Letters To the Editor
Letters To the Editor Corrects Soffner on Chicago ... German Broadcast as Pro-Nazi From PAUL H. DOUGLAS Professor of Economics, University of Chicago ....... To the Editor: I understand...
...But whether this victory for organized labor is to mark the beginning of a new phase in the progress of trade unionism in the United States will depend in very large measure upon the wisdom we now expect from both C.l.O...
...This leads straight to the larger question of unity between A.F...
...We need leadership, yes...
...The events bf recent years have demonstrated what labor disunity has meant to the trade union movement in Germany, France and other countries...
...This is regrettable for since learned from Mr...
...Once more, I want to apologize to Mr...
...Already, through the Progressive Committee to Rebuild the American Labor Party, it has served notice that it will name a mayoralty'candidate "of national repute...
...Each of these boys is a Superman about town...
...The' second must be driven from the labor movement as its most sinister enemies...
...But one.oi'his columns swept tile' country...
...The first should be exposed and rendered incapable of...
...We await now the response of the C.l.O...
...OW ner's article as far as was P* srble, but since he referred **J small Chicago station"which et*jj not be heard in New York, fM since he submitted to us materiel purporting to bear out the it**** ments he made, the edtton lected to check further...
...And if a man, bound by a-contract, maintains a daily production of ideas,-, he must spoil not only hi* own talents but also his fellow-men, for they read him regularly...
...And no less than certain labor leaders does the Administration itself require a clearer conception of the character and function of Communists in the labor movement...
...interest of » spiritual capital they have never collected...
...In the United States they are traveling the same road...
...Those in the labor movement who for reasons of "strategy" and factional or personal expediency have found it "clever" a*hd advan- ' tageous to cooperate with the Communists will discover they are on a very dangerous road...
...Of course, not...
...There are too many agencies in the field...
...These feelings would be strictly personal business if it were not for the fact that England could have won the war in September," 1939, and six times a week regularly since, had she put a New York;columnist, in charge" of the whole show...
...in the election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board among 80,000 Ford employes marks the collapse of the greatest citadel of anti-unionism in this country...
...suggestions of his own last week...
...The President lost heavily in these districts last November...
...What matters is unity, a realistic conception of problems, an unselfish devotion not only to labor but to the larger social and national interest If British labor today is able to continue fighting with hope of victory, it is because, unlike labor on the Continent, it has learned the lesson of unity, the need of moderation in a revolutionary situation, the ability to unite rather than divide, the capacity to place the wider interests of labor as a whole above factional -considerations...
...generation, has stripped it of all uncorrnpted faith in basic values, has talked so much tc death...
...On the contrary, the best mayor New York City has ever had, and the best available man for a mayoralty term which may see New York through a war which has thrown the world's metropolises into the front line trenches, LaGuardia is faced with a combination of circumstances which augur ill for his reelection...
...AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY *J*HE spectacle of Norman Thomas gracing the platform at last Friday's meeting of the America first Committee threw into bold relief the tragic career of a confused mind...
...But, as in France, they found willing collaborators in certain Socialists and pacifists who openly preached the idea that it is better to be a live dog than a dead lion...
...of L in consolidating the victory and giving it practical expression...
...ihanV kind's rare leaders...
...This is far from practical politics...
...Quite obviously Mr...
...Does that mean that labor's specific interests and grievances are to be neglected...
...while the "know-everything," alas, refuses to read even his own writing...
...All this is certainly wasted at a portable typewriter, "whife the British leadership, superciliously overlooking its only chance, unsuccessfully wrestles with problems which any of your favored daily columnists solves with 800 words...
...The rest of the time they should investigate themselves...
...We have the United States Conciliation Service...
...The good-government forces in this city have a difficult job ahead of them...
...The American Republic intends to remain alive—and woe to all in places high and low who fail to do their duty...
...You will no doubt agree that two requisites of good writers are: 1. To get the facts accurately and honestly: 2. To understand and intelligently interpret facts and news...
...Since they possess the prescription for every disease, they are scarcely willing to take the trouble of• establishing the diagnosis...
...For that reason I am taking the pains to call yotf attention to a libelous article concerning our organization which appeared May 10th and authored by Heinz Soffner...
...As a fair-minded editor...
...The council's sympathies are evidenced by the fact that it is led by men who are veterans in the Communist movement...
...Let us not be beguiled by election returns...
...There is little reason to believe that the Mayor will fare better...
...The truly revolutionary forces inherent in American democracy will prove more powerful than the forces of Communazi counter-revolution...
...The effectiveness of labor organization in the automobile industry will depend in no small measure upon the courage and clear-headedness which the workers themselves display in solidifying their ranks and ruthlessly eliminating the Communist termites...
...The time has come when all factional, vested and personal interests standing in the way of labor unity must be swept aside and the internecine strife in organized labor terminated...
...Credit Mobilier and Teapot Dome...
...Mr...
...Fully 60 per cent of the audience wefe Fascists, Coughlinites, Bundists and Communists, who form the "mass following" of the America First Committee, an organization financed by reactionary, pseudo-pacifist big business...
...Editorial Note:—-Feature n* terisl is generally carefouT checked by the New Leader* staff before it is printed...
...Unless this division between the two large groups is now removed and genuine unity established, it will be difficult to take full advantage of the new situation...
...To the uninitiated therefore it may appear that Fiorello LaGuardia need do little more, between now and November, than spend his time in Ottawa or Washington on various defense projects, and that he will automatically be reelected...
...Imposing organizational facades are not enough...
...and A.F...
...The election returns showed a pretty clear division between the skilled workers, some 20,000 of whom supported the A.F...
...jealousy: limited to solving the Universe's riddles only once a week, our face goes green every day— Monday through Saturday—when we witness the earth-shaking performances of our luckier colleagues...
...groups to follow the Communist line of phony, destructive "class struggle...
...But still more often than otherwise, the "desire to be re-elected" has led to the legislator's ob-sequity to the party boss, who in turn was hound by^ a community of interest (and huge campaign and slush funds) to the business "interests...
...One practical suggestion to the government, however: The machinery for mediation and adjustment of labor disputes requires tightening and improvement...
...Just as much as he induces his readers lo like him and to trust what he says, just so much be turns their brains into straw...
...In addition, through Undersecretary of State A. A. Berle, President Roosevelt has indicated that he will support those insurgents inside New York Democratic circles who rally to the mayor...
...In France, the Paul Faures landed in the camp of Laval and Otto Abetz...
...jThis may be Vho Marcantonio, congressman from the 20th district, where the Mayor generally polls large votes...
...rank and file will compel him to perceive the wisdom of cooperating in the national unity to which the President has summoned the people of this country...
...The New Leader <P"*H apologies to the kmrtew America organization, - ". $— LABOR AND THE NATION PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S appeal for uninterrupted operation of industry in the present national emergency will meet with loyal and sympathetic response from the overwhelming majority of organized labor, both in the A.F...
...further obstruction...
...The alleged "peace" candidate of the Progressive Committee will undoubtedly receive the support of many isolationist forces in this city, as did Eugene Connolly when in the I 7th Congressional District contest for a successor to the late Kenneth Simpson he was supported by the Daily News...
...I do not know...
...It is not public opinion which is the paralyzing .force, as much as the-cowardly weak-spined man in office...
...ELECT LaGUARDIA IT is now apparent that the entire Fusion-American Labor Party administration of New York City will be renominated as a unit this fall...
...Seaw we learned that he hinieeff* not actually heard the •"•^'S since it was in Chicago, bfl* ~~ taken the word of other J****2 -jiot as experienced as he j*/2» field of radio propagaMi"**' sis...
...That's a risk, I admit, because after such Qt investigation many a writer could easily discover that he had better wait another month...
...Grafton, for instance, is alarmingly out of place in his present position...
...In addition, the Mayor will shortly come into open conflict with Mike Quill's Transport Workers' Union, which seeks a closed shop on the city subway lines...
...At times, it will take courage-for a legislator to buck his constituents, as it took courage—to oppose the party machine...
...The Third Republic in France is dead—killed by the combined efforts of rotten bourgeois and treacherous Communists...
...This fight may throw the majority of the CIG\ Greater New York Industrial Council against him...
...There are few, if any, just grievances that cannot be resolved by these methods...
...Grafton...
...The moment has come for American labor to take the attitude of British labor: the national interest, the social interest, the fate of human freedom and democratic institutions transcend all other interests...
...At the same time, this latter technique—as with any technique—can be, and was perverted—by Coughlin, and by utility interests in legislative fights...
...Soffner failed in both in reporting Disputes Schlamm On Polls From MURRAY EVERETT To the Editor: In his flight from "materialism," Willi Schlamm seems to have become, in Silontf's harsh phrase, a judicial cretin...
...Of Interest end Intelligent Comment From Harold M. Mitchell To the Editor: I find The New Leader much of interest and intelligent comment And I want more of it the "Our Presidents" radio serial sponsored by "Appreciate /am-ica...
...How Spinoza and Spencer, who definitely were not syndicated, managed to say anything worth-while-is beyond me...
...Hillman and his AFL-CIO group in the Office of Production Management, and we have, the National Defense Mediation Board with its various panels...
...1 AM frightened by a nightmare: I see, in this * great city, a generation growing up whose spiritual likeness is a hodge-podge of Dorothy Thompson's chin, Wesbbrook Pegler's nose, Samuel Grafton's cheeks, Hugh Johnson's hahV Walter Lippman's ears—and no eyes at all, I am afraid...
...Neither do I mind an intelligent individual, though 3,000 miles from the battlefield and, necessarily, 3,000 worlds from omniscience, who one time or another believes himself' better than the collective insight of intelligent people who are in charge of England's struggle for life...
...You be the judp as to the motives of our orjssi-ration...
...The men who have bucked, the machines and continued in political life are few...
...of L and C.l.O...
...Their devotion to democracy is in reverse ratio to their concern for their class interests...
...There seems to be a definite relation between the frequency of a writer's communications and his power to think a thought through and to make his readers wiser and better men...
...The emphasis in each case is with the intelligent legislator...
...Mayor LaGuardia's fusion machine reelected his administration once before...
...The national unity for which President Roosevelt pleaded in his address last Tuesday as so essential to national defense and effective aid to the democracies, must have its basis in labor unity...
...AH persons with a sense of perspective and reality know what the game of the Communists in and out of the labor movement is...
...Behind the pro-Communist "peace" candidate will be the entire frustrated pack of fellow-travelers who have been seeking some one's political blood to avenge themselves for the many recent wholesale exposures...
...It means that strikes'and lockouts in defense industries are to be avoided and that every possible effort is to be made to adjust all disputes ¦ by conference, negotiation and mediation...
...Dick Reynard's stories of Iraq...
...Never in history has a reform party been victorious in three successive elections...
...Not the least important factor is the traditional failure at the polls of reform movements...
...Labor, cannot effectively lay claim to its rightful part in the economy and social life of this nation if it cannot muster the statesmanship and good will to end the civil war within its own ranks...
...more than likely the Senate today is not (as much) the exclusive club of millionaires, political fat-cats, state bosses, dupes and dopes...
...In fact, this writer had criticisms and...
...Here, at last is a man (and I could give you the names of about thirteen others of equal perfection) who obviously combines the knowledge of an entire Imperial General Staff with the imagination of a full-sized brain trust and the scientific insight of all the universities between Scotland and California...
...To the contrary, quite often I like his phrases, his arguments and even the sad look of his eyes on the photo in the upper left corner of his kingdom...
...There is just no human being oa earth—and never was—who would be great and wise and experienced enough to -produce, daily, sound opinion on an essential matter...
...For as much as I like all these weibjhi' individual features—a medley of them is fright, fully synthetic, and once it has become the collective face of a generation, it has done away with the capability to see the world on its own,' So what...
...For your information, we ft-tach hereto copy of letter recehtd from the Department of Justice relative to this same radio mm which your Mr...
...John L. Lewis, who remains the power behind the C.l.O...
...The traditional system of discovering the people's wishes, the old-fashioned elections, gave the elected leaders not only mandates but also sufficient time to lead the people toward new convictions and different orders...
...We are akfo sending to 7» under separate cover, copies ** the several scripts of the "0* Presidents" series, together inB other material released by «* organization...
...Faced with complete extinction if defeated for a third successive term, Tammany Hall has been holding endless conferences of its loyalists...
...The government, with its facilities for gathering information, should not hesitate to expose frankly and fearlessly the Communists who have captured positions along the "commanding heights" in the labor movement and in the government itself...
...But it might be an idea for the columnist!'to start negotiations with their publishers on a new contract...
...He undoubtedly is one of the most gifted, ineet sincere and most likable men in the group I ass trying to hit That is why I picked his name: to suggest that even at its relative best tar institution itself is somewhat between a cum and a shame...
...By now, it is definitely established that without the credential of a 800-words-a-day contract' a man's chance of understanding the world is less than nil...
...Now as in the past campaign the regular American Labor Party will be the core of Mayor LaGuardia's forces...
...I'm referring specifically to Mr...
...But what anyone should be violently opposed to is that air of cocksuredness which is the only consistent feature of some of these preachers...
...Those who stand in the way of labor unity, whatever be their names, are traitors to organized labor and to democracy...
...In this country they are being held in reserve for the same purpose by those whose policy of isolationism conceals all the elements of Vichy...
...of L., and the unskilled and semi-skilled, the great majority of whom voted for C.l.O...
...On checking,swith Mr...
...But on the other hand, he would .have the chance to occasionally turn out a real masterpiece...
...As you have certainly figured out for yourself, this writer, in criticizing the* daily columnists, is merely motivated bj...
...The labor movement will survive and function as a united, democratic movement, inspired by social vision, devoted to the life and liberties of the nation, free of racketeers, political and others—or it will not survive at all...
...It is the air of devastating superficiality—the same superficiality which, in its sum total, has so merrily debunked the world for oar readrag...
...The "know-everything" is worse than the "know-nothing," because the "know-nothing" permits you to retain the hope, at least,- that he might learn something later on...
...Shades of Boss Tweed, Israel Durham, Frank Norris' Octopus, Lord Bryce, Lincoln Steffens, Mark Hanna, DuPont and Delaware, McKinley and Harding...
...Those who finance the organization prefer "conciliation" with Hitler to fighting for the preservation of democracy...
...Schlamm's emphasis—unfortunately...
...Perhaps our muckrakers and political realists have been a little overzealous...
...It should provide them with'all the money they are getting now, but limit their work to one article a month...
...It is hardly too early to begin organizing all anti-Tammany, all anti-Communist forces, all labor and progressive circles behind the ALP for this all-out fight to keep corrupt politics and ideologies out of City Hall...
...In France they are now tolerated because they supply an "ideological" excuse for cooperation with Hitler...
...Hie need is for one centralized agency, armed with the necessary prestige and authority, and .operating under a set of rules commanding the respect and confidence of the public, labor and employers...
...As long as the people spoke up each two or three or four years, its elected representatives could keep the courage to act according to their own intelligence...
...The Communists and those who conclude marriages of convenience with them will learn, before long, that the United States is not France and that the will of the American people for life and victory is mightier than the conspiracy directed from Moscow and Berlin against the security and independence of this nation...
...If-a man' is creative enough to formulate four momentous ideas a year, he belongs in the ranks of...
...By his outspoken criticism of the Axis the Mayor has made political enemies not only in the sectors contiguous to Yorkville's 86th Street, but in the population centers where his native Italians predominate...
...As far as I know, The New Leader was the first American publication to feature a series of articles on events in Iraq...
...After all, Tom Paine addressed his public infrequently...
...THE FORD ELECTION ^HE victory of the United Automobile Workers, C.I.O...
...We have Mr...
...ftWj' and others in Chicago statements made were ermneee* that the "Presidents" leriee gj not pro-Nazi, but to the CCflU*P were designed to promote eVJ> cratic sentiment among CWeiP Geiiman...
...As yet it has not been able to produce a candidate who is a better vote-getter than Mayor LaGuardia...
...He has also aroused the enmity of the Communist apparatus in this city, where it is by no means unimportant...
...We have the Department of Labor in the person of Secretary Ferkins...
...The moment is rapidly approaching when it will become exceedingly dangerous for individual leaders and...
...Shades of such holy American institutions as the Tammany machine, graft, the pork:barrel, logrolling...
...JW will no doubt wish to correct w malicious story of our orgsniav tion which appeared in J*** paper...
...No electoral victories, however spectacular and impressive, can save the labor movement from disintegration and defeat if it fails to unite and present a common front in the present emergency and in the tasks that lie ahead...
...Hailt Reynard's Newt Beat on Iraq Starlet From RALPH TREVOR To the Editor: I'm constantly amazed at The New Leader's news beats—and chagrined that so many people take this as matter of course...
...Reynard's three front-page stories analyzed the consequences of the Axis putsch a full month before the daily press comprehended the importance of the Middle Eastern situation...
...In the May 10 issue, discussing public opinion polls as related to democratic processes.Schlamm writes: "Driven by tp% understandable wish to be re-elected 'the next time,' public officials nowadays are more and more paralyzed by . . . public polls...
...And there should be no hesitation in taking appropriate action...
...Soffner repofti as "Goebbels' propaganda...
...was done in the case of -Mr...
...Being equally at home in.India as in submarines, in post-war planning as "in all problems of-oil-well bombing, Mr...
...I HAVE nothing at all against Mr...
...By Willi Schlamm Where the News Ends TVAILY, except Sunday, a New Yonk columnist *f is much wiser than the rest of "the world, except some of his colleagues who also have a contract.for -writing 800 words daily...
...Any person who would attribute to us sinister motfus and un-American designs either is ignorant of our program, or cannot intelligently interpret l story, or is just a plain fool...
...It is extremely unlikely they will be permitted to pursue it unmolested much longer...
...We hope, however, that before many more days are over the C.l.O...
...Along with a tremendous public relief policy, public opinion polls have been one of the weapons dislodging a political machine, creating a reservoir of 'independent' voters...
...Numbers arennot enough...
...There are two elements opposed to labor unity: selfish vested interests and the Communists...
...The quick response of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor to the President's appeal for a truce to labor strife will be gratifying to all who believe that labor's interest is indissolubly bound up with the interests of the nation and democracy's desperate struggle against totalitarianism...
...To the Editor: I understand that The New Leader is a fair-minded paper...
...Samuel * Grafton...
...Such a contract performs miracles: it is a pass to the realms of supreme wisdom, all-around knowledge and unchallengeable perfection in the fields of strategy, physics, stamp-collecting, social philosophy, biology, gun production, statesmanship, sea-war tactics, housing science, - music, literature, nutrition theories, psychology,- labor, horticulture,' ornithology, architecture, aching feet, Weltanschauung, fashion styles, bridge construction, and even spelling...
...throne, has not been heard from at the moment of writing...
...of L. and C.l.O...
...It is a remarkable achievement, as I pointed out, to have four ideas a year, and this week I apparently had.-nose...
...Being the proud owners of a point of view, some people live on the...
Vol. 24 • May 1941 • No. 22
