Where the News Ends
Broach, H. H.
Where the News Ends By H. H. Broach (Charles Yale Harrison's gees* columnist this weak is the former president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, one of tho most powerful...
...ticket and in the organization...
...Not hy helping employers rig prices, but by "denying employment to those in another state/' Further, the union in question went about "creating useless labor and built a monopoly...
...Most people are willing that workmen shall organize, providing that they do nothing but pass resolutions and pay dues...
...You are thus advocating a policy which in effect will throw the cloak of moral respectability over the shoulders of the Communists, rather than, as I propose, that we unite to set .up complete moral and political ostracism against them...
...With six or eight million (aw* unemployed workers than there were in i 929, the Uate< States produced as large a volume of marketable goons sai srvices in 1939 as it did in that banner year...
...Let the government put confidence in the wosUsf people and it will get a warm response...
...He should stop them...
...If so, by what method is parity to be established and maintained...
...Willkie...
...What can labor expect from our courts when Mr...
...For the reasons I have indicated here, the National Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Federation at its meeting on August 11th, after endorsing President Roosevelt for re-election and after urging our members and sympathizers in all parts of the country to organize and carry on an active campaign, declared as follows: "In carrying out this recommendation our members and local groups «re free to act such existing polities...
...1. If unions are to defend democracy, then there must...
...And the impartiality of the Attorney General's office is something to make workers, liberals and progressives sit up and take notice...
...P. 77...
...You say you believe in collective bargaining...
...Production is limited by effective demand...
...when lengthening of hours and tightening of belts fHl be necessary, it is not so now...
...We set it up by petition...
...I propose to be'completely frank even at the risk of unpopularity...
...TROTSKY'S DEATH ^^E cannot pretend to weep any bitter tears over the ?mmn of Leon Trotsky...
...If you know what you would do if you were in Mr...
...Stalin had no longer any reason to fear him...
...A corporation deals in trade and commerce, a union protects the labor of human beings...
...Intelligent social democrats will approve cf my position and not of yours...
...and the Elections" in your issue of August 17, shows a confusion of thought which I believe your readers are entitled to have clarified...
...Both Mr...
...We also know that the antitrust laws have been suspended for the time being as they affect all corporations engaged in defense work...
...Should labor wait until it is too late ? Editorial TO MR...
...Still, it is a candidate's speech...
...Such deeds have beer, done in Czechoslovakia, in France, in Spain, in Switzerland, now in Meskt —and, it is almost certain, also in the United States...
...Of course, all this depends on one's point of view...
...Monopoly...
...The Pullman Company, a confirmed violator of the anti-trust law, is sued in the civil courts while trade unions and labor leaders are criminally indicted...
...In eighteen months, some 66 unions and 228 of their officials have been criminally indicted as a result of this campaign...
...You say you believe in "the full extension of rural electrification...
...One exists to make money, the other struggles to protect living-standards, to educate and advance human beings...
...It is quite simple to set up on the ballot an independent column under an independent name and emblem to give to such voters an opportunity to cast their vote for Roosevelt under an independent emblem...
...Useless 'labor...
...Merritt charge the union with the same offense—"restraint of trade...
...Let's not fool ourselves...
...Our national defense can suffer, patents cas be bottlenecked, production can be retarded, the world can1 be aflame, blind hatreds can be spreading rapidly, and the unemployed can -rot—but the drive against the unions must go ahead...
...It has been used in our own country to justify the League for Peace and Democracy, the Youth Congress, the Workers' Alliance, the Lawyers Guild and kindred organisations...
...And the tgoife-ff take steps is such diJ...
...need for a longer work-week, consultation with tht M»** movement will bring cheerful consent, which will be »¦» more helpful than sullen submission...
...Unpleasant and disappoint^* as is the situation m tho and nc one regret* it >W* •*> I do—the truth matt hJ* and it must be faced now- « It is not yet too tsto & *J well-wishers snd soppoHfl^ President Roosevajt to JJJ proper action to piessiw poss ble vete ior him the same time emhatt&t...
...They are motivated, if we are to believe what we are told, solely out of a desire to halt "unreasonable restraints of trade...
...5. If no move is made to dismiss all antitrust actions against unions and their officials, then union leaders should proceed to meet with leaders of the United States Senate...
...be democracy to defend...
...It seems that it is a crime to 'take the President at his word...
...Abstract phrases about concrete problems, eked out by smearing the administration and flavored with autobiographical reminiscences and nice words about the old folks at home, will not fill the bill...
...Willkie, act like a candidate who takes his task seriously...
...Yes, we know that Mr...
...f- , tellers To the Editor Waldman Charges ALP-CP Vote Will Embarrass Roosevelt From LOUIS WALDMAN ri urn lwwiw rrnwin/iii To the Editor: Your editorial on "The A.L.P...
...Just where do you stand on TVA, in the broad sense of that term...
...But that court has ruled since 1908 that labor is subject to such laws—has ruled against labor despite' all that Congress1 has said and done...
...de Forges...
...If, when that has been done, there is real Batios...
...In the final analysis, the only rights unions ever had, or will have, are those rights they were strong enough and game enough to win and hold, no more...
...A fine show of impartiality...
...Labor unions are humanitarian ventures and it is impossible to judge them fairly by the same standards as you judge General Motors or U. S. '?Steel...
...to a situation where bona fide unionists do not quit their trade union because there are Communists in it...
...That sounds nice, but what does it mean...
...Let it try to prevent itself from being destroyed by "starvation wages and overproduction"—and sure enough Its officers are faced with jail sentences and heavy fines...
...Jackson, said it in a speech...
...It has been used as the justification for the United Front in France to the great disaster of French democracy...
...Joining in the attack was Senator Clark of Idaho...
...2. Obey the law ? Yes—when it is a law...
...At present they are supervised and hog-tied by "consent decrees...
...Because of this, Bullitt spoke sharply to his fellow citizens gathered in free assemblage in Philadelphia's Independence Square...
...Instead the indictments say that they set up "unreasonable restraints of trade...
...You will not help the election of President Roosevelt by having the State Committee of the A.L.P...
...This may sound unusually radical in times such as these...
...Why is such a stand not being taken...
...Just what do you propose doing about it...
...Thurman Arnold and Robert Jackson—both sterling "liberals"—declared that the antitrust laws were being perverted when applied to labor...
...Of course, it is nonsense to contrast my resignation from the A.L.P...
...Did not the Social Democrats leave the Socialist Party after a lifetime's association because the Communist philosophy and its supporters became entrenched within it ? In this letter I car.net discuss exhaustively the political strategy which in my opinion could be employed to prevent the Communists from hurting President Roosevelt...
...Just where do you stand on the Federal Housing Act...
...nation, open massacre, torture in prisons and labor 'ctMPJaT mass starvation of recalcitrant classes—net by any revulsion against these methods was Trotsky brought in conflict wieY Stalin...
...Yet we have three or four times as many unemployed adults now as we had then...
...So on, all down the lme...
...ticket while at the same time the Communists remain on the A.L.P...
...We grant that the President has done a great deal for labor...
...Where the News Ends By H. H. Broach (Charles Yale Harrison's gees* columnist this weak is the former president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, one of tho most powerful sections of the American Federation of Labor...
...There is no such thing as a Democratic, Communist, Socialist, or Republican trade union as far as its trade union objectives are concerned...
...It ill behooves him to attack the progressive ambassador until the name of Senator Clark is removed trom the Hat of speaken~ and sponsors of the Soviet's peace mobilization in Chicago, But the American people have shown a fortunate 4n...
...name the Democratic presidential electors on the A.L.P...
...The shades of Russian workhnjmei and peasants whom in his days of glory he caused to be shot down rise between us and his bier...
...and continue in it, regardless of the strength and position of the Communists within it...
...It is sufficient for me to indicate that there is a clear way out for members and friends of the A.L-P...
...Tomorrow the curbs against them will be strengthened and extended...
...Well, what about it...
...is a false one...
...If the Communists seek to use a trade union for political purposes they frequently wreck-it...
...Not only are you fundamentally wrong on this matter in principle, but (your political judgment is equally wrong...
...Stripped of all verbiage your position amounts to this: we must support the A.L.P...
...a voluntary association cf likeminded people for the advancement cf common political purposes...
...The analogy between a trade union and the A.L.P...
...But if obedience to oppressive laws'is a virtue, then George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Tom Paine were all criminals...
...But what about the liberals now on the Supreme Court bench...
...Trotsky was already a defeated man...
...Yet despite all the legalistic twaddle and hocus-pocus, in spite of all the twisting and turning, you cannot put a labor union into a legalistic strait-jacket...
...QUESTION TTHE NEW LEADER having last week editorially uu^iMg disapproval of a public statement made by Louit man in reference to the American Labor party, it is PBf that he should have opportunity to reply in ^PfffJ issue...
...It just didn't click...
...Dictators never forgive...
...Obey the opinions of corporation judges and lawyers like Thurman Arnold...
...If the Senate passed a resolution condemning the anti-union actions and refused to appropriate further funds for such prosecutions—results would doubtless follow...
...That is not true...
...And there are those in America who play the Laval game of entertaining in high-placed and influential industrial circles, the seething group of German agents for whom Westrick and Ried were only the fronts...
...You forgot to mention the housing situation—high rents and widespread shortage of dwellings fit for civilized people...
...One has to read it But when it has been read, questions arise...
...Bullitt speaks of sabotage in high places, and Rush Holt, the Fagin of the Senate, joins with hillbilly slander...
...If unions face the danger of persecution and suppression —and many believe that they do—they should now arrange their affairs to fight, not to be kidded along until it is too late...
...Roosevelt's place, take the people into your confidence...
...We don't ask for a blueprint, but you must have some more or less definite idea what yo-i mean...
...He became an exile simply because in a cictatordap there is room for only one dictator and because Sta?n, equally cruel and less intellectual, was in practice the more cool and crafty of the two...
...A 50-HOUR WEEK ALREADY...
...Such an officiaVs union should vigorously protest his holding office in a Government that persecutes honest labor leaders...
...If you don't know—well, why should the people have confidence in you...
...The only significance of the spectacular killing -at ' Coyoacan is that dictators have long memories and dreadfully long arms...
...Indeed, that is what we did in 1936'when we set up the A.L.P...
...6. If, despite all this, the President and the Senate should refuse to act, then every local, national and international labor leader should openly oppose this administration—despite labor's existing preference for President Roosevelt...
...Though a man flee to the ends of the earth he finds no safety if ?a existence is troublesome to them, it was Russian Bolshevism that introduced the practice of committing murder in foreign lands...
...Fascist Italy and German Nazism have followed tht Russian example...
...Senator Reed recalls that Bullitt married John Reed's widow . . . and that Reed is now buried near the Kremlin...
...We only need some 12,500 signatures with a minimum of 50 in each county...
...WILLKIE TPHE Republican candidate made a speech at El wood last Saturday—a long speech, a loud one, a somewhat artful but not very skillful one...
...That is pretty vague...
...Arnold approved that speech in his book, The Folklore of Capitalism...
...yHE National Industrial Conference Board, avowsjjjr acting as spokesman for "business executives" lad 'industrial leaders.' calls for the establishment of a fifty5*** week in industries working on government contracttgfijf make this demand in the name c: patriotism, but-?aHaV pect that they pronounce the word as if the first fjflilr was spelled p-a-y...
...Perhaps the most shameful action of "Mr...
...Hasn't the march of labor almost invariably been retarded by the courts ? Every student of labor knows that...
...But, of course, that was before they were on the public payroll...
...Put tho* ¦millions to work, and output will be proportionately .Or creased...
...You say you believe "the government has a responsiblity to equalize the lot of the farmer with that of the manufacturer...
...And dictatorships respect no national frontier...
...They declare that the increase from the forty houtpro-vided for in the Walsh-Healey Act to fifty hour* s »*eek would increase the productive effectiveness of the worker* concerned by 25 per cent...
...there can be no justification for social democrats, progressives, or liberals or lab-orites to continue in such a party...
...Conferences and meetings should be called in every village, town and city...
...Certainly not...
...What stupidity...
...A trade union consists of workers of all political opinions, united for trade union objectives...
...The next one might well be seme native American whoa Stalin or Hitler or Mussolini regards as a danger...
...but that you refuse to take it...
...Do you think it can be done by parity of prices...
...Bullitt did not hesitate-to strike hard at the American counterparts of Laval, Flandin, and the Comit...
...adopted this p#-C tc afford to its mombsrs tel* ganizations the full sopor*--*1 to support President B*?*»*** the democratic tioksfc cisi?n was intended to rW have the double effect of n-** ing the pious hypserjey JJJ social democrat* cannot *J directly for Roosevelt «o* W iace on the Democrat!* t>el»ti» free them from harinr to *JJ?J any so-caiied independent Pffj...
...Van Arsdale and his associates are not charged with extortion, fraud or violence...
...Hollywood movie executives and others are "restrained" by injunction, but devoted and militant labor leaders like Harry Van Arsdale, Jr., are threatened with ten-year jail sentences and $50,000 fines...
...You say: "We must substitute for the philosophy of distributed scarcity the philosophy of unlimited productivity...
...Does it not absolutely contradict what President Roosevelt said in 1934 in his book, On Our Way: ' "The so-called anti-trust laws were intended to prevent the creation of monopolies and to forbid unreasonable profits to those monopolies . . . But these laws were never intended to encourage the kind of unfair competition that results in long hours, starvation wages and overproduction...
...S THERE any wonder that intelligent observers * say that the anti-trust crusade is rotten to the core...
...If not, have you cny particular idea as to those "other means...
...As to how this is to be done, all you say is that "if this cannot be done by parity of prices other means must be found...
...Denied employment to those in other states...
...THE A.L.P...
...Arnold was to rush in and indict Local 3 while it.was being sued by the'electrical manufacturers' trust for "damages" running up to $1,300,000...
...Thus the United States Government joins hands with the labor-baiter Walter Gordon Merritt and his poverty-stricken clients, the General Electric Company and Westinghouse...
...These should proceed to' the White House and put the matter squarely up to the President...
...Just where do you stand on the Securities Exchange Act...
...Let us get down to brass tacks, Mr...
...he watched France slowly succumb to the non-military Weapons so capably wielded by German agents and their Soviet allies inside France...
...Maybe—but in ftiose states many factories are non-union, wages paid in them are substandard...
...Please, Mr...
...You undoubtedly-know that we are this year producing more goods and services for sale than we produced in 1929...
...But a political party is...
...You say you believe in minimum standards for wages and maximum standards for hours...
...Just where do you stand on the National Labor Relations Act...
...Bat the war against the unions must go on...
...My position is that with the Communists in control of so large a part of the A.L.P., particularly in ?New xorK L;ity, tne heart of the A.L.P., any policy in this campaign that will strengthen the A.L.P will inevitably strengthen the Communist fifth column in the United States and whatever strengthens Communism, invites reaction and does real injury to the country...
...organized 10,000 Workers inr six years...
...Your regret at my resignation from the American Labor Party is nothing compared to my regret for your inability to see the true issues involved in my resignation...
...You say you believe in old-age benefits...
...But should labor support him while his subordinates continue to cripple and destroy unions...
...party which has toma***** large numbers, such ss -PJ**T ir .\>u- York and the tV** Labor Party in MhTnesotO...
...Unlimited productivity" is no answer...
...But let a labor union take the President's words seriously, let it try to discourage such competition across state lines—and it is immediately indicted-in the Federal criminal courts...
...Observe, if you will, that Mr...
...more effective will b»1W?i?P| *he President...
...Quite a number are now under the direct control of the Government...
...During the past four years of his ambassadorship Bullitt lived close to the forces which in the past four months have made a mockery of Liberte, Egalite, Fraternity...
...Long a profomnd student of labor problems, today Mr...
...regard for the opinions of their congenital politicians...
...Ambassador Bullitt's fervent warning will be heeded, the Senate minority notwithstanding...
...But if there is anyone who, in spite of the importance of reelecting President Roosevelt, is unwilling to vote for the President on the democratic ticket, then there is still no need or justification for supporting the A.L.P...
...as an independent line...
...Thurman Arnold, who heads the anti-trust division of the Attorney General's office, has publicly stated that our national defense is endangered because Nazi interests control certain patents and that collusive bidding still flourishes in Washington—and that consequently he requires more funds with which to hire still more lawyers in order to correct such conditions...
...For example: Mr...
...Perhaps—if by this yovj mean providing work opportunities for thousands of unemployed union workers...
...BULLITT WARNS U. S. ^OURAGE was shown by the administration when it permitted its most important adviser on foreign policy, William C. Bullitt,' to speak bluntly and frankly of the dangers • faced by American democracy...
...ticket and the Communists upon it and within its organization...
...It should be made clear that there are abundant criminal laws to prosecute any dishonest, corrupt or treacherous labor officials...
...But that is not the point...
...These ten hours which shook the Senate have revealed that it still places a premium on mediocrity, vituperation and irrelevancy...
...3. No union official or member of a union should accept or remain in any Federal Government position or office, as long as the anti-trust, anti-union indictments are in force...
...There is more to be said on the question, whicfc st*t such importance that it neither cart nor should be ¦a*^*^ We believe the discussion can be closed next week, for the time being...
...That is worth noting, and also the fact that not ia all cases have the victims been fugitives from the dictatorial country...
...All these years the Communists have argued that the united fronts were justified to defeat this, that or the other, or to achieve some "noble'-' purpose...
...They are preparing the way in the same manner in which they prepared for war in France...
...JPJ and agencies in the vsiiuil and localities as may bolts** the purpose, in accordant* ** their cwrr political consrisW* ** the exigencies of the itste ' local situation.'' The S.D.F...
...The ambassador pleads for action in behalf of world freedom, and he is accused of treason...
...How are you going to abolish that limitation...
...pHARLES YALE HARRISON has asked me to ^ state "just what labor should do about all this...
...It certainly would cost less in money and in effort to get those signatures and set up an independent line than it will to go through a primary fight with the Communists with the certain result that a large number of the Communists are bound to win and exercise influence and power in the party...
...The time mays...
...Ford and General Motors employ only enough workers to turn out as many automobiles as can be sold at a profit...
...But he had to be killed at a warning to other opponents who may be more dangetaas...
...So today, as in Darrow's time, an army of academic lawyers, acting in the name of the United States Government, are busy prosecuting so-called labor activities under the fifty-year-old Sherman anti-trust law...
...Broach Is prominent In the workers' education movement.I /CLARENCE DARROW, the eminent^criminol-^ ogist and labor attorney, once sSidf "The opposition is not now so much directed against the labor union as against everything it does...
...President by makinf WP*^ didate z ticket wW>|Ej munists...
...Now, you are perfectly willing to justify a united front with Communists...
...Arnold and Mr...
...His appointees and subordinates ar?-doing the damage...
...Where a political organization has been captured, or is so strongly controlled in part by the Communists as the A.L.P...
...Your argument that we work in the A.L.P despite the Communist power and influence in the party is the same the Communists employed in advancing their united fronts...
...Say what you will, our unions face the danger of annihilation one by one...
...It was not any scruple about dictatorial rule by censas, ship, deception, slanoVer, intrigue, espionage, secret atasw...
...Bullitt warns of the need to prepare a defense of Western democracy, and Wheeler, with the election in mind, charges him with war-mongering...
...Would not the candidacy of President Roosevelt be immeasurably strengthened by such a step which would free his candidacy from the embarassment of the charge of running on the same ticket with Communists...
...Do you think for a moment it will do the President good to run on the same ticket in New York State with a Jot of Communists and their fellow travelers ? Will not the people of the State and the country know you have made the President the candidate of a party on which the treacherous, un-American, disloyal, the Communist fifth columnists, are fellow candidates ? If your devotion to the election of the President is so great, why not vote for him on the democratic ticket where no i?sue could be raised—and truthfully so— that the President?-is running on the same ticket with the Communists...
...He now has 200 lawyers acting under his direction...
...In the recent decision in the Apex case before the U. S. Supreme Court it was held that the anti-trust laws apply to unions "to some extent and in some circumstances...
...Just where do you stand on the Wages and Hours Act...
...Even the organized applause sounded weak and spotty...
...Well, this particular loca...
...United States Steel employs only enough men to produce as much steel as can be sold afa profit...
...Just-where do you stand on the Social Security Act...
...The agents of the dictators are already here preparing the way for their armies," Bullitt said...
...Show some respect for the voters' intelligence...
...Frankfurter, before his appointment to the Supreme Court, condemns the use of the anti-trust laws against labor and then reverses himself after his appointment...
...a common election ticket with-them,-with their candidates in the best position to be elected or promoted to public office...
...Willkie, you say you "believe the forces of free enterprise mast be regulated...
...But by whom and on what terms...
...port of aid to England is now mere widespread than it hat been during the past eleven war months...
...Fatigue il not conducive to quick, accurate, and steady work NsAM1 * resentment, even though smothered in the workers' D0S|S...
...4. Since protests ta politicians have brought no results, trade unionists should noio insist that a conference of heads of national and international unions be called by William Green...
...For his frank appeal, for his support of Europe's last remaining democracy, isolationist Senators threw at him everything from treason to the bones of John Reed...
Vol. 23 • August 1940 • No. 34
