, man, why don't you answer the .charffef Either you have prevented them from organizing or you Haven't...
...That's reaL Chicago is young and is still building on what the .pioneers started...
...Frankly, I think Harris showed the patience of a saint in discussing the A. F. of L Fair...
...VEAR NORMAN: I have just finished reading "American Labor...
...I was particularly glad net » see Harris go off half-cocked on the question of Communism in the C.I.O...
...To Colonel Robert R. McCormick I suppose it is a paper with a purpose...
...Norm am...
...None of them, however, covers as extensive an sees as Harris' book...
...This would liMJifinjj strikes to allow the employer ample time tor laying plans ^'frffi union prior to the Even 'if the strike in finally decreed legal, the workers are further hnaiatiiiiill by limitations which allow none but the plant employees to picket, and these pickets are ¦Bjafiit merely to "advertise the fact that those participating in legal strikes believe their employer Henry Heil, who took over the governorship of Wisconsin after tjft.Jsfeai of Gov...
...His criticism of Communist tactics is very sound and perfectly justified...
...Indeed, it was moving in the opposite direction—moving toward the sept at a rate of acceleration that would do Justice to the Italians at Guadalajara...
...The Republican governor is doing his best to put the state firmly into the hands ef his party by iesefesT COJP...
...Chi-eegeemt are only one generation from the pioneers...
...Oar rovieo eorreeesedea*, 1 rediscovering America for his own esssntoiesef . J. aad years, doesn't like the dry ef big-time eoaaise, Mr...
...issues that really mean things to...
...from Virginia, Gamer Glass, declared that he favored further reduction ef the appropriation to $600,900,000 aad Senator Hasaiian of Mississippi rushed to enlist under the Bourbon banner...
...the people...
...Thdsthams Fitzgerald has introduced, apparently at the behest of the industrialists whose money put called by three "recognised officers of recognised unions, or by three representatives named by a bona fide vote of employees of any plant...
...Shags must help to decrease unemployment...
...Same thing...
...But, of course, it isn't the whole story...
...Industry hasn't yet grown up— mentally...
...Building...
...Where in the world did he get those ideas about the NLRB...
...But when I tried them elsewhere, they wouldn't fit...
...The same procedure is being fol-sajpad.hjr Harold E. Stassen, successes to Flmar Benson as Governor of Minnesota Stassen's inaugural aeeassa was a hint of civil service "reorganisation," apparent-IftsWgi •U™* identical with those •beady begun by Heil...
...Then he added: "And I don't like New York...
...And what t haws painted is really only a swift sketch...
...The stores on Michigan Avenue duplicate those on Fifth Avenue...
...A panhandler shuffled ap and wanted a coin for "something to eat...
...But he does it so constructively, so intelligently, that I don't think he could ever be accused of redbaiting...
...Then I thought I would be smart.' At the next place I bought a quarter's worth of slugs...
...you may have your Woolworth Building...
...Thus, the stockholders charge, the two companies got the stock for nothing...
...Should Hull House abandon the district because—as it seems to me—eo little impression can be made against such overwhelming odds...
...I Still am convinced that the C.I.O., in the long run, will not serve the best ends of labor...
...The ^ Chicago Tribune...
...Chicago is young, of course...
...Enough of this business of buying slugs before making telephone calls...
...I am glad to see that a book of this sort has finally come out...
...What a paper...
...i Pollyanna-like I saw a little ray of sunshine in the slug situation...
...tile genuine thing is so much more satisfying...
...The esiajaont...
...So there you are...
...Whether the Governor believed the accusation against Rutchik is not known to The New Leader's correspondent...
...I don't know much about Harris, though as I recall it, some of this material appeared in a series of magsxme articles a short while ago...
...The lights grew dim, and there wasn't a cop in sight...
...I've...
...R.C.A...
...Get' them an at once...
...Does this check with yeu...
...The Traveler Moves On Chicago: A Second-Rate New York By HAROLD BUTCHER PART II CHICAGO.—Chicago is New York dumped down in the Middle West...
...Sincerely...
...Pardon me if I take off the gloves, but this book is nothing more than propaganda for John L. Lewis— didnt you read what the- review in the Tribune said last Sunday...
...stockholders who say the company and 40 of its officers and directors "fraudulently dissipated" the gigantic sum of $330,000,000...
...No man paints the same picture even of the asms place...
...It explains Chicago's cockiness...
...Yen can't drop in a nickel, Of a dime, or a quarter, because you might...
...The opportunity to do something' constructive in the labor movement docked at the wharf, put down the gangplank—but the A. F. of L was looking the other way...
...gave 8,580,375 shares of its stock to General Electric and Westinghouse, as payment for patents and other rights...
...heard at least three, hearings before' the NLRB, and in ail three the employers thought they were there to argue against unionism...
...The label of "red-baiter" is being pinned too freely on people these days...
...it has to be tied to eeneral social reform...
...But I do fall for the Chicago Tribune Building—if only it didnt house the Chicago Tribune...
...Ai They See It Four-Cornered View Of 'American Labor' By NORMAN CORDE Former New York Stwepaperman end WashmgUm...
...none of them tells as vivid s story...
...A noble but desperate job, like ambulance work in modern war, where the man made well today may be blown to bits tomorrow...
...However, Mr...
...Yale University Press...
...An opportunity tor such sshotage is presented in the annual report of the Social Security Board which recommends extending unemployment sown sanation and the old-age insurance system to several millions net now included in the present act Expose of Radio trust Echoed By N: Y. Suit By Washington Labor Correspondent WASHINGTON, D. C—"I have » trunkful of evidence that the Radio Corporation of America debauched large corporations, persons holding high public office and certain court officials, and defrauded stockholders of millions of dollars," former Congressman W. D. McFarlane (Dem., Texas) told the House Rules Committee last May...
...Now you have got to prove your case...
...There was a brightness, boldness and vigor about State Street that was net a mere duplicate of New York...
...Yotr may not agree with it, but I think it will do yon some good...
...The fireworks started, when the State Committee's resolution against Communist membership came up, Greenberg declaring that there was no real Communist issue and that it had been raised to break up the party...
...O'Leory's cow, end tali Mich, end doesn't fcesitete to toy »• We haven't heard from the escalation department but we aaess we wilt...
...If I didn't live in New York I would go somewhere completely different—to New Mexico, for ex-smple...
...3.75...
...Of course, having been with the Federation all these years, my prejudices run in that direction...
...I hope you don't mind if I use ft in conjunction with a review of the book I am doing for Thk New Leader...
...on and en for many blocks...
...So what...
...I am sure you don't think that I expected you to aay that you thought every-word of it was gospel truth...
...of L. and Fitzgerald, Stassen, Heil, aad James, Tory stalwarts all, and each a anflpsii to New Deal state regimes, head the governors' drive...
...A prosperous man who has a swell job in the city told me his mother and father were both born of pioneers who had helped to drive out the Indians...
...As I've teM you doseaa...
...A living center in a deadly district...
...Upstate Minn...
...of America ead coetiaees to sead in kh report* from the gross reefs eeeetry...
...They did nothing towards answering the pertinent' charges...
...I used to say that if I didn't live m New York I would go to Chicago, but that is no longer true...
...He writes well—very well...
...It is an important book—one that is going' to last It has everything, I think, that is required for endurance: importance, authenticity, comprehensiveness, and good style...
...Governor James, who was elected chiefly through ?halVmds of Joseph E. Pew, industrialist and virtual ruler of the state, is pushing plans tor a* anti-uaion bill that matches the Oregon measure in its pro-faseist tendencies...
...The WagneT Law tells you that you've got to respect collective bargaining...
...I approach Chicago from New York, and in my opinion New York can do everything much better...
...Michael "LEFT Of CENTER" ENDANGERED December as, ltis...
...Butcher nits **» Wledy ttty h kh travels...
...use a disc of your own manufacture...
...And that makes a world of difference...
...I thought the telephone was out of order...
...In Pennsylvania, as dispatches hfe9Np-.#sW Hub hare already 1 saw tat, G.O.P...
...What a life...
...Windy City week Mr...
...It would not be possible to think of Chicago as the unchallenged capital of, tile Middle West —which ft certainly is...
...The next time you have a strike en war hands, don't call oat Pearl Bergoff but torn to Chapter Ten, fifth section...
...of times, the A. P. of L. has missed the boat...
...This goes back to an old argument with you, but the fact-of the matter is that the Federation comes off second best in the book because it's stood still while the rival organisation has been moving ahead, doing things, letting labor know it'8 alive, taking part in "AMERICAS LABOR," by Her-Tert Harris...
...Chicago is a big, vulgar city, and I like it," said a Middle Westerner...
...It was cut in such a way as to fit into the design, and when it was inserted dropped with the greatest of ease...
...As far as I know, |fs the first recent history of labor...
...So many, authors burn themselves out in their first few page* and have nothing left for the big push of the book itself that it is good to see one author, at least, who can set a pace of good writing for himself and follow it all the way to the finish line...
...J*m transition from brain trust's to free lancing wm made within (lifficulty, and Harris concen-Zjjsy?** li&rary output tax a ¦•Jkorcfc consisting of "Common ""V "today" (K.I.F...
...veterans in strategic spots in the state setup...
...A Santa Class at strategic corners collecting for Christmas charities, as in New York...
...Hopeless...
...Going to be first among world cities...
...fa Doubt Routine reports were made behind closed doors after a motion by Greenberg was carried to have the secret session...
...He talks with eld people who lived the pioneer life...
...By action of the House thg -reflef rolls must be cut to 1,930,000 with the prospect of others being turned adrift by a further Senate cut of the appropriation voted by the House...
...7...
...They just can't seem to realize that the organisation Of workers is now part of the law of the land...
...What a city...
...Chicago is a city which distrusts its...
...and"Cur-BisjoryI guess this is where y owe, in, for the other tmpor-yjBft about Harris is the one P* igl mentioned: his series on ^ ^"Current History," which * J*rt of the* present book...
...You bet...
...That's the nasty sort of person you are...
...I went on to heroic Hull House, which, in a district like this, is doing a job like that of a boy who builds splendid sand castles before the advancing tide...
...Correspondent...
...Maybe It's all in the approach...
...was forced to hand back those patents and rights to General Electric and Westinghouse in 1932, when the government prosecuted the radio monopoly for violation of the anti-trust laws, the stockholders point out, but General Electric and Westinghouse kept the R.CA...
...A few days later the Bourbon flnparnr...
...Somebody must hare had nightmares designing the different Slugs for every place which has public telephones...
...McFarlane made strenuous efforts to get his sensational charges aired by Congress, but was blocked by the House Rules Gontmittee, whose chairman then was John J. O'Connor...
...FNFAR JIM: " Thanks for your note on the labor book...
...Usually modern Gothic leaves me cold...
...collected and reported on in "American Labor" leads the reader to this conclusion, de net quarrel with Harris or with the reader—< but with the A. F. of L. U*A»—hie that is responsible for such evidence...
...To me it is a paper that -editorializes even in the headlines...
...Sincerely...
...it spent five hours behind dosed doors in dispute oyer the State Committee's decision to oust Communist Party members and "fellow travelers," and then refused to expel them...
...There Weie billiard rooms, toe . almost as dreary...
...stock and have it to this day...
...many rooms where people tan live, people who contribute their varied abilities to the running of the Hull House program...
...I have seen articles about the Newspaper Guild in Seribnere, in some of the newspapers, and hstvs seen material touching upon the Guild in a number of books...
...Under this heading would eesse your laser unions, year, jpatol .security laws, your privilege of TSBSfinj...
...1938...
...I can say this much for him: he certainly gave my union a beautiful chapter...
...It still thinks that it can squash any case, in court or out, just by identifying' itself as the employer...
...P. Griffith nominated ex-Congressman John T. Bernard for district chairman, hot Bernard's candidacy was not pressed after Sig Slonim vigorously opposed Bernard on the ground that Bernard had asessed matters up by playing with the Griffith-Greenberg endue...
...Wowen following the same fashions—Victorian hair-do and hats...
...fNEAR MICHAEL: " You ring the bell in your comments en the Harris book...
...none of them is ai important...
...You are . wedded to the conviction, that any government agency is unfair or bolshevistic if it does not decide in favor of the employer in ten cases out of ten...
...Hell, Jim, his vertebrae must look like a parabola for all the leaning over backwards be has done in his effort to give the Federation s fair break...
...Before that, Harwell done a stretch as an adverts* copywriter but managed to ^himself from his blurb chains tia^pplitical trend of the thirties favored young men were needed as brain trustlets...
...There have been a number of other recent books which have attempted to tell the story of labor In this country...
...1 It's so blatant it's funny...
...If the evidence that Harris has...
...waesisd Though I a gree with criticism of of Communism and Communists per as, and though I am eoevtosad that they represent the negation and not the fulfillment of democracy...
...a big recreational program, a day nursery...
...Cw«Wly, j. Norman Corde...
...On the street, groups of seedy men, some of them quite young...
...Whether the state convention next month- will succeed in doing this Bo one can predict, but it is possible that the movement will die in the poisonous embrace of this enemy...
...None of us deny that there are Communists in the C.I.O...
...Somewhat bored at my stupidity, she gave me a slug in exchange for my nickel...
...Wjfik the government, ad anything else' you like to do ft* doesn't please those who hold T<wr want to know something J*» about Harris ? Be broke into *• »n> tisss four years ago When as Steele on old Doc Townsend tod lis pie-a-la-mode in the sky *ipe for poor old Grandpaw and 5t*ndmaw blossomed out in the ***•» Digest end attracted...
...Chisago Tribune is just as bad in lis ' own peculiar way...
...In fairness to Harris, however, I should say that the best chapter to the book and a very complimentary one at that is devoted to an A. F. of L. union...
...This leaves this section of it under the control ef Communists and a few political adventurers whose main interest is public office tor^ themselves...
...I agree with you all the way down the line, especially in what yea say about Communism and redbaiting...
...If this book is objective, as the publishers claim, then I'm a cross between Donald Duck arid Ferdinand the Bull...
...If you are honest, you will admit that your gripe against Harris and the NLRB (your complaint against both is the same: neither is fair to the employer) has noth-ingto do with objectivity...
...And when yon don't, and your working people bring you before the NLRB, you bluster and grow red in the face and wave your big cigars arid foam a lot about interference...
...deadly, dreary, places...
...HeJswifcso,_ CaJrtjafled Ten days' notice must then be gffan* after which a time must be est ahjda jar mediation...
...a shock to organised workers and hnminitsrinns...
...CORDE: kfssee...
...We know each other five years...
...You'd have to be feed to the world to sit in them without going cuckoo...
...LaFoUetto, is ppepkf his campaign to put a horde of G.O.P...
...Yours, BUI C. m * * wVntNlike1ook January 6, 1939...
...Practically every block had a tavern ex A net rata liquor store...
...Wen I oaS recognise that many ef those who say they are leveling their guns against the extreme Left are using buckshot instead ef bullets and ex* really aiming to puncture the entire area Left of Castor, or a* toast what they consider te he Left of Center, which hi anything they de not like...
...Never saw such a collection of drinking places in my life...
...I think the correspondence, condensed here somewhat, gives a (airly comprehensive picture of the book as well as what may be a representative cToss-section of opinion toward it December 23...
...Standing...
...fellow men so cordially that all the telephone machines have to be operated with slugs...
...Sincerely...
...No, emphatically no...
...The activities and interests of Hull House are enormous...
...For you haven't got a leg to stand on...
...The book looks as though it must have meant a lot of work...
...Ironically appropriate) name for the discs in a city of gangsters...
...I like State Street...
...Give me any day the buildings of Rockefeller Center or the Empire State...
...This week his charges were echoed in the New York State Supreme Court, in three lawsuits brought by R.C.A...
...tetcher wand, his merry way threeo* the slight*, .ted by-way...
...On Ms country property he is always picking up Indian arrowheads...
...I am glad, though, that in general you like "American Labor...
...All three, acting upon my suggestion, have sent me their opinions oi the book...
...D.Cv—Theelee-tien is over, the inaugurals of new G%s»tSSBB^ machines here become history, and today a new form of war on American labor is moving ferwSrd as Republican governors m at It est four spites push their eaansagns to cripple A.F...
...Old-time Farmer-Laborites who had been members long before Greenberg and his followers had joined the party are supporting the move to wipe out the Communists, but they are fighting against odds because the issue was permitted to drift untO the Communists obtained a stranglehold on the organisation...
...Regards, Corde...
...Chicago is darned sure of itself...
...na-jj^attantion...
...I am uneasy shout the present wave of red-baiting...
...And then I started walking west •long Madison Street, ever the bridge near the Chicago Daily News Building...
...A conservative reaction Was expected as a result of the November elections but few were prepared for this brutal kick in the face...
...I say "even though" because it seems to me that the A. F. of L. comes off second best Harris has some pretty Obvious preferences for the C.I.O...
...Its real work Is far mora than rescue work...
...tried another...
...in fact, all too often mere lack of agreement wrfch the Communists is regarded in their eyes as red-baiting...
...Little hope is now held for the development of the Farmer-Labor political movement in -this upper section of the state as A.F, of L. unions have deserted and continue to desertth e party...
...Aside from this criticism, I think* Harris has done a pretty good job...
...workers into state jobs, ami is launching mass firings of Progressive civil service workers...
...F-L Controlled By Stalinites Refuse* to Fellow Svete Committee's Decision That Stolinitet la ExeelleoW Former-Leeor Parry's Pa-fare (a Doubt DULUTfl, Minn.—With 72 delegates attending the Eighth District Farmer-Labor convention in the city of Virginia, the convention was torn with factional fighting...
...The stockholders charge that in 1929 and 1932 R.C.A...
...What we do deny is that the C.I0- is Communist-controlled or that it is glutted with Communists...
...Dear Cerde: Yes, I like "American Labor even though I'm an A. F. of L. man and not a C.I.O...
...And yfct, because New York can do the whole thing so much better, the effect on a visit-* •' ing New Yorker is somewhat depressing...
...You were honest about your views as an A. F. of L. man toward the book, and I think you represent a point of view that is worth examining...
...JNEAR BILL: *^ Please don't mistake my intention in asking yon to write a note on "American Labor...
...Then I appealed to a girl seated at a nearby desk...
...BUT THEY MAKE JOBS IN" my innocence I went up to one * of these machines and found all sorts of fantastic designs rising up to meet the com I tried to stick in the right hole...
...Bat I don't think that any ef them can ceme dose to Harris' aaceewt for fairness, lucidity, and accuracy...
...I ^uewf Fm just a meoleval economic royalist finance capitalist...
...Herman Griffith of Duluth, secretary, aad M. H. Greenberg, are are Communist spearheads of the up-state F.-L...
...WASHINGTON...
...jc At the same time, I edaatt that a great deal of bona fide unadulterated red-baiting is going, these rounds sod it has am...
...FetaTe ef F.-L.P...
...the American Fed-eration of Labor, the Congress of U. S. Conference of Mayors then ttsrned to the upper chamber in thhlMpe el restoring the original Map-' . Relief rolls en January 1 stood at 3,081,300 and the President's reeommendation contemplated WPA support for from 2,700,000 to 3,-000,000 workers from now until June 30...
...it seems to me—and though he doesn't come out directly and says so, it is clear that he has very little liking for the Federation...
...What he says is perfectly true, and it ia too had that this viewpoint is not shared by more people who write and talk about labor...
...Skyscrapers ought' to be utterly 20th century...
...Every hotel, restaurant, drugstore is supplied with different slugs...
...State Street en fete for Christmas put on a grand show with its hugs holly wreaths and big red Stars...
...it's an American city to him, not "foreign," like New York...
...Some of them were even appointees of Governor Benson, including Roger Rutchik, his secretary, but the Governor had refused to force his secretary's resignation, it is said...
...I am glad, too, to read your remark about Harris' fine writing...
...And you just can't do it...
...He gees to Chicago from the Middle West...
...P. S.: I'm fetnrnhft* the Harris book to you again...
...Organized labor in Michigan is psfitsnins fee a stiff battle against Offtuaul Fitzgerald, as the suc-csjjge...
...Cathedral-of -Commerce...
...Next week he interviews Bel'fread Jteseotf hefwre he heeds for New Mesfee ead fee *Jeos>d CsTaya.- JHcv tWHber H* ieasdHewe *en alidade* fbf a tfrieo ef sVrttse MlmpMpitL GOP Governors Push Wide Drive for Anti-Labor Bills Fitzgerald Would Cripple AFL and CIO Hell of Wisconsin end Stes-see of Mfcaesota Move to reW^Ut Cfvfl Set^fletj Jobs la Republican Hands...
...Sow Well-Known iiafazim* Writer I ifiCAVE passed this book around to three people, two, $u&n professional trade unionists, the third a personnel director of a pencil factory which has had some strike trouble during the last two years...
...In short, Jim, I don't think the* the leadership of the A. F. of L. (as distinct from individual unions or individual members} has been doing right by the cause of labor...
...Thanks...
...If slugs were abolished, there would be a parade of girls with banners—"This City Is Unfair to Slug Girlsr • • » CHICAGO is a city of extremes...
...Twenty years of hard work in building the Farmer-Labor movement have left many of its democratic elements despondent of wresting it from the clutches of s dangerous and crafty minority...
Vol. 22 • January 1939 • No. 3
