Letters To the Editor
Letters To the Editor Negro Leaders Ask End of Job Discriminations To the Editor: The following is s copy of a letter sent to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As persons who are sympathetic...
...and we call upon you, Mr President, to help in ending it...
...If you are a western farmer and prices are too low...
...Churchill, Bevin...
...in May, 2 1 %. Long ago 71 % favored entering the shooting war as soon as it is evident that Britain •can not win alone...
...The other night Senator Nye asserted that he represented ninety per cent of our population...
...as a hopeful contribution toward intelligent British strategy...
...Perhaps...
...Backed by the great majority of the people, this government has committed the United States to a course of cooperation with the democracies in the war on Hitler from which there is no retreat...
...For these people are not as dumb and helpless as the isolationists would have us think...
...Max Ascoli, presid*** • ! the Marzini Society, will BP**j~ , "After the War—What...
...Thus, the miners are compelled to make a gift of millions of tons of coal to the owners...
...Arhlamm Where the News Ends THERE ought to be a law against asking a perfectly innocent man what he thinks of the Hess case...
...If the President is open to criticism with regard to this aspect of his policy, it is because he has been too cautious, has-stayed too close to majority, opinion, has given too little courageous leadership...
...Similarly we call upon you to integrate Negroes into the armed forces of our country...
...Up to now Negroes have gained comparatively little in the way of additional jobs from our de~ fense efforts...
...These .are: (1) absences from work because of accidents or illness...
...The argument to be reasonable applies to them no less than to the workers...
...Is there not a direct connection between the psychologic slump in this country, the only too apparent and growing feeling of pessimism, if not defeatism, and this Jack of clear, unequivocal utterance and conduct on the part of the administration...
...Are they fighting Hitler or American labor...
...We attack it...
...What this country needs is kss information—less, anyway, of that brazen, cockeyed brand which made the newspapers unreadable for two weeks...
...The President has not taken the people into his confidence...
...There is an ominous feeling of fatal drift, a lack of faith in the ability of the democracies, including the United States, to cope with the desperate situation...
...There is a feeling that the President himself does not have that firm grip on the situation demanded by the crisis, that Washington is in a muddle both as regards the defense program and foreign policy...
...f The miners are fighting a just battle...
...trals" is to be militarily.strong and victorious?la there really a single British officer in the Near East who, from a military point of view, woqty give six divisions of first-class soldiers just ta make a "good will'' gesture in the direction tt some politicians and conspirators among the Arabs...
...Employers have no less responsibility than labor organizations in the present emergency...
...the British units can try to retreat, covered by the British navy, if worse comes to worst...
...The great majority is ready and willing to follow him, but they have no clear idea oi the direction in which this country is going...
...Every American with the least interest in labor's .welfare wants the tanks and planes and munitions to roll oat ahead of the schedule...
...We must either go forward, boldly, fearlessly, effectively, to the realization of this goal or abandon forever.all claim to self-respect and the respect and confidence of the peoples who are fighting our battle...
...There are miUions of Christians all over the world, Catholics and Protestants, who will never understand and excuse the British for permitting Palestine, cradja of Judea-Christian civilization, to be lost to Naif'' pagans just because some brass hats in the BtbV ish administration were superstitious enough to > prevent Palestine's Jewish inhabitants froia defending their homes and children efficiently tad in time...
...The Arabs can make a deal with Hitler if he penetrates their territories...
...tion, a slaughter of nightmare proportions...
...Yet we all simplify—especially editors...
...If you are a true believer and things go wrong, you say the devil is at fault...
...A. L ^fBt Chicago...
...They are in * a desperate spot...
...A. Phili) Randeapk, Pres...
...Lindbergh and others will continue to rend the air with tearful pretenses that they plead, the cause of American mothers and American boys...
...Both promised timely and plentiful aid to Britain...
...of Teachers...
...Palestinian Jewry is offering an army of 100,-000 men...
...quences of unrest among the Arabs are simply unavoidable...
...Nearly all of the companies in such lines as airplane manufacturing refuse to hire Negroes...
...PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S radio address to the nation scheduled for delivery next Tuesday will be his most crucial utterance in many months—assuming he plans to make the kind of declaration required by the gravity of the moment...
...In March, 17% were ready for a declaration of war...
...The board knows the facts and it will not be misled by the false propaganda of the Southern operators, who would have the country believe that the United Mine Workers are about to take over their mines...
...Having infiltrated French Syria, the' Nazis now are a few miles from the Palestine border...
...To try to keep party leaders and voters at the point which they had reached a year ago is nothing more than cheap demagogy...
...New Leader Most Valaabh Publication From CARL M. RHODIN To the Editor: I want you to know that to me The New Leader is the most valuable publication to which I subscribe and that just now The New Leader is better than ever...
...In Palestine, the Jews fight with their backs against the wall...
...It is inconceivable that the present British gw...
...From such attacks we completely dissociate ourselves...
...The Arabs are not the only ones on whose good, will the British must rely...
...Never in their history, and certainly never during the present struggle, have the British had an ally so naturally fit, and so finally resolved to fight, it out to the last drop of blood...
...14th St aa^g Ave., on Wednesday, May , 8:30 P. M. Admission fret flc SPEAK, MR...
...Severe criticism of the progress of the defense program is making itself heard in ever increasing measure from men who by no stretch of the imagination can be considered opponents or enemies of the administration...
...Frank K CrosSwaith, Chairman Negro La bor Committee...
...They are willing and able to speak for themselves...
...Similarly you - hare the power to preven discrimination in the govern men training program for defena jobs...
...The choice the British face i» merely this: shall the desperate struggle in and for Palestine take the form of a disorganized' int-provisation and, therefore, -of complete disaster— or shall it be organized in time, carried on...
...jV->*> NEW COAL STRIKE THREAT TPHE threat of another stoppage in the soft-coal industry constitutes the most serious menace to the nation's defense program...
...This is incredible...
...The people are still backing them...
...Hitler's threat to the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the West African coast, the closer active collaboration of Vichy with Berlin, and the new phase in RuMo-German relations, marked by Stalin's active participation in Germany's assault upon Iraq...
...But when he sees writers turning public attention to one of the minor causes of reduced-production and diverting attention from all of the major ones—he gets hot under the collar...
...Haven't they leaned ytt " that- in war the only way of impressing "nm...
...and while Mr...
...These men, according to the specific age structure of the settlers, are particularly able-bodied...
...eroment, a team of the most inspired and demo, cratic leaders England could possibly find ht : times of supreme trial, should not understand the situation...
...in April, 19...
...PHE British must know all that...
...And is it any wonder that the British people -are beginning to question whether American aid will reach them in time and in sufficient measure...
...They are fighting against their sworn enemy who knows no mercy...
...Under the "reject" clause, the operators are the sole judges of the amount of impurities in coal mined by...
...Nobody can doubt that a Jewish army in Palestine would be the most courageous and most reliable British ally against the Nazis...
...The latest count shows that 52% want to send convoys now to insure delivery of our munitions to England...
...Morrison, Attlee are anxious to get the support of American democracy not only for England's fight against the Nazis but also for her battle against the English-speaking morons of Colonel Blimp's type who always were, and still are, the world's champions in preparing a mess...
...The truth of the matter is that the Palestine Jews will fight anyway...
...The international situation has changed, and the great majority of citizens have changed their minds just as their leaders have changed theirs...
...Palestine, as everybody knows, is a pillar of Britain's strategic hold on the Far East,..the terminal of her Vital oil lines, the key to the Eastern Mediterranian and to the .vital space around Suez, the most essential link for any eventual military cooperation between-England ^and Turkey...
...Rhode Island...
...He has no theory...
...President Roosevelt has made it clear that the United States is committed to the destruction of the totalitarian regimes...
...The most prominent members of his cabinet, notably Secretaries Stimson and Knox, have made addresses stressing the gravity of the situation and the need for implementing fair words with action...
...Why should not those American labor leaders who have proven that they are genuine friends and supporters of England's democrabf-cause express their fears and sympathetic white...
...A button is pushed in your consciousness, and you automatically fulminate against your bugbear...
...Before this summer is over the United States may well find itself drawn into the conflict, compelled to take bold and irrevocable steps for its own defense and the protection of the Western Hemisphere...
...They will say that .President Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie are betraying the people, leading them over the abyss...
...The people have been given to understand the immediate need of convoys...
...People voted for them, of course, because they are vigorous champions of democracy and because they promised leadership against Hitler's threat to our way of life...
...The Southern operators have refused to fall in line largely because of two specific demands affecting the lives of 150,000 miners in the South: elimination of the 40rcent differential in their daily wage and abolition of the so-called "reject" clause, long abandoned in the North...
...Herbert Morrises, Ernest Bevin and Major Attlee have given su4 cient evidence-that they despise the blunaeeaf clique of British bureaucrats who made their iadt of vision a career...
...NAACP...
...THE PEOPLE SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES pRETENDING that you speak for the people of the United States is a good trick—if it works...
...Stimson and Knox, which could not hove been made without approval of the administration, they are suddenly informed by Senator Barkley, Democratic leader in the Senate, that no convoys are necessary, that American goods are reaching Britain "satisfactorily," and that it is unlikely that the government will take hew "affirmative steps" to insure our deliveries under the lease-lend bill to England...
...Have the British still not realized where aocs appeasing is leading...
...To get * trustworthy ally in the Near East, for the cooperation of a few Arab tribes, they would gladly pay any price...
...but the Jews in Palestine are fighting for their homes—and there are no others possible in all the world for the 600,000 Palestine Jews, no place to retreat...
...Ralph Bunch* Howard Univ...
...Why should the people abandon the business-as-usual attitude if this remains the attitude in Washington...
...What makes the practice all the more despicable is that in spite of the rejection, the so-called impure coal is nevertheless sold in the market...
...But what are they to think when in sharp contradiction to the appeals of Messrs...
...These men, the isolationists say, promised to keep us out of war, and fifty million people voted for them...
...It is equally plain that a Hitler victory would 'Bound the death knell of Negroes' struggle for equal rights as an integral part of the American population...
...Protests Hastingi StrongWordsod German ReicS from GEORGE HfUt To the Editor: The first page article of m colm Hastings in the Maf < issue of the New Leader a» tained several unfortunate naV ences to the German people *W must have administered jolt to many a reader...
...As far as this writer is eoncerned, he confesses to intellectual underprivttege...
...The majority of them not only physically fit and trained for desert conditions, but -educated so far above the average that they could acquire the highly difficult knowledge of complicated modern war machines in record time...
...You can't fulminate against them...
...Gertrude ijf Principal P. S. 24...
...PRESIDENT...
...Labor Temple...
...we are told, would be alarmed and angry if y» British were to arm and train 100,000 Palestfaa Jews...
...AH that you have is a fixed idea...
...Both men denounced the dictators in eloquent terms...
...This gives them the right to reject any.amount of this coal, the miner being deprived of payment for the rejected product...
...It is the contention of the United Mine Workers, supported by the Northern operators, that there is no valid economic reason for continuance ' of the differential...
...In anticipation of the slight total increased nrodi"-*'on cost, the Southern operators have raised prices from 30 to 35 cents per ton...
...In'*a number of instances young Negroes have been refused admission to government training schools for mechanics in defense work...
...Another stoppage at this time would paralyze the defense industries and railroads of the country within a week...
...Noah C. A. Laundry Workers, CIO...
...The isolationists draw small audiences made up of contingents sent into the service by small and curiously organized groups oi,off-side people...
...Did the people vote for these two candidates because they promised not to do something...
...Wall Street did it...
...11 "| * * • WIAT is the reason .behind the odd Brita* attitude...
...What are these men driving at...
...Speak, Mr...
...That shows which way we are moving and how fast-Last Sunday 750,000 citizens of New York applauded Mayor LaGuardia's fighting declaration at the "I Am an American" celebration...
...It may be said that all this constitutes a superficial and unjustified view of the picture, that a great deal has been done to move our defense and aid-to-England programs forward, that the results will become apparent before many more months are over...
...agahjm a fantastic British blunder now brewing hi Bgjaw tine...
...The Northern operators have accepted it as fair and equitable...
...Seventy per cent of the industry, comprising the mine owners of the North Appalachian region and including those in the outlying districts of the West and Middle West, have approved an agreement with the union providing for a basic wage increase of $ 1 a day, vacations with pay, and long overdue improvements in working and safety conditions...
...In Chicago and in other cities there were similar outpourings...
...The causes might lead you back to errors on the part of great industrialists or prominent government officials...
...Nevertheless, the existence ol widespread discrimination in the defense program, both in industries operating on defense contracts and in the armed forces is worthy of attack...
...They have sought to rouse serlriiBfehr'feH* &t&oj$ to assure the safe delivery of American supplies and war material to England...
...It would be a tragedy beyond all imaga...
...This writer is certainly above all the suspicion that he has ever tried, during the whole Second World War, to-be-part of any attempt to spread ill-feeling or doubt about the British war efforts and their leadership...
...and oh that basis alone we would be amply justified in making such a demand...
...But as subjects for editorials they suffer by comparison with strikers...
...MEN, JOBS, AND PRODUCTION QVER-SIMPLIFIED thinking is dangerous...
...The New Leader does not defend armament strikes...
...You probably never were in a factory in your life...
...If you are an employer and your digestion goes bad, the labor agitators are at the bottom pf it...
...The steady changes in the results of the Gallup polls show how closely the voters follow developments and how ready they are to change their attitudes with the changing situation...
...and you may count • among its staunchest supP*W Max A$coli Speaks a* Labor Temple, May 21 Prof...
...Not just a spearhead of Nasi no&rists," but apparently whole "German divisions, .shock _ troops, seasoned soldiers of first-class striking power...
...2) Lack of adequate training or of proper distribution of labor...
...H#*ss»(#r nolds, Pitt...
...Eunice Carter, A* District Attorney...
...Right now the citizens of this country are pushing him...
...Winston Churchill spent his life scourging this bunch...
...To lose Palestine wculd-.be tantamount to losing the war of the Old World.' At best, it is final retreat into the Westerte Hamis-'Jbere for further resistance...
...On the success of Britain depends the freedom of Ethiopia as well as the safety of all small countries and even of all large ones like our own...
...If you are an editor and you get the notion that the armament program has bogged down, then—of course—the strikers caused it...
...each man on any given day...
...George BVBsfija...
...Social Democrats particolsdf must have been shocked an!** appointed to see such .*$*¦ spreading language m » which has established »'•jt earned reputation as an adwaP of decency and sound ressaala^ Despite occasional "l*?1*^ however, the New Leader js-jj best guide I know for peopkw want the right perspecth*' domestic and international w airs...
...He has not minced words concerning this country's determination to preserve its rights to freedom of the seas...
...The dispute is now back in the hands of the National Defense Mediation Board...
...But this does not remove the existence of a dangerously confused, bewildered and uncertain atmosphere, of which isolationists, defeatists and Fifth Columnists are taking good advantage...
...Courier...
...But precisely because there can be no question as to his motives, this writer wants St' go on record with s desperate warding...
...He was too busy solving minor riddles...
...Such attacks are often motivated, not by loyalty to the ideals of American Democracy, but rather by loyalty to some foreign land like Germany or Russia, or to some alien ism like Nazism, Fascism, anti-Semitism or Communism...
...As persons who are sympathetic to your social and labor policies and friendly to your foreign policy, we ask you to use your influence to make more jobs for "Negroes in the defense industries...
...What are the British people to think of these contradictory expressions of American policy and intention...
...3) Failure to utilize countless small plants...
...Ip-ting's splendid analysis of filer's real difficulties loses fectivteness by the use of'si* phrases as "brutes and butt* "blond beast," and ^rbarlas' as descriptive of the Get** people...
...We do not believe the government and public opinion will let them down.' They have had no wage increase for many years, years of much poverty, privation and hazardous and bitter toil...
...This may sound revolutionary to ' the Southern Bourbons, but to the common man it would seem only simple justice...
...We believe that you can us< the tremendous influence you sc deservingly enjoy, to secure th< inclusion of clauses in all con tracts to give employment t< qualified persons irrespective o: race, creed or color...
...There is a sense of lack of firm, confident leadership which alone can give the country a sense of direction and stimulate the people to action and sacrifice...
...It is certainly high time that this form of robbery be abolished...
...Wfflsfd send...
...A simple executive ordei by you will prevent discrimina tion in the armed forces...
...Thus, the possible cona...
...The Arabs in and around Palestiai...
...And probably it would mean yielding entirely...
...Waving the Bag and shouting "revolution" cannot conceal the dishonest character of this policy...
...For the miners to abandon their demand for elimination of the Southern wage differential would be an injury not only to the 150,000 miners in the South,, but also to the • 250,000 miners in the North and outlying districts, because the Northern agreement obligates the union to readjust wage and work standards to those ultimately agreed upon for the South...
...Them at .. yet time toprevent a sinister tragedy in Paleatba —but not too much time...
...how, then, do'they expect to defend Palestine against the forthcoming gigantic Nazi onslaught ? They are in terrible heed of dependable manpower...
...So the people voted not to go to war...
...Who is fooled by such a pseudo-argument...
...That peril has increased materially as a consequence of the Nazi conquest of the Balkans...
...Despite the loud protestations of the Southern operators, however, the responsibility for a stoppage would be theirs and not that of the United Mine Workers...
...Layle Lane, vice-pres., Amer Feder...
...ftx/ Will...
...Hillman has given a sympathetic hearing to a Negro delegation and has taken steps to implement the government's policy of nondiscrimination against Negroes he has been unable as yet to produce significant changes in the discriminatory practices of important defense industries...
...To provide jobs for Negroes and opportunities for training for jobs for Negro youths on a fair basis in proportion to their share of the population is entirely just and fair...
...Knudsen has refused to meet with Negroes seeking more defense employment...
...There are also people, aside from the Jews, who admire the great adventure of construction and social hope which «at built in Palestine with the sweat and blood «f courageous Jewish settlers...
...TRe British High Command would be jubilant over such a force, a godsend of enthusiastic volunteers—if they were not Jews...
...jjff Here -is the ' opportunity for the Ameriii friends of British democracy to help GburesJ and Bevin in silencing Colonel Blimp...
...If you write about, them, you must look up figures and try to discover causes...
...For" instance, the riddle of the British attitude in Palestine...
...Only a fortnight ago the President himself told a press conference in Washington that the people do not understand the grave peril confronting the United States...
...Letters To the Editor Negro Leaders Ask End of Job Discriminations To the Editor: The following is s copy of a letter sent to President Franklin D. Roosevelt...
...But at the same time the British High Command in the Near East stubbornly refuses to accept the organization of a Jewish army in Palestine...
...This must not be permitted to come to pass...
...There are millies*v of non-Jewish people in this country who fiat • ¦unlimited respect and sympathy for the achiew-ments organized labor has accomplished then tinder intelligent leadership...
...Bto* BP ter...
...The time has come to compensate them, at least in part, for the contribution they are making to national defense and the life of the nation...
...So far, they have been unable to beat the ridiculously weak Jjraq forces...
...You have no idea how production can be stepped up...
...On the average, they are ahead of him...
...while there is still time...
...fighting with the desperate bravery of a last stand...
...Brotherhood o Sleeping Car Porters...
...White...
...The •fight for freedom brings, practically the entire population to its feet ready to go...
...Yet Senator Nye, Mr...
...The insistence of the Southern operators upon retention of the "reject" clause constitutes an attempt to preserve a procedure which can only be characterized as theft...
...and Mussolini would again destroy the independence of Ethiopia, one of the two independent Negro countries in the Old .World, if Britain is not victorious...
...fighting for thejr life...
...Last month the figure was 4h...
...Why not let the British government know JaMr you feel...
...For Hitler has already referred to Negroes as "half apes...
...Acceptance of all the union's demands would add only 20 cents to the price of soft coal per ton, which would be absorbed from increased production, larger profits and readjustment of prices, fixed under the Guffey Act by the bituminous coal division of the Department of the Interior...
...The hue and cry raised by the Southern operators against this agreement has no basis in fact...
...The failure to provide for Negroes in the distribution of new defense jobs has been used by the supporters of totalitarianism to attack the whole defense program and its purpose...
...Whatever little claim to respectability these pretentions have is based on the election promises of President Roosevelt and Wendell L. Willkie...
...To the contrary, he has always felt bound to do his small bit in defending them against the vicious whispering campaign, so cleverly and consciously carried out among the confused liberals by Hitler*«-*and Stalin's masterminds...
...Yet.they refuse to grant the miners just demands on the two main points at issue...
...Is there not a direct connection between this attitude on the part of the government and the admitted failure of the defense bond drive...
...Its removal would add only 3 '/2 cents per ton to the cost of production, but because of other factors the Southern mines would still continue to enjoy differentials in the cost of production averaging 1 5 per cent...
...But there is another reason, too...
...Charles Lindbergh and others in his camp have frequently assumed similar authority...
...Lloyd Imes...
...that they wiH, under all circumstances, arm themselves aad make a 'last stand...
...We hope he will make this clear in his address on Tuesday and not in general but in precise, concrete terms...
...A. Clayton P«*aV*" William Pickens...
...We hope the board will succeed in making the issue so clear to the public that the operators in question will be compelled to retire from their indefensible position...
...Every one of these factors cuts down production much more than the half of one per cent loss caused by strikes...
...At least three factors do more to hold up production than strikes in armament industries...
Vol. 24 • May 1941 • No. 21
